SOURCE: “The Early Years—Romantic Comedy, Satire,” in Thomas Dekker and the Traditions of English Drama, Peter Lang, 1985, pp. 11-53.

In the excerpt below, Champion analyzes the construction of the two parts of The Honest Whore. He judges Part II a masterpiece, comparing its structure to that of “Shakespeare's most effective comedies.”

Whatever the critical complaints about parts of the canon, Dekker's work at its rare best ranks, as A. H. Bullen has observed, “with the masterpieces of the Elizabethan drama.”¹ And in any description of those moments, the two parts of The Honest Whore invariably place high on the list.² Yet, a comparison of these plays—like that of Westward Ho and Northward Ho—reveals significantly different levels of craftsmanship and, at the same time, provides clear evidence why Part II is one of his greatest works.³ In both plays the attempt (as in Shakespeare's problem comedies...