Thomas Dekker

Thomas Dekker c,1570-1632, English dramatist and pamphleteer. Little is known of his life except that he frequently suffered from poverty and served several prison terms for debt. He began his literary career c.1598 working for Philip Henslowe . During this period he wrote his most famous play, The Shoemaker's Holiday (1600), a delightful domestic comedy concerning the success of Simon Eyre, a master shoemaker who becomes the lord mayor of London. The play is notable for its realistic depiction of everyday life in 17th-century London as well as for Dekker's strong use of romantic fantasy in his depiction of characters. After collaborating with John Webster on Westward Ho (1604) and Northward Ho (1605) and with Thomas Middleton on the first part of The Honest Whore (1604; Part II, 1630), Dekker turned to writing pamphlets, the most notable being The Seven Deadly Sins of London (1606) and The Gull's Hornbook (1609), a satiric account of the fops and gallants of his day. In 1610 he returned to playwriting, writing separately and in collaboration with Middleton ( The Roaring Girl, 1611), Philip Massinger ( The Virgin Martyr, 1622), John Ford, and others. Many of his works, however, have been lost. He was known to have at least partially written over 40 plays, of which about 15 are extant.

Bibliography: See edition of his plays by F. Bowers (4 vol., 1953-61); studies by G. R. Price (1969), T. Bose (1979), and L. Champion (1985).

Dekker, Thomas (c.1572–c.1632), English dramatist, who worked mainly in collaboration and is believed to have had a hand in more than 40 plays of which about 15 survive, several having been destroyed by Warburton's cook. The most important of his own works is The Shoemaker's Holiday (1599), first played at the Rose Theatre by the Admiral's Men, which materially assisted the evolution of English comedy. Robust and full-blooded, it tells how Simon Eyre, a master shoemaker, became Lord Mayor of London, and shows a promise which was not fulfilled in Dekker's later works. He worked mainly in collaboration. With Marston he wrote Satiromastix (1601), in which Ben Jonson is satirized under the name of Horace; with Middleton he wrote The Honest Whore (1604) and The Roaring Girl (1610); and with Massinger a tragedy, The Virgin Martyr (1620). He is also believed to have been part-author of William Rowley's The Witch of Edmonton (1621). In 1609 he published The Gull's Handbook, a satirical account of the fops and gallants of the day which gives some interesting information about the contemporary theatre.

Dekker, Thomas (?1572–1632), was born and mainly lived in London. He suffered from poverty and was several times imprisoned for debt. He was engaged by Henslowe about 1595 to write plays (over 40 of which are now lost) in collaboration with Drayton, Jonson, J. Webster, and many others.

He published The Shoemaker's Holiday and Old Fortunatus, comedies, in 1600. Having been ridiculed, jointly with J. Marston, by Jonson in The Poetaster, he retorted in Satiromastix (presumably in collaboration with Marston), a play produced in 1601. His other principal plays are The Honest Whore, written 1604–5 (Part I in collaboration with Middleton, 1604; Part II, 1630); Patient Grissil (1603), in collaboration with Chettle and Haughton; The Witch of Edmonton, written in collaboration with Ford and Rowley in 1621, first published 1658. He also collaborated with Webster in Westward Hoe (1607), written in 1604; with Middleton in The Roaring Girle (1611), written 1604–10; and with Massinger in The Virgin Martyr (1622), written in 1620. Dekker also wrote pageants, tracts, and pamphlets. His pamphlet The Wonderfull Yeare (1603), a poignant description of London during the plague of that year, was used by Defoe for his Journal of the Plague Year. Newes from Hell (1606) is an imitation of Nashe; The Guls Hornebooke (1609) is a satirical book of manners.

Dekker's work is noted for its realistic and vivid portrayal of daily London life, both domestic and commercial, for its sympathy with the poor and oppressed, including animals tortured for man's amusement, and for its prevailing cheerfulness.