Deloney, Thomas

Deloney, Thomas (dulō'nē) [key], c.1543–c.1600, English ballad writer, fiction writer, and pamphleteer. He was a silk weaver. Deloney's chief works are three prose narratives—Jack of Newbury, Thomas of Reading, and The Gentle Craft (all c.1597)—relating to the clothier's, weaver's, and shoemaker's crafts respectively. Vivid and humorous, they reproduce bourgeois scenes of contemporary London. Their popularity indicates a certain fatigue with the elaborate prose of authors like John Lyly.

The Columbia Electronic Encyclopedia, 6th ed. Copyright © 2007, Columbia University Press. All rights reserved.

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