Middleton’s A Game at Chess and the Making of a Theatrical Public

This essay considers Thomas Middleton’s politically controversial A Game at Chess in relation to recent scholarship that addresses the idea of a theatrical public in early modern London. This approach provides a more nuanced understanding of the political attitudes of Middleton and his contemporaries. Rather than presenting the dramatist as a spokesperson for a single political interest, the essay shows how A Game at Chess integrates diverse perspectives on matters of popular concern, thereby cultivating a forum wherein people could come together to think through issues on a collective basis.