Book excerpt: The tragedies and tragicomedies of Thomas Middleton reflect the writer's earnest conviction of eternal verities concerning the condition of mankind. Like many Renaissance playwrights, Middleton is deeply conservative in his political, religious and moral ethics, and a survey of his themes is a sample of the thoughts of other Renaissance dramatists as well. His dramatic structures are precise and systematic and therefore susceptive to analysis; while peculiarly his own, they are, like his themes, typical of his time and place and thus open the working patterns of many of his predecessors and contemporaries to understanding as well.