London was a booming urban sprawl in Middleton's time. There was a surge in the population: where there were around 120,000 people living in London in 1550, there were about 375,000 in 1650 [10]. That's an increase of over 200% in the population over the span of one century! This crowded city life is a big factor in A Chaste Maid in Cheapside, as Middleton (ever the realist) makes his London life come to life. In A Chaste Maid, there are many social issues Middleton addresses, but I will touch on three: education, women, and sex.

[6]

Education

                    Society was both reflected in and challenged by the art of the theater - and surprisingly, so was education. The population was exploding, and an increasing number of students from a variety of backgrounds entered the halls of higher education: "sons of merchants, tailors, fullers, clothiers, blacksmiths, iron mongers, curriers, butchers" (like Tim Yellowhammer) went to school in never-before-seen numbers [19].

                    As the universities of Cambridge and Oxford attempted to accomodate their own increasing population of students, they seem to have made a mistake of taking in - rather, pumping out - too many of them. John Venn, a historian of Cambridge alumni and Caius College, notes that "absolutely - not relatively merely - the number of graduates in the years 1625-30 was greater than was ever attained again within living memory" [22].

                  And so, an unprecendented mass of young educated men were turned loose onto  a society that could not keep up with them. "Too many young gentlemen . . . failed to gain place" [17] and were easy pickings for the politically discontented, giving the scholars themselves a bad reputation and sense of alienation. This consequently led the general populace to associate scholars as superfluous in their thoughts, pedantic, and generally useless (because a lot of them were): "the Latin logic-chopping of Tim Yellowhammer and his tutor provokes a laugh at academic pendantry" [16].

Speaking of whores. . .

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Women

                    Another aspect of society addressed in A Chaste Maid in Cheapside is that of the weaker sex: women. Women were seen as incomplete men, the soul's weaker vessel, and a leaky one at that [15]. The ability for women to keep things inside, especially fluids and words, seemed out of reach. This conclusion doesn't seem unreasonable, keeping in mind the watery details of menstruation, childbirth, breastfeeding, etc.

                    In this play, it's readily apparent that a woman's flaws were wetness and incontinence (both of the bladder and of the vagina). This wetness is used to define the female and her body, even if she is a virgin, and to restrict her abilities outside of the home. Essentially: "a woman who leaves her house is a woman who talk is a woman who drinks is a woman who leaks" [16].

                    Bladder incontinence and a loose mouth are shown as characteristics of all women in the play: the very title of "gossip" insinuates their tendency to leak words: the gossips themselves wet the floor and drunkely leak words about a daughter that wets her bed, and even the baby girl bastard of Sir Walter by Mistress Allwit has to have her bottom cleaned because she's dirtied it with her bodily fluids [12].

                    Juxtaposed alongside this unfortunate inherent trait of a woman's wetness is a man's dryness, or inability to produce a man's water (semen). Sir Oliver Kix cannot impregnate his wife, while appropriately named Sir Walter (pronounced "water") has inumerable bastards. However, a man's wetness, unlike a woman's wetness, is to be desired simply because it affirms the patrilineal system of inheritance and thus provides a man's semen with economic value [16].

And where there's women. . .

[11]

Sex

                    The entire play is wrapped in sexual innuendos, made by both men and women, suggesting women's budding control over men in the bedroom. And the language of such a bawdy play suggests "a breakdown not only of linguistic but of social decorum" [10]. The weaker and leaky vessels were kept subdued because "female 'liberty' was seen as a threat to the whole social order" [9], and the play does stick to conventional transactions involving women.

                    "Middleton's sex triangles focus the satire in his comedy: each of these arrangements has an economic base": the Kixes arrange for Touchwood Senior to impregnante Lady Kix, and eventually "Touchwood sells Sir Oliver a cure for barrennes and at the same time cuckolds him" [2], Sir Walter Whorehound and the Yellowhammers "bargain" their female charges' marriages in return for a social or economic incentive; "financial contracts replace emotional bonds; sex becomes a commodity; and the familial unit turns into an enterprise" [12].

                    Women (and their chastity) are still seen as property to be had and enjoyed, or to further propogate the patrilineal system, which Middleton pokes fun at: the audience watches Sir Oliver seal a deal with Touchwood Senior to impregnate Lady Kix, Sir Oliver's wife, for lands and wealth. If the baby isn't Sir Oliver's, but Touchwood Senior's, the purpose of the patrilineal system is defeated once Sir Walter loses his inheritance.

To sum it up, sex was quite the economic asset.