Who was Thomas Heywood?
Why was he important to the Elizabethan era theatre and how does he still impact today’s theatre? Thomas Heywood was born in 1572 in the town of Lincolnshire. Unfortunately, very little information is known about his life. (Kunitz 268) However, he is believed to be the son of a clergyman named Robert Heywood who was the head of a very close-knit family. (“Thomas Heywood”) Little is known of his life while he was growing up, but he is believed to have enrolled at Emmanuel College in Cambridge in the year 1591. It is known that he never received a degree from the college but why he did not is still a mystery. Some believe that he dropped out of the school due to his father’s death in the year 1593. Immediately he began what would end up being his long career in the theatre business.
