show instead of being portrayed in the usual combination of speech and action. Another dumb show features a personified Fortune figure. Title Through most of its existence the play was known by the title that refers to its comic sub-plot, as is true of a few other English Renaissance plays, like Blurt, Master Constable. However, modern scholarship tends to prefer the title from the manuscripts, which refers to the play's main plot. Samuel Pepys was reading it as The Mayor of Quinborough on 16 June 1666, calling it "a simple play" in his diary. In 2005 it was published by Nick Hern Books under the title Mayor of Queenborough. In the subplot, Middleton takes a satirical jab at the theatrical profession: in Act V, scene i, three thieves pretend to be actors in order to cheat the Mayor. References English Renaissance plays 1610s plays Arthurian theatre Plays by Thomas Middleton