A Woman Killed with Kindness

Author(s): Heywood, Thomas
Date of composition:
  • 1603
Date of first performance: 1603 approx.
Date of first publication: 1607
Genre (Annals): Tragedy

Catalogue references: Wiggins: 1393 (Vol. 5)
HIERONIMO/EMOTHE text(s): 1963 modern edition by Robert Lawrence.
  • 1607 quarto Jaggard, William Hodgets, John Printed title: A WOMAN KILDE with Kindnesse single-play print
  • 1617 quarto Jaggard, Isaac; Jaggard, William Printed title: A WOMAN KILDE with Kindnesse single-play print
      ESTC: S104079 13372 503 258b
      EEBO-TCP: Huntington Library - EEBO record TCP HTML XML
      Observations: The imprint labels this edition as "the third edition".

  • STC/WING:
  • ESTC:
  • DEEP:
  • Greg:
  • Wiggins:

Early Performances

  • Company: The Earl of Worcerster's Men Venue: The Rose playhouse Date: 1603
    Cast:
      Location: Venue type: commercial theatre
      Note: February or March. "By 1617 the play had been 'oftentimes acted' by Queen Anne's Men" (Wiggins, vol.5, p.1603).
      Information source: Wiggins, Martin. British Drama 1533-1642: A Catalogue. Volume 4: 1598-1602. 2014.

    Modern Productions

    • Dramatic Student’s Society. Olympic Theatre. 1887
    • Copeau, Jacques, dir. Perf. Jacques Copeau (Wendoll), Blanche Albane (Anne). Théâtre du Vieux-Colombier, Paris. Translated by Jacques Copeau.
    • Birmingham Repertory Theatre. 1922.
    • Ayliff, H.K., dir. Perf. Ralph Richardson, Robert Donat (Wendoll) and Miriam Adams. Malvern Festival. 1931.
    • Felton, Felix, dir. 13 Apr. 1947. Radio production. Perf. the cast included Peter Ustinov and Griselda Hervey.
    • Craig, H. A. L., dir. 28 Feb.1955. Radio production.
    • Raikes, Raymond, adapt., prod.1 Feb. 1959. Radio production.
    • Dexter, John, dir. Perf. Anthony Hopkins (Frankford); Joan Plowright (Anne); Frank Barrie (Wendoll); Derek Jacobi (Sir Charles); Tom Baker (Sir Francis); Tom Georgeson (Roger Brickbat). National Theatre. 1971.
    • Gold, Penny, dir, adapt. Perf. including Nigel Anthony, Paola Dionisotti, Edward Kelsey, Colin Jeavons, James Laurenson, and Tom Wilkinson. 6 Jun. 1985. BBC World Service Radio play.
    • Williams, Enyd, dir. 9 Nov. 1985. BBC World Service Radio play. Adapted by Enyd Williams.
    • Royal Shakespeare Company. Dir. Katie Mitchell. Perf. Michael Maloney (Frankford); Saskia Reeves (Anne); Barry Lynch (Wendoll); Jonathan Cullen (Sir Charles); Sylvestra le Touzel (Susan); Valentine Pelka (Sir Francis); Sean Murray (Nicholas); Kenn Sabberton (Jenkin). The Other Place, Stratford-upon-Avon. 1991.
    • Northern Broadsides. Dir. Barrie Rutter. Perf. Richard Standing (Frankford); Maeve Larkin (Anne); John Gully (Wendoll); Adam Suderland (Nicholas); Andrew Vicent (Sir Charles); Paul Barnhill (Sir Francis). 2003.

