#55 A Puritan Widow

This weeks installment of "That Middleton Play I Read at Work" is A Puritan Widow.

This starts with a puritan woman burying her husband and ends with her marrying one of the countless cheap knights King James made.  In between are half a dozen tricks and cheats where the widow is taken in by a man who claims to prophesy her future and a conjurer who finds he brother-in-law's gold chain.  This is all of course mildly amusing and does create moments of me laughing out loud at 3 in the morning.

What is more fascinating than the bawdy humor is the satire of Puritans and Catholics, who are conflated into one big laughable other.  This includes convincing the puritan widow her husband is burning in purgatory, which of course she should not believe based on her own religious convictions, but does anyways, to the audience's amusement.  The play continues to make fools of this woman and all who come into contact with the trickster, George Pieboard, who at one moment is betrothed to the widow's daughter.  This play is one of Middleton's comedies that is relatively easy to follow and very linear.