The Augustan Reprint Society

Arthur Murphy

The Englishman
from Paris

(1756)

Introduction by
Simon Trefman

PUBLICATION NUMBER 137

WILLIAM ANDREWS CLARK MEMORIAL LIBRARY

University of California, Los Angeles

1969

GENERAL EDITORS

William E. Conway, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library

George Robert Guffey, University of California, Los Angeles

Maximillian E. Novak, University of California, Los Angeles

ASSOCIATE EDITOR

David S. Rodes, University of California, Los Angeles

ADVISORY EDITORS

Richard C. Boys, University of Michigan

James L. Clifford, Columbia University

Ralph Cohen, University of Virginia

Vinton A. Dearing, University of California, Los Angeles

Arthur Friedman, University of Chicago

Louis A. Landa, Princeton University

Earl Miner, University of California, Los Angeles

Samuel H. Monk, University of Minnesota

Everett T. Moore, University of California, Los Angeles

Lawrence Clark Powell, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library

James Sutherland, University College, London

H. T. Swedenberg, Jr., University of California, Los Angeles

Robert Vosper, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library

CORRESPONDING SECRETARY

Edna C. Davis, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library

EDITORIAL ASSISTANT

Mary Kerbret, William Andrews Clark Memorial Library

[Pg i]

INTRODUCTION

Arthur Murphy's afterpiece, The Englishman From Paris, wasgiven its first and last performance at Drury Lane on 3 April 1756.According to the prompter's account the play "went off well," andthe receipts for the night, £240, indicate that a large audience attended.[1]However, despite these optimistic signs, Murphy neverpublished the play nor did he allow it to be presented again on anystage. It is even possible that Murphy tried to destroy all tracesof it; for the Lord Chamberlain's copy from which this edition isprinted was not found in the usual depository, the Larpent Collection.Instead, the manuscript got in the hands of private collectors,was wrongly ascribed to Samuel Foote, and was sold in a series ofauctions as an unconsidered part of a lot of rare biblical andShakesperian items.[2] In this manner the play finally came into thepossession of the Newberry Library where it eventually was correctlycatalogued, but its adventitious provenance is marked by itbeing the only manuscript play in the collection.