This review is specifically about one play, Fair Maid of the West or A Girl Worth Gold. This is a fun, silly play with lots of duels, disguises, sea battles, a breeches part, the King of Fez, etc. It must be incredibly exciting to see on stage--my mom saw it with Sean Bean in it, and said it was the most fun she ever had at the theater. My only complaint is that it seems extremely short--there's just not enough of the sorts of things that make breeches-part plays so fun--seems like it could be over in an hour or so. If I was going to stage it, I'd pad out the adventure sections, for sure.

On the other hand, I've only read part 1; that's all that my collection of Heywood plays includes. Apparently part 2 is far less fun. Bess Bridges (the titular character) doesn't have much to do--she's more passive than she is in this earlier section. I'll definitely read Part 2 when I get a chance, but I'm in no great hurry. It's not so terrible that I'm not reading them together; contemporary audiences had to wait as much as 30 years for Heywood to get to the second part. Maybe he decided, like I did, that the first Part felt a little skimpy on its own.

This, like the last play I read, The Plain Dealer, is another "virtue tested" play, where a woman's suitor consciously puts her in a position of temptation to see if she can remain loyal to him. It's far less mean spirited here than in The Plain Dealer. I guess that's partly a function of the changing tastes--from the ebullience of the Elizabethan era (Fair Maid was performed as early as 1597-1603--Queen Elizabeth was probably still alive) versus the cynicism of the Restoration (The Plain Dealer was first performed in 1676). I vastly prefer Fair Maid, though it's hard to deny that The Plain Dealer is in many ways more sophisticated, if less successful. ( )

A woman killed with kindness -- The fair maid of the west -- The English traveller -- The wise woman of Hogsdon -- The rape of Lucrece ( )