the Lord Mayor's pageant in 1612. His fortunes took a turn for the
worse shortly after, when between 1613 and 1619 he was imprisoned,
probably for debt; this experience may be behind his six prison
scenes first included in the sixth edition (1616) of Sir Thomas
Overbury's 'Characters'. He died in 1632 and was buried at St James',
Clerkenwell.


HISTORY OF THE NOBLE SPANISH SOLDIER ('NSS')

Text

The first clear reference to the play is dated as 16 May 1631 when an
entry was made in the Stationer's Register, effectively licensing
texts for publication. The entry, made for John Jackman, referred to
manuscripts of two plays by 'Tho: Dekker', these being 'The Wonder of
a Kingdom' and 'a Tragedy called The Noble Spanish Soldier'. A
similar entry was made on 9 December 1633, this time for Nicholas
Vavasour. The play was printed in a quarto version in 1634, probably
by John Beale, on behalf of Vavasour, who initialled the foreword
entitled 'The Printer to The Reader'.

Sources, Authorship and Date

These aspects of the play have attracted more critical attention than
all others combined, reference frequently being made to the following
known facts:

(1) Although the entries in the Stationer's Register refer
unambiguously to Dekker as the author, the title page of the Quarto