A Chaste Maid in Cheapside

Written for the adult players at the open—air Swan theatre in 1613,
this master—piece of Jacobean city comedy signals its ironic nature even in the title: chaste maids, like most other goods and people in
London's busiest commercial area, are likely to be fake. Money is more important than either happiness or honour; and the most coveted commodities to be bought with it are sex and social prestige. Middleton interweaves the fortunes of four families, who either seek to marry their children of...