Rowland (drama and English, U. of York, England) argues that the difficulty of establishing the relationship between text and performance is more acute with Heywood (1573-1641) than with any of his contemporaries. He attributes this to a lack of recent revivals, a lack of knowledge about the companies and theaters he wrote for, and the lack of a reliable complete edition of plays. That said, he analyzes the performance of his plays to the degree possible from scripts and historical records. Within sections on Heywood's English landscape, staging Roman comedy in Stuart London, and street theater, he considers his and John Stow's role in the invention of the city staged, his divided households, trade and slavery in The Captives, the innovative tragicomedy of The English Traveller, out of the dripping pan into the fire in Loves Mistris, and whether the pageants reflect London's peaceable estate. Annotation ©2010 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)