JOHN HEYWOOD “NARRATIVE HISTORY” AMOUNTS TO FABULATION, THE REAL STUFF BEING MERE CHRONOLOGY “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project John Heywood HDT WHAT? INDEX JOHN HEYWOOD JOHN HEYWOOD 1497 John Heywood was born, likely in Coventry, or perhaps at London. He would relocate from Coventry to the big city at some time during his late teens. NOBODY COULD GUESS WHAT WOULD HAPPEN NEXT John Heywood “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX JOHN HEYWOOD JOHN HEYWOOD 1509 April 22, Sunday (Old Style): In England, the demise of King Henry VII, leading to the accession of Prince Henry. At this point the 12-year-old John Heywood may have been a chorister. LIFE IS LIVED FORWARD BUT UNDERSTOOD BACKWARD? — NO, THAT’S GIVING TOO MUCH TO THE HISTORIAN’S STORIES. LIFE ISN’T TO BE UNDERSTOOD EITHER FORWARD OR BACKWARD. “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project John Heywood HDT WHAT? INDEX JOHN HEYWOOD JOHN HEYWOOD 1513 During this year and the following one, without taking a degree, John Heywood may have been at Broadgates Hall (now Pembroke College, Oxford). DO I HAVE YOUR ATTENTION? GOOD. John Heywood “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX JOHN HEYWOOD JOHN HEYWOOD 1515 The first certain record we have of “Iohn Haywoode” is that in this year he was one of King Henry VIII’s singing men at a wage of eightpence per day. Presumably he had been a choir boy and had then been retained as a singer at the Chapel Royal. Possibly also he was active in the training of companies of boy actors, for court performances. Archbishop of York Thomas Wolsey became a Catholic Cardinal, and Lord Chancellor of England. His monarch made him a royal present, of Hampton Court: CHANGE IS ETERNITY, STASIS A FIGMENT John Heywood “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX JOHN HEYWOOD JOHN HEYWOOD 1519 After having spent a year or two at Broadgates Hall (now Pembroke College, Oxford), John Heywood was receiving 100 shillings each quarter-year for being a “synger” at the court of King Henry VIII. THE FUTURE IS MOST READILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project John Heywood HDT WHAT? INDEX JOHN HEYWOOD JOHN HEYWOOD 1521 February 12, Tuesday (1520, Old Style): John Heywood was designated to receive an annuity of ten marks as a king’s servant of King Henry VIII, in the form of annual rents from properties in Essex that had reverted to the Crown. THE FUTURE CAN BE EASILY PREDICTED IN RETROSPECT “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project John Heywood HDT WHAT? INDEX JOHN HEYWOOD JOHN HEYWOOD 1523 March 3, Tuesday (1522, Old Style): With some assistance from King Henry VIII, John Heywood was admitted as a Freeman of the City of London. He became a member of the Mercers’ Company (we have no indication, however, that he ever worked with cloth). Records of London Freemans indicate that Heywood was already married with Joan Rastell, daughter of John Rastell the printer. Through this marriage Heywood would have entered into a theater family. Rastell was a composer of interludes himself, and the very first publisher of plays in England. HDT WHAT? INDEX JOHN HEYWOOD JOHN HEYWOOD 1524 Turkeys were gobbled for the first time at the English Court. James V became King of Scotland (-1542). John Rastell built his own house at Finsbury Fields, with a stage explicitly for the performance of plays. His wife made costumes. The whole family appeared to be involved in these productions, including Thomas More. In this private theatre, John Heywood would have found an audience for his early works, and a strong artistic influence in his father-in-law John Rastell. HDT WHAT? INDEX JOHN HEYWOOD JOHN HEYWOOD 1525 In the 1520s and 1530s, John Heywood was writing and producing interludes for the royal court. He enjoyed the patronage of Edward VI and Mary I. While some of his plays call for music, no songs or texts survive. In this year, with Will Somer as King Henry VIII’s fool at court, Heywood wrote “Witty and Witless.” At Michaelmas a court payment of £6 13s 4d was made to him as “player of the Virginals.”1 1. This virginal was a small harpsichord popular during the 16th and 17th centuries. Its strings ran from side to side of its rectangular box, and were plucked by means of little quill or leather plectrums (rather than being struck by felt hammers). On the continent the instrument was being referred to as a “Clavicimbalum.” Princess Mary was a player of the instrument, and at the age of 4½, in July 1520, before a visiting French delegation, had given a public performance. HDT WHAT? INDEX JOHN HEYWOOD JOHN HEYWOOD 1526 HDT WHAT? INDEX JOHN HEYWOOD JOHN HEYWOOD In this year