Значение слова HEYWOOD в Литературной энциклопедии

HEYWOOD

1) JOHN (1497?-1580?).-Dramatist and epigrammatist, is believed to have been _b._ at North Mimms, Herts. He was a friend of Sir Thomas More, and through him gained the favour of Henry VIII., and was at the Court of Edward VI. and Mary, for whom, as a young Princess, he had a great regard. Being a supporter of the old religion, he enjoyed her favour, but on the accession of Elizabeth, he left the country, and went to Mechlin, where he _d._ He was famous as a writer of interludes, a species of composition intermediate between the old "moralities" and the regular drama, and displayed considerable constructive skill, and a racy, if somewhat broad and even coarse, humour. Among his interludes are _The Play of the Wether_ (1532), _The Play of Love_ (1533), and _The Pardoner and the Frere_. An allegorical poem is _The Spider and the Flie_ (1556), in which the Spider stands for the Protestants, and the Flie for the Roman Catholics. H. was likewise the author of some 600 epigrams, whence his title of "the old English epigrammatist." 2) HEYWOOD, THOMAS (_d._ 1650).-Dramatist. Few facts about him have come down, and these are almost entirely derived from his own writings. He appears to have been _b._ in Lincolnshire, and was a Fellow of Peterhouse, Camb., and an ardent Protestant. His literary activity extends from about 1600 to 1641, and his production was unceasing; he claims to have written or "had a main finger in" 220 plays, of which only a small proportion (24) are known to be in existence, a fact partly accounted for by many of them having been written upon the backs of tavern bills, and by the circumstance that though a number of them were popular, few were _pub._ Among them may be mentioned _The Four Prentices of London_ (1600) (ridiculed in Fletcher's _Knight of the Burning Pestle_), _Edward IV._ (2 parts) in 1600 and 1605, _The Royal King and the Loyal Subject_ (1637), _A Woman Killed with Kindness_ (1603), _Rape of Lucrece_ (1608), _Fair Maid of the Exchange_ (1607), _Love's Mistress_ (1636), and _Wise Woman of Hogsdon_ (1638). H. also wrote an _Apology for Actors_ (1612), a poem, _Hierarchy of the Blessed Angels_ (1635), and made various translations. He was thoroughly English in his subjects and treatment, and had invention, liveliness, and truth to nature, but lacked the higher poetic sense, and of course wrote far too much to write uniformly well.

Литературная энциклопедия.