THE AUTHOR

John Heywood's A Play of the Weather (first printed by William Rastell in 1533) is, like Magnyfycence, a play set in a royal household, which deals with the conduct of the Sovereign in a personal monarchy. Like Hester, however, it is evidently also part of a wider debate about religion and politics.

There is little direct external evidence which helps to date the play. But what biographical information exists would point to the period between 1519 and 1533, and most probably to the late 1520s. The earlier date marks the first payment of substantial wages (100s. quarterly) which the author received at Court, the second the date of the play's first printing. Between these years, and for many years thereafter, Heywood lived and worked at Court, as a ‘singing man’, a ‘player of the virginals’ and as a Sewer of the Chamber. From this experience he gained the knowledge of the Household and its procedures which he displayed in Weather. In particular his appointment as Sewer of the Chamber in 1528 gave him the familiarity with Chamber procedures evident in the text. Thus it would seem most sensible to date the play after 1528, and probably, as what follows will suggest, in 1529–30, in that period immediately following the fall of Wolsey which also saw the writing of Hester.