Three Elizabethan Domestic Tragedies
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Elizabethan domestic tragedies depicted the workings of Fortune in the lives of ordinary people, telling stories of sin, discovery, punishment and divine mercy, with their settings and characterization often enhanced by a highly entertaining blend of realism and sensationalism. Only some half-dozen survive to offset the dramas of kings and nobles in the tragedies of Shakespeare and his peers. They combined journalism and entertainment with a didactic concern, and their plots were often derived from contemporary events. Arden of Faversham (1592) and A Yorkshire Tragedy (1608) are both based on chronicles or pamphlets describing authentic murders, while A Woman Killed with Kindness (1603) by Thomas Heywood is a fictional creation, considered his masterpiece.
Thomas Heywood was probably born in Lincolnshire in the 1570s. He is recorded as having written a play for the Admiral's Men in 1596 and was regularly engaged as a player in various companies. As a writer, his output was prolific and ranged from domestic tragedies such as A Woman Killed With Kindness, to histories, comedies and prose works, including An Apology for Actors. He was buried in Clerkenwell, London in 1641.
Keith Sturgess was Lecturer in English Literature at the Universities of Khartoum and Lancaster, and subsequently Director of the Nuffield Theatre Studio, Lancaster and Head of the Department of Theatre Studies.