Tom Thumb (play) - Response

Response

Jonathan Swift, when witnessing the death of Tom's ghost, was reported in the memoirs of Mrs. Pilkington to have laughed out loud; such a feat was rare for Swift and this was only the second time such an occurrence was said to have happened. J. Paul Hunter argues that the whole play "depends primarily on one joke", which is the diminutive size of the main character. F. Homes Dudden characterizes the play as "a merry burlesque" and points out that the play was "a huge success". Albert Rivero points out that the ignoring of Tom Thumb for its expanded and transformed version, Tragedy of Tragedies, "is a regrettable oversight because Tom Thumb constitutes a vital link in Fielding's dramatic career, its importance lying not so much in its later expansion into Scriblerian complexity as in its debt to, and departure from, the play it followed on stage for thirty-three nights in 1730."