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Thomas Dekker (c. 1572 – 25 August 1632) was an English
Elizabethan The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personific ...
dramatist and pamphleteer, a versatile and prolific writer, whose career spanned several decades and brought him into contact with many of the period's most famous dramatists.


Early life

Little is known of Dekker's early life or origins. From references in his pamphlets, Dekker is believed to have been born in London around 1572, but nothing is known for certain about his youth. His last name suggests
Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People ...
ancestry, and his work, some of which is translated from
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
, suggests that he attended
grammar school A grammar school is one of several different types of school in the history of education in the United Kingdom and other English-speaking countries, originally a school teaching Latin, but more recently an academically oriented secondary sch ...
.


Career

Dekker embarked on a career as a theatre writer in the middle 1590s. His handwriting is found in the manuscript of ''
Sir Thomas More Sir Thomas More (7 February 1478 – 6 July 1535), veneration, venerated in the Catholic Church as Saint Thomas More, was an English lawyer, judge, social philosopher, author, statesman, and noted Renaissance humanist. He also served Henry VII ...
'', though the date of his involvement is undetermined. More certain is his work as a playwright for the
Admiral's Men The Admiral's Men (also called the Admiral's company, more strictly, the Earl of Nottingham's Men; after 1603, Prince Henry's Men; after 1612, the Elector Palatine's Men or the Palsgrave's Men) was a playing company or troupe of actors in the Eli ...
of
Philip Henslowe Philip Henslowe (c. 1550 – 6 January 1616) was an Elizabethan theatrical entrepreneur and impresario. Henslowe's modern reputation rests on the survival of his diary, a primary source for information about the theatrical world of Renaissance ...
, in whose account book he is first mentioned in early 1598. While there are plays connected with his name performed as early as 1594, it is not clear that he was the original author; his work often involved revision and updating. Between 1598 and 1602, he was involved in about forty plays for Henslowe, usually in collaboration. To these years belong the collaborations with
Ben Jonson Benjamin "Ben" Jonson (c. 11 June 1572 – c. 16 August 1637) was an English playwright and poet. Jonson's artistry exerted a lasting influence upon English poetry and stage comedy. He popularised the comedy of humours; he is best known for t ...
and John Marston, which presumably contributed to the
War of the Theatres The War of the Theatres is the name commonly applied to a controversy from the later Elizabethan theatre; Thomas Dekker termed it the ''Poetomachia''. Because of an actual ban on satire in prose and verse publications in 1599 (the Bishops' Ban of ...
in 1600 and 1601. But Dekker is credited as the sole author of ''
The Shoemaker's Holiday ''The Shoemaker's Holiday or the Gentle Craft'' is an Elizabethan play written by Thomas Dekker. The play was first performed in 1599 by the Admiral's Men, and it falls into the subgenre of city comedy. The story features three subplots: an in ...
'' (1599), his acknowledged masterpiece – a boisterous, rowdy comedy of London life as seen through the eyes of a romanticist. Francis Meres includes Dekker in his list of notable playwrights in 1598. For Jonson, however, Dekker was a bumbling hack, a "dresser of plays about town"; Jonson lampooned Dekker as Demetrius Fannius in ''Poetaster'' and as Anaides in ''Cynthia's Revels''. Dekker's riposte, ''Satiromastix'', performed both by the
Lord Chamberlain's Men The Lord Chamberlain's Men was a company of actors, or a " playing company" (as it then would likely have been described), for which Shakespeare wrote during most of his career. Richard Burbage played most of the lead roles, including Hamlet, Othe ...
and the
child actors The term child actor or child actress is generally applied to a child acting on stage or in movies or television. An adult who began their acting career as a child may also be called a child actor, or a "former child actor". Closely associated t ...
of Paul's, casts Jonson as an affected, hypocritical
Horace Quintus Horatius Flaccus (; 8 December 65 – 27 November 8 BC), known in the English-speaking world as Horace (), was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus (also known as Octavian). The rhetorician Quintilian regarded his ' ...
. ''Satiromastix'' marks the end of the "poetomachia"; in 1603, Jonson and Dekker collaborated again, on a pageant for the Royal Entry, delayed from the
coronation of James I The coronation of James I and his wife Anne as King and Queen of England was held on 25 July 1603 at Westminster Abbey. James had reigned as King James VI of Scotland since 1567. Anne was anointed and consecrated with prayers alluding to Esther, ...
, for which Dekker also wrote the festival book ''The Magnificent Entertainment''.special-1.bl.uk
/ref> After this commission, however, the early Jacobean period was notably mixed for the author. In late 1602, he appears to have broken his association with Henslowe, for unknown reasons. He wrote for Worcester's Men for a time, then returned to the
Admiral's Men The Admiral's Men (also called the Admiral's company, more strictly, the Earl of Nottingham's Men; after 1603, Prince Henry's Men; after 1612, the Elector Palatine's Men or the Palsgrave's Men) was a playing company or troupe of actors in the Eli ...
(now patronized by Prince Henry) to produce ''The Honest Whore'', an apparent success. But the failures of ''The Whore of Babylon'' (1607) and ''If This Be Not a Good Play, the Devil is in It'' (1611) left him crestfallen; the latter play was rejected by Prince Henry's Men before failing for
Queen Anne's Men Queen Anne's Men was a playing company, or troupe of actors, in Jacobean era London. In their own era they were known colloquially as the Queen's Men — as were Queen Elizabeth's Men and Queen Henrietta's Men, in theirs. Formation The group w ...
at the
Red Bull Theatre The Red Bull was an inn-yard conversion erected in Clerkenwell, London operating in the 17th century. For more than four decades, it entertained audiences drawn primarily from the City and its suburbs, developing a reputation over the years for r ...
.


