Thomas middleton
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Thomas Dekker (writer)
English dramatist and pamphleteer (c. 1572–1632)
Thomas Dekker | |
|---|---|
Thomas Dekker lying in bed, from the title page of Dekker his Dreame (1620) | |
| Born | c. 1572 London, England |
| Died | 25 August 1632 (aged 60) London, England |
| Occupation | Writer |
Thomas Dekker (c. 1572 – 25 August 1632) was an English Elizabethan 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 ancestry, and his work, some of which is translated from Latin, suggests that he attended grammar school.
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, though the date of his involvement is undete
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Thomas Dekker was an Elizabethan-era English poet, playwright and pamphlet writer. Remarkably, one of his poems – Cradle Song – was incorporated into the lyrics of a Beatles pop song in the 1960s. He was involved for a number of years with a group of dramatic writers known as the Admiral’s Men.
There is very little recorded about his early life but it is believed that he was born sometime during the year 1572, probably in London. His name has Dutch origins so it is possible that he had family connections with the Netherlands. He must have been well educated because some of the work that survives has been translated from the original Latin.
His work on play writing seems to have begun during the 1590s with his involvement in one of the groups of writers that were common during Elizabethan times. Examples of these groups were the Queen’s Men and the Admiral’s Men, with Dekker being a member of the latter alongside such as Thomas Heywood and Anthony Munday. There was a collaboration with William Shakespeare as well, on the complex and much edited play about the former Lord
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Thomas Dekker
Woodcut from title page of published play (Dekker his Dreame) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons
Very little is known of Dekker's early life, though it is likely he was born in London around 1572. While he probably did not attend university, his capable Latin translations suggest he did attend grammar school. Dekker married a woman named Mary and had three daughters in 1594, 1598, and 1602.
From around 1598 he worked as a playwright for The Admiral's Men, and engaged in the War of the Theatres with Ben Jonson and John Marston. Dekker wrote more than forty plays for The Admiral's Men, many of which are lost. His works include collaborating on Shakespeare's Sir Thomas More, Old Fortunatas and Satiromastix. He collaborated with Thomas Middleton on The Honest Whore and The Roaring Girl, and with John Webster wrote Westward Ho and Northward Ho.
Dekker was seriously impoverished for most of his career, in and out of debtor's prison for much of his life (including in 1598 and 1599, the year The Shoemaker's Holiday
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