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.

After further complications, Tom turns out, in actuality, to be the heir of the deceased and wealthy miser and happily marries Caroline.

Several plot elements from Tom Cobb reappear in Gilbert and Sullivan's last opera, The Grand Duke (1896).

[5] Arthur Sullivan and F. C. Burnand had earlier written Cox and Box, in which a man describes how he "killed himself" yet remains alive.

Matilda, the Colonel's daughter, is engaged to Tom Cobb, a penniless young surgeon.

The wealthy O'Fipps are happy, thanks to the "death" of Tom Cobb, and they agree that if he should decide to return from the dead, he will find it difficult to convince anyone of his identity.

O'Fipp suggests he assume another name, selecting one at random from the Times newspaper: Major-General Arthur Fitzpatrick.

Three more months have passed, and Tom, engaged to Caroline, has grown his hair long and centre-parted, he wears a floppy Byronic collar, and he talks solemn poetic rubbish.

Docket & Tape, Solicitors, have been advertising in the papers for information about him, and he fears that they are after him for forging the will of old Tom Cobb.