    Modern editions

    • Kidnie, Margaret Jane, ed. A Woman Killed with Kindness. Heywood, Thomas. London: Bloomsbury, 2017. Arden Early Modern Drama.
    • Heywood, Thomas A Woman Killed with Kindness. In: Wiggins, Martin, ed. A Woman Killed with Kindness and Other Domestic Plays. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008, pp. 69–128. (Oxford World Classics series).
    • Barker, Simon; Hinds, Hillary, ed. The Routledge Anthology of Renaissance Drama. London: Routledge, 2003.
    • Bevington, David; Engle, Lars; Eisaman Maus, Katharine; Rasmussen, Eric, ed. English Renaissance Drama: A Norton Anthology. London and New York: W.W. Norton, 2002.
    • Kinney, Arthur F., ed. Renaissance Drama: An Anthology of Plays and Entertainments. Malden: Blackwell, 1999.
    • Scobie, Brian, ed. A Woman Killed with Kindness. Heywood, Thomas. London: A & C Black, 1985. New Mermaids.
    • Fraser, Russell A.; Rabkin, Norman, ed. Drama of the English Renaissance II: The Stuart Period. New York: Macmillan Publishing Co. Inc., 1976.
    • Lawrence, Robert G, ed. Early Seventeenth Century Drama. London: J. M. Dent & Sons, 1963. Everyman’s Library.
    • van Fossen, R. W., ed. A Woman Killed with Kindness. Heywood, Thomas. London: Methuen, 1961. The Revels Plays.
    • Brooke, Charles F. Tucker; Paradise, Nathaniel Burton, ed. English Drama 1580-1642. Boston: Heath, 1933.
    • Spencer, Hazelton,, ed. Elizabethan Plays. Boston: D. C. Heath and Company, 1933.
    • Matthews, Brander; Leider, Paul Robert, ed. The Chief British Dramatists Excluding Shakespeare. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1924.

    Select Bibliography: Translations

    • FR:
      • Heywood, Thomas. "Une Femme tuée par la bonté". Tra. Iselin, Pierre. Ed. Cottegnies, Line; Laroque, François; Maguin, Jean-Marie. Théâtre élisabéthain. Paris: Gallimard, 2009. Vol. 1.
    • IT:
      • Heywood, Thomas. Una donna uccisa con la dolcezza. Tra. Linati, Carlo. Milano: Rosa e Ballo Editori, 1945.
    • DE:
      • Heywood, Thomas. Anne Frankford, oder Eine Frau, die an des Gatten Güte starb. Tra. Günther, Frank. Köln-Marienburg: Kiepenheuer & Witsch Bühnenverlag, 1973 ?.

