Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 14.djvu/304

 In the same year Dekker wrote with Ben Jonson a domestic tragedy (1) ‘Page of Plymouth;’ with Jonson, Chettle, and ‘other jentellman’ a chronicle-play (2) ‘Robert the Second, King of Scots;’ with Chettle and Haughton (3) ‘Patient Grissel’ (which was published anonymously in 1603). To 1600 belong (1) ‘The Spanish Moor's Tragedy’ (rashly identified by Collier with ‘Lust's Dominion’), by Dekker, Day, and Haughton; (2) ‘Seven Wise Masters,’ by Dekker, Chettle, Haughton, and Day; (3) ‘The Golden Ass, and Cupid and Psyche;’ (4) ‘Fair Constance of Rome,’ by Dekker, Munday, Drayton, and Hathway. In 1601 the ‘Diary’ mentions only one play in which he was concerned, ‘King Sebastian of Portingale,’ his coadjutor being Chettle. With Drayton, Middleton, Webster, and Munday, he wrote in May 1602 a play which Henslowe calls ‘too harpes’ (‘Two Harpies’?). In October of the same year he joined Heywood, Wentworth Smith, and Webster in the composition of ‘Two Parts of Lady Jane Grey’ (which are probably represented by the corrupt and mutilated play published in 1607 under the title of ‘The Famous History of Sir Thomas Wyat … written by Thomas Dickers and Iohn Webster’); and in November he wrote with Heywood and Webster ‘Christmas comes but once a Year.’ To 1602 also belongs a scriptural play, ‘Jeptha,’ which Dekker wrote in company with Munday. There are a few other entries relating to Dekker in the ‘Diary.’ Under date 6 Sept. 1600 Henslowe records the payment to Dekker of twenty shillings ‘for the boocke called the forteion tenes.’ Collier conjectures that the reference is to some alteration of the comedy ‘Fortunatus,’ but it is not improbable that the title was ‘Fortune's Tennis.’ In December 1600 Dekker was paid forty shillings for altering his play ‘Phaeton’ on the occasion of its representation at court. On 12 Jan. 1601–2 he received ten shillings for writing a prologue and epilogue ‘for the play of Ponesciones pillet’ (‘Pontius Pilate’); and four days afterwards he received twenty shillings for making alterations in an old play on the subject on ‘Tasso's Melancholy.’ In August and September 1602 he was employed to make some additions to the play of ‘Oldcastle;’ and in November and December of the same year he was again engaged in ‘mending of the playe of Tasso.’ The entry in the ‘Diary’ (ed. Collier, p. 71), under date 20 Dec. 1597, respecting the payment to Dekker of twenty shillings for additions to Marlowe's ‘Dr. Faustus,’ and of five shillings for a prologue to Marlowe's ‘Tamburlaine,’ has been conclusively shown to be a forgery (, Catalogue of Dulwich MSS. pp. 159–60). One of the latest entries in the ‘Diary,’ dated ‘1604,’ records the payment of five pounds to Dekker and Middleton ‘in earneste of their playe called the pasyent man and the onest hore,’ which was published in the same year under the title of ‘The Honest Whore, with the Humours of the Patient Man, and the Longing Wife. Tho. Dekker.’ Of ‘The Second Part of the Honest Whore … written by Thomas Dekker,’ the earliest extant edition is dated 1630, and there is no evidence to show whether Middleton was concerned in its authorship.

The first of Dekker's works in order of publication was ‘Canaans Calamitie, Jerusalems Miserie, and Englands Mirror,’ 1598, 4to, a very popular poem (reprinted in 1617, 1618, 1625, and 1677) of little interest. ‘The Shomakers Holiday,’ 1600, 4to, reprinted in 1610, 1618, and 1631, is a delightful comedy, full of frolic mirth. In 1600 was also published ‘The Pleasant Comedie of Old Fortunatus,’ 4to, which displays all the riches of Dekker's luxuriant fancy, and amply justifies Lamb's assertion that ‘Dekker had poetry enough for anything.’ ‘Satiromastix, or the vntrussing of the Humorous Poet,’ 1602, 4to, is a satirical attack on Ben Jonson. It is difficult to ascertain the origin of the quarrel between Jonson and Dekker. In August 1599 they wrote together ‘Page of Plymouth,’ and in September of the same year they were engaged upon ‘Robert the Second.’ They had quarrelled before the publication (in 1600) of ‘Every Man out of his Humour’ and ‘Cynthia's Revels,’ which plays undoubtedly contain satirical reflections on Dekker. The quarrel culminated in 1601, when Dekker and Marston (under the names of Demetrius Fannius and Crispinus) were unsparingly ridiculed in ‘The Poetaster.’ Jonson declares, in the ‘Apology’ at the end of the play, that for three years past he had been provoked by his opponents, ‘with their petulant styles on every stage;’ but there are no means of testing the accuracy of this statement. ‘Satiromastix’ was Dekker's vigorous reply to ‘The Poetaster,’ all the more effective by reason of its good humour. Dekker never republished his play; but Jonson included ‘The Poetaster’ among his ‘Works’ in 1616, and told Drummond of Hawthornden in 1619 that Dekker was a knave. In 1603 was published ‘The Wonderfull Yeare 1603, wherein is shewed the picture of London lying sicke of the Plague,’ 4to, a very vivid description (doubtless well known to Defoe) of the ravages caused by the plague. Dekker's name is not on the title-page, but he acknowledged the author-