SOURCE: Jacobs, Henry E. “The Constancy of Change: Character and Perspective in The Changeling.” Texas Studies in Literature and Language XVI, no. 4 (winter 1975): 651-74.

In the following essay, Jacobs considers which characters in The Changeling can best be called “changelings,” concluding that death is the final condition of such individuals.

“For, all that moveth, doth in Change delight.”

(Spenser, Faerie Queene, VII.vii)

Critics have long discussed the nature and identity of the changelings in Middleton and Rowley's play The Changeling. The problem arises because too many characters, rather than too few, are likely candidates for the role. The list of possible “changelings” includes every major character and most minor characters in the play. Indeed, scholars have applied the term variously to Alsemero, De Flores, Beatrice-Joanna, Antonio, Franciscus, and Diaphanta.¹

Critical agreement about the play is hampered because few of the critics try to define the term “changeling...