Legal troubles

In 1612, Dekker's lifelong problem with debt (he had earlier, 1599, been imprisoned in
Poultry Compter Poultry Compter (also known as Poultry Counter) was a small prison that stood at Poultry, part of Cheapside in the City of London. The compter was used to lock up minor criminals and prisoners convicted under civil law and was run by the C ...
) reached a crisis when he was imprisoned in the
King's Bench Prison The King's Bench Prison was a prison in Southwark, south London, England, from medieval times until it closed in 1880. It took its name from the King's Bench court of law in which cases of defamation, bankruptcy and other misdemeanours were hea ...
on a debt of forty pounds to the father of
John Webster John Webster (c. 1580 – c. 1632) was an English Jacobean dramatist best known for his tragedies ''The White Devil'' and ''The Duchess of Malfi'', which are often seen as masterpieces of the early 17th-century English stage. His life and care ...
. He remained there for seven years, and despite the support of associates such as
Edward Alleyn Edward "Ned" Alleyn (; 1 September 156621 November 1626) was an English actor who was a major figure of the Elizabethan theatre and founder of the College of God's Gift in Dulwich. Early life Alleyn was born on 1 September 1566 in Bishopsg ...
and
Endymion Porter Sir Endymion Porter (1587–1649) was an English diplomat and royalist. Early life He was descended from Sir William Porter, sergeant-at-arms to Henry VII, and son of Edmund Porter, of Aston-sub-Edge in Gloucestershire, by his cousin Angela, ...
, these years were difficult; Dekker reports that the experience turned his hair white. He continued as pamphleteer throughout his years in prison.


