- Jasper Heywood
Jasper Heywood, SJ (1535 –
January 9 ,1598 ), son ofJohn Heywood , translated into English three plays of Seneca, the "Troas" (1559), the "Thyestes" (1560) and "Hercules Furens" (1561).He was a fellow of
Merton College, Oxford , but was compelled to resign from that society in 1558. In the same year he was elected a fellow ofAll Souls College , but, refusing to conform to the changes in religion at the beginning of the reign of Elizabeth I, he gave up his fellowship and went toRome where he was received into theSociety of Jesus .For seventeen years he was professor of moral
theology and controversy in the Jesuit College atDillingen ,Bavaria . In 1581 he was sent toEngland as superior of the Jesuit mission, but his leniency in that position led to his recall.On his way back to the Continent, a violent storm drove him back to the English coast. He was arrested on the charge of being a priest, but, although extraordinary efforts were made to induce him to abjure his opinions, he remained firm. He was condemned to perpetual exile on pain of death, and died at
Naples on the 9th of January 1598.His translations of Seneca were supplemented by other plays contributed by
Alexander Neville ,Thomas Nuce ,John Studley andThomas Newton . Newton collected these translations in one volume, "Seneca, his tenne tragedies translated into Englysh" (1581). The importance of this work in the development of English drama can hardly be over-estimated.His nephew was the poet and preacher
John Donne .References
*Dr. J.W. Cunliffe, "On the Influence of Seneca upon Elizabethan Tragedy" (1893).
*CathEncy|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/07319a.htm|title=Jasper and John Heywoodee also
*
Canons of Elizabethan poetry
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