The Life of Thomas Heywood

Thomas Heywood, an author during the Elizabethan era, may not be one of the most spoken of playwrights from his time period, yet his work was influential to many of his colleagues and to a few writers in the periods after his death. He was known primarily for his great, dramatic tragedies but he was not afraid to experiment with other genres of playwriting. His modesty and bizarre ideas led him to greatness; at one point in his career, he was even able to save dramatic theatre all together with his well-known honesty and the trust that people had in him. So, who was Thomas Heywood? Why was he important to the Elizabethan era theatre and how does he still impact today's theatre?

Thomas Heywood was born in 1572 in the town of Lincolnshire. Unfortunately, very little information is known about his life. (Kunitz 268) However, he is believed to be the son of a clergyman named Robert Heywood who was the head of a very close-knit family. ("Thomas Heywood") Little is known of his life while he was growing up, but he is believed to have enrolled at Emmanuel College in Cambridge in the year 1591. It is known that he never received a degree from the college but why he did not is still a mystery. Some believe that he dropped out of the school due to his father's death in the year 1593. Immediately he began what would end up being his long career in the theatre business. (Tucker 359)

Heywood started out as an actor in the business, which he would end up doing for the next thirty years of his career. (Kunitz 268) Not long into his career though, he saw his passion for writing plays, poems, and prose. His earliest publication is known to be a love poem titled "Oenone and Paris" which was wrote in the year 1594. From here, he went on to write plays for Philip Henslowe who ran a theatrical group known as Lord Admiral's Men. Later, he went on to write for another group called Earl of Worcester's Men. In both groups, Heywood had plays produced regularly. In total, throughout his career Heywood wrote or helped with around two-hundred and twenty plays, many of which were considered his own. (Tucker 359) Of these plays, sadly only twenty-three of them have survived to the present day. This is probably because Heywood was known to be a careless worker. He would write his works on tavern bills, and then after they had been performed, he would allow them to vanish or be thrown away and never be known again. Even if he did hold on to the manuscript, often times he was hesitant to allow them to be published due to the lack of time that he had to revise his works. (Kunitz 268)

Heywood started out his career writing prose in his free time, but this led to his ability of being capable to write plays of many different genres of theatre. Heywood wrote history plays with his best examples being "Edward IV" and "If You Know Not Me." He tried writing about romance with his best attempts being "Royal King" and "The Four Ages." He even tried his luck with a play titled "The Four Ages" which was a play based on classical mythology. Heywood did not stop there, however; he then went on to write a few adventure plays, "Fortune by Land and Sea" and "The Captives." Based on the lower classes in London, Heywood even wrote a few plays titled "The Wise Woman of Hogsdon" and "The Fair Maid of the Exchange," both of which are good depictions of lower-class society. What a start to his career; however, these plays were not what brought Heywood his fame during these times. Dramatic and domestic tragedies are truly what brought Heywood to greatness. A few of his best works from this genre are "A Woman Killed with Kindness," "The English Traveller," and "The Rape of Lucrece" with the first two possibly being his two most famous masterpieces of his career. (Tucker 360) After all this, Heywood finally refused to have his works be put on stage in the year 1935. He remained in London for the rest of his life. Between the years 1631 and 1639, Heywood worked for Lord Mayor preparing five pageants for him. It is believe that he never married and that he died alone in London in August of 1641. ("Thomas Heywood")

