Tomerania, The Tragedy of

Anon. before 1703

Historical Records

Hill's list

Hill's list is reproduced and discussed here. The forty-seventh item on it is:

The Tragedy of Tomerania

Theatrical Provenance

Unknown

Probable Genre(s)

Tragedy

Possible Narrative and Dramatic Sources or Analogues

None known

References to the Play

None known

Critical Commentary

"Tomerania" is not a word that seems to make any sense. J. Q. Adams, discussing Hill's list, suggests textual corruption. He proposes instead the reading "Pomerania". As Adams observes: "the play may have dealt with the devastation of that unfortunate province in the Thirty Years' War". As an alternative interpretation, he suggests "Tamercam", a form of the name Tamburlaine (Adams, 97-8). Bentley (5.1421) reports Adams's two suggestions without enthusiasm for either.

For What It's Worth

EEBO-TCP can offer no obvious help at the time of writing.

Google, on the other hand, finds many occurrences of the string "Tomerania". However, they all appear to result from OCR errors for the word "Pomerania". This offers, in a roundabout way, some support for Adams's emendation of the title.

Works Cited

Adams, Joseph Quincy. “Hill’s List of Early Plays in Manuscript.” The Library 4th Ser., 20.1 (1939): 71-99. Print.

Site created and maintained by Matthew Steggle. Updated 18 June 2010.