HEYWOOD, THOMAS, an English dramatist of the 16th and 17th.centuries. In the preface to the English Traveler, written in 1633, he describes himself as having had "an entire hand or at least a main-finger in two hundred and twenty plays." Of this number, which probably afterwards was much exceeded, for his last published piece did not appear until 1655, only three-and-twenty survive; but they amply attest that had he chosen to concentrate his powers be might easily have ranked with the Massingen, Fords, and others of his great contemporaries. Ills best pieces, such as A Woman Killed with Kindness, Fortune by Land and Sea, the English Traveler, and The Fair Maid of the West, belong chiefly to the domestic drama.
(Heb. Fehiskiyahu, "May Jehovah strengthen him"), King of Judah, son and successor of Ahaz, reigned from 726 [725] to 696 [607] B.C. was none like him among all the kings of Judah," is the praise bestowed upon him in 2 Kings xviii. 5, and scarcely less flattering is the account preserved of this monarch in 2 Chron. xxix. From the moment that, at the early age of five-aud-t Wen ty, he Mounted the throne, his efforts seem chiefly to have been directed towards the abolition of the idolatry which reigned paramount in the laud, and the restoration of the worship of Jehovah to its pristine purity and glory. The temple was reopened, the priests and Levites whose genealogies had proved correct had their ancient revenues assigned to them, and recommenced the daily service; and the first passover which fell in Bozo kiah's reign, was—albeit a month after the appointed season—celebrated with almost unparalleled pomp for full 14 days, amidst a vast concourse of people, not only of Judah, but even of Israel. Victorious in the wars he waged with the Philistines, and relying on an Egyptian alliance, into which he had entered against the advice of Isaiah, Hezekiah dared also to withhold the annual tribute imposed by Shahnanassar in the days of his father: whereupon, as would appear from cuneiform records, Sargon, manassar's successor, invaded Judea, hut without success. When, however. Sargon's successor, Sennacherib, on his way to Egypt and Ethiopia, had already seized Lachish. or, according to Chron. and Isaiah, "all the fortresses" of Judea, nothing remained for Ilezekiall but to ask for peace, and to offer any ransom that Sennacherib might deem fit to impose. Sennacherib took an enormous sum in silver and gold, for which the sacred treasury and the very doors of the temple were laid under contribution: perhaps only a stratagem to convince the conqueror of the poverty of the royal coffers. It is a moot-point whether Sennacherib, after having received the money intended to procure the peace, treacherously marched upon Jerusalem at once, or whether he con tinned his march to Egypt, and being beaten there before Pelusium, besieged Jerusalem on his return—which would be equal to a second invasion. Hezekiall's efforts to render
his capital impregnable were futile. Suddenly, however, "an angel of the Lord" (explained variously to mean the plague, an earthquake, a sudden attack by Tirhaka, or the shnoom) slew during one single night 180,000 men in the Assyrian camp, and Sennacherib was obliged to retreat. Whether Hezekiah's illness—" sheehi n." ulcers, according to some, or the plague, as others understand that wo•d—took place before or after Sennacherib's invasion, is not fully established as yet; certain it is, that after his miraculous recovery, indicated to him by the retrograde movements of the dial, lie among other visits of congratulation also received that of the ambassadors of iMerodacli Halation (Mardocampados), king of Babylon. The latter—as would appear from the Chaldean historian Berosus—was at that time likewise tributary to Assyria, and sent the embassy with a view to securing Hezekiales co-operation against the common enemy. Hezekiah, imprudently enough, made a great display of his treasures, his magazines, and arsenals; but so far from impressing the messengers with his greatness, he only kindled in Merodaeh Baladon the desire to possess himself of all these things; and the later Babylonian invasion, ending in the captivity, is undoubtedly to be traced back to this act of vanity on the part of Hezekiah.
The remainder of Hezekiah's life was passed in profound peace and prosperity, so that he was enabled to turn his attention to the internal development of the resources of the country and the fortification of its towns. He collected great treasures and exe cuted many highly useful works, among which the aqueducts of Jerusalem take a fore most place. His was also the golden age of prophetic poetry. Besides Isaiah, there lived in his time the prophets Micah and Nahum. From a passage in Prov. xxv. 1, it would also appear that he founded a society of literati, who collected and arranged the ancient documents of Hebrew literature, more especially the Proverbs attributed to Solomon. Hezekiah himself was a poet of no mean order; witness the hymn he com posed after his recovery. Hezekiah died at the age of 54 years, in the 20th year of his reign, and was succeeded by his son Manasseh.
The Mislma (Pes. 4, 9) enumerates three things for which Ilezekiali is to be praised. and three things for which he is to be blamed. 'file unworthy burial of his father, on account of his wickedness; the breaking of the brass serpent of Moses, which had become an object of idolatry; and the hiding of a "book of medicaments"—some super stitious work—are the three good deeds. His spoiling the doors of the temple, to pay the tribute to Sennacherib; the stopping up of the upper Gihon during the siege of Jerusalem; and his postponing the first passover for a month (see above), are his three wicked deeds.