There is little record of Thomas Dekker’s life. Outside of diary entries written by Philip Henslowe (pertaining to the amount of money Dekker owed) and two letters Dekker wrote a friend (the actor Edward Alleyn), all that is left of Dekker’s memory are his plays. Up until his close friend and fellow playwright Henry Chettle’s death around 1605, Dekker was chronically in debt and committed to his work as an artist. There are no definitive records as to how long Dekker was interned in debtor’s prison, but he was in and out for a significant period of time. After Chettle’s death, Dekker mostly undertook writing pageants and ethical pamphlets for the remainder of his days. Speculation is that he was forced to focus on more practical forms of writing to avoid life as a slave to his debts (Gerrard 7).
What is known is minimal. Dekker served as a seaman in his formative years, married in the early 1590s, and began writing for Henslowe's Fortune Theatre around 1600. Around 1610 he began writing for the Queen's Men after a spat at the Fortune Theatre years before. From 1613-1619 Dekker was interned at the King's Bench prison for debt. He was later indicted in 1626 for recusancy (probably for missing church) and finally died around 1642 after a continuously interrupted career as a playwright (Price 12).
Dekker’s plays serve as the only true records of his character. It is believed that his first play was written in the 1580s. He then wrote plays from 1598-1604 for the Admiral’s men, though stopped significantly producing after Chettle’s death and Alleyn’s retirement. The humanistic and charismatic characters in his plays are said to imply that Dekker himself, “had a pure mind as well as a warm heart (Gerrard 7).”