The Jacobean play

is credited with initiating the fashion for “directional” city comedy on the London stage

Collaboratively authored by Thomas Dekker and John Webster, it inspired George Chapman, Ben Jonson, and John Marston to write the controversial

(1605), and was the forerunner to Dekker and Webster’s own subsequent work,

(1607). It was written to be performed by the Children of St Paul’s, and on the dissolution of the Children’s Company in 1607 it appeared in print for the first time. It is likely that

was composed in 1604, well in advance of the publication of

in 1605, and the title page of the first edition attests that it had been “divers times acted”.

was first entered into the Stationers’…

1599 words

Citation: Badcoe, Tamsin Theresa. "Westward Ho". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 04 September 2012 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=8724, accessed 16 April 2024.]