In the tragic plot, the newly returned (and titular 'English Traveller') Young Geraldine is beloved by his friend Dalavill, his father Old Geraldine, his father's friend Wincott, and Wincott's Wife, who was Young Geraldine's childhood friend. Along with a dedicatory epistle to Sir Henry Appleton, the playbook also features a biographically-significant epistle “To the Reader,” which indicates both Heywood's boast about his contributions to English drama ('an entire hand or at least a maine finger in two hundred and twenty plays') and his rather modest aspirations for his drama's publication. Its title page states that the tragicomedy appears “s it hath beene Publikely acted at the Cock-pit in Drury Lane,” referring to the Cockpit Theatre, a prominent seventeenth-century theater. The quarto of 1633 is the only surviving early edition in any format. According to the Stationers' Register, The English Traveller was entered to the printer Nicholas Okes on 15 July 1633, the entry reading 'a Comedy called the Traveller by Mr Heywood'. The play was first performed by Queen Henrietta's Men, an important company of players in Caroline England, and for which Heywood wrote other plays. Critics have recognized this as an important work of drama for its generic experimentation, for its investigation of the relationship between appearances and reality, and for its commentary on Renaissance households. In the comic plot, the rascal servant Reignald attempts an elaborate cover-up for Young Lionell's drunken party once his father returns from his mercantile voyages. In the tragic plot, the recently returned traveler Young Geraldine contemplates forbidden love with the wife of his father's friend Wincott.

The play was first performed around the year 1627, and the first printed edition came out in 1633.Ĭonsisting of two mostly self-contained, but thematically connected plots, one tragic and one comic, it trafficks in the elements of both city comedy and domestic tragedy. The English Traveller is a seventeenth-century tragicomedy in five acts written by Thomas Heywood, and named as such by the playwright. Please consider expanding the lead to provide an accessible overview of all important aspects of the article. This article's lead section may be too short to adequately summarize the key points.

The english passengers