Thomas Dekker

Blurt, Master Constable Thomas Dekker

Blurt, Master Constable is a late Elizabethan comedy, interesting for the authorship problem it presents. The play is subtitled "The Spaniards' Night Walk," and an allusion to the Spanish in Ireland in the play's final scene - there was a Spanish raid on Ireland in September 1601 - helps to fix the date of the play to 1601-2. Blurt was entered into the Stationers' Register on 7 June 1602, and published later in that year in quarto, printed by Edward Allde for the bookseller Henry Rocket (the single edition in the 17th century). The title page of the quarto states that the play was acted by the Children of Paul's, one of the troupes of boy actors performing at the time.