The English Traveller was first printed in 1633, and from the preface it would seem that the publication of the play was an accident; the date of its production (at the Cockpit in Drury Lane) we do not know. The bye-plot of the prodigal Lionel and his servant is borrowed from Plautus’ Mostellaria, which a century or more later was laid under contribution by Fielding in his Intriguing Chambermaid. Heywood may have known Plautus’ comedy in the original or in one of the Italian versions. The character of Young Geraldine deserves study: “he is,” says Professor Ward, “one of the truest gentlemen of Elizabethan comedy.” Mr. Saintsbury (Elizabethan Literature, p. 284) ranks The English Traveller with A Woman Killed with Kindness as Heywood’s best plays.
In the old editions the scenes are only partially indicated.