Crack Me This Nut
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
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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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