SOURCE: “The Shoemakers' Holiday, or the Gentle Craft,” in Thomas Dekker: An Analysis of Dramatic Structure, Mouton, 1969, pp. 18-50.

In the essay below, Conover analyzes the various plots of The Shoemaker's Holiday, concluding that “the individual actions [of the play are well articulated and … skillful devices have been employed to link the various actions and characters in a meaningful, coherent whole.”]

If a critic were attempting to develop the thesis that Dekker's skills and techniques gradually developed over a period of years that critic would face great difficulties with The Shoemakers' Holiday, or The Gentle Craft. Although it is the earliest of Dekker's extant plays, it is very nearly the best of the whole body of work. As will be seen, the playwright has taken three contrasting sets of incidents and has interwoven them to produce an almost inseparable whole.

This play, like Old Fortunatus and If It...