Thomazina Muliercula (died 1603), also known as Mrs Tamasin and Tomasin de Paris, was a French woman who became an English jester. She was the court dwarf and jester of Queen Elizabeth I between 1577 and 1603.Carole Levin, Anna Riehl Bertolet, Jo Eldridge Carney, A Biographical Encyclopedia of Early Modern Englishwomen
She was presumably from Paris. In 1579, her sister Prudence de Paris is briefly noted in the documents. "Muliercula" was not her surname, but a Latin word for "little woman".
She may have taken the place of Ippolyta the Tartarian in 1577.Janet Arnold, Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd (Maney, 1998), p. 107. As customary for a female jester and court dwarf, she was referred to as "lady-in-waiting". She was evidently able to read and write, since the queen gifted her with pen and paper. She may have practiced embroidery, as she also received knives and shears.Janet Arnold, Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd (Maney, 1998), p. 107.
Thomazina is regularly noted in the queen's wardrobe expenses between 1577 and 1603, sometimes as "the woman dwarf". Mary Scudamore took charge of her linen. The tailor Walter Fyshe made her a gown of white damask and a "safeguard or kirtle" possibly worn while riding.Janet Arnold, Lost from her Majesties Back (Wisbech: Daedalus, 1980), nos. 231, 275, 370. Peter Jonson made her shoes.Janet Arnold, Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd (Maney, 1998), pp. 108, 177, 214. In 1597, her clothes included fashionable and voluminous farthingale sleeves.Janet Arnold, Queen Elizabeth's Wardrobe Unlock'd (Maney, 1998), p. 146.
She is sometimes identified in a painting at Penshurst Place formerly attributed to Marcus Gheeraerts. The scene, a volta dance at the French court, is sometimes said to include Elizabeth, Robert Dudley, and Thomazina."Elizabeth I Dancing La Volta – A Scandalous Painting", Tudor Travel GuideBarbara Ravelhofer, 'Dancing at the Court of Elizabeth', Christa Jansohn, Queen Elizabeth I: Past and Present (Münster 2004), p. 110.
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