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    An Apology for Actors: From the Edition of 1612, Compared with That of W. Cartwright. With an introduction and notes
    An Apology for Actors: From the Edition of 1612, Compared with That of W. Cartwright. With an introduction and notes
    An Apology for Actors: From the Edition of 1612, Compared with That of W. Cartwright. With an introduction and notes
    Ebook100 pages1 hour

    An Apology for Actors: From the Edition of 1612, Compared with That of W. Cartwright. With an introduction and notes

    By Thomas Heywood

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    Heywood is a good example of the professional dramatist who worked for Philip Henslowe, the theatrical manager, both as a playwright and an actor. By his own admission, Heywood claimed to have "either an entire hand or at least the main finger" in 220 plays, of which less than 30 survive. His best-known play, A Woman Killed with Kindness (1603), exemplifies domestic tragedy, in which sentiment and homely details are equally mingled. Heywood wrote an eloquent defense of the theater against Puritan attack called An Apology for Actors (1607-08). Heywood suggests here that the stage can both delight and teach.-Print ed.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherIndependent Publishers Group
    Release dateApr 20, 2023
    ISBN9781805232568
    An Apology for Actors: From the Edition of 1612, Compared with That of W. Cartwright. With an introduction and notes

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      Book preview

      An Apology for Actors - Thomas Heywood

      cover.jpgimg1.png

      © Patavium Publishing 2023, all rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted by any means, electrical, mechanical or otherwise without the written permission of the copyright holder.

      Publisher’s Note

      Although in most cases we have retained the Author’s original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern reader’s benefit.

      We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.

      TABLE OF CONTENTS

      TABLE OF CONTENTS 1

      COUNCIL OF THE SHAKESPEARE SOCIETY. 3

      INTRODUCTION. 5

      AN APOLOGY FOR ACTORS. 13

      DEDICATION 14

      TO THE JUDICIALL READER. 16

      AN APOLOGY FOR 25

      Actors; and first touching their Antiquity. 25

      OF ACTORS, AND their ancient Dignitie. — THE SECOND BOOKE. 36

      OF ACTORS, AND the true use of their quality.—THE THIRD BOOKE. 48

      Use of tragedies. 49

      Use of historicall playes. — Use of Morals. — Use of Comedyes. 50

      Use of Pastorals. 51

      A strange accident happening at a play. 53

      A strange accident happening at a play. 53

      A strange accident happening at a play. 54

      To my approved good Friend, MR. NICHOLAS OKES. 57

      AN

      APOLOGY FOR ACTORS.

      IN THREE BOOKS.

      BY

      THOMAS HEYWOOD.

      FROM THE EDITION OF 1612, COMPARED WITH THAT OF W. CARTWRIGHT.

      WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES.

      img2.png

      COUNCIL OF THE SHAKESPEARE SOCIETY.

      President.

      THE MOST NOBLE THE MARQUESS OF NORMANBY.

      Vice-President.

      RT. HON. LORD BRAYBROOKE, F.S.A.

      RT. HON. LORD F. EGERTON, M.P.

      RT. HON. THE EARL OF GLENGALL.

      RT. HON. LORD LEIGH.

      AMYOT, THOMAS, ESQ., F.R.S., TREAS. S.A.

      AYRTON, WILLIAM, ESQ., F.R.S., F.S.A.

      BRUCE, JOHN, ESQ., F.S.A.

      CAMPBELL, THOMAS, ESQ.

      COLLIER, J. PAYNE, ESQ., F.S.A., DIRECTOR.

      COURTENAY, RT. HON. THOMAS P.

      CRAIK, GEORGE L., ESQ.

      DILKE, C. W. ESQ. TREASURER.

      DYCE, REV. ALEXANDER.

      HALLIWELL, J. O. ESQ., F.R.S., F.S.A., &C.

      HARNESS, REV. WILLIAM.

      JERROLD, DOUGLAS, ESQ.

      KENNEY, JAMES, ESQ.

      KNIGHT, CHARLES, ESQ.

      MACREADY, WILLIAM C., ESQ.

