Anything for a Quiet Life

Anything for a Quiet Life is a Jacobean stage play, a city comedy written by Thomas Middleton and John Webster. Topical allusions suggest the play was written most likely in 1621. Authorship The play was first published in quarto in 1662 by the bookseller Francis Kirkman, with a title-page attribution of authorship to Middleton. Yet while Middleton's distinctive style is clearly present in some portions of the text, there are other sections that suggested to some critics the presence of a second hand. The early twentieth-century critic H. Dugdale Sykes was the first person to argue in favour of Webster as the second author. Sykes' hypothesis won acceptance from a range of other scholars. David Lake, in his study of authorship questions in Middleton's canon, confirms the presence of Webster's hand, and gives the following breakdown for the respective shares of the two writers. Webster – Act I; Act II, scene i; Act IV, scene i; Middleton – Act II, scenes ii and iii; Act III; Act IV, scene iii; Both – Act IV, scene ii; Act V, scene i. Characters Lord Beaufort Sir Francis Cressingham, an alchemist Lady Cressingham, his second wife Young Cressingham, his son by his first marriage Old Franklin, a country gentleman Young Franklin, his son, a sea captain, companion to Young Cressingham Master Walter Camlet, Citizen and Mercer (i.e. cloth-dealer) Mistress Rachel Camlet, his wife Knavesbe, a lawyer, and pander to his wife Sib Knavesbe, his wife Selenger, page to Lord Beaufort Saunder, steward to Sir Francis George, apprentice to Camlet Ralph, apprentice to Camlet A Surveyor Sweetball, a barber-surgeon Barber'S Boy Fleshhook, a yeoman Counterbuff, a sergeant Two Children of Sir Francis, boarded out to Camlet Margarita, a French bawd 3 Or 4 Citizens or creditors