Background
Tomkis was the son of a Staffordshire clergyman.
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Thomas Tomkis
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He matriculated in Trinity College, Cambridge in 1597. Tomkis earned his Bachelor of Arts degree in 1600, and his Master of Arts degree in 1604. He became a minor fellow of Trinity College in 1602, and a major fellow in 1604.
He remained at the college until 1610, when he moved to Wolverhampton and set up a successful legal practice.
His college called him back five years later, to prepare an entertainment of King James I.
Tomkis is credited with two academic plays of the early seventeenth century: Lingua (published 1607) and Albumazar (published 1615). He is also regarded as a likely author of Pathomachia (published 1630).
Tomkis represented an important break in the academic drama of the two universities: he wrote in English rather than the traditional Latin. More speculatively, Tomkis has been suggested as the possible author of two entertainments, Ruff, Cuff, and Band and Work for Cutlers (both published 1615), and the academic morality play Locus, Corpus, Motus (c 1604/5).
Fleay"s argument is recognized as speculative and incorrect.
