Heywood, THOMAS, dramatist and actor, a Lincolnshire man, was educated at Cambridge. He seems to have been writing plays as early as October 1596; and on 25th March 1598 he was regularly engaged by Philip Henslowe as an actor. Of all the old dramatists he was the most prolific. We learn from the preface to The English Traveller that down to 1633 he had 'had either an entire hand, or at the least a main finger,' in the composition of 220 plays; and he continued for some years after that date to write for the stage. He was also the author of an historical poem, Troju Britannica (1609, folio); an Apology for Actors (1612); Nine Books of Various History concerninge Women (1624); a folio of nearly five hundred pages, which was planned, written, and printed within the space of seventeen weeks; a long poem, with learned and curious annotations, The Hierarchie of the Blessed Angells (1635, folio); a volume of rhymed translations from Lucian's Dialogues, Erasmus, Ovid, &c.; various mayoralty pageants, and divers tracts and treatises. His projected Lives of all the Poets, Modern and Foreign, was unfortunately never published. In 1624, and again in 1635, he refers to this work; and we know from Richard Brathwait's Scholar's Medley that he was engaged upon it as early as 1614. The last of Heywood's publications was The Life of Ambrosius Merlin (1641). It is usually supposed, but without sufficient evidence, that he was alive in 1648, when he was mentioned in the Satire against Separatists.
Twenty-four of Heywood's plays have come down. The best is A Woman kilde with Kindnesse (1607), a pathetic tragedy of domestic life; and with this may be coupled The English Traveller (1633), which contains some admirable scenes, but ends somewhat abruptly. Heywood was particularly successful in depicting blameless English gentlemen, such characters as Master Frankford in the earlier play and young Geraldine in the later. His work is usually distinguished by naturalness and simplicity; but he wrote at the beginning of his career one absurdly grandiose play, The
Four Prentises of London, printed in 1615, which was parodied in Beaumont and Fletcher's Knight of the Burning Peale. In the two parts of The Fair Maid of the West (1631), and in Fortune by Land and Sea, partly written by William Rowley and first printed in 1655, he gives us some spirited descriptions of sea-fights. The Fayre Mayde of the Exchange (1607), a sentimental comedy, has a very improbable plot; The Rape of Lucrece (1608) is chiefly noticeable for its songs; Love's Maistresse (1636), dealing with the story of Cupid and Psyche, is fanciful and ingenious; and there is much tenderness in A Challenge for Beantie (1636). In the Four Ages—The Golden Age (1611), The Silver Age (1613), The Brazen Age (1613), and the two parts of The Iron Age (1632)—Heywood dramatised classical mythology, 'from Jupiter and Saturn to the utter subversion of Troy.' These plays are undeniably tedious, but contain some charming poetry. The Late Lancashire Witches (1634), written in conjunction with Richard Brome, is largely of a farcical character; and The Wise Woman of Hogsdon (1638) exposes the trickeries of fortune-tellers. In The Royall King and Loyall Subject (1637) the doctrine of passive obedience to kingly authority is carried to extreme lengths. The early plays, Edward IV. (2 parts, 1600) and If You know not Me You know No Bodie; or, the Troubles of Queen Elizabeth (1605-32), are of small account; nor can much be said in favour of A Mayden-Head Well Lost (1634). The Captives, or the Lost Recovered, an interesting play acted in 1624, was first published in 1885 from Egerton MS. 1994 (Bullen's 'Old Plays,' 1st series, vol. iv.). A collection of Heywood's plays, in six volumes, was issued in 1874 (London, John Pearson). In tragic power he was deficient, but his gentleness and sincerity endear him to students.