Thomas Dekker

The Family of Love Thomas Dekker

The Family of Love is an early Jacobean stage play, first published in 1608. The play is a satire on the Familia Caritatis or "Family of Love," the religious sect founded by Henry Nicholis in the 16th century. Though the play was printed anonymously, many scholars have attributed it to Thomas Middleton and Thomas Dekker. The play's authorship is complex; one scholar, Gerald J. Eberle, argued that the comedy displays "several strata of composition".