TOM TILER
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Tom Tiler was written anonymously and performed very early in the reign of Elizabeth I–a good 20 years before the flowering of Elizabethan drama brought us, among others, Christopher Marlowe, Ben Jonson, and, of course, William Shakespeare. It concerns a hapless tiler–one who attaches and repairs roofing tiles–and his marriage to a shrewish woman named Strife. He can’t tame her; she tames him. “I carry the whip,” she announces proudly, loving nothing more than humiliating her poor husband. “Lord that I had some sticks,” she shouts as she beats him. “I would clapper claw thy bones.” To which nebbish Tiler can only whimper between blows, “Good wife I beseech you: I pray you leave me tumbling.”
Tiler exits and runs into Tom Tailor, a man always itching for a good fight. When Tailor hears of Tiler’s domestic trouble, he suggests that he disguise himself as Tiler and give Strife the beating she deserves. Which he does. She begs for mercy: “I pray thee be still, thou shalt have thy will.” “Trouble me never,” he warns her. “I advise thee again. For I will brain thee then.” Strife then retreats to her bed, surprised at how courageous her Tiler has suddenly become.
Dale Muehler’s small renaissance band was significantly more successful, and the many traditional songs it performed–among them the “Wassailing Song” and a version of “Greensleeves”–helped lift the show’s (and the audience’s) sagging spirits.
