The Changeling is set in early modern Spain, and more specifically, in the city of Alicante, in the Province of Valencia in the southeast of the country. Like many other English playwrights of their day, including William Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe, Middleton and Rowley pick Spain as their setting for a number of reasons.
First, Spain was thought of by English audiences as an exotic and remote location, generally associated with intense passion and shocking acts of violence. Earlier plays like Thomas Kyd’s The Spanish Tragedy, for example, helped to strengthen this association of Spain with thrilling and bloody drama in the eyes of the English public. Additionally, the Spanish setting offers the playwrights a greater degree of artistic freedom than an English setting would due to the threat of offending the English nobility and facing severe legal repercussions (and indeed, Middleton found himself in frequent legal trouble for his biting social satire). As a Catholic nation, Spain was a frequent target of criticism and satire in England, which was officially Protestant when the play was produced.
When Middleton and Rowley wrote the play, Spain had been engaged for many years in an ongoing war with the nation of the Netherlands. The tumultuous nature of this period of Spanish history is reflected in the play. When Vermandero first encounters Alsemero, for example, he demands to know his nationality before inviting him into his home:
VERMANDERO
[...] Yet there’s an article between, I must know
Your country; we use not to give survey
Of our chief strengths to strangers; our citadels
Are placed conspicuous to outward view
On promonts’ tops; but within are secrets.
ALSEMERO : A Valencian sir.
VERMANDERO : A Valencian? That’s native, sir;
Vermandero is relieved to discover that Alsemero is a Spaniard, as he cannot permit a citizen from an enemy nation to enter his home, a well-defended castle. To do so, he notes, would allow Spain’s enemies to gain critical information about Spain’s military defenses. This hint of political intrigue heightens the stakes of the play.
