Shoemaker's Holiday

The Shoemakers' Holiday, or the Gentle Craft is an Elizabethan play written by Thomas Dekker. It is considered one of Dekker's greatest works, and is certainly his most well-known. It was first performed in 1599 by the Admiral's Men. It falls into the subgenre of city comedy. It contains the poem, The Merry Month of May.The play was first published in 1600 by the printer Valentine Simmes. The first edition prefaces the play with an "Epistle to the Professors of the Gentle Craft," and the Prologue spoken before Queen Elizabeth when the play was acted at Court. (The Admiral's Men performed at Court on 1 January 1600; this was probably the date of the performance of The Shoemaker's Holiday).Philip Henslowe's Diary records a payment of £3 to "Thomas Dickers" for the play; since this is at most half of Henslowe's usual fee for a play, one or more other payments, not recorded in the Diary, are likely. This play followed in the tradition that Dekker had created for himself of depicting everyday life in London. Due to this skill, in The Shoemaker's Holiday and other plays, Dekker was later called the "Dickens of English theater", due to his commitment to portraying the lives of Londoners. Dekker based his play on a prose tract titled The Gentle Craft, by Thomas Deloney, printed in 1598.

The Shoemaker's Holiday is considered an Elizabethan Play. Before understanding that statement, it would be beneficial to have a basic understanding of the Elizabethan Era. It is also important to understand what society was like during the Elizabethan era. The Elizabethan Era has been called the "height of the English Renaissance". The Renaissance was highlighted by a rejuvenation of the arts, and the stage was certainly a beloved art form. Elizabethan theater was dominated by heavy weights of literature such as Christopher Marlowe, Thomas Lodge, and William Shakespeare. Plays were put on largely for public pleasure, though some certainly spoke to deeper societal issues of the time period. Somewhat crude or absurd comedy was common in the works of many Elizabethan plays. Dekker's work certainly follows some of the same conventions as his contemporaries, as Shoemaker's Holiday speaks on the issue of class, while simultaneously including moments of absurdity. These moments come in particular during Rowland's time as Hans, and the ending of the play.

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