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ZEEB ROAD, ANN ARBOR, Ml 48106 18 BEDFORD ROW, LONDON WC1 R 4EJ, ENGLAND 7913044 BRITTAIN. HARY GATES -THIS IS NO WORLD IN WHICH TO PITY MEN-: A STUDY OF THOMAS HEYWOOD AS A JACOBEAN SOCIAL CRITIC. THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT GREENSBORO, PH.D., 1978 University Microfilms International 300 N. ZEEB ROAD, ANN ARBOR, MI 48TO6 © 1979 MARY GATES BRITTAIN ALL RIGHTS RESERVED "THIS IS NO WORLD IN WHICH TO PITY MEN": A STUDY OP THOMAS HEYWOOD AS A JACOBEAN SOCIAL CRITIC by Mary Gates Brittain A Dissertation Submitted to the Faculty of the Graduate School at The University of North Carolina at Greensboro in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Doctor of Philosophy Greensboro 1978 Approved by APPROVAL PAGE This dissertation has been approved by the follow ing committee of the Faculty of the Graduate School at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. Dissertation Adviser Committee Members •<LJL A/cttp.i*t£e s 7 /7 7^ Date of Acceptance by Committee ii BRITTAIN, MARY GATES. "This Is No World in Which to Pity Men": A Study of Thomas Heywood as a Jacobean Social Critic. (1978) Directed by: Dr. Christopher Spencer. Pp. 408. The purpose of this study is to place Thomas Heywood and his works in the mainstream of Jacobean drama rather than in the ebb tide of the Elizabethan. Traditionally, beginning with Lamb in 1808 and continuing to the present, Heywood has been extolled by critic after critic as the kindly, genial spokesman for middle-class morality and ideals. To most critics, Heywood appears to be an opti mistic Elizabethan playwright with a staunch faith in human nature as well as a view of the world in which good ulti mately triumphs over evil. In opposition to these commonly-held and seldom- questioned assumptions, this study attempts to show that Heywood is actually an instructive and constructive social critic not only of middle-class morality and ideals but also of contemporary English life in general. Moreover, he is a pessimistic Jacobean dramatist with a realistic, and sometimes satiric or ironic, view of man and of evil in a world where evil, not good, generally dominates as a sinister, brooding, and pervasive force. Heywood's social criticism becomes immediately apparent when his works are examined thematically and chronologically by type. Of the twenty-four extant plays generally included in the Heywood canon, this study deals with a representative selection of eleven with brief attention to two others and occasional references to the rest. The selected plays are divided into three groups (by chapter) with each related in terms of type, characteri zation, and/or plot, and with each group chronologically covering a period of twenty or more years between the composition of the early and later plays. A chronological examination of one of Heywood's principal themes—the confu sion of appearance with reality—with each related group plainly reveals the darkening of Heywood's vision over the years and his increasing awareness of folly and vice in the world and in human nature. An examination of theme and chronology thus provides a focal point for a more inclusive analysis of the nature of the men and women who inhabit Heywood's world. This, in turn, reveals the nature of his social criticism of the life and manners in seventeenth- century England and establishes more clearly his increasing affinity with his fellow Jacobeans as his long and pro lific dramatic career progressed. After a general introduction to the playwright and his work in Chapter I, the next three chapters are devoted to a close reading of the three groups of individual plays. Chapter II examines Heywood's most important works, the realistic domestic tragedies. Chapter III takes up the realistic-satiric comedies and tragicomedies of contemporary English life and manners. Chapter IV discusses the romantic comedies and tragicomedies of adventure and intrigue. Chapter V treats briefly the other dramas, mainly chronicle- histories or classical plays, followed by a summation and conclusion to the study. This final chapter concludes that the world as depicted by Heywood, the Jacobean social critic, is patterned after the corrupt, decadent world portrayed by his fellow Jaco- beans, not the orderly, harmonious world of the Elizabethans. Generally, there is no restoration of order and harmony; and, usually, good does not overcome evil or virtue triumph over vice in the conclusion to his plays. Heywood's world ft may sometimes appear to be one in which chastity and virtue, friendship and honor, kindness and Christian charity flourish; but, in reality, "This is no world in which to pity men" or women. This is a world in which people and their actions are not what they seem to be, for in Heywood's dark vision, appearances may be easily mistaken or confused for reality. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I wish to acknowledge with gratitude the helpful assistance of my doctoral committee, especially of the director, Dr. Christopher Spencer, whose invaluable guidance, prompt assistance, and perceptive suggestions were of more help than I can acknowledge. I also wish to acknowledge with love the unending encouragement of my family, especially of my husband, C. Eugene Brittain, without whose continued patience, constant support, and unflagging interest this dissertation would not have been possible. iii TABLE OP CONTENTS Page APPROVAL PAGE - . ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ill CHAPTER I. THE DARK VISION OP A JACOBEAN SOCIAL CRITIC 1 II. REALISTIC DOMESTIC TRAGEDIES 47 Edward IV, Parts I and II 51 A Woman Killed with Kindness 82 The English Traveller 144 III. REALISTIC-SATIRIC COMEDIES AND TRAGICOMEDIES 181 How a Man May Chuse a Good Wife from a Sad "" 185 The Wise Woman of Hogs don 211 The Late Lancashire Witches 245 IV. ROMANTIC COMEDIES AND TRAGICOMEDIES OF ADVENTURE AND INTRIGUE 271 The Four Prentices of London and The Challenge for Beauty 272 The Royal1 King and the Loyall Subject . 279 The Fair Maid of the West, Parts I and 1^ 311 A Mayden-Head Well Lost 343 V. "THIS IS NO WORLD IN WHICH TO PITY MEN". 372 BIBLIOGRAPHY 398 iv 1 CHAPTER I THE DARK VISION OF A JACOBEAN SOCIAL CRITIC As the world growes in yeares ('tis the Heauens curse[)] Mens sinnes increase; the pristine times were best: The Ages in their growth wax worse & worse. (The Brazen Age III.171)1 In Thomas Heywood's masterpiece of domestic tragedy, A Woman Killed with Kindness. Old Uncle Mountford dryly 1 Thomas Heywood, The Brazen Age, in The Dramatic Works of Thomas Heywood [ed. R. H. Shepherd] (1874; rpt. New YorF: Russell & Russell, 1964), III, 171. This standard work is referred to as "the Pearson Edition," originally printed by John Pearson. The citations from this edition are by volume and page numbers. All subse quent references from Heywood's plays in the text are from the Pearson edition unless stated otherwise below. Where later and better editions are available, I have quoted from them instead of from the Pearson edition. In this study, all act, scene, and line references from The Captives are from the edition edited by Alexander Corbin Judson (New Haven: Yale Univ. Press, 1921); all act, scene, and line numbers from The Fair Maid of the West, Parts I and II are from the edition edited by Robert K. Turner, Jr., Regents Renaissance Drama Series (Lincoln: Univ. of Nebraska Press, 1967); all line references from How a Man May Chuse a Good Wife from a Bad are from the edition edited by A. E. H. Swaen (1912; rpt. Vaduz: Fraus Reprint, 1963); all line references from The Rape of Lucrece are from the edition edited by Allan Holaday TUrbana: Univ. of Illinois Press, 1950); all act and line references from The Royall King and the Loyall Subject are from the edition edited by Kate Watkins Tibbals (Philadelphia: Univ.