John Heywood lived in an era of political, religious, and social unrest. As a poet, musician, and dramatist he served four monarchs--Henry VIII, Edward VI, Mary I (Mary Tudor), and Elizabeth I. Heywood was an innovator and experimenter in language who tried to explore new poetic possibilities in English. Often his efforts were crude; but when he succeeded, he produced striking results. Heywood was not interested in poetry for its own sake; he wrote to serve God and his monarch and to expose human folly. Heywood's reputation as a dramatist rests on six works: Johan Johan (1533), A Play of Love (1533), The Play of the Weather (1533), The Pardoner and the Friar (1533), The Four PP (1544"), and Witty and Witless, published as A Dialogue on Wit and Folly (1846). Probably all of these works were performed before 1530. Johan Johan, the most "dramatic" of them, is a translation of a French farce, a...