Thomas Heywood
Thomas Heywood was an English playwright and author, born in Lincolnshire between 1573 and 1575. He attended Cambridge University briefly around 1591, where he likely focused on Latin literature, a theme that permeated much of his later work. Heywood began his theatrical career in London, with his notable early play, *The Four Prentices of London*, produced around 1594. He became a significant figure in the theater community, writing and revising plays for companies such as the Lord Admiral's Men and the Earl of Worcester's company, and claimed to have contributed to over two hundred plays during his career.
His notable works include *If You Know Not Me, You Know Nobody*, a chronicle play about Queen Elizabeth I, and *A Woman Killed with Kindness*, a tragedy that remains popular today. Heywood's expertise in classical literature is evident in his adaptations of mythological tales, such as *Troia Britannica* and the *Age* series, which reflect Britain's cultural aspirations. Additionally, he engaged in the moral debates surrounding theater in early modern England, publishing *An Apology for Actors* to defend its legitimacy. Despite not achieving the fame of contemporaries like Shakespeare, Heywood's diverse contributions to drama and literature have gained recognition for their historical and cultural significance, particularly regarding Renaissance Humanism and the evolution of English nationalism. He passed away in London in August 1641.
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Thomas Heywood
English dramatist
- Born: c. 1573
- Birthplace: Lincolnshire, England
- Died: August 1, 1641
- Place of death: London, England
Heywood was one of the most active playwrights in seventeenth century England, composing or contributing to almost two hundred plays, including the century’s most popular translation of Ovid’s Ars amatoria.
Early Life
Thomas Heywood (HAY-wood) was born in Lincolnshire county sometime between 1573 and 1575. Little else is known about his early life. He entered Cambridge for a brief period in 1591, where he was reportedly a fellow of Peterhouse. Given Heywood’s adeptness at translating the works of classical Latin authors throughout his career, it is likely that his studies at Cambridge focused at least partly on Latin literature. Shortly after his time at the university, Heywood moved to London and soon began a career writing for the theater.
The earliest record of Heywood’s activity in London indicates that his The Four Prentices of London (pr. c. 1594, pb. 1615) was produced by Lord Admiral’s Men, one of the leading theatrical companies in London, around 1594. By 1598, Heywood was established as a regular writer for the Lord Admiral’s Men, an association that he maintained until 1599. During this time, he was mostly employed as a hack writer for the company, revising and tweaking scripts or literary sources for performance as well as contributing his own work. Heywood had associations with other theatrical companies in London around the same time, and his play Edward IV, Parts I and II (pr. 1599, pb. 1600) was premiered by the sixth earl of Derby’s company in 1599.
Life’s Work
Collaboration was a frequent practice in the writing of plays in Elizabethan and Jacobean England, and playwrights often did not take care to publicize their authorship of, or contribution to, any particular play—Ben Jonson being a notable exception. It is therefore difficult to determine authorship for most of the plays Heywood wrote either fully or partially; he claimed to have “had a hand in” over two hundred plays. It is known, however, that around 1600, Heywood became a member of the earl of Worcester’s theatrical company, and he immediately became the company’s most prolific source of dramatic material, providing on average one or more plays each month.
As a playwright for the Lord Admiral’s Men and Worcester’s company, Heywood developed a reputation as a popular writer of comedies. In actuality, Heywood showed a great deal of proficiency in all dramatic genres. One of his most popular plays during his lifetime, If You Know Not Me, You Know Nobody: Or, The Troubles of Queen Elizabeth (Part I pr., pb. 1605, Part II pr. 1605, pb. 1606), which recounts the early years of Queen Elizabeth I and the defeat of the Spanish Armada, is most accurately characterized as a chronicle history play, similar in scope to William Shakespeare’s Henry V (pr. c. 1598-1599). A Woman Killed with Kindness (pr. 1603, pb. 1607), a tragedy that deals with the punishment of an unfaithful wife, was also one of Heywood’s most successful efforts: It was published several times after its initial performance, and it is still regularly performed. Heywood’s other plays during this period included The Royal King and the Loyal Subject (pr. c. 1602, pb. 1637), The Wise Woman of Hogsdon (pr. c. 1604, pb. 1638), and The Fair Maid of the Exchange (pb. 1607).