Later years

On release, he resumed writing plays, now with collaborators both from his generation ( John Day and
John Webster John Webster (c. 1580 – c. 1632) was an English Jacobean dramatist best known for his tragedies ''The White Devil'' and ''The Duchess of Malfi'', which are often seen as masterpieces of the early 17th-century English stage. His life and care ...
) and slightly younger writers (
John Ford John Martin Feeney (February 1, 1894 – August 31, 1973), known professionally as John Ford, was an American film director and naval officer. He is widely regarded as one of the most important and influential filmmakers of his generation. He ...
and
Philip Massinger Philip Massinger (1583 – 17 March 1640) was an English dramatist. His finely plotted plays, including ''A New Way to Pay Old Debts'', '' The City Madam'', and '' The Roman Actor'', are noted for their satire and realism, and their poli ...
). Among these plays is one, ''Keep the Widow Waking'' (1624, with Ford, Webster, and
William Rowley William Rowley (c. 1585 – February 1626) was an English Jacobean dramatist, best known for works written in collaboration with more successful writers. His date of birth is estimated to have been c. 1585; he was buried on 11 February 1626 in ...
), which dramatized two recent murders in
Whitechapel Whitechapel is a district in East London and the future administrative centre of the London Borough of Tower Hamlets. It is a part of the East End of London, east of Charing Cross. Part of the historic county of Middlesex, the area formed a c ...
. In the latter half of the decade, Dekker turned once more to pamphlet-writing, revamping old work and writing a new preface to his most popular tract, ''The Bellman of London''.


Death

Dekker published no more work after 1632, and he is usually associated with the "Thomas Dekker, householder", who was buried at St. James's in
Clerkenwell Clerkenwell () is an area of central London, England. Clerkenwell was an ancient parish from the mediaeval period onwards, and now forms the south-western part of the London Borough of Islington. The well after which it was named was redisco ...
that year.