    Select Bibliography: Criticism

    • Smid, Deanna. "Broken Lutes and Passionate Bodies in ''A Woman Killed with Kindness'". Renaissance and Reformation/Renaissance et Réforme. 2015, vol. 2, 38, p. 93-120.
    • Floyd-Wilson, Mary. "'Some fury pricks me on': satanic thinking in Thomas Heywood's ''A Woman Killed with Kindness". Ed. Johnson, Laurie; Sutton, John; Tribble, Evelyn. Embodied cognition and Shakespeare's theatre: the Early Modern body-mind. New York: Routledge, 2014, p. 71-85.
    • Malague, Rosemary. "Theatrical Realism as Feminist Intervention: Katie Mitchell's 2011 Staging of ''A Woman Killed with Kindness'". Shakespeare Bulletin: A Journal of Performance Criticism and Scholarship. 2013, vol. 4, 31, p. 623-645.
    • Balizet, Ariane M. "The Cuckold's Blazon: Dismemberment and Domesticity in 'Arden of Faversham' and 'A Woman Killed with Kindness'". Ed. Uman, Deborah; Morrison, Sara. Staging the Blazon in Early Modern English Theater. Farnham: Ashgate, 2013, p. 97-108.
    • Kidnie, Margaret Jane. "'We really can't be doing 1603 now. We really can't': Katie Mitchell, Theatrical Adaptation, and Heywood's 'A Woman Killed with Kindness'". Shakespeare Bulletin. 2013, vol. 4, 31, p. 647-668.
    • Diez, Jose A. Perez. "'A Woman Killed with Kindness'". Shakespeare Bulletin. 2012, vol. 2, 30, p. 212-217.
    • Cardullo, Robert. "The First Production of Thomas Heywood's 'A Woman Killed with Kindness'". Studia Neophilologica: A Journal of Germanic and Romance Languages and Literature. 2011, vol. 2, 83, p. 199-210.
    • Miller, Erin; Forse, James H. "The Failure to Be a Good Husband in Thomas Heywood's Edward IV (Parts I/II) and 'A Woman Killed with Kindness'". Ben Jonson Journal: Literary Contexts in the Age of Elizabeth, James and Charles. 2011, vol. 2, 18, p. 154-173.
    • Mathur, Maya. "Divorcing Kin and Kind: Selective Generosity in ''A Woman Killed with Kindness'". Early Modern Literary Studies: A Journal of Sixteenth- and Seventeenth-Century English Literature. 2011, vol. 3, 15, .
    • Stephen, Scott. "'Some Will Judge Too Trivial, Some Too Grave': Audience and Interpretation in Thomas Heywood's ''A Woman Killed with Kindness'". Skepsi. 2009, vol. 1, 2, p. 36-48.
    • Hopkins, Lisa. "Maternity in 'A Woman Killed with Kindness'". Ed. Moncrief, Kathryn M.; McPherson, Kathryn R.. Performing Maternity in Early Modern England. Aldershot: Ashgate, 2007, p. 73-84.
    • Creaser, Sharon. "Public and Private Performance of Guilt in Thomas Heywood's 'A Woman Killed with Kindness'". Dalhousie Review. 2005, vol. 2, 85, p. 284-94.
    • Green, Reina. "Open Ears, Appetite, and Adultery in 'A Woman Killed with Kindness'". English Studies in Canada. 2005, vol. 4, 31, p. 53-74.
    • Mejia-LaPerle, Carol. "Domestic Rhetors of an Early Modern Family: Female Persuasions in 'A Woman Killed with Kindness'". Ed. Voaden, Rosalyn; Wolfthal, Diane. Framing the Family: Narrative and Representation in the Medieval and Early Modern Periods. Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 2005, p. 39-54.
    • Frey, Christopher; Lieblein, Leanore. "'My Breasts Sear'd': The Self-Starved Female Body and 'A Woman Killed with Kindness". Early Theatre: A Journal Associated with the Records of Early English Drama. 2004, vol. 1, 7, p. 45-66.
    • Knowles, Ric. "Teaching History, Teaching Difference, Teaching by Directing Heywood's 'A Woman Killed with Kindness'". Ed. Bamford, Karen; Leggatt, Alexander. Approaches to Teaching English Renaissance Drama. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2002, p. 99-105.
    • Richardson, Catherine. "Properties of Domestic Life: The Table in Heywood's 'A Woman Killed with Kindness'". Ed. Harris, Jonathan Gil; Korda, Natasha. Staged Properties in Early Modern English Drama. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2002, p. 129-52.
    • McClintock, Michael. "Grief, Theater and Society in Thomas Heywood's 'A Woman Killed with Kindness'". Ed. Swiss, Margo; Kent, David A.. Speaking Grief in English Literary Culture: Shakespeare to Milton. Pittsburgh: Duquesne UP, 2002, p. 98-118.
