Thomas Dekker

Thomas Dekker, (c. 1572 – August 25 1632), was an Elizabethan dramatist and pamphleteer.

Related Topics:
1572 - August 25 - 1632 - Elizabethan - Dramatist

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He is thought to have been born in London, but little else is known about his life, apart from the fact that he spent time (including the years 1613-1619) in prison for debt. The first of his plays known to have been performed were Old Fortunatus and The Shoemaker's Holiday, in 1600. In addition to his own plays, he collaborated with others, including Thomas Middleton, Philip Massinger and, most famously, John Webster.

Related Topics:
London - Debt - Old Fortunatus - The Shoemaker's Holiday - 1600 - Thomas Middleton - Philip Massinger - John Webster

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Dekker's pamphlets, which describe the daily life of London in valuable detail, include The Wonderfull Yeare (1603) and The Belman of London (1608).

Related Topics:
1603 - 1608

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Thomas Dekker came back into scene in the twentieth century (although almost unnoticeably) when the Beatles included part of his ballad "Golden Slumbers" in their 1969 song of the same title.

Related Topics:
The Beatles - Their 1969 song of the same title

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Thomas Dekker is believed to have been born in London around 1572, but nothing is known for certain about his youth. He embarked on a career as a theatre writer early in his adult life, the first extant text of his work being ?Old Fortunatus? written around 1596, although there are plays connected with his name which were performed as early as 1594. The period from 1596 to 1602 was the most prolific of his career, with 20 plays being attributed to him and an involvement in up to 28 other plays being suggested. It was during this period that he produced his most famous work, ?The Shoemaker?s Holiday, or the Gentle Craft?, categorised by modern critics as citizen comedy, it reflects his concerns with the daily lives of ordinary Londoners. This play exemplifies his vivid use of language and the 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.

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He exhibited a similar vigour in such prose pamphlets as the ironically entitled ?The Wonderfull Yeare? (1603), about the plague, ?The Belman of London? (1608), about roguery and crime, and ?The Guls Horne-Booke? (1609), a valuable account of behaviour in the London theatres. Dekker was partly responsible for devising the street entertainment to celebrate the entry of James I into London in 1603 and he managed the Lord Mayor's pageant in 1612. His fortunes took a turn for the worse shortly after, when between 1613 and 1619 he was imprisoned, probably for debt; this experience may be behind his six prison scenes first included in the sixth edition (1616) of Sir Thomas Overbury's ?Characters?. He died in 1632 and was buried at St James?, Clerkenwell.

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