Thomas Tomkis (or Tomkys) (c. 1580 – 1634) was an English playwright of the late

Elizabethan The Elizabethan era is the epoch in the Tudor period of the history of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I (1558–1603). Historians often depict it as the golden age in English history. The symbol of Britannia (a female personifi ...

and the Jacobean eras, and arguably one of the more cryptic figures of English Renaissance drama. Tomkis was the son of a

Staffordshire Staffordshire (; postal abbreviation Staffs.) is a landlocked county in the West Midlands region of England. It borders Cheshire to the northwest, Derbyshire and Leicestershire to the east, Warwickshire to the southeast, the West Midlands Cou ...

clergyman, John Tomkys, who became the Public Preacher at St Mary's church, Shrewsbury in Shropshire, from 1582 until his death in 1592. Thomas matriculated in

Trinity College, Cambridge Trinity College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. Founded in 1546 by Henry VIII, King Henry VIII, Trinity is one of the largest Cambridge colleges, with the largest financial endowment of any college at either Cambridge ...

in 1597. Tomkis earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1600, and his Master of Arts degree in 1604; he became a minor fellow of Trinity College in 1602, and a major fellow in 1604. He remained at the college until 1610, when he moved to

Wolverhampton Wolverhampton () is a city, metropolitan borough and administrative centre in the West Midlands, England. The population size has increased by 5.7%, from around 249,500 in 2011 to 263,700 in 2021. People from the city are called "Wulfrunian ...

and set up a successful legal practice. His college called him back five years later, to prepare an entertainment of King

James I James I may refer to: People *James I of Aragon (1208–1276) *James I of Sicily or James II of Aragon (1267–1327) *James I, Count of La Marche (1319–1362), Count of Ponthieu *James I, Count of Urgell (1321–1347) *James I of Cyprus (1334–13 ...

. Tomkis is credited with two academic plays of the early seventeenth century: ''

Lingua Lingua (Latin, 'tongue') may refer to: * ''Lingua'' (journal), a peer-reviewed academic journal of general linguistics * ''Lingua'' (sculpture), by Jim Sanborn * ''Lingua'' (play), a 17th-century play attributed to Thomas Tomkis * Project Ling ...

'' (published

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) and '' Albumazar'' (published 1615). He is also regarded as a likely author of ''

Pathomachia ''Pathomachia, or the Battle of Affections'', also known as ''Love's Lodestone'', is an early 17th-century play, first printed in 1630. It is an allegory that presents a range of problems to scholars of the drama of the Jacobean and Caroline e ...

'' (published 1630). Tomkis represented an important break in the

academic drama Academic drama refers to a theatrical movement that emerged in the mid 16th century during the Renaissance. Dedicated to the study of classical dramas for the purpose of higher education, universities in England began to produce the plays of Sophoc ...

of the two universities: he wrote in English rather than the traditional

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...

. The accessibility of his works facilitated their popularity: ''Lingua'' was printed in six editions between 1607 and 1657, while ''Albumazar'' went through five editions between 1615 and 1668. More speculatively, Tomkis has been suggested as the possible author of two entertainments, ''Ruff, Cuff, and Band'' and ''Work for Cutlers'' (both published 1615), and the academic morality play ''Locus, Corpus, Motus'' (c. 1604/5). The nineteenth-century critic F. G. Fleay attempted to link Tomkis with the Tomkins family of prominent musicians in his era,

Thomas Tomkins Thomas Tomkins (1572 – 9 June 1656) was a Welsh-born composer of the late Tudor and early Stuart period. In addition to being one of the prominent members of the English Madrigal School, he was a skilled composer of keyboard and consort mus ...

and his son John Tomkins. Fleay's argument is recognized as speculative and incorrect.Lee, Vol. 57 p. 14.

References

English dramatists and playwrights 1634 deaths writers from Wolverhampton Year of birth uncertain Fellows of Trinity College, Cambridge English male dramatists and playwrights {{UK-playwright-stub