HEYWOOD, THOMAS (d. 1641), English dramatist and miscellaneous author, was a native of Lincolnshire, born about and said to have been educated at Cambridge. Heywood is mentioned by Philip Henslowe as having written a book or play for the Lord Admiral's company of actors in Oct. 1596; and in 1598 he was regularly engaged as a player in the company in which he presumably had a share, as no wages are mentioned. He was later a member of other companies, of the earl of Derby's and of the earl of Worcester's players, afterwards known as the Queen's Servants. In his preface to the English Traveller (1633) he describes himself as having had "an entire hand or at least a main finger in 220 plays." Of this number, probably considerably increased before the close of his dramatic career, only a score survive. He wrote for the stage, not for the press, and protested against the printing of his works, which he said he had no time to revise. He was, said Tieck, the "model of a light and rapid talent," and his plays, as might be expected from his rate of pro duction, bear little trace of artistic elaboration. Charles Lamb called him a "prose Shakespeare." It is true that Heywood had a keen eye for dramatic situations and great constructive skill, but his powers of characterization were not on a par with his stagecraft. He delighted in what he called "merry accidents," that is, in coarse, broad farce; his fancy and invention were inex haustible. It was in the domestic drama of sentiment that he won his most distinctive success. For this he was especially fitted by his genuine tenderness and his freedom from affectation, by the sweetness and gentleness for which Lamb praised him. His mas terpiece, A Woman kilde with kindnesse (acted 1603 ; printed is a type of the comedie larmoyante, and The English Traveller (1633) is a domestic tragedy scarcely inferior to it in pathos and in the elevation of its moral tone. His first play was probably The Foure Prentises of London: With the Conquest of Jerusalem (printed 1615, possibly acted as early as 1592 under the title Godfrey of Bulloigne) . The two parts of King Edward the Fourth (printed 160o), sometimes attributed to Heywood, and of If you know not me, you know no bodie; Or, the Troubles of Queene Elizabeth (16o5 and 1606) are chronicle histories. His other comedies include : The Royall King, and the Loyall subject (acted perhaps c. 1602; printed 163 7) ; A Challenge for Beautie (1636) ; The Wise-Woman of Hogsdon (perhaps acted c. 1604; printed 1638) ; and Fortune by Land and Sea (acted c. 1607; printed 1655), with William Rowley. The five plays called respec tively The Golden, The Silver, The Brazen and The Iron Age (the last in two parts), dated 1611, 1613, 1613, 1632, are series of classical stories strung together with no particular connection except that "old Homer" introduces the performers of each act in turn. The tragedy of the Rape of Lucrece (16o8) is varied by a "merry lord," Valerius, who lightens the gloom of the situation by singing comic songs. A series of pageants, most of them devised for the City of London, or its guilds, by Heywood, were printed in 1637. For other plays attributed to Heywood see the authorities mentioned in the bibliography. Thomas Heywood was buried at Clerkenwell on Aug. 16, 1641.
Besides his dramatic works, he was the author of Troia Britan nica, or Great Britain's Troy (1609), a poem in 17 cantos "inter mixed with many pleasant poetical tales" and "concluding with an universal chronicle from the creation until the present time"; An Apology for Actors, containing three brief treatises , edited for the Shakespeare Society in 1841; I'vvaLKetov or nine books of various history concerning women (1624) ; England's Elizabeth, her Life and Troubles during her minority from the Cradle to the Crown (163I) ; The Hierarchy of the Blessed Angels (1635), a didactic poem in nine books; Pleasant Dialogues, and Dramas selected out of Lucian, etc. (1637; ed. W. Bang, Louvain, 1903) ; and The Life of Merlin surnamed Ambrosius (1641). See A. W. Ward, History of English Dram. Lit. ii. 55o seq. (1899) ; the same author's Introduction to A woman killed with kindness ("Temple Dramatists," 1897) ; J. A. Symonds in the Introduction to Thomas Heywood in the "Mermaid" series (new issue, 1903) ; E. K. Chambers, The Elizabethan Stage vol. iii. (1923). See also Heyavood's Dramatic Works (2 vols., Shakespeare Soc., ed. B. Field and J. Collier, 1842-51) ; Dramatic Works, Pearson Reprints (6 vols., 1874) ; Best Plays, "Mermaid" series (ed. A. W. Verity, 1888) .