    • Haslem, Lori Schroeder. "Tragedy and the Female Body: A Materialist Approach to Heywood's 'A Woman Killed with Kindness' and Webster's 'The Duchess of Malfi'". Ed. Bamford, Karen; Leggatt, Alexander. Approaches to Teaching English Renaissance Drama. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2002, p. 142-49.
    • De Vroom, Theresia. "Humor in Heywood's Tragic Farce of Adultery: 'A Woman Killed with Kindness' (1603)". Tudor Theatre: For laughs (?)/Pour rire (?): Puzzling Laughter in Plays of the Tudor Age/Rires et problèmes dans le théâtre des Tudor. Bern: Peter Lang, 2002, p. 275-300.
    • Bennett, Lyn. "The Homosocial Economics of 'A Woman Killed with Kindness'". Renaissance and Reformation/Renaissance et Réforme. 2000, vol. 2, 24, p. 35-61.
    • McQuade, Paula. "'A Labyrinth of Sin': Marriage and Moral Capacity in Thomas Heywood's 'A Woman Killed with Kindness'". Modern Philology: A Journal Devoted to Research in Medieval and Modern Literature. 2000, vol. 2, 98, p. 231-50.
    • Sebek, Barbara. "'By Gift of My Chaste Body': Female Chastity and Exchange Value in 'Measure for Measure' and 'A Woman Killed with Kindness'". Journal x: A Journal in Culture and Criticism. 2000, vol. 1-2, 5, p. 51-85.
    • Chun, Eun-Kyung. "Thomas Heywood's 'A Woman Killed with Kindness': A Comedy and Its Janus Face". Milton Studies: The Journal of the Milton Studies in Korea. 1999, vol. 2, 9, p. 449-69.
    • Bach, Rebecca Ann. "The Homosocial Imaginary of 'A Woman Killed with Kindness'". Textual Practice. 1998, vol. 3, 12, p. 503-24.
    • Rossini, Manuela S. "The New Domestic Ethic in English Renaissance Drama: Thomas Heywood's 'A Woman Killed with Kindness'". Ed. Despard, Annabelle. A Woman's Place: Women, Domesticity, and Private Life. {Falta nombre ciudad}: {Falta nombre editorial}, 1998, p. 106-17.
    • Moisan, Thomas. "Framing with Kindness: The Transgressive Theatre of 'A Woman Killed with Kindness'". Ed. Johnston, Georgia. Essays on Transgressive Readings: Reading over the Lines. Lewiston: Mellen Press, 1997, p. 171-84.
    • Christensen, Ann. "Business, Pleasure, and the Domestic Economy in Heywood's 'A Woman Killed with Kindness'". Exemplaria: A Journal of Theory in Medieval and Renaissance Studies. 1997, vol. 2, 9, p. 315-40.
    • Hopkins, Lisa. "'A Woman Killed with Kindness': Author's Response". Connotations: A Journal for Critical Debate. 1996, vol. 1, 6, p. 92-94.
    • Wiseman, S. J. "More on Reading 'Domestic' Tragedy and 'A Woman Killed with Kindness': Another Response to Lisa Hopkins". Connotations: A Journal for Critical Debate. 1996, vol. 1, 6, p. 86-91.
    • Henderson, Diana E. "'A Woman Killed with Kindness' and Domesticity, False or True: A Response to Lisa Hopkins". Connotations: A Journal for Critical Debate. 1995, vol. 1, 5, p. 50-54.
    • Wentworth, Michael. "Thomas Heywood's 'A Woman Killed with Kindness' and the Genetics of Genre Formation: A Response to Lisa Hopkins". Connotations: A Journal for Critical Debate. 1995, vol. 1, 5, p. 55-68.
    • Panek, Jennifer. "Punishing Adultery in 'A Woman Killed with Kindness'". SEL: Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900. 1994, vol. 2, 34, p. 357-78.
    • Hopkins, Lisa. "The False Domesticity of 'A Woman Killed with Kindness'". Connotations: A Journal for Critical Debate. 1994, vol. 1-2, 4, p. 1-7.
    • Gutierrez, Nancy A. "Exorcism by Fasting in 'A Woman Killed with Kindness': A Paradigm of Puritan Resistance?". Research Opportunities in Renaissance Drama. 1994, vol. 1-2, 33, p. 43-62.
    • Wentworth, Michael. "Thomas Heywood's 'A Woman Killed with Kindness' as Domestic Morality". Ed. Allen, David G.; White, Robert A. Traditions and Innovations: Essays on British Literature of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Newark: U of Delaware P--Associated UP, 1990, p. 150-162.
    • Wentworth, Michael. "Thomas Heywood's 'A Woman Killed with Kindness' as Domestic Morality". Ed. Allen, David G.; White, Robert A.. Traditions and Innovations: Essays on British Literature of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. {Falta nombre ciudad}: {Falta nombre editorial}, 1990, p. 150-162.
