A Woman Killed with Kindness: Revised Edition

by Thomas Heywood

Book Overview

"Here lies she whom her husband's kindness killed"

This is the epitaph, in golden letters, Master John Frankford proposes for the tomb of his wife, Anne, who has just starved herself to death. Frankford congratulates himself on the clever means by which he has brought his wife to repentance-and got rid of her.

The marriage is comfortable, if uneventful, until Frankford gives his friend Wendoll the free use of his table and...

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0713677775
• ISBN13: 9780713677775
• Release Date: September 2012
• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Length: 144 Pages
• Weight: 0.34 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.0" x 7.8"

Customer Reviews

Heywood's masterpiece

Heywood was a very prolific contemporary of Shakespeare. This play is one of his best, and is quite often revived for performance over in the British Isles. It is an intriguing story of love, friendship, hate, disloyalty, and treachery. Heywood skillfully walks us through the emotions, and there are few surprises lurking in the text, as not everything happens as we expect, and the price of honor turns out to be high, but not higher then of love. As is the custom of Elizabethean drama we have a main plot, and we also have a subplot, which serves to highlight the main plot. These two are complimentary, and highlight each others failings very nicely. When characters of the main plot make the wrong choices, the sub plot shows us the right choice in a similar situation, and thus the play is doubly effective. Highly recommended to see that there were other great playwrights besides Shakespeare in the Elizabethean drama, and that they are only unknown today, because Shakespeare was such a giant, that he overshadows, even very competent writers, who would have shinned brightly in any other period.