# The Lives and Characters of the English Dramatick Poets/Thomas Heywood

Thomas Heywood.
This Author was both Actor and Poet, liv'd in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth, and King James I. He writ, or had assisted in composing Two Hundred and Twenty Plays, of which there are but Twenty Five remain entire.Mr. Langbain sets up for a Vindication of this Author, in the same Book that he condemns Mr. Dryden, which indeed is enough to render his Judgment very much suspected, and that the Variety of Plays he had read, either corrupted his Taste, or else that he never had any.
The Golden Age, or The Lives of Jupiter and Saturn, &c. 4to. 1611. Acted at the Red Bull, by the Queen's Majesty's Servants. See Galtruchius's Poetical Hist., Ross's Mistagogus Poeticus; Hollyoak, Littleton, and other Dictionaries.
The Silver Age, a History, 4to. 1613. See Plautus, Ovid's Metamorph. lib. 3. and other Poetical Hist.
Brazen Age, a History, 4to. 1613. See Ovid's Metamorph. lib. 4, 7, 8, and 9.
Iron Age, Part I. a History, 4to. 1632. For the Plot, &c. see Virgil, Homer, Lucian, Ovid, &c.
Iron Age, Part II. 4to. 1632. For the Plot, consult the same Authors before mentioned.
A Challenge for Beauty, a Tragi-Comedy, 4to., 1636. Acted at the Black-Fryars, and at the Globe on the Bank Side, by his Majesty's Servants.
The Dutchess of Suffolk, her Life, a History, 4to. 1631. Acted then with good Applause. For the Plot, see Fox's Martyrology, An. Dom. 1558. and Clark's Martyrology, pag. 521.
Edward the Fourth, Two Parts, a History, 4to. 1600. See the hereof, in the Chronicles of Hollingshead, Speed, Du Chesne, &c.
The English Traveller, a Tragi-Comidy, 4to. 1633. Acted at the Cock-Pit in Drury-Lane, by her Majesty's Servants. Both Plot and Language of Lyonel and Reignald, stollen from Plautus's Mostellaria. See the Story of Wincote, Geraldine, and Dalavil, in the History of Women, by this Author, where he affirms the said Stories at large to be true.
​Fair Maid of the Exchange, a Comedy, 4 to. 1637. wherein are related the pleasant Passages, and merry Humours of the Cripple of Fanchurch. Mr. Kirkman, and others, reckon this Play to our Author; but Mr. Langbain makes a Question thereof, since his Name is not prefixt; nor, says he, the Stile and Oeconomy does not resemble the rest of his Labours.
Fair Maid of the West, or, A Girl worth Gold, a Tragi-Comedy, Part I. 4 to. 1631. Acted before the King and Queen, by her Majesty’s Servants.
Fair Maid of the West, or, A Girl worth Gold, Part II. 4 to. 1631. Acted likewise before the King and Queen, by her Majesty’s Servants. Both these Plays had, in those Times, good Repute; and afterwards serv’d for the Subject of a Romance, called, The English Lover, writ by John Dancer, one of our foregoing Authors.
Fortune by Land and Sea, a Tragi-Comedy, 4 to. 1655. Acted by the Queen’s Majesty’s Servants, with good Applause. Our Author was join’d, in composing this Play, by William Rowley, hereafter mentioned.
Four London Prentices, with the Conquests of Jerusalem, History, 4 to. 1635. Acted at the Red Bull, by the Queen‘’s Servants. Founded on Godfrey of Bulloign. See Tasso, Fuller’s Hist. of the Holy War, and Dr. Nalson’s History of the Crasaide.
If you know not me, you know no body, or, The Troubles of Queen Elizabeth, in Two Parts, 4 to. 1623. Plot from Cambden’s History of Queen Elizabeth, also Speed, and other our English Chronicles in her Reign.
The Lancashire Witches, 4 to. London, 1634. See this Story in Verse, in a large Volume of the same Author, called, The Hierarchy of Angels, Fol. lib. 8.
Love’s Mistriss, or, The Queen’s Mask, 4 to. 1640. Acted before their Majesties, and divers Ambassadors, at the Phenix in Drury-Lane. Plot from Apuleius’s Golden Aß. 4 to.
Maiden-head, well lost, A Comedy, 4 to. 1634. Acted by her Majesty’s Servants in Drury-Lane, with good Applause.
Rape of Lucrece, a Tragedy, 4 to. 1638. Acted at the Red Bull, Plot from Tit. Livius, dec. 1. cap. 58, &c.
Robert, Earl of Huntingdon’s Down-fall, a History, 4 to. 1601. Acted by the Earl of Nottingham, Lord High Admiral of England’s Servants. Plot from Stow, Speed, and Baker’s Chronicles, in the Life of King Richard the First; Fuller’s Worthies in the Account of Nottinghamshire.
Robert, Earl of Huntingdon’s Death, a Tragedy, 4 to. 1601. This Earl was usually called, Robin Hood, of merry Sherwood. Plot from the aforesaid English Chronicles.
​Royal King, and Loyal Subject, a Tragi-Comedy, 4 to. 1627. Acted by the Queen’s Servants, with good Applause. Compare this with the Loyal Subject, writ by Beaumont and Fletcher.
Wise Woman of Hogsden, a Comedy, 4 to. 1638, often times Acted with good Applause.
Woman Kill’d with Kindness, a Comedy. 4 to. 1617. Acted by the Queen’s Servants, with good Applause.
Our Author has Published several other Pieces, in Verse and Prose, as The Hierarchy of Angels, Fol. The Life and Troubles of Queen Elizabeth, 8 vo. The Lives of Nine Women Worthies, 4 to. The General History of Women, 8 vo. An Apology for Actors, 4 to. and Pleasant Dialogues and Dramas, 8 vo.
* ↑ Langbain's Account of the Dram. Poets, p. 258.
* ↑ Langbain’s Account of Dramatick Poets, p. 263.