Richard Hathway

Richard Hathwaye
Died	22 Apr 1604 St. Botolph Aldgate, London, England
Occupation	Playwright, poet
Literary movement	English Renaissance theatre
Spouse	Joane of Leek Wootton Warwickshire
Children	John Hathway

Richard Hathwaye (fl. 1597–1603), was an English dramatist. Little is known about Hathwaye's life. There is no evidence that he was related to his namesake Richard Hathaway, the father of Shakespeare's wife, Anne Hathaway, though his wife Joan is from Leek Wootton Warwickshire only 16.5 kilometers from Stratford Upon Avon. Hathwaye is not heard of after 1603 and died in 1604.

Information on Hathwaye's dramatic career is derived mostly from the papers of Philip Henslowe. He wrote eighteen plays for Henslowe for production by the Admiral's Men and Worcester's Men at the Rose Theater, both as sole author and in partnership with other playwrights who also produced copy for Henslowe. The first of these, King Arthur (1597), is the only play for which he received sole credit. He had likely already been writing for the stage for some time, however, since Francis Meres refers to him as if he was a veteran dramatist in 1598, including him among those "best for comedy."

Hathwaye also wrote commendatory verses for John Bodenham's Belvedere, published in 1600.

Aside from his Belvedere verses all of Hathwaye's works are lost except for the first part of the collaborative Sir John Oldcastle, commissioned as a counterblast to the negative depiction of the title character in the original versions of William Shakespeare's plays Henry IV (Part 1) and Henry IV (Part 2). Objections from descendants of the historical John Oldcastle, a Protestant martyr, appears to have been responsible both for the writing of the corrective Oldcastle play and the alteration of Oldcastle to Sir John Falstaff in later versions of the Henry IV plays.

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