Middleton and Time Clocks, Calendars, and Temporality

A great deal has been written about early modern temporality, both by scholars of Renaissance drama and historians of chronometry. Much of the former has focused, unsurprisingly, on Shakespeare. This book seeks to broaden the discussion of temporality and the early modern stage by focusing on “our other Shakespeare” – Thomas Middleton, a writer preoccupied with issues of time, chronometry, and temporality. In this first book length study of Middleton’s portrayal of time, his representations of clocks and calendars are explored as a way of understanding early modern time consciousness. Middleton, more than any other playwright of his era, was aware of the alienating qualities of these chronometric devices and showed how the subject’s experience of time was influenced by them, while also demonstrating how choices in chronometry were influenced by gender, class and religious identity. As a result, his texts explore the complex intersections between sexuality, economic systems, and temporality in the early modern world.

Chapter 1: Introduction.- Part I Clocks.- Chapter 2: Middleton’s Strange Clocks.- Chapter 3: Middleton’s Sexy Clocks.- Part II Calendars.- Chapter 4: Middleton’s Workweek.- Chapter 5: Middleton’s Almanacs.- Chapter 6: Coda: Chronometric Bodies and The Old Law.

Eric Dunnum is Associate Professor and Victor Small Endowed Chair of English at Campbell University, USA. His previous monograph, Unruly Audiences and the Theater of Control in Early Modern London (2020), explores how playhouse riots influenced early modern dramaturgy. He has also published essays on theater history, disability studies, and trauma theory.