The Englishman from Paris

First staged at Drury Lane in April 1756, this one‑act comedy was a surprise hit, drawing a packed house and earning a handsome takings of £240. Yet the play vanished from the public eye almost immediately, never printed and scarcely performed again. Its sole surviving manuscript, rescued from an unlikely chain of private collections, now resides in the Newberry Library and forms the basis of this careful edition.

The work emerged from a tangled friendship between playwright Arthur Murphy and the celebrated comic actor Samuel Foote. After Murphy outlined a sequel to Foote’s popular “The Englishman in Paris,” Foote turned the idea around and produced his own version, sparking accusations of plagiarism that lingered for years. While both pieces share a satirical premise, Murphy’s version leans toward a refined, gently mocking humor, contrasting sharply with Foote’s slap‑stick style.