Thomas Heywood (c.1573-1641), who claimed to have had 'an entire
hand, or at least a maine finger' in two hundred and twenty plays,
was one of the most prolific and influential dramatists of the
Elizabethan, Jacobean, and early Caroline theatre. Heywood was also
recognized in his own time as a master essayist, producing numerous
prose tracts, miscellanies, treatises, pamphlets, and broadsides,
and in them, to use his own terms, he 'dissected' and 'anatomised'
the religious and political dilemmas of contemporary monarchs and
their courts. As city poet and principal writer of pageants for the
Lord Mayor's Day from 1631 to 1639, Heywood was in a unique
position to celebrate civic governance and local policy. He also
produced and circulated translations of ancient Greek and Latin
texts, as well as writing his own poetry, and, uniquely, edited the
plays and poems of his collaborators and contemporaries, often
describing in detail in prefaces and epistles how these texts were
transmitted from author to audience. In sum, he participated in,
epitomised and helped to establish the entire range of author in
the early modern age. This modern edition of his works makes him
accessible to students, scholars, general readers, actors and
directors and rightfully establishes him as a major and seminal
contributor to early modern English drama, poetry and prose.
Heywood's motto was Aut prodesse solent aut delectare, adapted from
the Ars Poetica of Horace and proclaiming the poet's purpose to
produce profit and pleasure in his audience. Volume 3 of the
edition, Middle Plays, features the five Age plays that he wrote to
delight and teach. Heywood set himself the task to chronicle the
entire range of classical myth, 'an entire history from Jupiter and
Saturn to the utter subversion of Troy'. With ancient Homer acting
as chorus (or master of ceremonies) in The Golden Age, The Silver
Age, and The Brazen Age, Heywood takes his audiences from the
Golden Age of Gods (who embody the worst of human faults) through
the exploits of Hercules. The last two plays, The Iron Age, Parts I
and II, focus on the carnage of the Trojan war and its aftermath.
Redemption lies in the potential of a 'New Troy' in London and
Rome. In these plays, Heywood reveals himself as a master of
stagecraft, especially of pyrotechnics and flying entrances. His
theatre is always exciting.
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