A Chaste Maid in Cheapside

A Chaste Maid in Cheapside is a city comedy written c. 1613 by the English Jacobean playwright Thomas Middleton.

The play presents multiple plots centred on the marriage of Moll Yellowhammer, the titular maid, who is daughter to a wealthy Cheapside goldsmith, and, in particular, her intended husband, Sir Walter Whorehound.

As a kind of side-bargain, Sir Walter has promised Moll's brother Tim a "landed niece" from Wales.

Meanwhile, Touchwood Senior (the elder brother of Moll's true love) prepares to depart from his wife; prodigiously fertile, he impregnates any woman he sleeps with.

Saddened, the Yellowhammers agree to Touchwood Senior's request that the young lovers receive a joint burial.

The two are wed, as Tim and the Welsh "niece" had been earlier that day; Kix promises to support the family of Touchwood Senior, who announces that Sir Walter has been imprisoned for debt.