SOURCE: "Poet Who Failed," in The New York Times Book Review, February 16, 1913, p. 77.

In the following review of Middleton's verse and prose, the critic asserts that Middleton's works were published and given critical attention primarily because of the author's suicide.

Richard Middleton was that evanescent, shapeless thing, a meteor.… He founded no school, he imitated no man, he carried on no tradition.

—S.P.B. Mais in his From Shakespeare to 0. Henry: Studies in Literature, 1923.

Something of the enthusiasm with which England has received Middleton's work since his death is indicated by Henry Savage in his introduction to Poems and Songs: "Of his genius I am not using words idly when I say that it is of that rare quality which will sooner or later insure him a recognized position in the front rank of English poets. Those who are not moved by the beauty of the poetry...