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''Tom Cobb or, Fortune's Toy'' is a farce in three-acts (styled "An Entirely Original Farcical Comedy") by W. S. Gilbert. It opened at the St. James's Theatre on 24 April 1875. Although it was praised by the critics, the original production of the play ran for only 53 performances.〔Moss, Simon. ("Tom Cobb" ) at ''Gilbert & Sullivan: a selling exhibition of memorabilia'', c20th.com, accessed 16 November 2009〕 Arthur Sullivan's ''The Zoo'' played as an afterpiece to ''Tom Cobb''. ==Background== Gilbert and Sullivan had already produced their hit one-act comic opera ''Trial by Jury'' by the time ''Tom Cobb'' was written, but both Gilbert and Sullivan were still producing a considerable amount of work separately. Several plot elements from ''Tom Cobb'' reappear in Gilbert and Sullivan's last opera, ''The Grand Duke'' (1896). This full-length romantic farce was a departure by Gilbert from his earlier farces, which had generally been short works in one act. Gilbert claimed, in a 1903 story article called "My Last Client", that the idea for the play came to him when he attended the funeral of ''T. W. Robertson'' in 1871 and a man in the crowd reminded him of Robertson.〔Gilbert, W. S. "My Last Client", ''The Free Lance: A Popular Society and Critical Journal'', 10 October 1903, reprinted in ''W. S. Gilbert Society Journal'', vol. 3, issue 23, Summer 2008, pp. 726–29〕 However, Gilbert based ''Tom Cobb'' on a short story that he had written in 1871 called "Tom Poulton's Joke", in which the title character attends his own "funeral", as in the story told by Gilbert in "My Last Client".〔Gilbert, W. S. "Tom Poulton's Joke", ''Dark Blue'', 17 March 1871〕 In ''Tom Cobb'' there is no such incident.〔Crowther, Andrew. "'My Last Client': Afterword", ''W. S. Gilbert Society Journal'', vol. 3, issue 23, Summer 2008, p. 731〕 Arthur Sullivan and F. C. Burnand had earlier written ''Cox and Box'', in which a man describes how he "killed himself" yet remains alive. 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Tom Cobb」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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