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therefore, conclude that, like the generality of his poetical friends, he was in indigent circumstances. At what time he died we do not know with certainty; but the same writer says he was alive in 1638, and at that time full threescore years of age. From a passage in the Dedication to Match me in London, published in 1631, it may be conjectured that he was older than Oldys imagines, as he there says, "I have beene a priest in Apollo's Temple many years, my voyce is "decaying with my age.' He was a voluminous writer, and besides a great number of Pamphlets, of which a list is hereafter given of as many as can at present be discovered, he wrote the following Plays:

1. "The Pleasant Comedie of OLD FORTUNATUS. "As it was plaied before the Queens Majestie this "Christmas, by the Right Honourable the Earle of "Nottingham, Lord High Admirall of England his "Servants, 4to. 1600."

2. "Satiro-mastix, or the Untrussing of the hu"mourous Poet. As it hath bin presented publikely, "by the right Honourable the Lord Chamberlaine his "Servants, and privately by the Children of Paules, "1602, 4to. 1610, 4to."

3. The Honest Whore, with the Humours of the Patient Man and the Longing Wife, 1604, 4to. 1615, 4to. 1616, 4to. 1635, 4to.

4. Westward Hoe. As it hath beene divers times acted by the Children of Paules. Written by Thomas Decker and John Webster, 1607, 4to.

5. Northward Hoe. Sundry times acted by the Children of Paules. By Thomas Decker and John Webster, 1607, 4to.

6. The famous History of Sir Thomas Wyat. With the Coronation of Queen Mary, and the coming-in of King Philip. As it was plaied by the Queens Majesties Servants. Written by Thomas Deckers and John Webster, 1607, 4to.

7. The Whore of Babylon. Acted by the Prince's Servants, 1607, 4to.

8. "If it be not good, the Divel is in it. A new

"Play. As it hath bin lately acted with great applause, "by the Queenes Majesties Servants: at the Red Bull, "1612, 4to."

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9. "The Second Part of the Honest Whore; with "the Humours of the Patient Man, the impatient "Wife: the Honest Whore, perswaded by strong Arguments to turne Curtizan againe: her brave refuting those Arguments. And lastly, the Comicall "Passages of an Italian Bridewell, where the Scene "ends, 1630, 4to.'

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10. "A Tragi-Comedy: called, Match mee in Lon“don, As it hath beene often presented; first, at the "Bull in St. John's-street; and lately, at the Private "House in Drury-Lane, called the PHENIX, 1631, "4to."

11. The Wonder of a Kingdome, 4to, 1636.

He also joined with Massinger in writing The Virgin Martyr; with Rowley and Ford, in The Witch of Edmonton; Middleton and Rowley, in The Roaring Girl; and with Ford, in The Sun's Darling.+

A complete List of the several Pamphlets published by a Writer who so frequently employed the press, is scarce to be expected. The following is more perfect than any one which hath yet appeared:

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1. "The Wonderfull Yeare, 1603. Wherein is "shewed the Picture of London, lying sicke of the Plague. At the ende of all (like a merry Epilogue "to a dull Play) certaine Tales are cut out in sundry "fashions of purpose to shorten the lives of long winter "nights, that lye watching in the darke for us, 4to. "1603."

Re-printed in Phoenix Britannicus, 1732, vol. I. p. 27.

* The second part of "the Honest Whore," was entered on the books of the Stationers' Company the 29th April, 1608—-Chalmers' Supp. Apol. 202. O. G.

From Henslowes papers we also gather that Dekkar made additions to the play of Sir John Oldcastle; that he altered a play called Tasso, and that he was concerned with Jonson, Chettle, " and other gentlemen," in a tragedy, called Robert the Second, King of Scots. C.

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2. "The whole magnificent Entertainment given to "King James, Queen Anne his Wife, and Henry "Frederick the Prince, upon the day of his Majesties "triumphant passage (from the Tower) through his "honourable Citie, and chamber of London, the 15th "of March, 1603, as well by the English as by the strangers, with the Speeches and Songs delivered in "the several pageants; and those Speeches that before were published in Latin, now newly set forth in English by Thomas Dekker, 4to. 1604."

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3.

"Newes from Hell; brought by the Divel's "Carrier, 4to. 1606." The running title is, The Divel's Answere to Pierce Pennylesse.

4. "The seven deadly Sinnes of London drawn in 66 seven severall Coaches, through the seven severall "Gates of the Citie. Bringing the Plague with them, "4to. 1606."

5. Jests to make you merryer, 4to. 1607.

6. A Knight's Conjuring done in Earnest, discovered in Jest, 4to. 1607.

7. The dead Term, or Westminster Complaint, &c. 4to. 1608.

8. The Guls Horne Booke, 4to. 1609. This treats of the humours and fashions of the Times among the Gallants and Paul's Walkers; also at the ordinaries, play-houses, and taverns, &c.

9. Troja nova triumphans, at the receiving Sir John Swinnerton, Knt. into the City of London, 4to. 1612.

10. "The Belman of London; bringing to light the "most notorious Villanies that are now practised in "the Kingdome, 4th Edition, 1616, 4to.”*

There was an Edition of this Pamphlet as early as in 1608.

11. The Artillery Garden. A poem dedicated to

* This pamphlet is mentioned in some commendatory verses prefixed to "A Night's Search-Digested into a poeme by Humphrey Mill." 1640.

If Decker deckt with discipline and wit

“ Gain'd praises by the Bell-man that he writ," &c. C.

the honour of those gentlemen who (there) practize military discipline, 4to. 1616.

12. "Dekkar his Dream, 4to. 1620."

13. "Villainies discovered by Candle-light, and the "helpe of a new Cryer, called, 0 Per se O. Being an " addition to the Bel-man's second Night Walke: and "laying open to the world of those abuses, which the "Bel-man (because he went i̇'th'darke) could not see. "With Canting Songs, and other new Conceits never "before printed. Newly corrected and enlarged by "the Author, 1620, 4to.”

14. Thomas of Reading; or, The Six Worthys Yeomen of the West: now six times corrected and enlarged, 1632.

He was also the Author of a Pamphlet, the title-page of which was wanting in the only copy I have seen of it. The running titles of the different parts of it are, A Strange Horse-race; The Divil's last Will and Testament; and The Bankrouts Banquet.*

* The following is the correct title as given in the British Bibliographer, iv. 340.

A Strange Horse-Race. At the end of which comes in the Catch-pols, Masques, and after that the Bankrouts Banquet: which done the Divell, falling sicke makes his last Will and Testament this present yeare 1613.-Written by Thomas Dekker. 4to. The second volume of the Brit. Bibl. p. 553, also supplies the subsequent tract, by Dekkar.

"The Ravevens Almanacke, foretelling of a Plague, Famine, and Civill Warre, that shall happen this present yeare 1609, not onely within this Kingdome of great Britaine, but also in France, Germany, Spaine, and other parts of Christendome." &c. 4to. A pamphlet entitled A Rod for Runaways," 1625, has also been assigned to Dekkar, but on very questionable authority. In the same year was printed, "The Runaways Answer to a book called a Rod for Runaways," which is curious, because it is dedicated to the well known Henry Condell," at his country house at Fulham," and because it refers to and justifies the departure of the players of that day from the Capital, owing to the then raging pestilence. C.

Dekkar also wrote,

The Batchelors Banquet, 4to. 1631. 1677.

English Villanies seven several times, prest to death by the printers, 4to. 1638. O. G.