Work


Drama

When Dekker began writing plays,
Thomas Nashe Thomas Nashe (baptised November 1567 – c. 1601; also Nash) was an Elizabethan playwright, poet, satirist and a significant pamphleteer. He is known for his novel '' The Unfortunate Traveller'', his pamphlets including ''Pierce Penniless,'' ...
and
Thomas Lodge Thomas Lodge (c. 1558September 1625) was an English writer and medical practitioner whose life spanned the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. Biography Thomas Lodge was born about 1558 in West Ham, the second son of Sir Thomas Lodge, L ...
were still alive; when he died,
John Dryden '' John Dryden (; – ) was an English poet, literary critic, translator, and playwright who in 1668 was appointed England's first Poet Laureate. He is seen as dominating the literary life of Restoration England to such a point that the p ...
had already been born. Like most dramatists of the period, he adapted as well as he could to changing tastes; however, even his work in the fashionable Jacobean genres of satire and
tragicomedy Tragicomedy is a literary genre that blends aspects of both tragic and comic forms. Most often seen in dramatic literature, the term can describe either a tragic play which contains enough comic elements to lighten the overall mood or a serious ...
bears the marks of his Elizabethan training: its humour is genial, its action romantic. The majority of his surviving plays are comedies or tragicomedies. Most of Dekker's work is lost. His apparently disordered life, and his lack of a firm connection (such as
Shakespeare William Shakespeare ( 26 April 1564 – 23 April 1616) was an English playwright, poet and actor. He is widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's nation ...
or Fletcher had) with a single company, may have militated against the preservation or publication of manuscripts. Close to twenty of his plays were published during his lifetime; of these, more than half are comedies, with three significant tragedies: ''
Lust's Dominion ''Lust's Dominion, or The Lascivious Queen'' is an English Renaissance stage play, a tragedy written perhaps around 1600, probably by Thomas Dekker in collaboration with others and first published in 1657. The play has been categorized as a re ...
'' (presumably identical to ''The Spanish Moor's Tragedy'', written with Day, Marston, and William Haughton, 1600), '' The Witch of Edmonton'' (with Ford and Rowley, 1621), and '' The Virgin Martyr'' (with Massinger, 1620). The first phase of Dekker's career is documented in Henslowe's diary. His name appears for the first time in connection with "fayeton" (presumably, Phaeton) in 1598. There follow, before 1599, payments for work on ''The Triplicity of Cuckolds'', ''The Mad Man's Morris'', and ''Hannibal and Hermes''. He worked on these plays with Robert Wilson,
Henry Chettle Henry Chettle (c. 1564 – c. 1606) was an English dramatist and miscellaneous writer of the Elizabethan era, best known for his pamphleteering. Early life The son of Robert Chettle, a London dyer, he was apprenticed in 1577 and became a me ...
, and
Michael Drayton Michael Drayton (1563 – 23 December 1631) was an English poet who came to prominence in the Elizabethan era. He died on 23 December 1631 in London. Early life Drayton was born at Hartshill, near Nuneaton, Warwickshire, England. Almost noth ...
. With Drayton, he also worked on history plays on the French civil wars, Earl Godwin, and others. In 1599, he wrote plays on
Troilus Troilus ( or ; grc, Τρωΐλος, Troïlos; la, Troilus) is a legendary character associated with the story of the Trojan War. The first surviving reference to him is in Homer's ''Iliad,'' composed in the late 8th century BCE. In Greek myth ...
and
Cressida Cressida (; also Criseida, Cresseid or Criseyde) is a character who appears in many Medieval and Renaissance retellings of the story of the Trojan War. She is a Trojan woman, the daughter of Calchas, a Greek seer. She falls in love with Troilus, ...
,
Agamemnon In Greek mythology, Agamemnon (; grc-gre, Ἀγαμέμνων ''Agamémnōn'') was a king of Mycenae who commanded the Greeks during the Trojan War. He was the son, or grandson, of King Atreus and Queen Aerope, the brother of Menelaus, the hus ...
(with Chettle), and ''Page of Plymouth''. In that year, also, he collaborated with Chettle, Jonson, and Marston on a play about Robert II. 1599 also saw the production of three plays that have survived. It was during this year that he produced his most famous work, ''
The Shoemaker's Holiday ''The Shoemaker's Holiday or the Gentle Craft'' is an Elizabethan play written by Thomas Dekker. The play was first performed in 1599 by the Admiral's Men, and it falls into the subgenre of city comedy. The story features three subplots: an in ...
, or the Gentle Craft'', categorised by modern critics as citizen comedy. This play reflects his concerns with the daily lives of ordinary Londoners, and contains the poem The Merry Month of May. This play exemplifies his intermingling of everyday subjects with the fantastical, embodied in this case by the rise of a craftsman to Mayor and the involvement of an unnamed but idealised king in the concluding banquet. ''
Old Fortunatus ''The Pleasant Comedie of Old Fortunatus'' (1599) is a play in a mixture of prose and verse by Thomas Dekker, based on the German legend of Fortunatus and his magic inexhaustible purse. Though the play is not easy to categorise, it has been ca ...
'' and ''
Patient Grissel ''Patient Grissel'' is a play by Thomas Dekker, Henry Chettle, and William Haughton, first printed in 1603. It is mentioned in Henslowe's diary in the entry for December 1599. The plot is a variant of the medieval tale of Patient Griselda, as ...
'', the latter on the folkloric theme treated by
Chaucer Geoffrey Chaucer (; – 25 October 1400) was an English poet, author, and civil servant best known for '' The Canterbury Tales''. He has been called the "father of English literature", or, alternatively, the "father of English poetry". He w ...
in
The Clerk's Tale "The Clerk's Tale" is the first tale of Group E (Fragment IV) in Geoffrey Chaucer's '' The Canterbury Tales''. It is preceded by The Summoner's Tale and followed by The Merchant's Tale. The Clerk of Oxenford (modern Oxford) is a student of what ...
