John Heywood: Comedy and Survival in Tudor England offers the first comprehensive study of the long and varied career of the Tudor playwright, poet, musician, performer, humourist, and collector of epigrams, John Heywood (c.1497–1578). It roots his life and work in the context of the profound and often violent religious, political, and cultural changes of the Tudor century that variously provoked, enabled, and restricted the scope of his creativity, and makes the case for Heywood as both one of the sixteenth century’s most fascinating dramatic and literary figures and a revealing lens through which to view the cultural history of the period. It goes beyond the clichés of popular history, beyond Shakespeare and the purpose-built playhouses, beyond the canonical Henrician court poets and writers of the Elizabethan ‘Golden Age’, beyond even the experiences of the century’s chief ministers, intellectuals, and martyrs, to a theatrical and literary world less visible in the conventional sources. It opens a window on a culture in which the actions of monarchs, their councillors, and their victims were witnessed and reflected upon at one remove, but subjected to vigorous, witty, and often audacious criticism and comment.
