The Dramatic Works of Thomas Dekker: Volume 1, Sir Thomas More: Dekker's Addition; The Shoemakers' Holiday; Old Fortunatus; Patient Grissil; Satiromastix; Sir Thomas Wyatt

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Cambridge University Press, 1953 - Juvenile Nonfiction - 488 pages
Originally published in 1953, this was the first edition of Dekker's plays to appear in print since the late nineteenth century. Thus, for many years prior, Dekker had been the least accessible of the prominent Elizabethan dramatists, with the result that his anthologized plays had received undue attention at the expense of other highly readable works of the second rank. Professor Fredson Bowers here presents a critical old-spelling text of the ordinarily accepted canon, together with a few works not collected previously but which seem to merit inclusion in an edition of Dekker's plays. The text of the complete plays is in four volumes and a complementary four-volume set contains detailed introductions and notes to all the plays. In a general textual introduction Professor Bowers sets forth a reasoned account of his editorial method and procedures for a critical edition according to bibliographical principles.

About the author (1953)

Dekker was a popular, prolific writer who had a hand in at least 40 plays, which he wrote for Philip Henslowe, the theatrical entrepreneur. In the plays that seem to be completely by Dekker, he shows himself as a realist of London life, but even his most realistic plays have a strong undertone of romantic themes and aspirations. The Shoemaker's Holiday (1600), for example, glorifies the gentle craft of the shoemaker, and the character Simon Eyre speaks in an extravagant, hyperbolic style that is far from realistic. Dekker also wrote such prose pamphlets as the Bellman of London (1608) and The Gull's Hornbook (1609), the latter an entertaining account of the behavior of a country yokel and dupe in London. He died in debt.

Bibliographic information