Henry Chettle

The son of a dyer, Henry Chettle became a stationer and later a playwright for the Admiral's Men. Thomas Nashe regarded him as an ally of Gabriel Harvey; Chettle was imprisoned for debt in 1599. According to Philip Henslow's diary, he was the author of thirty-eight plays, of which only four were printed. Henry Chettle collaborated with Michael Drayton on Black Batman of the North.

TEXT RECORDS:

1600A Pastorall Song between Phillis and Amarillis, two Nimphes, each answering other line for line.
1603Englandes Mourning Garment.
1603The Shepheards Spring Song.

PUBLICATIONS:

Kind-harts dreame. Conteining five apparitions. 1593.
Piers Plainnes seaven yeres prentiship. 1595.
The downfall of Robert, Earle of Huntington. 1601.
The death of Robert, Earle of Huntington. 1601.
The pleasant comodie of Patient Grissil. 1603.
Englandes mourning garment. 1603.
The tragedy of Hoffman or a revenge for a father. 1631.
The blind-beggar of Bethnal Green. 1659.

PROFILE AND
ASSOCIATES:

English

education not known

book trade
dramatist
poet

John Day
Thomas Dekker
Michael Drayton
Thomas Heywood
Ben Jonson
Anthony Munday
John Webster

REFERENCE:

DNB; NCBEL; DLB.

England's Helicon (1600, 1614); Biographia Dramatica (1782; 1812); Joseph Ritson, Bibliographia Poetica (1802) 159; Censura Literaria 6 (1808) 29-30; Robert Watt, Bibliotheca Britannica (1824); Robert Chambers, Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844); Thomas Corser, Collectanea Anglo-Poetica 4 (1869) 350-54; Allibone, Critical Dictionary of English Literature (1858-71; 1882); Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05); Henry Jenkins, The Life and Work of Henry Chettle (1934); Lewis, OHEL (1954); C. T. Wright, Mundy and Chettle in Grub Street, Boston University Studies in English 5 (1961); Mark Eccles, "Brief Lives" Studies in Philology 79 (1982); Saunders, Renaissance Poets (1983).

COMMENTARY RECORDS
for Henry Chettle:

1.	1598  Francis Meres, in Palladis Tamia (1598) Fol. 283-283v.
2.	1607  Thomas Dekker, in A Knight's Conjuring (1607); Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05) 1:429.
3.	1790  Edmond Malone, in Plays and Poems of William Shakespeare (1790; 1821) 2:250-51n.
4.	1866  John Payne Collier, "Englands Mourning Garment" in Bibliographical and Critical Account of the Rarest Books (1866) 1:160-62.
5.	1882  Algernon Charles Swinburne, in "The Many" (1882); Moulton, Library of Literary Criticism (1901-05) 1:429.

BIOGRAPHY RECORDS
for Henry Chettle:

1.	1781  Thomas Warton, in History of English Poetry (1774-81; 1840) 3:243-44n.
2.	1782  Isaac Reed, in Biographia Dramatica (1782; 1812) 1:113.
3.	1802  Joseph Ritson, Bibliographia Poetica (1802) 159.
4.	1844  Robert Chambers, in Cyclopaedia of English Literature (1844; 1850) 1:174-75.
5.	1869  Thomas Corser, in Collectanea Anglo-Poetica 4 (1869) 350.
6.	1874  William Minto, in Characteristics of English Poets (1874) 329-32.

AUTHOR AS CRITIC:
(commentary records)

1.	1603  Michael Drayton:   Henry Chettle, in Englandes Mourning Garment (1603) Sigs D2v, D3.
2.	1603  Bp. Joseph Hall:   Henry Chettle, in Englandes Mourning Garment (1603) Sig. D2v.
3.	1603  Rev. Thomas Walkington:   Henry Chettle, [Of The Lamentations of Melpome by T. W.] Englandes Mourning Garment (1603) Sig. D3-D3v.