ABSTRACT

Thomas Dekker’s If This Be Not A Good Play, The Devil Is In It was first performed by Queen Anne’s Men at the Red Bull, c.1611–12. When the play was printed in 1612, Dekker’s prefatory note (which he dedicated to the Queen’s Men) implies that he had previously offered it to the Prince’s Men at the Fortune, but that they had rejected it: “when Fortune in her blind pride set her foot upon this imperfect building, as scorning the foundation and workmanship, you gently raised it up on the same columns, the frontispiece only a little more garnished” (14–17).