In a book chapter published in 2015, Professor Emma Smith reflected that while “only the writing partnership with John Fletcher at the end of Shakespeare’s career is known to have lasted beyond a single play ... [Thomas] Middleton may yet emerge as a more significant collaborator. In addition, Middleton’s own plays show him to be a creative and responsive early reader and reviser of the older playwright’s work” (297). Indeed, although Shakespeare and Middleton are only known to have directly co-authored a single play (Timon of Athens), it has long been recognised that there are many points of crossover between the two playwrights’ careers: Middleton wrote direct responses to Shakespearean works, such as The Ghost of Lucrece and The Revenger’s Tragedy; a selection of Middleton’s plays, including A Yorkshire Tragedy and The Puritan, have found themselves historically misattributed as “apocryphal” Shakespeares; and more recent scholarship has argued that Middleton even had a direct hand in “adapting” Macbeth and Measure for Measure ahead of their publication in the 1623 First Folio, to which category of adaptations the New Oxford Shakespeare (somewhat controversially) added All’s Well That Ends Well and Titus Andronicus in 2016. All things considered, the idea of Middleton having been “a more significant collaborator” of Shakespeare’s than previously recognised seems increasingly persuasive.

Now, to mark the approaching 400th anniversary of Middleton’s death in July 1627, submissions are invited for a special issue of Shakespeare on the theme of “Shakespeare and Thomas Middleton”. Intended for publication in 2027, this special issue seeks to contribute to a growing body of work highlighting the multifaceted relationships between the two authors’ works, careers, and cultural legacies. Shakespeare and Middleton’s shared professional milieu, collaborative works, and the influence of their respective plays upon one another has long offered a rich terrain for academic exploration, to the extent that the 2007 Oxford Collected Works of Middleton even called its key author “Our other Shakespeare”. However, this issue aims to avoid such qualitative labelling, instead seeking to stage a fresh reassessment of the intersections between the works of these two authors, each distinct but independently important to the history of early modern English drama.

We encourage authors to take a flexible approach towards interpreting the theme of “Shakespeare and Thomas Middleton”, and are keen to consider submissions using both text- and performance-based approaches. Articles might therefore examine, but are not limited to:

• Forms of collaboration: Original readings of Shakespeare and Middleton’s “collaborative” works, broadly defined, such as Timon of Athens or Measure for Measure.

• Shared Themes: Comparative studies of recurring themes in the works of Shakespeare and Middleton, such as political corruption, social mobility, gender, and power.

• Influence and Intertextuality: Investigations into how the works of Shakespeare may have influenced Middleton’s writing, and vice versa.

• Reception and Legacy: How have critics and theatre practitioners understood the relationship between Shakespeare and Middleton over time? What does the 400th anniversary of Middleton’s death reveal about shifting perceptions of his contributions to early modern theatre alongside Shakespeare’s?

• Performance and Adaptation: Considerations of how performances of Shakespeare and Middleton’s works intersect or adapt one another, both historically and in contemporary theatre.

We invite original, scholarly articles of around 6,000 words in length, although there is considerable flexibility regarding word count. This special issue will be edited by Dr. Will Green, and those interested in contributing (however provisionally) are welcome to contact him at the email address provided ahead of the abstract submission deadline.

Abstracts of up to 500 words, accompanied by an article title and author bio of up to 250 words, should be emailed directly to the editor by 30th April 2025. Submissions should be written in English and adhere to Shakespeare’s style guidelines (available via the journal’s website). Please note that abstract acceptance does not guarantee publication in this special issue, as each article submission will be subjected to double-blind peer review as per the journal’s standard practices. Prospective authors should also note that while the issue itself will be published in 2027, authors can expect advance online publication of their work once all articles to be included in the issue are completed.

Work Cited: Smith, Emma, "His Collaborator Thomas Middleton", in The Shakespeare Circle: An Alternative Biography, ed. Paul Edmondson and Stanley Wells (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2015), 297-304.