| The Wise Woman of Hoxton | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Written by | Thomas Heywood |
| Date premiered | c. 1604 |
| Original language | English |
| Genre | City comedy |
| Setting | Hoxton, London |
| [The Wise Woman of Hogsden at the Internet Archive Official site] | |
The Wise Woman of Hoxton is a city comedy by the early modern English playwright Thomas Heywood. It was published under the title The Wise-Woman of Hogsdon in 1638, though it was probably first performed c. 1604 by the Queen's Men company (of which Heywood was a shareholder), either at The Curtain or perhaps The Red Bull.[1] The play is set in Hoxton, an area that at the time was outside the boundaries of the city of London and notorious for its entertainments and recreations.[2] The Victorian critic F. G. Fleay suggested that Heywood, who was also an actor, originally played the part of Sencer.[3] It has often been compared with Ben Jonson's comic masterpiece The Alchemist (1610)—the poet T. S. Eliot, for example, argued that with this play Heywood "succeeds with something not too far below Jonson to be comparable to that master's work".[4]
- ^ Massai (2002, xi–xii) and McLuskie (1994, 2). The location is spelt both "Hogsdon" and "Hogsden" in the text published in 1638.
- ^ Massai (2002, 98). Hogsdon was an alternative spelling of Hoxton that was in use until the first half of the eighteenth century. References to the area in other early modern plays include Ben Jonson's The Alchemist (5.2.17–20) and Francis Beaumont's The Knight of the Burning Pestle (4.1.446–447).
- ^ Massai (2002, xiv).
- ^ Quoted by Massai (2002, xii–xiii).