Old Fortunatus

by Thomas Dekker, Suzanne Blow (Editor)

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155 pages, Paperback

Published February 1, 1987

About the author

Thomas Dekker (c.1572 - 1632) was an Elizabethan dramatist and pamphleteer, a versatile and prolific writer whose career spanned several decades and brought him into contact with many of the period's most famous dramatists.

Reviews

[Lilamedusa · Rating 2 out of 5]

I started reading this play many years ago. A crush of mine mentioned it in passing back then and I remember I was so curious, but I was so busy I never did finish it. I suspect it would have gotten a higher rating had I finished it back then, when it was still of interest to me. As it stands, it means little to me and interested me less.

Fortunatus has the misfortune of findong Fortune one day and makes a huge mistake when she offers him her gifts. Instead of choosing wisdom, he chooses riches in the form of a bag of gold that never empties. This leads to the falling of himself and his children, ho both die in horrible ways, one victim of his greed/love/pride and the other victim of his self-sacrifice?

An odd story with a weird in-tale moral, but entertaining nonetheless.

[Gill · Rating 3 out of 5]

A wierd play which makes slightly more sense when you look at it in the context of what the rival company (The Lord Chamberlain's Men) were currently performing at their shiny new Globe theatre not far away. Even so, it's a bit odd, with Fortune an active participant in events, dreams and magic playing a significant part in events and a setting partly at the court of King Athelstan.

Bonkers but fun.