. In 1600, he worked on ''The Seven Wise Masters'', ''Fortune's Tennis'', ''Cupid and Psyche'', and ''Fair Constance of Rome''. The next year, in addition to '' Satiromastix'', he worked on a play possibly about
Sebastian of Portugal Sebastian ( pt, Sebastião I ; 20 January 1554 – 4 August 1578) was King of Portugal from 11 June 1557 to 4 August 1578 and the penultimate Portuguese monarch of the House of Aviz. He was the son of João Manuel, Prince of Portugal, and h ...
and ''
Blurt, Master Constable ''Blurt, Master Constable, or the Spaniards' Night Walk'' is a late Elizabethan comedy, printed anonymously in 1602 and usually attributed to either Thomas Middleton or Thomas Dekker. The subtitle of the play, "The Spaniards' Night Walk," toge ...
'', on which he may have worked with
Thomas Middleton Thomas Middleton (baptised 18 April 1580 – July 1627; also spelt ''Midleton'') was an English Jacobean playwright and poet. He, with John Fletcher and Ben Jonson, was among the most successful and prolific of playwrights at work in the Jac ...
. In 1602 he revised two older plays, ''Pontius Pilate'' (1597) and the second part of ''
Sir John Oldcastle ''Sir John Oldcastle'' is an Elizabethan play about John Oldcastle, a controversial 14th-/15th-century rebel and Lollard who was seen by some of Shakespeare's contemporaries as a proto-Protestant martyr. Publication The play was originally ...
''. He also collaborated on ''Caesar's Fall'', ''Jephthah'', ''A Medicine for a Curst Wife'', ''Sir Thomas Wyatt'' (on Wyatt's rebellion), and ''Christmas Comes But Once a Year''. Except for ''Blurt'', which was performed by the Blackfriars Children, the earlier of these works were performed at the Admiral's
Fortune Theatre The Fortune Theatre is a 432-seat West End theatre on Russell Street, near Covent Garden, in the City of Westminster. Since 1989 the theatre has hosted the long running play '' The Woman in Black''. History The site was acquired by author, play ...
. After 1602, Dekker split his attention between pamphlets and plays; thus, his dramatic output decreased considerably. He and Middleton wrote '' The Honest Whore'' for the Fortune in 1604, and Dekker wrote a sequel himself the following year. The Middleton/Dekker collaboration ''The Family of Love'' also dates from this general era. Dekker and Webster wrote '' Westward Ho'' and ''
Northward Ho ''Northward Ho'' (or ''Ho!'', or ''Hoe'') is an early Jacobean era stage play, a satire and city comedy written by Thomas Dekker and John Webster, and first published in 1607. ''Northward Ho'' was a response to '' Eastward Ho'' (1605) by Ben J ...
'' for Paul's Boys. The failures of the anti-Catholic ''Whore of Babylon'' and tragicomic ''If This Be Not...'' have already been noted. ''
The Roaring Girl ''The Roaring Girl'' is a Jacobean stage play, a comedy written by Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker 1607–1610. The play was first published in quarto in 1611, printed by Nicholas Okes for the bookseller Thomas Archer. The title page of t ...
'', a city comedy that incorporates the real-life contemporary figure 'Moll Cutpurse', otherwise known as
Mary Frith Mary Frith (c. 1584 – 26 July 1659), alias Moll (or Mal) Cutpurse, was an English notorious pickpocket and fence of the London underworld. Meaning of nicknames Moll, apart from being a nickname for Mary, was a common name in the 16 ...
, was a collaboration with Middleton in 1611. In the same year, he also wrote another
tragicomedy Tragicomedy is a literary genre that blends aspects of both tragic and comic forms. Most often seen in dramatic literature, the term can describe either a tragic play which contains enough comic elements to lighten the overall mood or a serious ...
called '' Match Me in London''. During his imprisonment, Dekker did not write plays. After his release, he collaborated with Day on ''Guy of Warwick'' (1620), ''The Wonder of a Kingdom'' (1623), and ''The Bellman of Paris'' (1623). With Ford, he wrote '' The Sun's Darling'' (1624), '' The Fairy Knight'' (1624), and ''The Bristow Merchant'' (1624). He also wrote the
tragicomedy Tragicomedy is a literary genre that blends aspects of both tragic and comic forms. Most often seen in dramatic literature, the term can describe either a tragic play which contains enough comic elements to lighten the overall mood or a serious ...
'' The Noble Spanish Soldier'' (1622) and later reworked material from this play into a comedic form to produce ''The Welsh Ambassador'' (1623). Another play, ''The Late Murder of the Son upon the Mother, or
Keep the Widow Waking ''Keep the Widow Waking'' is a lost Jacobean play, significant chiefly for the light it throws on the complexities of collaborative authorship in English Renaissance drama. ''A Late Murder of the Son Upon the Mother, or Keep the Widow Waking'' ...
'', a dramatization of two recent murders in Whitechapel, occasioned a suit for slander heard in the
Star Chamber The Star Chamber (Latin: ''Camera stellata'') was an English court that sat at the royal Palace of Westminster, from the late to the mid-17th century (c. 1641), and was composed of Privy Counsellors and common-law judges, to supplement the jud ...
. That play is lost. Dekker's plays of the 1620s were staged at the large amphitheatres on the north side of London, most commonly at the Red Bull; only two of his later plays were seen at the more exclusive, indoor
Cockpit Theatre The Cockpit was a theatre in London, operating from 1616 to around 1665. It was the first theatre to be located near Drury Lane. After damage in 1617, it was named The Phoenix. History The original building was an actual cockpit; that is, a st ...
, and these two were presumably produced by Christopher Beeston, who operated both the Red Bull and the Cockpit. By the 1620s, the
Shoreditch Shoreditch is a district in the East End of London in England, and forms the southern part of the London Borough of Hackney. Neighbouring parts of Tower Hamlets are also perceived as part of the area. In the 16th century, Shoreditch was an impor ...
amphitheaters had become deeply identified with the louder and less reputable categories of play-goers, such as apprentices. Dekker's type of play appears to have suited them perfectly. Full of bold action, careless about generic differences, and always (in the end) complementary to the values and beliefs of such audiences, his drama carried some of the vigorous optimism of Elizabethan dramaturgy into the Caroline era.


