Studies in Philology

Abstract:

The manuscript play Dick of Devonshire has been attributed to several early modern dramatists, including Thomas Heywood, Robert Davenport, James Shirley, and Thomas Dekker. Identifying the author is important to obtaining a better understanding of the play's place in the Caroline commercial theater industry and how it came to be staged by Queen Henrietta Maria's Men in the summer of 1626. This article reviews the arguments that have been made for and against the various authorial candidates and, using historical and literary evidence as well as new computational analysis, establishes that Thomas Heywood is the play's most likely author.