The Wise Woman of Hoxton

Part of the Nick Hern Books Globe Quartos series, co-published with Shakespeare's Globe, marking their rediscoveries of forgotten plays by Shakespeare's contemporaries.

Thomas Heywood's play The Wise Woman of Hoxton is a city comedy complete with cross-dressing and disguise, dating from around 1605.

The eponymous 'wise woman' is alternately dismissed as a charlatan or cursed as a she-devil, but she outsmarts gullible citizens and rakish gentlemen alike as the action moves through colourful Cheapside and the Exchange to its festive climax in Hoxton.

This edition of the play is edited by Sonia Massai.