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Article: Middleton's 'Michaelmas Term' Inductio 13-19. (Thomas Middleton)
- Article from:
- The Explicator
- Article date:
- June 22, 1993
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1993 Heldref Publications. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Thomas Middleton's Michaelmas Term (1604--5)(1) begins with an Inductio in which Michaelmas, the eponymous presenter, arrives in London to open the law season. He changes into the lawyer's black gown as he enters, shedding his conscience along with his country clothes (lines 1--4). Changing into morally expressive colors and costume was conventional business in allegorical drama(2) and survived in such a recent play as The Contention between Liberalitie and Prodigalitie (1601), which opens with Vanitie introducing himself by pointing at his outfit (1--4).(3) Imitating another morality device, the Inductio foreshadows the play's theme of the prodigal's progress when in a ...