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    A Study Guide for Henry Fielding's "Tom Thumb"
    A Study Guide for Henry Fielding's "Tom Thumb"
    A Study Guide for Henry Fielding's "Tom Thumb"
    Ebook39 pages26 minutes

    A Study Guide for Henry Fielding's "Tom Thumb"

    By Gale and Cengage

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    About this ebook

    A Study Guide for Henry Fielding's "Tom Thumb," excerpted from Gale's acclaimed Drama For Students. This concise study guide includes plot summary; character analysis; author biography; study questions; historical context; suggestions for further reading; and much more. For any literature project, trust Drama For Students for all of your research needs.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherCengage Learning - Gale
    Release dateAug 12, 2016
    ISBN9781535841382
    A Study Guide for Henry Fielding's "Tom Thumb"

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      Book preview

      A Study Guide for Henry Fielding's "Tom Thumb" - Gale

      11

      Tom Thumb

      Henry Fielding

      1730

      Introduction

      Henry Fielding's famous eighteenth-century satirical play Tom Thumb was first produced on April 24, 1730, at the Little Theatre in the Hay-market, located in Westminster, England. It was an instant success, running almost continually until June 22. It was first produced as a coda (or after piece) to Fielding's 1730 play The Author's Farce; and The Pleasures of the Town. The version of Tom Thumb that readers will find today includes two scenes (as well as a prologue and an epilogue) that were added about two weeks after the play's first performance. In Fielding's day, the extended version often circulated in print under the pseudonym Scriblerus Secundus. The play was further revised and expanded as The Tragedy of Tragedies, premiering on March 24, 1731. Today, however, the longer version is discussed and studied by scholars as an entirely separate work.

      Tom Thumb is a two-act play that, on its surface, portrays Tom as a conquering hero returning to King Arthur's court. The king rewards Tom with his daughter's hand in marriage, and jealousies, murders, and general hijinks follow. The play, however, is more accurately described as a biting literary and political satire. In it, Fielding steals flowery lines from his fellow playwrights and inserts them out of context to maximize their comic effect while poking fun at their authors. The farce also pokes fun at heroic drama and at Sir Robert Walpole, who was de facto prime minister of England from 1721 to 1742.

      Author Biography

      Fielding was born in Sharpham, England, on April 22, 1707. He was the firstborn son of Lieutenant Edmund Fielding and Sarah Gould. Both of his parents were the descendants of English gentry. He had many siblings, and his sister Sarah would also become a respected writer. Fielding attended Eton College from 1719 to 1724 and then moved to London. He briefly attended Leiden University in the Netherlands around 1728 before returning to London after running out of funds. Fielding then began to earn his primary income from his satirical plays. His first, Love in Several Masques: A Comedy, premiered in 1728. His 1730 play The

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