The Shoemaker's Holiday: Thomas Dekker (Revels Plays) [Paperback]

Thomas Dekker (Author), Robert Smallwood (Editor), Stanley Wells (Editor)

Book Description

Publication Date: September 11, 1999 | ISBN-10: 0719030994 | ISBN-13: 978-0719030994

Thomas Dekker's The Shoemaker's Holiday is one of the most popular of Elizabethan plays--entertaining, racy and vivid in its characterization. Revealing a vital portrait of Elizabethan London and the interaction of social classes within the city, its social commentary is on the whole optimistic, though darker tones are discernible. The play has had a lively history of performance on both the professional and amateur stage.

Editorial Reviews

Review

The adaptations made by Sahlins are invisible to anyone who is not intimately familiar with the text. (Library Journal ) --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

From the Publisher

Written and first performed in 1599, The Shoemaker’s Holiday was the most popular non-Shakespearean comedy of its day--a hearty comedy of character and overflowing good humor, occasionally ribald, about the gentle craft of shoemaking. --This text refers to an alternate Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Manchester University Press (September 11, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0719030994
• ISBN-13: 978-0719030994
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.4 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.6 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (4 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,702,316 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Enjoyable, Accessible, Elizabethan Comedy - Dekker's Best, April 18, 2005

By 

Michael Wischmeyer (Houston, Texas) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Shoemakers' Holiday (Paperback)

Despite the passage of four centuries, Thomas Dekker's play, The Shoemakers' Holiday (1599), is still great comedy. Dekker's hilarious plot is not easy to summarize, but it centers upon a comedic Romeo and Juliet, one in which Romeo - that is, Rowland Lacy, a young aristocrat - disguises himself as a Dutch immigrant, apprentice shoemaker to circumvent his father's objections to his wooing of a middle class Juliet, a Rose Otley. Disguises, mistaken identities, and misdirection abound, and yet this convoluted plot comes together smoothly in the final act without seeming either unduly contrived or artificial.

Dekker's genial portrayal of the shoemakers' guild in London contributes to the charm of The Shoemakers' Holiday. However, colloquial Elizabethan dialogue can be challenging and good footnotes are essential. I recommend an edition published by Barron's Educational Series and edited by Merritt Lawlis.

Three characters pose especial difficulty. Firk, a journeyman shoemaker, spouts a continual flow of obscure sexual innuendoes and bawdy comments. "Why here is a good laced mutton, as I promised you." Also, the conversation of Sybil, Rose's personal maid, is filled with unfamiliar colloquialisms. "And the hare's foot against the goose giblets." And, the Dutch as spoken by the apprentice shoemaker Hans (Lacy in disguise) would be nearly indecipherable without footnotes. "Ik hab all de dingen voour mack shoes groot and cleane."

These examples taken out of context may make The Shoemakers' Holiday seem unintelligible, but actually Dekker's play is quite accessible to the modern reader. I did make frequent references to footnotes, but I never lost interest in the plot. Once having mastered Firk's innuendoes, Sybil's colloquialisms, and Lacy's comedic Dutch, my second reading was even more enjoyable.

July, 2006 update: I recently examined in some detail "A New Adaptation by Bernard Sahlins of Dekker's The Shoemaker's Holiday". The intent - judiciously editing Dekker's play to make it more readily accessible to modern readers - is not entirely misplaced, but I found the editing to be excessive. Aside from whether all deletions were appropriate, I was especially disturbed by the replacement of some 450 words. This revised Dekker is simply too different from the original. Perhaps one-third of the changes could be defended, but the other two-thirds is unnecessary. I strongly suggest that a potential buyer directly compare the original Dekker to this revised version before making a purchase.

My original recommendation still stands. I prefer Barron's Educational Series edition of The Shoemaker's Holiday. The editing by Merritt Lawlis is quite good.

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Elizabethan Pantomime, March 14, 2001

By 

Jerry English (Pembrokeshire, Wales) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Shoemaker's Holiday, Second Edition (New Mermaids) (Paperback)

'For nothing is purposed but mirth' Thomas Dekker tells us in his preface to this lively Elizabethan play, performed by the Lord Admiral's Players before the royal court and the Queen herself in 1599. Such mirth that was to be found in 16th century London and much that is sad and fearsome too is to be found in the story of a group of shoemakers living and working in the city. Their lives, loves and adventures are portrayed with unique historical insights of the journeyman shoemaker's trade in this fast-moving and humourous tale that eventually sees all loose ends tied, and culminates in the newly appointed Lord Mayor of London granting his shoemaker workers a 'Publicke Holiday'.

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good, inexpensive edition, February 13, 2006

By 

J. Ziegler "Phd student, metalhead, and more" (NJ, USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: The Shoemaker's Holiday, Second Edition (New Mermaids) (Paperback)

Although some are better than others, I generally try to buy New Mermaids when I need a non-Shakespearean Early Modern play. This is a good edition for all student and most scholarly needs, with an up-to-date introduction and useful textual and footnotes (made even more useful by their position on the bottom of the page. I don't know about you, but I hate having to flip back and forth to endnotes: I'm talking to you, Oxford World's Classics). Another reason I like these editions is that one play per book means much more comprehensive introductory material.

The play itself is entertaining (I have actually seen it staged) and should be interesting to anyone interested in socioeconomic issues, since it takes the titular shoemaker from his shoe shop to being Lord Mayor of London (he institutes the pancake breakfast that the title refers to). The disguise of the romantic lead as a Dutchman and his "accent" and the way war haunts what is otherwise pretty typical of city comedy provide other points of interest.