‘Blurt, Master Constable’: A Possible Authorship Clue

Extract

Printed anonymously in 1602, Blurt, Master Constable was attributed to Thomas Middleton by Francis Kirkman in his 1661 playlist. For almost three centuries the ascription went unchallenged. Dyce and Bullen included the play in their editions of Middleton; Chambers did not question its authenticity in The Elizabethan Stage. But in 1926 Oliphant suggested Thomas Dekker as the possible author, and his proposal has met with more favor than is usually accorded such conjectures. However, the argument for Dekker has consisted entirely of stylistic impressions—the kind of evidence which does not often persuade the skeptical reader—and as recently as 1948 the serious student of Middleton could accept without qualm the traditional attribution. It might, therefore, be useful if some external evidence, however slight, were forthcoming to support Dekker's claim to the play. Such evidence may be afforded by a possible contemporary allusion to Dekker's authorship of Blurt in the anonymous Wily Beguiled, printed in 1606 but probably acted ca. 1602.