Crack Me This Nut

Anon. (1595)

Historical Records

Henslowe's Diary: Performances

F.12v / Greg 1.24:
ye 5 of septmb[er] 1595		ne . .	R[d] at cracke me this nvtte . . . . . . . . . .	iijll js
ye 12 of septmb[er] 1595		. . . . . . . .	R[d] at cracke me this nutte . . . . . . . . . .	iijll
				. . . . . . .
F.13 / Greg 1.25:
ye 24 of septmb[er] 1595			R[d] at cracke me this nvtte . . . . . . . . . .	xxxxijs
ye 2[7]8 of septmb[er] 1595	________	________	R[d] at crack me this nvtte . . . . . . . . . .	iijllvjs
ye 8 of octob[er] 1595			R[d] at cracke me this nvtt . . . . . . . . . .	xxvjs
ye 20 of octob[er] 1595			R[d] at cracke me this nvtte . . . . . . . . . .	xxjs
ye 24 of octob[er] 1595			R[d] at cracke me this nvtte . . . . . . . . . .	xxiijs
ye 5 of novmb[et] 1595			R[d] at cracke me this nvtt . . . . . . . . . .	xxiiijs
				. . . . . . .
F.14 / Greg 1.27:
ye 18 of novmb[er] 1595	________	________	R[d] at cracke me this nvtte . . . . . . . . . . .	xxiiijs
ye 6 of desemb[er] 1595	[_______	________]	R[d] at Crack me this nvtt . . . . . . . . . .	xvs
ye 2 of Jenewary 1595			R[d] at cracke me this nvtt . . . . . . . . . .	ixs
ye 14 of Jenewary 1595			R[d] at cracke me this nvtte . . . . . . . . . .	xxiijs
				. . . . . . .
F.14v / Greg 1.28:
ye 7 of febreary 1595			R[d] at crack me this nvtt . . . . . . . . . .	xixs
				. . . . . . .
F.15v / Greg 1.30:
ye 7 of maye 1596			R[d] at cracke me this nvtte . . . . . . . . . .	xviijs
				. . . . . . .
F.21v / Greg 1.42:
ye 7 of June 1596	___mr pd___	________	R[d] at cracke me this nvtte . . . . . . . . . .	xxviijs
ye 23 of June 1596			R[d] at cracke me this nvtt . . . . . . . . . .	xijs

Henslowe's Diary: Purchases

Fol.95 / Greg 1.151:

Lay owt for the company to bye buckerom . . . . . .}

for a sewt for the playe of the nvtte to the. . . . . .}v^s

littell tayller the 4 of desemb[er] 1601 the some of }

F.96 / Greg 1.155:

pd at the apoyntment of the copmanye the. . . . . . .}

18 of Janewary 1601 vnto E Alleyn for iij boockes. . . }

w^ch were played called the french docter the. . . . . } vj^ll

massaker of france & the nvtte the some of . . . . .. }

Theatrical Provenance

Performed as a new play by the Admiral's men 5 September 1595, for a total of 16 performances. It premiered 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 122). Henslowe's acquisition (on behalf of the Admiral's) of the book of "the nvtte" from Alleyn in 1601 suggests an intention to revive the play, though no subsequent performance dates are known.

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 as Greg notes, "[i]t is no doubt the tract and not the play that is alluded to in Old Fortunatus" (2.176). There seems, therefore, no reason to believe Dekker was referring to this lost play.

Critical Commentary

Hazlitt suggests without evidence that "It is probably identical with the " Play of the Nut," mentioned by Henslowe under December, 1601" (53).

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" (Gurr 99).

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

Greg 1

Greg 2

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

Hazlitt, W. Carew. A Manual for the collector and amateur of old English plays. 1892. London: Burt Franklin, 1966 reprint.

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.

S.R.

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