 His friendship with Thomas Dekker brought him into conflict with Ben Jonson and George Chapman in the War of the Theatres.The grudge against Jonson continued as late as 1626, when Jonson's play "The Staple of News" indulges in a slur on Middleton's great success, "A Game at Chess".It has been argued that Middleton's "Inner Temple Masque" (1619) sneers at Jonson (then absent in Scotland) as a "silenced bricklayer."