Possibly his most famous masterpiece was "A Woman Killed with Kindness." As mentioned earlier, the play is classified as a domestic tragedy; however, Heywood himself called the play a "comedie larmoyante" which he says combines smiles with the tears. (Kunitz 268) Since the play was the greatest of his career, I feel that I should go into more detail about this one piece. It is based around a mistress named Anne Frankford who had recently been married to Master John. Frankford is full of beauty while John is full of kindness, and both of them were deeply in love. As always though, there must be a twist in the story and this occurs when John invites a young man by the name of Master Wendoll to stay with them in their house. Wendoll then takes a liking to Mrs. Frankford and gets her to accept him as another lover. Elsewhere, Mrs. Frankford's brother, Sir Francis, fights with Sir Charles and leads him to kill two of Francis' men and be put in jail. While Sir Charles is in prison, Francis is introduced to Charles' sister, Susan, who he immediately takes a liking to. Knowing that he could never have Susan after what he did to Charles, he pays Charles' way out of prison and drops the murder charges against him. When Charles finds out who paid his way out, he awarded Francis with the honor of his sister. This leads back to the Frankford household where of course John finds out that his wife had been cheating on him. He tells her to get out of the house and to go to one of his other houses many miles away. Though she could have survived there, she chose to starve herself to death because of what she had done to her husband. After visiting her, her brother persuades John to visit his wife before she dies and he agrees to it. Due to his kindness, he accepts her as his wife, but sadly that is what pushed her over the edge and led to her death. ("Heywood, Thomas")

As mentioned earlier, Heywood was a modest man. Due to this behavior, he really had no concerns when critics would criticize his works. This was because he did not consider his plays as pieces of literature and in all honesty, he did not even think of himself as an author. Sadly, that attitude only made critics commend him more and more. Heywood had a motto that described how he felt about his writing which is open to interpretation, "they are won't either to profit or to please." In fact, Heywood's only real contribution to the periods of theatre after him was that he gave the people someone to talk about and criticize. Though others outside of the business may not have approved of all of his works and behaviors, there was no denying that he had a natural talent which led to many of his colleagues adopting his works as basis to their plays. An example of this came from Heywood's piece titled "Foure Prentises of London" which was later used by Beaumont and Fletcher for their play titled "The Knight of the Burning Pestle." (Kunitz 268)

Heywood would even become a part of what was known as "The War of the Theatres." This involved six authors from two different types of theatre, private theatre and the popular theatre dramatists. Heywood obviously took the side of the dramatists where he was teamed with the authors Henry Chettle and William Dekker. These authors believed in idealism which was seen through crude domestic dramas. Each type of theatre had its differences with the main difference being the relationship between the audience and the actors as well as where they were performed. Where the popular dramatists would play in public places, commonly enclosed courtyards with a thrust stage, the private theatre acts would be done in small buildings with dim candlelight and small crowds. (Scott-Kilvert 47-48) So, though Heywood was not always accepted outside of the theatrical business, it is obvious that he did have friends on the inside.

There came a point in his career when it seemed as though drama was going to be rid of in London due to the tremendous criticism that they received on a daily basis. It was at this time that Heywood published possibly his most important non-dramatic work of his career. It was titled "Apology for Actors" and it was written as a response against the criticism. ("Thomas Heywood") This work was published in the year 1612 with Heywood's most emphasized point being that "theatre can instruct as well as entertain." (Hager 206) Though Heywood may not have always been a favorite to the theatre industry, he was always respected throughout his career. A critic named Robert Brown said, "He was a dramatist who wrote easily and quickly, if not thoughtfully. He knew his own limitations and kept well within them. He had intimate knowledge of and respect for the acting profession, and he was concerned above all things with writing for the stage, not for the study." He also stated that the best feature of Heywood's work was his ability to interchange seriousness and comedy in one piece. (Tucker, 362-63) One of Heywood's editors, Professor Ward, best described him as having a good sense for dramatic situations and having a strong constructive skill. However, he also said that Heywood was not as talented when it came to matching his characterization with the stagecraft that he used. ("Heywood, Thomas")

Playing a big part in the Elizabethan era of theatre, Thomas Heywood honestly did it all. Not only did he commit himself to one part of theatre, but he allowed himself to explore the different genres, all while being criticized immensely throughout his career. He never let them get to him, and it showed by the large number of works that he was able to put out during his career. Though not much is known about the majority of the time he spent growing up, it is known that his adult life was very fulfilling and that he was able to fill his life with accomplishment.