Phaeton

Thomas Dekker (1598)


Historical Records

Payments to Playwrights (Henslowe's Diary)

F. 44 Greg, I, 83

lent vnto the company the 15 of Jenewary 1597 }
to bye a boocke of mr dicker called fayeton } iiijli
fower pownde I saye lent }



Payments for Apparel (Henslowe's Diary)

F. 44 Greg, I, 83

lent vnto Thomas dowton for the company }
to bye a sewte for phayeton & ij Rebates }
& j fardengalle the 26 of Jenewary 1598 the } iijli
some of three pownde I saye lent }



lent vnto Thomad dowton the 28 of Janewary }
1598 to bye a whitte satten dublette for } xxxxs
phayeton forty shyllenges I saye lent }



Payments for offering at court

F. 70v Greg, I, 124

Lent vnto Samwell Rowley the 14 of }
desembʒ 1600 to geue vnto thomas dickers } xs
for his paynes in fayeton some of }
............................... for the corte }


F. 71 Greg, I, 125

Lent vnto Samwell Rowley the 22 of }
decembʒ 1600 to geue vnto Thomas deckers } xxxs
for alterynge of fayton for the corte }

Henslowe's Inventory and Play List

The Enventary of all the aparell for my Lord Admiralles men, tacken the 10 of marche 1598. —Leaft above in the tier-house in the cheast. Greg, Henslowe Papers, 116

Item, ij leather anteckes cottes with basses, for Fayeton.

Theatrical Provenance


The Admiral's men had 'Phaeton' ready for the stage at the Rose by late January 1598 when they purchased a suit and doublet for the main character. They prepared it for performance at court two years later, when its playwright (Dekker) was paid to amend the script. Possibly still in performance since its 1598 debut, the play is more likely to have been in revival when Dekker prepared for performance before a royal audience. If it also played publicly in January 1600, its venue would have been the company's new playhouse, the Fortune.



Probable Genre(s)


Harbage tagged 'Phaeton' as a classical legend, which the story of Phoebus's reckless son undoubtedly was. However, Matthew Steggle argues for a more complex generic design. Linking the Phaeton story with that of Jupiter and Io (with which it is co-joined in Ovid's Metamorphosis [see below], he suspects a 'mixed-genre' text like Thomas Heywood's Ages plays. Steggle describes the effect of such mixture to combine tragedy, comedy, and bathos (72).

Possible Narrative and Dramatic Sources or Analogues


Ovid (Golding)

Steggle: Jupiter and Io



References to the Play


Information welcome.



Critical Commentary





For What It's Worth





Works Cited

Steggle, Matthew, "Philip Henslowe's Artificial Cow," Medieval and Renaissance Drama in England 30 (2017):319-75.


Site created and maintained by Roslyn L. Knutson, Professor Emerita, University of Arkansas at Little Rock; updated 22 March 2018.