Jasper Heywood

a quaint Poet in his younger days, Son of Joh. Heywood the Famous Epigramatist of his time, was born in London, sent to the University at about 12 years of age, an. 1547. educated in Grammar, as well as in Logic, there, took a degree in Arts in 1553. and forthwith was elected Probationer-Fellow of Merton coll. where remaining about 5 years, (in all which time he bare away the Bell in disputations at home and in the publick Schools,) did, upon a third admonition from the Warden and Society of that house for several misdemeanors, (for he and his Brother Ellis Heywood were for a time very wild, to the great grief of their Father,) resign his Fellowship, to prevent expulsion, on the 4. Apr. 1558. In June following he took the degree of Master, and in Nov. ensuing, he was elected Fellow of Alls. coll. where abiding for a little while, left the University, and soon after England, and entred himself into the Society of Jesus. But before he left us he wrote and translated these things following.

Various Poems and Devises.—Some of which are Printed in a Book intit. The Paradise of dainty Devises. Collected and Printed by Hen. D’isle of London Printer, an. 1573. in qu. He also translated into English Verse (1) Thiestes, the second Tragedy of Seneca. Lond. 1560. oct. Published again with other Tragedies of that author, by Thom. Newton.—Lond. 1581. qu. as I shall tell you when I come to him, in an. 1607. (2) Hercules furens, another Trag. of Seneca: And (3) Troas a third, published also by the said Newton, 1581. qu. In 1561. our Poet left England, and was made a Priest after the R. Cath. fashion, and in 1562. being then at Rome, he was entred into the Society of Jesus 21. May, in the then professed house of the Jesuits there. After he had spent two years in the study of Divinity among them, he was sent to Diling in Switzerland, where he continued about 17 years in explaining and discussing controverted questions among those he called Hereticks, in which time he was promoted to the degree of D. of Divinity, and of the four Vows. At length P. Gregory 13. calling him away in 1581. he sent him, with others the same year, into the mission of England, and the rather, because the Brethren there told his Holiness, That the Harvest was great, and the Labourers few. Being setled then in the Metropolis of his own Country, and esteemed the Chief or Provincial of the Jesuits in England, it was noted (c)(c) See in Tho. Bell’s Anatomy of Pepish Tyranny. Lond. 1603. lib. 1. p. 9. and in lib. 2. p. 25. by all that knew him, That he kept many Men, Horses, and Coaches, that also his port and carriage was more Baron-like than Priest-like, &c. At length going into France about publick matters relating to the Order, was, when ready to land in Normandy, drove back by a contrary wind on the English shore; where being taken and examined, was, with 19 more R. Priests put into a Ship, and set on shore in France, in Feb. 1584. Upon his being taken and committed to Prison, and the Earl of Warwick’s offer thereupon to relieve his necessity, he made a copy of verses, mentioned by a noted (d)(d) Sir Jo. Harr [•] ngton in his Epigrams, lib. 3. Epig. 1. Poet of his time, concluding with these two:

—Thanks to that Lord that will me good; For I want all things saving Hay and Wood. Afterwards he went to the City of Dole, where he was troubled much with Witches, thence to Rome, and at length fixed in the City of Naples, where, as at Rome he became familiarly known to that zealous R. Catholick Joh. Pitseus, who speaks by the by very honourably of him. What he wrote or published after he became a Jesuit, I know not. Sure it is, if one (e)(e) Hen. Morus in Hist. [•] rovinc. Argl. Soc. Jesu. lib. 4. nu. 11. sub an. 158 [•] . says true, that this our author was most critical in the Hebrew Language, and that he did make and digest an easie and short method (reduced into Tables) for Novices to learn that Language; which I suppose was a Compendium of a Hebrew Grammar. He paid his last debt to Nature at Naples on the 9. of Jan. according to the accompt there followed, in fifteen hundred ninety and eight,1597-98. which is 97 with us, and was buried, as I have been informed, in the college of the Jesuits there. He left behind him several of his Labours in writing, some of which are preserved as rarities; but whether any of them have been since printed, I cannot justly tell. His elder Brother Ellis Heywood, I have mentioned before, under the year 1272. num. 180.