Crack Me This Nut

Anon. (1595)

Historical Records

Performance Records

Playlists in Philip Henslowe's diary

Fol. 12^v (Greg 1.24)

ye 5 of septmbʒ 1595	. . . . . ne . . .	Res at cracke me this nvtte	. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iijll js
ye 12 of septmbʒ 1595		Res at cracke me this nutte	. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iijll

Fol. 13 (Greg 1.25)

ye 24 of septmbʒ 1595		Res at crack me this nvtte	. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iijll js
ye 2[7]8 of septmbʒ 1595	. . . . . . . . .	Res at crack me this nvtte	. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iijllvjs
ye 8 of octobʒ 1595		Res at cracke me this nvtt	. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxvjs
ye 20 of octobʒ 1595		Res at crack me this nvtte	. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xxjs
ye 24 of octobʒ 1595		Res at crack me this nvtte	. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .xxiijs
ye 5 of novmbʒ 1595		Res at cracke me this nvtt	. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxiiijs

Fol. 14 (Greg 1.27)

ye 18 of novmbʒ 1595	. . . . . . . . . . . .	Res at crack me this nvtte	. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxiiijs
ye 6 of desembʒ 1595		Res at Crack me this nvtt	. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xvs
ye 2 of Jenewary 1595		Res at cracke me this nvtt	. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ixs
ye 14 of Jenewary 1595		Res at crack me this nvtte	. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxiijs

Fol. 14^v (Greg 1.28)

ye 7 of febreary 1595

. . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Res at crack me this nvtt

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xixs

Fol. 15^v (Greg 1.30)

ye 7 of maye 1596

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Res at crack me this nvtte

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xviijs

Fol. 21^v (Greg 1.42)

ye 7 of June 1596	. . . . mr pd . . . . .	Res at crack me this nvtte	. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xxviijs
ye 23 of June 1596		Res at cracke me this nvtt	. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xijs

Payments

For apparel in Philip Henslowe's diary

NB. the following references to "the playe of the nvtte" and the book of "the nvtte" are provided here because of the apparent connection to the title of Crack Me This Nut, but it should be noted that the identification is not absolutely certain.

Fol. 95 (Greg 1.151):

Lay owt for the company to bye buckerom	}
for a sewt for the playe of the nvtte to the	} vs
littell tayller the 4 of desemb[er] 1601 the some of	}

Purchase of the play from Edward Alleyn in Philip Henslowe's diary:

Fol. 96 (Greg 1.153):

pd at the apoyntment of the companye the	}
18 of Janewary 1601 vnto E Alleyn for iij boockes	}
wch were played called the french docter the	} vjli
massaker of france & the nvtte the some of	}

Theatrical Provenance

First recorded performance by the Admiral's men 5 September 1595, and thereafter for a total of 16 performances. It was marked as "ne" in a period when the Admiral's "began to introduce new plays very quickly: 'Longshanks' on August 29, 'Crack Me This Nut' a week later, and "The New World's Tragedy" two weeks after that" (Knutson, p. 122). At some stage, Edward Alleyn seems to have acquired the book of "the nvtte" (presumably "Crack Me This Nut"). He sold it to the Admiral's men along with "The French Doctor" and The Massacre at Paris in 1601/2. The play was apparently already in revival at the Fortune if the purchase of the suit of buckram is any indication.

Probable Genre(s)

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

Possible Narrative and Dramatic Sources or Analogues

It is frustrating that virtually nothing can be ascertained with any certainty about the subject of this considerably successful play. For a new speculation on subject matter, see For What It's Worth below.

References to the Play

As Greg observes, "[t]he phrase was proverbial" (2.176). It was the subtitle of an anti-Martinist tract (Pap with a Hatchet, alias A Fig for my Godson, or Crack Me This Nut, 1589), and Greg suggests that "[i]t is no doubt the tract and not the play that is alluded to in Old Fortunatus" (2.176). Greg may well be correct that Dekker was referring to the tract rather than the lost play, but it is not possible to establish this conclusively.

Critical Commentary

Malone makes no comment on the play (p. 297), nor does Collier (p. 56). Fleay, BCED observes that Thomas Dekker alludes to the play in Fortunatus and that the play was among Edward Allen's purchases from the Admiral's men in January 1602 (2.304, #170). Hazlitt (p. 53) identifies the "Play of the Nut" for which Henslowe authorized payment on 4 December 1601 for "buckerom for A sewt" as this play (Foakes, 185). Greg II, noting that the proverbial phrase in the play-title was the sub-title of an anti-Martinist tract called Pap with a Hatchet, assigns the Dekker allusion to the tract, thus disputing Fleay's assignment (2.176, #76).

In The Shakespeare Company Gurr notes only 14 performances of this play, not the 16 listed above in the extracts from Henslowe's Diary: "New plays Chinon, Longshanks, and Crack Me This Nut, all had 14 stagings" (p. 99). In Shakespeare's Opposites (pp. 217-18, p. 262 n124) Gurr adjusts this total upwards to 16, and incorporates the sale of the book of "the nvtte" in 1602 into the historical records of Crack Me This Nut.

W. J. Lawrence's 1935 book, Those Nut-Cracking Elizabethans, takes its title not from the lost play, but from "the custom of hawking apples, pears and nuts in the house while the audience was slowly assembling" and the playgoers' "habit of persistent nut-cracking which proved a nuisance" (p. 1). He marshals evidence from plays to show that "nut-crackers" were typically lower class playgoers more interested in spectacle than dialogue.

Knutson cites "Crack Me This Nut" as an exception to a principle of "commercial exhaustion" in that the Admiral's men revived it in the winter of 1601-2 despite its receipts having dwindled to 12s. at the end of its maiden run in 1595-5 (p. 38).

Wiggins, Catalogue #1008 calls attention to the proverbial nature of the play-title; he counts the purchase of the buckram suit in December 1601 and the purchase by Edward Alleyn in in January 1602 as evidence of the play's extended stage life.

For What It's Worth

A hitherto unconsidered possibility is that Crack Me This Nut may not have been a comedy at all. 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)

The subtitle's reference to a noble king and his three sons may even suggest a King Lear-style tragedy, though the "pleasant" part of "pleasaunt histories" tends to curtail this possibility. Unfortunately, as with the play, this text appears to be lost.

Works Cited

Gurr, Andrew. The Shakespeare Company, 1594-1642. Cambridge: CUP, 2004.

---. Shakespeare's Opposites: The Admiral’s Company 1594-1625. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2009.

Knutson, Roslyn L. “What was James Burbage Thinking???” Thunder at a Playhouse: Essays on Shakespeare and the Early Modern Stage, eds. Peter Kanelos and Matt Kozusko. Selinsgrove, PA: Susquehanna University Press, 2010. 116-30.

Lawrence, W.J. Those Nut-cracking Elizabethans: Studies of the Early Theatre and Drama. London: The Argonaut Press, 1935.

Site created and maintained by David McInnis, University of Melbourne; updated 12 March 2011.