In Philip Henslowe's diary "hawodes bocke" is noted on 14 October 1596, and Heywood seems to have worked with Henslowe's company the Admiral's Men until the end of the century. By then he had "arrived," notably with the production of
Edward IV (probably at the Curtain); thereafter he worked with many companies.
In addition to a large number of plays Heywood also wrote pseudohistory, poetry, translations, an apologia for the theater, pageants, accounts of the lives of women and pirates, and religious tracts. Much of this work is dull stuff, but he was clearly an exceptionally hardworking and versatile professional writer. Crediting Heywood with a greater concern for "religion and edification" than his fellow dramatists, Clark compares him to Thomas Dekker, calling both playwrights "essentially bourgeois, intensely loyal to King and Church, but with no love for courts and courtiers, and with an enthusiasm for London, its citizens and their standards, its wealth, splendour, and institutions." Clark goes on to call Heywood "a Puritan himself in all but name" and suggests that "it was his reputation among his persuasive fellows as a man of unblemished character" that caused Heywood to write An Apology for Actors (1612) as a defense of the stage against Puritan attacks.
This is a free page. This page contains 198 words. This
biography contains 16,958 words (approx. 57 pages at 300
words per page).
Read the rest of this Biography with our Thomas Heywood Access Pass.
