The Murder of John Brewen (1592) is a pamphlet concerning the murder of a goldsmith by his wife. It is presumed to have been written by the Elizabethan playwright, Thomas Kyd

Thomas Kyd

Thomas Kyd was an English dramatist, the author of The Spanish Tragedy, and one of the most important figures in the development of Elizabethan drama....

 (1558–1594).

Pamphlet writing

Before the existence of large daily newspapers since the late 18th century, news of the day, including sensationalist pieces, of which this is one example, were communicated by such pamphlets or else by ballads. Though written by a playwright, it does not seem to have been produced as a play in Elizabethan times.

Affinity with Renaissance domestic tragedies

Nevertheless, it shows some affinity with domestic tragedies of the period, all on the subject of woman's adulterous proclivities, such as A Yorkshire Tragedy

A Yorkshire Tragedy

A Yorkshire Tragedy is an early Jacobean era stage play, a domestic tragedy printed in 1608. The play was originally assigned to William Shakespeare, though the modern critical consensus rejects this attribution, favouring Thomas Middleton....

, Arden of Faversham

Arden of Faversham

Arden of Faversham is an Elizabethan play, entered into the Register of the Stationers Company on 3 April 1592, and printed later that same year by Edward White. It depicts the murder of one Thomas Arden by his wife Alice Arden and her lover, and their subsequent discovery and punishment...

, and A Woman Killed with Kindness

A Woman Killed with Kindness

A Woman Killed with Kindness is an early seventeenth-century stage play, a tragedy written by Thomas Heywood. Acted in 1603 and first published in 1607, the play has generally been considered Heywood's masterpiece, and has received the most critical attention among Heywood's works...

. William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...

's Othello

Othello

The Tragedy of Othello, the Moor of Venice is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written in approximately 1603, and based on the Italian short story "Un Capitano Moro" by Cinthio, a disciple of Boccaccio, first published in 1565...

, to a lesser extent The Winter's Tale

The Winter's Tale

The Winter's Tale is a play by William Shakespeare, originally published in the First Folio of 1623. Although it was grouped among the comedies, some modern editors have relabelled the play as one of Shakespeare's late romances. Some critics, among them W. W...

 and The Merry Wives of Windsor

The Merry Wives of Windsor

The Merry Wives of Windsor is a comedy by William Shakespeare, first published in 1602, though believed to have been written prior to 1597. It features the fat knight Sir John Falstaff, and is Shakespeare's only play to deal exclusively with contemporary Elizabethan era English middle class life...

, are additional examples of this category, except that in each case the woman's adultery is falsely imagined by the husband. Domestic tragedies include the murder of other family members, such as the lost Jacobean play Keep the Widow Waking

Keep the Widow Waking

Keep the Widow Waking is a lost Jacobean play, significant chiefly for the light it throws on the complexities of collaborative authorship in English Renaissance drama....

, in which a son kills his mother.

The Elizabethan Journals

The description of the murder is given in "The Elizabethan Journals". with the following entry of a current event in 1592:

This day Anne Brewen and John Parker were executed in Smithfield for the murder of John Brewen. Two and a half years before Anne Welles (as she then was) by divers young men was beloved, but especially by John Brewen and John Parker, both goldsmiths, being bachelors and good friends Brewen had the favour of her friends and kinsfolk, but notwithstanding his long suit and the gifts of gold and jewels that he gave her he was disdained in favour of Parker, who enjoyed her love in secret. At length seeing his suit despised and having no hope of her favour, Brewen determined to demand again his gold and jewels, and coming to her he requested that his gifts might be given back, to this she answered contemptuously that he should stay for it Without more ado the young man had her arrested for the jewels. The damsel was so astonished and dismayed that she promised if he would let his action fall nor ever think the worse of her, she would marry him and make him her husband by a certain day, and this before witnesses she vowed to perform Brewen therefore was not a little joyful and made preparation for his marriage, but when Parker heard of it he was grievously vexed and taunted her so bitterly that she repented of the promise made to Brewen, and began to hate him , and after this Parker would never let her rest but continually urged her to make away with him.

Synopsis of the pamphlet

John Brewen and his wife are in violent disagreement. As a goldsmith

Goldsmith

A goldsmith is a metalworker who specializes in working with gold and other precious metals. Since ancient times the techniques of a goldsmith have evolved very little in order to produce items of jewelry of quality standards. In modern times actual goldsmiths are rare...

, he hammers into her, and she is not slow to respond. He drinks hard and his wife objects. Her revenge is to commit adultery, and then to plot her husband's murder by poison. The triggering event is when John kills her dog, on which she mourns in a dreadful state of mind. She is discovered to have committed murder with her lover-accomplice.

Modern adaptation

"John Brewen" adapted at Wikiversity

Wikiversity

Wikiversity is a Wikimedia Foundation project, which supports learning communities, their learning materials, and resulting activities. It differs from more structured projects such as Wikipedia in that it instead offers a series of tutorials, or courses, for the fostering of learning, rather than...