Heywood was an accomplished classicist throughout his lifetime, and his expertise with Latin texts inflected nearly every aspect of his literary career. His long poem Troia Britannica (1609) is essentially a compendium of several tales from classical mythology. Heywood composed a number of similar translations or adaptations for the stage in a set of plays that deal directly with classical stories: The Golden Age: Or, The Lives of Jupiter and Saturn (pr. before 1611, pb. 1611), The Silver Age (pr. 1612, pb. 1613), The Brazen Age (pr., pb. 1613) and The Iron Age, Parts I and II (pr. C. 1613, pb. 1632). Homer is the major source for the material in these plays, although Virgil and Ovid are drawn from as well. Although Heywood’s adaptation of classical tales for the stage tended to be fairly straightforward, these plays also bear the indelible mark of Britain’s attempt to see itself as a cultural descendant of the classical tradition (for example, London was sometimes called Troynovant, or “New Troy”), an idea that Heywood seems to have taken to heart.
In addition to his remarkable production of plays and translations, Heywood was active as a writer of pamphlets, or treatises. He injected himself into the debates over the theater by publishing An Apology for Actors (1612), a treatise that attempted to defend the moral validity of the London theaters. The English theater had been a regular object of attack by Puritan polemicists, and a number of treatises vilifying the theater had been published, beginning with Stephen Gosson’s The Schoole of Abuse (1579).
Heywood’s treatise has often been regarded by modern scholars as inept, in part because of its utter mishandling of classical sources. However, it is more likely that Heywood, who was one of England’s most capable Latinists, was deliberately parodying the Puritan treatises (especially since some of Heywood’s “mistranslations” are exaggerated imitations of specific Puritan texts). At any rate, Heywood’s tract was considered significant enough to warrant a full-fledged refutation, which was published only one year later by the anonymous author “J. G.”
Heywood stopped writing plays for a few years starting in 1616, possibly because of his company’s financial difficulties. He took up writing again in 1624, around the time he joined Queen Henrietta Maria’s theatrical company. Over the next several years, Heywood produced a number of plays, including The English Traveler (pr. c. 1627, pb. 1633) and The Late Lancashire Witches (pr., pb. 1634; cowritten with Richard Brome ). He also composed a number of masques for the court during this time, as would have been typical for a dramatist in the queen’s company. He continued to produce masques until 1639, and he authored several works of nonfiction in the final decade of his life, including a study of the prophesies attributed to the wizard Merlin. Heywood died in London in August, 1641.
Significance
Although Heywood never attained the status of other Renaissance and seventeenth century dramatists like Christopher Marlowe or Ben Jonson, his plays demonstrate command of a remarkable range of genres and styles. Many of his plays, particularly those based on classical literature or English history, offer a rich source of material for studying the production of history in early modern England, particularly as it relates to Britain’s burgeoning nationalism.
In recent years, as Heywood’s expertise in Latin literature has received more attention, his contribution to Renaissance Humanism has finally started to gain the recognition that it deserves. In particular, consideration of his translation of Ovid’s Ars amatoria (c. 2 b.c.e.; Art of Love, 1612) is indispensable for any serious study of Ovidianism in seventeenth century England. Finally, Heywood’s participation in contemporary debates over the theater and morality provides scholars with a unique vantage point for understanding the English reception of Puritan ideology, since Heywood was one of the few pamphleteers who actually had direct experience with the English theater.
Bibliography
Barish, Jonas. The Antitheatrical Prejudice. Berkeley: University of California Press, 1981. The chapter on Puritan antitheatricalism contains a substantial discussion of Heywood’s An Apology for Actors, although it misunderstands the parodic nature of the text. Nonetheless, this is the preeminent study of the early modern attacks on the theater, making it an important work for understanding the historical context of Heywood’s writings on the theater.
Clark, Arthur Melville. Thomas Heywood: Playwright and Miscellanist. Oxford, England: Basil Blackwell, 1931. Although this book predates much of the twentieth century critical work on Heywood, it remains the most comprehensive biography of the playwright’s life and career. The details of Heywood’s professional life are well-researched and copiously documented.
McLuskie, Kathleen. Dekker and Heywood: Professional Dramatists. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1994. This book analyzes the dramatic careers of Heywood and Dekker, with particular regard to the social and cultural context of London in the early seventeenth century. Bibliography and index.
Stapleton, M. L., ed. Thomas Heywood’s “Art of Love.” Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 2000. This is an excellent, carefully annotated modern edition of Heywood’s translation of Ovid’s Ars amatoria. Stapleton’s introduction to the text provides a lucid and informative discussion of Heywood’s career as a translator, as well as some more general thoughts about the status of translation in the Renaissance. Bibliography.