Marlowe and Shakespeare were both playwrights (Marlowe finally credited among cast of Bard’s co-writers, 24 October). When first coined by Ben Jonson in his Epigrams, the word had a distinct whiff of derision, but it was nevertheless rooted in the working life of the period. Wrights, from the Old English “wryhta”, roughly equivalent to “worker”, were craftsmen, builders or repairers.
In the same way as shipwrights, wainwrights and wheelwrights, playwrights no doubt worked together to craft stage plays from the best material to hand. All three writers were of relatively humble origin, being respectively the sons of a shoemaker, a glover and a (master) bricklayer, artisans well-grounded in respectable labour. And it is after all, the quality of the plays they wrought that still speaks of their craftsmanship, no matter the hands that held the quill.
Austen Lynch
Garstang, Lancashire
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