A Woman Killed with Kindness

play by Heywood

Also known as: “A Woman Kilde with Kindnesse”

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July 15, 2026

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A Woman Killed with Kindness (1603) is a middle-class tragedy by Thomas Heywood. It is not a revenge tragedy, which was a popular form of English drama in the Elizabethan and Jacobean eras, often featuring a ghost and a bloody climax. Instead, Heywood's play focuses on domestic issues and the consequences of infidelity within a middle-class family. The play explores themes of betrayal and forgiveness, presenting a more realistic portrayal of human relationships and moral dilemmas than the sensationalism often found in revenge tragedies.12

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Thomas Heywood
His masterpiece, A Woman Killed with Kindness (1607), is one of the earliest middle-class tragedies. His plays were so popular that they were sometimes performed at two theatres simultaneously. His charming masque Love’s Mistress (1636) was seen by Charles I and his queen three times in eight…
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His masterpiece, A Woman Killed with Kindness (1607), is one of the earliest middle-class tragedies. His plays were so popular that they were sometimes performed at two theatres simultaneously. His charming masque Love’s Mistress (1636) was seen by Charles I and his queen three times in eight…
Read More

English literature
Playwrights after Shakespeare
His masterpiece, A Woman Killed with Kindness (1603), is a middle-class tragedy. Dekker was a kindred spirit, best seen in his Shoemakers’ Holiday (1599), a celebration of citizen brotherliness and Dick Whittington-like success; the play nevertheless faces squarely up to the hardships of work, thrift, and the…
Read More
His masterpiece, A Woman Killed with Kindness (1603), is a middle-class tragedy. Dekker was a kindred spirit, best seen in his Shoemakers’ Holiday (1599), a celebration of citizen brotherliness and Dick Whittington-like success; the play nevertheless faces squarely up to the hardships of work, thrift, and the…
Read More