_JOHN HEYWOOD_.


This _John Heywood_ was one of the first writers of _English_ Plays,
contemporary with the Authors of _Gammar Gurton's Needle_, and _Tom
Tyler and his Wife_, as may appear by the Titles of his Interludes;
_viz._ The Play of Love; Play of the Weather; Play between _Johan_
the Husband, and _Tib_ his Wife; Play between the Pardoner and the
Fryer, and the Curate and Neighbour _Prat_; Play of Gentleness and
Nobility, in two parts. Besides these he wrote two Comedies, the
_Pinner of Wakefield_, and _Philotas_ _Scotch_. There was of this Name,
in King _Henry_ the Eighth's Reign, an Epigramatist, _who_, saith the
Author of the Art of _English_ Poetry, _for the mirth and quickness of
his conceits, more than any good learning was in him, came to be well
benefited by the King._

* * * * *




_THOMAS HEYWOOD_.


_Thomas Heywood_ was a greater Benefactor to the Stage than his
Namesake, _John Heywood_, aforesaid, he having (as you may read in an
Epistle to a Play of his, called, _The English Travellers_) had an
entire hand, or at least a main finger in the writing of 220 of them.
And no doubt but he took great pains therein, for it is said, that he
not only Acted himself almost every day, but also wrote each day a