      MADDEN, SIR F., F.R.S., F.S.A., KEEPER OF THE MSS. IN THE BRITISH MUSEUM.

      MILMAN, REV. HENRY HART.

      TALFOURD, MR. SERGEANT, M.P.

      TOMLINS, F. GUEST, ESQ., SECRETARY.

      WRIGHT, THOMAS, ESQ., F.S.A.

      YOUNG, CHARLES M., ESQ.

      INTRODUCTION.

      IN the cursory sketch of the various publications for and against the Stage, between the years 1578 and 1633, which precedes our reprint of Gosson’s School of Abuse, we had occasion to mention Thomas Heywood’s Apology for Actors. It is not only the most complete, but the latest regular defence of the profession, prior to the closing of the theatres on the breaking out of the Civil War. There was a pause in the literary contest subsequent to the appearance of Dr. Rainolde’s Overthrow of Stage Plays, 1599, (some copies bear the date of Middleburgh, 1600,) and the immediate motive for the publication of Heywood’s Apology for Actors in 1612 is not stated in the tract itself, nor elsewhere. Sir Edward Coke, indeed, in his Charge at Norwich in 1607, (printed by N. Butter in that year) had complained of the manner and degree in which the country was troubled with stage-players, and denounced them from the bench; but his reference was to actors in the provinces, who had no commission from the crown, nor license under the hands of any of the nobility; and it may be asserted that for some years before Heywood’s Apology came out, the theatres of the metropolis had been flourishing and unmolested, and had enjoyed peculiar patronage from the crown.

      It was, possibly, this very state of affairs which induced Heywood to put forth his tract: the Puritans were silent, actors were prosperous, the court was favourable, and a general vindication of the profession of the Stage, as an excuse for the public and private encouragement it received, would not be unwelcome at such a juncture.

      We have it on his own evidence in his Pleasant Dialogues and Dramas, 8vo., 1637, that Heywood was a native of Lincolnshire. In the succeeding tract he notices the time of his residence at Cambridge, and William Cartwright, (of whom we shall speak hereafter, and who reprinted The Apology for Actors just before the Restoration) asserts that Heywood was a fellow of Peter House. This statement is probably correct, and nearly all his extant works display like that before us, extensive general reading, and considerable classical attainments. In what year Heywood came to London we have no account; but on the 14th of October, 1596, a person, whose name Henslowe spells Hawode, had written a book, or play, for the Lord Admiral’s Company. On the 25th of March, 1598, we find Thomas Heywood regularly engaged by Henslowe as a player and a sharer in the company, but not as a hireling, or mere theatrical servant receiving wages, as Malone mistakenly asserted. (Shakespeare by Boswell, III., 321). From this date, at all events, until the death of Queen Anne, the wife of James I., Heywood continued on the stage; for in the account of the persons who attended her funeral he is introduced as one of her majesty’s players. He wrote an ode upon her death, but he did not print it until five years afterwards as part of a much larger volume. After quitting the Lord Admiral’s Company, on the accession of James I., Heywood became one of the theatrical servants of the Earl of Worcester, and was by that nobleman transferred to the queen. I was, my lord, (says Heywood in the dedication to the Earl of Worcester of his Nine Books of various History concerning Women, fo. 1624) your creature, and amongst other your servants, you bestowed me upon the excellent princesse Q. Anne, * * * * but by her lamented death your gift is returned againe into your hands.

      Between 1596 and 1638, he was a most voluminous playwright. When he published his English Traveller, in 1633, he stated in a preliminary epistle, that he had written the whole, or parts of no fewer than two hundred and twenty dramatic pieces; of which, however, not more than twenty-three passed through the press. In the address to the judicial reader, prefixed to his Apology for Actors, 1612, he observes, my pen hath seldome appeared in the presse till now; but this assertion must be taken with some qualification, and with reference, perhaps, to the many works which he had written, and which up to that year had not been printed. His earliest known work with a date is his Edward the Fourth, a play in two parts, which was originally published in 1600. In 1605, another play by him, called If you know not me, you know Nobody, or the Troubles of Queen Elizabeth, was printed: the second part of the same piece came out in 1606. His Fair Maid of the Exchange and his "Woman

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