''Tunbridge Walks'' is a 1703

comedy play Comedy is a genre of dramatic performance having a light or humorous tone that depicts amusing incidents and in which the characters ultimately triumph over adversity. For ancient Greeks and Romans, a comedy was a stage-play with a happy endin ...

by the English writer Thomas Baker. It starred the

droll A droll is a short comical sketch of a type that originated during the Puritan Interregnum in England. With the closure of the theatres, actors were left without any way of plying their art. Borrowing scenes from well-known plays of the Elizab ...

actor

William Pinkethman William Pinkethman(also Penkethman, Pinkeman, Pinkerman, etc.; nicknamed Pinkey) (c.1660–1725) was an English comic actor, a low comedian with a droll style, and theatre manager. He was considered an imitator of Anthony Leigh. Starting in th ...

in a leading role. It is also known by the longer title ''Tunbridge Walks, or the Yeoman of Kent''. It was part of a growing trend of British plays set in

spa town A spa town is a resort town based on a mineral spa (a developed mineral spring). Patrons visit spas to "take the waters" for their purported health benefits. Thomas Guidott set up a medical practice in the English town of Bath in 1668. H ...

s.Orr p.200 The play features the folk song

King John and the Bishop "King John and the Bishop" is an English folk-song dating back at least to the 16th century. It is catalogued in Child Ballads as number 45 and Roud Folk Song Index 302. It tells how King John, covetous of the bishop of Canterbury's wealth, com ...

. It was revived numerous times during the eighteenth century at Drury Lane, Covent Garden and Haymarket. The original Drury Lane cast included

John Mills Sir John Mills (born Lewis Ernest Watts Mills; 22 February 190823 April 2005) was an English actor who appeared in more than 120 films in a career spanning seven decades. He excelled on camera as an appealing British everyman who often portray ...

as Loveworth,

Robert Wilks Robert Wilks (''c.'' 1665 – 27 September 1732) was a British actor and theatrical manager who was one of the leading managers of Theatre Royal, Drury Lane in its heyday of the 1710s. He was, with Colley Cibber and Thomas Doggett, one of the ...

as Reynard, Benjamin Johnson as Woodcock,

as Squib, William Bullock as Maiden, Jane Rogers as Belinda,

Susanna Verbruggen Susanna Verbruggen (née Percival) (c. 1667–1703), aka Susanna Mountfort, was an England, English actress working in London. Life She was the daughter of Thomas Percival (actor), Thomas Percival, a member of the Duke's Company for more than a ...

as Hillaria, Mary Powell as Mrs Goodfellow,

Henrietta Moore Dame Henrietta Louise Moore, (born 18 May 1957) is a British social anthropologist. She is the director of the Institute for Global Prosperity at University College, London (UCL), part of the Bartlett, UCL's Faculty of the Built Environment. ...

as Penelope and

Jane Lucas Jane Lucas was an English stage actress and singer of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth century. From around 1693 she was a member of the United Company based at the Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. In 1697 she had fellow actor Colley Cibber ar ...

as Lucy.

References

Bibliography

* Burling, William J. ''A Checklist of New Plays and Entertainments on the London Stage, 1700-1737''. Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, 1992. * Orr, Bridget. ''British Enlightenment Theatre: Dramatizing Difference''. Cambridge University Press, 2020. 1703 plays West End plays Comedy plays Plays set in England Plays by Thomas Baker {{play-stub