A review by chluless
A Yorkshire Tragedy by Thomas Middleton

How anyone could read this and see Shakespeare in its syntax is baffling. The Bard didn't deserve his name stolen as a sales strategy.

O, how damnation can make weak men strong!

There are some redeeming aspects that carry this play -the interactions between the husband and servant at the climax, its staging of a wife's limited position, and the reflecting of the husband's troubled mind in the lines he speaks.

servant [holding him back]: Were you the devil I would hold you, sir.
husband: Hold me? Presumption! I’ll undo thee for’t.
servant: ’Sblood, you have undone us all, sir.
husband: Tug at thy master?
servant: Tug at a monster.

Ultimately, this is a Jacobean true crime drama that has (for modern readers) a lot to say about contemporary tastes and society.