View source for Jasper Heywood

{{Short description|English Jesuit priest (1535–1598)}}
{{More footnotes needed|date=March 2024}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=June 2022}}
{{Use British English|date=March 2012}}
'''Jasper Heywood''' (1535 &ndash; 9 January 1598) was an English [[Society of Jesus|Jesuit]] [[Catholic priest|priest]]. He is known as the English translator of three Latin plays of [[Seneca the Younger|Seneca]], the ''[[Troades (Seneca)|Troas]]'' (1559), the ''[[Thyestes (Seneca)|Thyestes]]'' (1560) and ''[[Hercules (Seneca)|Hercules Furens]]'' (1561).
==Life==
He was son of [[John Heywood]], and became a fellow of [[Merton College, Oxford]], but was compelled to resign in 1558. In the same year he was elected a fellow of [[All 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 to [[Rome]], where he was received into the [[Society of Jesus]].{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}
For seventeen years he was professor of [[moral theology]] and controversy in the [[University of Dillingen|Jesuit College]] at [[Dillingen an der Donau|Dillingen]], in present-day [[Bavaria]]. In 1581 he was sent to [[England]] as superior of the Jesuit mission, but his leniency in that position led to his recall.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}
On his way back to [[Continental Europe|the Continent]], a violent storm drove him back to the English coast. He was arrested on the charge of being a [[Catholic priest|priest]], but, although 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 9 January 1598.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}} His nephew was the poet and preacher [[John Donne]].
==Works==
Heywood's verse translations of Seneca were supplemented by other plays contributed by [[Alexander Neville (scholar)|Alexander Neville]], [[Thomas Nuce]], [[John Studley]] and [[Thomas Newton (poet)|Thomas 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 overestimated.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911}}
He also wrote four poems published in 1576 in the Elizabethan collection known as ''The Paradise of Dainty Devices''.
==See also==
*[[Canons of Elizabethan poetry]]
==References==
{{reflist}}
*{{EB1911|wstitle=Heywood, John|display=Heywood, John ''s.v.'' Jasper Heywood|volume=13|page=439}}
*Dr. J.W. Cunliffe, ''On the Influence of Seneca upon Elizabethan Tragedy'' (1893).
*{{cite CE1913|wstitle=Jasper and John Heywood}}
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{{s-ttl|title=Vice-Prefect of the English Mission<br>of the [[Society of Jesus]]<br>residing in England|years=1581–1583}}
{{s-aft|after=[[William Weston (Jesuit)|William Weston]]}}
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[[Category:1535 births]]
[[Category:1598 deaths]]
[[Category:Converts to Roman Catholicism]]
[[Category:English Catholic poets]]
[[Category:English classical scholars]]
[[Category:Fellows of All Souls College, Oxford]]
[[Category:Fellows of Merton College, Oxford]]
[[Category:16th-century English educators]]
[[Category:16th-century English Jesuits]]
[[Category:16th-century English poets]]
[[Category:16th-century English scholars]]
[[Category:Poet priests]]