Crack Me This Nut

Anon. (1595)

Historical Records

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Theatrical Provenance

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Probable Genre(s)

Comedy (?) (Harbage); tragedy? (see For What It's Worth below)

Possible Narrative and Dramatic Sources or Analogues

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References to the Play

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Critical Commentary

Greg 2.1176 notes that "[t]he phrase was proverbial. It was the sub-title of Pap with a Hatchet, one of the anti-Martinist tracts. It is no doubt the tract and not the play that is alluded to in Old Fortunatus".

For What It's Worth

A hitherto unconsidered possibility is that Crack Me This Nut may not have been a comedy at all, but a King Lear style tragedy. An entry in the Stationers' Register for 20 January 1595/96 reads:

Master Ponsonby.

Entred for his copie vnder the hands of the Wardens A booke Intitled The Paragon of pleasaunt histories . . . vjd Or this Nutt was neuer Cracked Contayninge a Discourse of a nobl[e] kinge and his Three sonnes /

(S.R.1, 3.57 / Fol.7)

Unfortunately, like the play, this text appears to be lost.

Works Cited

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