that it was not the original), contains six hundred epigrams, of which three hundred are founded upon so many popular proverbs. It has been suggested that they are probably some of Heywood's and of other people's jokes versified; and Gabriel Harvey (ap. Warton, iv. 81, 2 n.) is cited for attributing some to Sir Thomas More. They show genuine wit as well as humour, and indicate a certain vein of pathos. In his ‘Dialogue conteyning the number of the effectual proverbes in the Englishe tounge …’ (printed seemingly as early as 1546; see Warton, iv. 83, 3 n.) Heywood draws upon a vast store of proverbs awkwardly inserted in a narrative dialogue. His ‘Proverbs,’ like the ‘Epigrams,’ were exceedingly popular, and were reproduced in many early editions (see the lines of Davies of Hereford and the good story of the Marquis of Winchester, and the proverb Heywood left out, ib. n. 4 and 2).
Heywood was not improbably prouder of his queer allegory of the ‘Spider and the Flie,’ printed in 1556. Critics both old and new (cited and approved by Warton, iv. 85 sqq.) agree in describing this production, containing ninety-eight chapters in the seven-line stanza, as a failure. The flies are supposed to signify the catholics and the spiders the protestants, Queen Mary being introduced as a maid executing with her broom (the civil sword) the commands of her (heavenly) master and of her mistress (holy church). Heywood also wrote a few ballads; that upon Mary already mentioned; one in commemoration of ‘the traytorous Takynge of Scarborow Castell,’ by Thomas Stafford in 1557 (reprinted in Harleian Miscellany, ed. Park, x. 257–9), and the ‘Willow Garland’ ballad, the refrain of which was known to Desdemona (reprinted in the Shakespeare Society's Papers, 1844, i. 44–6, from Mr. B. H. Bright's manuscript; see ib. and Warton, iv. 216 n. as to the difference between it and the ballad in Percy's ‘Reliques’).
John Heywood is mentioned, among other early Tudor writers notable for their ‘pretty and learned workes,’ in Webbe's ‘Discourse of English Poësie,’ 1586 (ap. Haslewood, Ancient Critical Essays upon English Poets and Poesy, 1815, ii. 34). Mr. Symonds rather too boldly suggests that he might be styled a prose Chaucer. He deserves respect for the freedom of spirit with which, though a devout catholic, he satirised the abuses of his church. An expression of melancholy has even been found in the woodcut portrait of Heywood accompanying the 1556 edition of ‘The Spider and the Flie,’ and the 1562 edition of his ‘Epigrams upon Proverbs,’ but this is solemn trifling, especially as in ‘The Spider and the Flie’ there are various smaller cuts representing the author.
His works are: 1. ‘A mery Play between the Pardoner and the Frere, the Curate and Neybour Pratte.’ Printed by Rastell, 1533 (unique copy in the library of the Duke of Devonshire). Facsimile reprint, 1820. Reprinted in ‘Four Old Plays,’ ed. Child, Cambridge, U.S.A., 1848, and in Hazlitt's ‘Dodsley,’ vol. i. 1874. 2. ‘A Mery Play between Johan the Husbande, Tyb the Wife, and Syr Jhan the Priest,’ by John Heywood. Printed by Rastell, 1533 (unique copy in the Ashmolean Museum at Oxford); and at the Chiswick Press, 1819. 3. ‘The Four P.P.,’ &c., by John Heywood. Printed, n.d., by William Middleton, 1569; and in Hazlitt's ‘Dodsley,’ vol. i. 1874, and elsewhere. 4. ‘The Play of the Wether, a new and a very mery interlude of all maner of Wethers,’ made by John Heywood. Printed 1533. A copy exists at St. John's College, Oxford. There is another edition printed by Robert Wyer. A full account of it by Dr. Bliss is reproduced by Fairholt. 5. ‘The Play of Love, an interlude by John Heywood. Printed at London in Farster Laen by John Waley.’ A copy is in the Bodleian Library, and an account is given by Fairholt. 6. ‘A Dialogue on Wit and Folly,’ by John Heywood. Printed from the original manuscript in the British Museum, with an account of the author and his dramatic works, and nearly complete reprints of Nos. 1 and 2, by F. W. Fairholt. Percy Society's Publications, vol. xx. 1846. 7. ‘A dialogue conteyning the number of the effectuall prouerbes in the Englishe tounge, compact in a matter concernynge two maner of maryages. With one hundred of Epigrammes, and three hundred of Epigrammes vpon three hundred prouerbes; and a fifth hundred of Epigrams. Wherevnto are now newly added a syxt hundred of Epigrams, by the sayde John Heywood,’ London, 1562, 1576, 1587, 1598. Reprinted for the Spenser Society, 1867. The ‘Proverbs’ have also been edited, with an Introduction, by Mr. Julian Sharman, London, 1874. 8. ‘The Spider and the Flie,’ London, 1556, with woodcuts. Of Heywood's ballads many are stated by Collier to have been contained in a manuscript volume formerly belonging to Mr. B. Heywood Bright, but now no longer extant.
