Ugly Words, Ugly Deeds, Ugly Faces: Middleton and Rowley’s The Changeling and the Dynamics of Disgust

One of the most celebrated non-Shakespearean tragedies of the early modern period, Middleton and Rowley’s The Changeling (1622) has both captivated and confused audiences for centuries. This article argues that the emotion of disgust should be seen as vital to the poetic and thematic construction of The Changeling, and that it serves as the centerpiece of the play’s affective universe. Building on recent work on revulsion in early modern English literature, I demonstrate how a model of disgust informed by current thinking in the modern affective sciences can help explain Beatrice-Joanna’s infamously complex relationship to her adversary-turned-lover, the revolting De Flores. More specifically, I argue that the ambivalent workings of disgust—that is, the fact that disgusting things can simultaneously repel us and captivate us—elucidate the nature of Beatrice-Joanna’s ambivalent orientation to De Flores and underwrite how she herself comes to be fashioned as repulsive in the play’s conclusion.