That he carried on the business of a draper or had some connection with the trade as late as 1613, may be gathered from the following passage at the close of The Triumphs of Truth, the city pageant for that year, by Thomas Middleton: "The fire-work being made by Maister Humphrey Nichols, a man excellent in his art; and the whole work and body of the Triumph, with all the proper beauties of the workmanship, most artfully and faithfully performed by John Grinkin; and those furnished with apparel and porters by Anthony Munday, Gentleman."
He writes that he and his companion, Thomas Nowell, were robbed of all their possessions on the road from Boulogne to Amiens, where they were helped by an English priest who entrusted them with letters to be delivered in Reims.
He devoted 'himself to writing for the booksellers and the theatres, compiling religious works, translating Amadis de Gaule and other French (sic) romances, and putting words to popular airs.
At what period he began to write for the stage cannot be ascertained: the earliest date in these manuscripts connected with his name is December 1597, but he may have been a member of the Earl of Oxford's theatrical company before he went to Rome prior to 1578.
In the old catalogues, and in Gerard Langbaine's Momus Triumphans, 1688, a piece called Fidele and Fortunatus is mentioned, and such a play was entered at Stationers' Hall on 12 November 1584.
Both copies are without title pages; but to one of them is prefixed a dedication signed A.M., and we may with tolerable certainty conclude that Anthony Munday was the author or translator of it, and that it was printed about the date of its entry on the Stationers' Books.
Munday wrote two plays on the life of Robin Hood, The Downfall and The Death of Robert Earl of Huntington, first mentioned in the Rose theatre records in 1597–8 and published in 1601.
), enumerating many of the best dramatic poets of his day, including Shakespeare, Heywood, Chapman, Porter, Lodge, etc., gives Anthony Munday the praise of being "our best plotter".