Theatre and empire by Tristan Marshall

Author:Tristan Marshall [Marshall, Tristan]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Nonfiction, Art & Architecture, Art History, European, General Art, History
ISBN: 9781526134745
Publisher: Manchester University Press
Published: 2018-04-30T04:00:00+00:00

TOM A LINCOLN

The manuscript for the anonymous and untitled play known as Tom a Lincoln was discovered among the papers of Sir John Coke (1563–1644) at his country home, Melbourne Hall in Derbyshire, in 1973. The play has been given the same title as Richard Johnson’s prose romance published in two parts, probably in 1598–9 and 1607, as the play follows Johnson’s tale closely. On this basis the play cannot be earlier than 1607, but with the play’s allusions to The Winter’s Tale and The Tempest, a date of c.1611 seems more likely.74

Whoever might be the author, the play is a witty piece of bawdy on one level, but it is also another example of the crossover between the British mythical past and the British present, wrapped in the language of an aggressive imperialism. Here the point of historical cross-reference is the great bell of Lincoln Cathedral – the bell was recast on 3 December 1610 and re-hung on 27 January 1611. In the play Tom a Lincoln himself orders money to be given for its casting:

three thowsand more

I giue for to compose of perfecte mettall

a massy bell stilde by succeedinge tymes

Great Tom a Lincolne

(593–6)

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