Thomas Heywood's life and work were judiciously described about a quarter of a century ago by A. M. Clark. Born in Rothwell or Ashby, Lincolnshire, to the Reverend Robert and Elizabeth Heywood in 1573 or 1574, Heywood came from a Cheshire family that had some claim to gentility. Clark suggests that Heywood was "a man destined for the Church whom the accidents of the time rushed into dramatic journalism." There seems to be an association between Heywood's father's profession and the son's education and drama. Heywood was almost certainly one of the Heywoods who studied at Cambridge University, most likely at Emmanuel College, "the stronghold of Puritanism," circa 1591-1593. Though it has been suggested that he was a Fellow of Peterhouse, he is not recorded as being such, and his affiliation with the college is improbable.

Heywood seems to have started with "play-patching," as Clark aptly puts it, about 1594 or...