Originally published in 1953, this was the first edition of Dekker's plays to appear in print since the late nineteenth century. Thus, for many years prior, Dekker had been the least accessible of the prominent Elizabethan dramatists, with the result that his anthologized plays had received undue attention at the expense of other highly readable works of the second rank.

Originally published in 1953, this was the first edition of Dekker's plays to appear in print since the late nineteenth century.