Prose

He exhibited a similar vigour in his pamphlets, which span almost his whole writing career, and which treat a great variety of subjects and styles. Dekker's first spate of pamphleteering began in 1603, perhaps during a period when
plague Plague or The Plague may refer to: Agriculture, fauna, and medicine *Plague (disease), a disease caused by ''Yersinia pestis'' * An epidemic of infectious disease (medical or agricultural) * A pandemic caused by such a disease * A swarm of pe ...
had closed the theaters. His first was '' The Wonderfull Yeare'', a journalistic account of the death of Elizabeth, accession of James I, and the 1603 plague, that combined a wide variety of literary genres in an attempt to convey the extraordinary events of that year ('wonderful' meaning astonishing, not excellent). It succeeded well enough to prompt two more plague pamphlets, ''News From Gravesend'' and ''The Meeting of Gallants at an Ordinary''. ''The Double PP'' (1606) is an anti-Catholic tract written in response to the
Gunpowder Plot The Gunpowder Plot of 1605, in earlier centuries often called the Gunpowder Treason Plot or the Jesuit Treason, was a failed assassination attempt against King James I by a group of provincial English Catholics led by Robert Catesby who sought ...
. '' News From Hell'' (1606) is an homage to and continuation of Nash's '' Pierce Penniless''. ''The Seven Deadly Sins of London'' (1606) is another plague pamphlet. After 1608, Dekker produced his most popular pamphlets: a series of "cony-catching" pamphlets that described the various tricks and deceits of confidence-men and thieves, including
thieves' cant Thieves' cant (also known as thieves' argot, rogues' cant, or peddler's French) is a cant, cryptolect, or argot which was formerly used by thieves, beggars, and hustlers of various kinds in Great Britain and to a lesser extent in other English-s ...
. These pamphlets, which Dekker often updated and reissued, include ''The Belman of London'' (1608, now ''The Bellman of London''), ''Lanthorne and Candle-light'', ''Villainies Discovered by Candlelight'', and ''English Villainies''. They owe their form and many of their incidents to similar pamphlets by Robert Greene. Other pamphlets are journalistic in form and offer vivid pictures of Jacobean London. ''The Dead Term'' (1608) describes
Westminster Westminster is an area of Central London, part of the wider City of Westminster. The area, which extends from the River Thames to Oxford Street, has many visitor attractions and historic landmarks, including the Palace of Westminster, Bucki ...
during summer vacation. ''The Guls Horne-Booke'' (1609, now ''The Gull's Hornbook'') describes the life of city gallants, including a valuable account of behaviour in the London theatres. ''Work for Armourers'' (1609) and ''The Artillery Garden'' (1616) (the latter in verse) describe aspects of England's military industries. ''London Look Back'' (1630) treats 1625, the year of James's death, while ''Wars, Wars, Wars'' (1628) describes European turmoil. As might be expected, Dekker turned his experience in prison to profitable account. ''Dekker His Dreame'' (1620) is a long poem describing his despairing confinement; he contributed six prison-based sketches to the sixth edition (1616) of Sir
Thomas Overbury Sir Thomas Overbury (baptized 1581 – 14 September 1613) was an English poet and essayist, also known for being the victim of a murder which led to a scandalous trial. His poem ''A Wife'' (also referred to as ''The Wife''), which depicted the ...
's ''Characters''; and he revised ''Lanthorne and Candlelight'' to reflect what he had learned in prison. Dekker's pamphlets, even more than his plays, reveal signs of hasty and careless composition. Yet the best of them can still entertain, and almost all of them offer valuably precise depictions of everyday life in the Jacobean period. Dekker's poetry entered into modern popular song (although almost unnoticeably) when some of the lyrics of the poem "Golden Slumbers", from Dekker's play ''
Patient Grissel ''Patient Grissel'' is a play by Thomas Dekker, Henry Chettle, and William Haughton, first printed in 1603. It is mentioned in Henslowe's diary in the entry for December 1599. The plot is a variant of the medieval tale of Patient Griselda, as ...
'', were included by
Paul McCartney Sir James Paul McCartney (born 18 June 1942) is an English singer, songwriter and musician who gained worldwide fame with the Beatles, for whom he played bass guitar and shared primary songwriting and lead vocal duties with John Lennon. On ...
in
the Beatles The Beatles were an English Rock music, rock band, formed in Liverpool in 1960, that comprised John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison and Ringo Starr. They are regarded as the Cultural impact of the Beatles, most influential band of al ...
' 1969 song "
Golden Slumbers "Golden Slumbers" is a song by the English rock band the Beatles from their 1969 album ''Abbey Road''. Written by Paul McCartney and credited to Lennon–McCartney, it is the sixth song of the album's Abbey Road#Medley, climactic B-side medley. ...
".