    • Gutierrez, Nancy A. "The Irresolution of Melodrama: The Meaning of Adultery in 'A Woman Killed with Kindness'". Exemplaria: A Journal of Theory in Medieval and Renaissance Studies. 1989, vol. 2, 1, p. 265-291.
    • Atkinson, David. "An Approach to the Main Plot of Thomas Heywood's 'A Woman Killed with Kindness'". English Studies: A Journal of English Language and Literature. 1989, vol. 1, 70, p. 15-27.
    • Hoffman, Dean A. "'Both Bodily Deth and Werdly Shame': 'Little Musgrave and Lady Barnard' as a Source for 'A Woman Killed with Kindness'". Comparative Drama. 1989, vol. 2, 23, p. 166-78.
    • Bromley, Laura G. "Domestic Conduct in 'A Woman Killed with Kindness'". SEL: Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900. 1986, vol. 2, 26, p. 259-76.
    • Henderson, Diana E. "Many Mansions: Reconstructing 'A Woman Killed with Kindness'". SEL: Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900. 1986, vol. 2, 26, p. 277-94.
    • Kiefer, Frederick. "Heywood as Moralist in 'A Woman Killed with Kindness'". Medieval & Renaissance Drama in England: An Annual Gathering of Research, Criticism and Reviews. 1986, 3, p. 83-98.
    • Rudnytsky, Peter L. "'A Woman Killed with Kindness' as Subtext of 'Othello'". Renaissance Drama. 1983, 14, p. 103-124.
    • Ornstein, Robert. "Bourgeois Morality and Dramatic Convention in 'A Woman Killed with Kindness'". Ed. Henning, Standish; Kimbrough, Robert; Knowles, Richard. English Renaissance Drama: Essays in Honor of Madeleine Doran & Mark Eccles. Carbondale: Southern Illinois UP, 1976, p. 128-41.
    • Rauchbauer, Otto. "Visual and Rhetorical Imagery in Th. Heywood's 'A Woman Killed with Kindness'". English Studies: A Journal of English Language and Literature. 1976, 57, p. 200-10.
    • Ornstein, Robert. "Bourgeois Morality and Dramatic Convention in 'A Woman Killed with Kindness'". Ed. Henning, Standish; Kimbrough, Robert; Knowles, Richard. English Renaissance Drama: Essays in Honor of Madeleine Doran & Mark Eccles. London: Southern Illinois UP, 1976, p. 128-41.
    • Bryan, Margaret B. "Food Symbolism in 'A Woman Killed with Kindness'". Renaissance Papers. 1974, 9-17, .
    • Cary, Cecile W. "'Go Break This Lute': Music in Heywood's 'A Woman Killed with Kindness'". Huntington Library Quarterly: A Journal for the History and Interpretation of English and American Civilization. 1974, 37, p. 111-22.
    • Canuteson, John. "The Theme of Forgiveness in the Plot and Subplot of 'A Woman Killed with Kindness'". Renaissance Drama Evanston. 1969, 2, p. 123-141.
    • McDermott, John J. "Henryson's 'Testament of Cresseid' and Heywood's 'A Woman Killed with Kindness'". Renaissance Quarterly. 1967, vol. 1, 20, p. 16-21.
    • Coursen, Herbert R., Jr. "The Subplot of 'A Woman Killed with Kindness'". English Language Notes. 1965, 2, p. 180-185.
    • Cook, David. "'A Woman Killed with Kindness': An Unshakespearian Tragedy". English Studies: A Journal of English Language and Literature. 1964, 45, p. 353-372.
    • Spacks, Patricia Meyer. "Honor and Perception in 'A Woman Killed with Kindness'". Modern Language Quarterly. 1959, 20, p. 321-332.
    • McNeir, Waldo F. "Heywood's Sources for the Main Plot of 'A Woman Killed with Kindness'". Ed. Studies in the English Renaissance Drama: In Memory of Karl Julius Holzknecht. Tra. Bennett, Josephine W. {Falta título libro}. {Falta nombre ciudad}: {Falta nombre editorial}, 1959, p. 189-211.
    • Smith, Hallett D. "'A Woman Killed with Kindness'". PMLA: Publications of the Modern Language Association of America. 1938, vol. 1, 53, p. 138-47.
    • Mukherji, Subha. "'Unmanly Indignities': Adultery, Evidence and Judgement in Heywood's 'A Woman Killed with Kindness'". Ed. Sheen, Erica; Hutson, Lorna. Literature, Politics and Law in Renaissance England. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, {Falta año pub}, p. 71-99.

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