Questions

A Chaste Maide in Cheapside

The gulls, cons, and opportunists in A Chaste Maid in Cheapside appear way, way less believable than those in the other plays we've so far read. The extreme case, of course, being the most bizarre of the menage a trios deux; the mutually opportunistic relationship between the Allwits and Sir Walter. Is Middleton bringing such incredible and uncommon extremes into his play merely to help it along comically, OR by pushing his characters into the margins of social life or human psychological endurance is Middleton giving himself an opportunity to criticize more gravely the character traits shared between the marginalized characters and the citizens of London? Could his London audience have laughed despite the serious satire aimed at them but just over their heads?

The Honest Whore

If we look at The Honest Whore as a play about salvation, which its penultimate passages lead us to believe it in fact is, then it is hard not to ask whether the motto virtue of patience which has lead Candido on his path toward successful salvation is in opposition to the virtues which might have made him a successful merchant. So, apart from patience, is there a particular set of virtues exclusive to those on a religious or redemptive path, incommensurable - or at least incongruous - with the set of virtues most often applied to the market? Could Candido perhaps have balanced his commercial life with his more religious one, or are the virtues of the latter altogether incompatible with successful commerce?