Tom Cobb

Tom Cobb or, Fortune's Toy is a farce in three-acts (styled "An Entirely Original Farcical Comedy") by W. S. Gilbert. The story concerns Tom, a young debtor who pretends to be a recently deceased man to avoid his debts. A family claims to inherit the dead man's fortune and pays Tom a pound a week to continue to live under an assumed name and keep quiet. He is claimed in marriage by the well-born Caroline Effingham who was jilted by the man whose name he has assumed. After further complications, Tom turns out, in actuality, to be the heir of the deceased and wealthy miser and happily marries Caroline.

The play 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.^[1] Arthur Sullivan's The Zoo played as an afterpiece to Tom Cobb.