John Heywood was an English dramatist and poet. He was a court entertainer to Henry VIII from 1519 onwards, singing, playing the virginals, and writing and producing plays. Heywood wrote the best English comedies of the early sixteenth century.
Career
Heywood was convicted of treason in 1544 but escaped death by denying papal authority. He presented plays before Edward VI, Mary, and Elizabeth I, but left England in 1564 and lived as a Roman Catholic at Mechelen, Antwerp, and in 1578, Louvain.
Works
comedy
The Four P's
The Pardoner and the Friar (1533)
Humorous dramatic debates
The Play of the Wether
The Play of Love
Witty and Witless
play
John John, Tib, and Sir John
poem
Proverbs (1546)
The Spider and the Fly (1556)
Epigrams (1556-1562)
Politics
Roman Catholic
Connections
His wife Joan was the daughter of the dramatist John Rastell, and the niece of Sir Thomas More, a good friend of Heywood's. His sons Ellis and Jasper, who entered the Jesuit order, were both authors, and his daughter Elizabeth became the mother of John Donne.