also, John Heywood received compensation for being a “player of the Virginals.”2 HDT WHAT? INDEX JOHN HEYWOOD JOHN HEYWOOD 2. This virginal was a small harpsichord popular during the 16th and 17th centuries. Its strings ran from side to side of its rectangular box, and were plucked by means of little quill or leather plectrums (rather than being struck by felt hammers). On the continent the instrument was being referred to as a “Clavicimbalum.” Princess Mary was a player of the instrument, and at the age of 4½, in July 1520, before a visiting French delegation, had given a public performance. HDT WHAT? INDEX JOHN HEYWOOD JOHN HEYWOOD 1528 Christmas: The initial royal quarterly payment to John Heywood against an “annual pension” of £10 per annum (such payments would be being recorded in the account books for 1528-1531, for 1538-1541, for 1545, and for 1547- 1551, all the records which still exist). HDT WHAT? INDEX JOHN HEYWOOD JOHN HEYWOOD 1529 It was perhaps in this year that John Heywood created “Pardoner and Frere.” March: A royal quarterly payment of 50s was made to John Heywood as “player at virginals.” Christmas: “A Play of Love,” possibly by John Heywood, was performed at Lincoln’s Inn. DATE: John Heywood’s “A Dialogue on Wit and Folly.” DIALOGUE ON WIT AND FOLLY HDT WHAT? INDEX JOHN HEYWOOD JOHN HEYWOOD 1530 By this point John Heywood had translated “La farce du pasté” from French into English as “Johan Johan.” In about this year his “The Play called the foure PP; a newe and a very mery interlude of a palmer, a pardoner, a potycary, a pedler” was being performed at court. Birth of Heywood’s son Ellis Heywood. January 20, Thursday (1529, Old Style): John Heywood, as a citizen and Stationer of London and one of the king’s servants, was presented as the “Comen Mesurer or meter of Lynnen Clothes” of the Mercers’ Company (though he never appears to have worked in any way with cloth). WHAT I’M WRITING IS TRUE BUT NEVER MIND YOU CAN ALWAYS LIE TO YOURSELF John Heywood “Stack of the Artist of Kouroo” Project HDT WHAT? INDEX JOHN HEYWOOD JOHN HEYWOOD 1533 John Heywood’s “The Mery Play betwene Johan Johan, the Husbande, Tyb, his Wyf, and Syr Jhan, the Preest.” THE MERY PLAY BETWENE... By this point hid “The Play of Love,” “The Mery Play between the Pardoner and the Frere, the Curate and Neybour Pratte” and “The Play of the Wether, a new and mery interlude of all maner of Wethers” were all being performed at court. W. Rastell printed “The Play called the foure PP; a newe and a very mery interlude of a palmer, a pardoner, a potycary, a pedler.” On New Year’s Day, Heywood received a “gilte cuppe with a cover weing xxiii oz” from King Henry VIII. During this year the monarch, who had fallen out of favor with Pope Clement VII due to his setting aside of Queen Consort Catherine of Aragón who had failed to provide him with a male heir and marriage to Anne Boleyn who was pregnant with his child (that would be another girl, Elizabeth), and had consequently declared himself to be the head of the Church of England and the Church of Ireland, declared that the princess Mary Stuart, as a product of Catherine of Aragón, was illegitimate and not in the royal succession, and would in the future be addressed by the court as “The Lady Mary” rather than as “Princess.” February 5, Wednesday (Old Style): The Ambassador of Holy Roman Emperor Charles V recorded the departure of the previous French Ambassador and the arrival of Dinteville. HDT WHAT? INDEX JOHN HEYWOOD JOHN HEYWOOD February 12, Wednesday (Old Style): W. Rastell printed John Heywood’s “Johan Johan” without attribution of HDT WHAT? INDEX JOHN HEYWOOD JOHN HEYWOOD authorship. HDT WHAT? INDEX JOHN HEYWOOD JOHN HEYWOOD HDT WHAT? INDEX JOHN HEYWOOD JOHN HEYWOOD February 24, Monday (Old Style): Anne Boleyn hosted a banquet for the French Ambassador. Shrovetide: John Heywood’s “The Play of the Wether, a new and mery interlude of all maner of Wethers” seems to have been performed at court. It would be printed in this year by W. Rastell.3 April 5, Saturday (Old Style): W. Rastell printed John Heywood’s “Pardoner and Frere” without attribution of authorship. July 11, Friday (Old Style): Pope Clement VII condemned King Henry VIII’s marriage to Anne Boleyn. It didn’t matter that she had been some three months with the princess Elizabeth. The monarch was given till September to return to Queen Consort Catherine of Aragón under threat of excommunication. Henry would respond by renouncing the Papal supremacy, and Thomas Cranmer, his Archbishop of Canterbury, would cooperatively declare the old marriage of Henry and Catherine to have been void and the new marriage of Henry and Anne to be real and lawful.