References

*Bednarz, James P. ''Shakespeare and the Poets' War''. New York: Columbia University Press, 2001. *Bowers, F. – ‘The Dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker’, In 4 Volumes – Cambridge University Press – 1961 *Chapman, L.S. – ‘Thomas Dekker and the Traditions of the English Drama’ – Lang – 1985 *Gasper, J. – ‘The Dragon and the Dove: The Plays of Thomas Dekker’ – Oxford: Clarendon – 1990. *Gregg, Kate. ''Thomas Dekker: A Study in Economic and Social Backgrounds''. Seattle: University of Washington Press, 1924. * G.R. Hibbard, ed., ''Three Elizabethan pamphlets'' by Robert Greene, Thomas Nash, Thomas Dekker (Folcroft, PA: Folcroft Library Editions, 1972). *Hunt, Mary. ''Thomas Dekker: A Study''. New York: Columbia University Press, 1911. *McLuskie, Kathleen. ''Dekker and Heywood: Professional Dramatists''. New York: St. Martin's Press, 1993. *Wilson, F. P, editor. ''The Plague Pamphlets of Thomas Dekker''. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1925.


References


External links

* * *
''The Noble Spanish Soldier'' (1622)
at
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''The Wonderful Year'' (1603)
at University of Oregon
''A Knight's Conjuring'' (1607)
at
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''The Gull's Hornbook'' (1609, modern spelling)
at Big Wind

(1609, orig. spelling) at Renascence Editions * {{DEFAULTSORT:Dekker, Thomas 1570s births 1632 deaths 16th-century male writers 17th-century English male writers 16th-century English dramatists and playwrights 17th-century English dramatists and playwrights English people of Dutch descent English Renaissance dramatists English pamphleteers People imprisoned for debt 16th-century English writers