24 July, 1596 - The Tinker of Totnes

Here's what the Admiral's Men performed at the Rose playhouse on this day, 424 years ago...

Henslowe writes: y^e 18 of July 1596 ... ne ... R at the tyncker of totnes ... iij^ll 

In modern English: [24^th] July, 1596 ... New ... Received at The Tinker of Totnes ... £3.

Today, the Admiral's Men premiered a new play! The Tinker of Totnes received a large audience but, strangely enough, it will never be performed again. The text is lost, and we do not know what the eponymous tinker got up to in the town of Totnes.

The Tinker by Alphonse Legros (1874)

A tinker was an itinerant artisan who specialized in mending objects made from light metals such as tin. 

The Lost Plays Database article on this play suggests that tinkers in Elizabethan literature had a reputation for being rascally thieves, although it also quotes a passage from a tale about a virtuous tinker who plays music.

The 'Brutus Stone' in
Totnes marks the spot where
the mythical founder of
Britain landed.

As for Totnes, it is a small town on an estuary in Devon. In Elizabethan times it was known as a place where people might arrive when travelling to England.

In the fanciful history of Britain by Geoffrey of Monmouth, Totnes is the landing place of Brutus, the mythical Trojan who supposedly founded London. In the town today is a stone known as the "Brutus Stone" which purports to be the spot upon which Brutus first stepped. 

Geoffrey also reports that Totnes was where Uther Pendragon, the father of King Arthur, landed when preparing to confront Vortiger, who had usurped the British throne. 

It's possible, then, to speculate that The Tinker of Totnes was a tale of legendary Britain, perhaps with a comic subplot about a wily tinker. But that's just a guess.

Today's premiere of The Tinker of Totnes was very successful, bringing a huge crowd to the Rose. But it is all for naught. Tomorrow, the Rose will be closed (watch this space) and the company will never revive this play, leaving today's performance as its only known appearance on the stage.

FURTHER READING

Tinker of Totnes information

• Geoffrey of Monmouth, History of the Kings of Britain, Books 1 and 8
• Martin Wiggins, British Drama, 1533-1642: A Catalogue, vol. 3 (Oxford University Press, 2013), entry 1039.
• "Tinker of Totnes, The", Lost Plays Database (2019), accessed July 2020. 

Henslowe links

• Transcript of this page of the Diary (from W.W. Greg's 1904 edition)
• Facsimile of this page of the Diary (from the Henslowe-Alleyn Digitisation Project)

Comments?

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