HEYWOOD, JOHN, one of our earliest dramatic writers, lived in the first half of the 16th century. He was probably a native of London, was educated at Oxford, and possessed lands at North Mims, in Berke, where he is supposed to have made the acquaintance of his neighbour Sir Thomas More. This lover of wit introduced him at the court of Henry VI1L, where his musical skill as a player on the virginals, and his liveliness, both in society and in his writings, gained him high favour. To Queen Mary he was further recommended by his zealous attachment to the Itomish Church. In the reign of Edward VI. he was accused of plotting against the government, and is said to have with difficulty escaped the halter. He retired to the continent, and died about 1565, at Mechlin, in Brabant. Heywood's dramatic pieces stand between the miracle-plays and moral•plays on the one hand, and the elaborated dramas on the other. "They may properly and strictly," says Mr. Collier, in his 'History of Dramatic
Poetry; "be called Interludes—a species of writing of which be has a claim to be considered the inventor." The earliest of them, A mery Play between the Pardoner and the Frere, the Curate and Neybour Pratte,' was not printed till 1533, but must have been written before l52l. In Dodsley's ' Old Plays' will be found his ' Play called the Foure P. P., • new and a very wary Enterludo of a Palmer, a Pardoner, a l'otycary, • Pedlar,' which is a fair specimen of his undramatic arrangements and of the grotesque coarseness of his humour. Among the other productions bearing his name was a posthumous volume of ' Woorkea,' 1576, 4to, which contains proverbs in verse, and aix hundred epigrams, by which In his own time he was probably best known. In respect of them, and to distinguish him from a later play. writer [Ilerwoors Thomas], he is not 'infrequently called The Epigrammatists'