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The Tragedy Of Tragedies Or The Life And Death Of Tom Thumb The Great

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One might infer from its title, The Tragedy of Tragedies, or The Life and Death of Tom Thumb the Great, that this play might not actually be drama of a dignified and serious character. If so, one would be entirely right. Henry Fielding's three-act, madcap comedy ridicules contemporary tragedies; simultaneously, its copious footnotes parody eighteenth century literary criticism. The courageous hero and killer of giants, the diminutive Tom Thumb, is beloved by all, even passionately so by the King's daughter, and the King's wife as well, and for that matter by a captive giantess too. His tragic death - swallowed by a bovine - has few parallels.

This play began as Tom Thumb in 1730, on stage for forty nights (a considerable run, as most plays in the eighteenth century were staged for only a few days). A year later Fielding released a revised version, now with the lengthy title The Tragedy of Tragedies, or The Life and Death of Tom Thumb the Great. It proved equally successful.

The characters include King Arthur, his wife Queen Dollallolla, their daughter the Princess Huncamunca, Tom Thumb, Lord Grizzle (rival to Tom Thumb), the giantess Glumdalca, the ghost of Gaffer Thumb, and various servants like Noodle, Doodle, and Foodle. Fielding describes Queen Dollallolla in the Dramatis Personae as wife to King Arthur, and mother to Huncamunca, a woman entirely faultless, saving that she is a little given to drink, a little too much of a virago towards her husband, and in love with Tom Thumb.

The Tragedy of Tragedies, or The Life and Death of Tom Thumb the Great is often found in anthologies of eighteenth century English plays. I recommend the Everyman edition, The Beggar's Opera and Other Eighteenth Century Plays, edited by David Lindsay (ISBN 0460873148).