Thomas Dekker
born c. 1572, London, Eng.
died c. 1632
English dramatist and writer of prose
pamphlets who is particularly known for his
lively depictions of London life.
Few facts of Dekker’s life are certain. He may
have been born into a family of Dutch immigrants
living in London and is first mentioned as a
playwright in 1598. He apparently wrote to
support himself, and he had a hand in at least
42 plays written in the next 30 years. In the
dispute known as “the poets’ war” or “the war of
the theatres,” he was satirized in Ben Jonson’s
Poetaster (produced 1601) as Demetrius Fannius,
“a very simple honest fellow. . . a dresser of
plays.” This precipitated Dekker’s own attack on
Jonson in the play Satiro-mastix (produced
1601). Thirteen more plays survive in which
Dekker collaborated with such figures as Thomas
Middleton, John Webster, Philip Massinger, John
Ford, and William Rowley.
Of the nine surviving plays that are entirely
Dekker’s work, probably the best-known are The
Shoemakers Holiday (1600) and The Honest Whore,
Part 2 (1630). These plays are typical of his
work in their use of the moralistic tone of
traditional drama, in the rush of their prose,
in their boisterousness, and in their mixture of
realistic detail with a romanticized plot.
Dekker’s ear for colloquial speech served him
well in his vivid portrayals of daily life in
London, and his work appealed strongly to a
citizen audience eager for plays on
middle-class, patriotic, and Protestant themes.
He exhibited a similar vigour in such prose
pamphlets as The Wonderfull Yeare (1603), about
the plague; The Belman of London (1608), about
roguery and crime, with much material borrowed
from Robert Greene and others; and The Guls
Horne-Booke (1609), a valuable account of
behaviour in the London theatres.
Between 1613 and 1619 Dekker was in prison
for debt. This firsthand experience may be
behind his six prison scenes first included in
the sixth edition (1616) of Sir Thomas
Overbury’s Characters. Dekker was partly
responsible for devising the street
entertainment to celebrate the entry of James I
into London in 1603; he provided the lord
mayor’s pageant in 1612, 1627, 1628, and 1629.
All this labour did not bring prosperity,
however, for Dekker was likely in debt when he
died.
