The Englishman from Paris

By Arthur Murphy

ArthurMurphy, also known by the pseudonym Charles Ranger, was an Irish writer. Abarrister, journalist, actor, and playwright, he edited Gray Inn Journalbetween 1752 and 1754. Murphy is thought to have coined the legal term"wilful misconstruction" whilst representing the Donaldson v.Becket appeal to the House of Lords in 1774 against the perpetual possessionof copyright. 

• Language: English
• Publisher: Krill Press
• Release date: Feb 29, 2016
• ISBN: 9781531238681

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THE ENGLISHMAN FROM PARIS

..................

Arthur Murphy

YURITA PRESS

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Copyright © 2016 by Arthur Murphy

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

The Englishman from Paris

INTRODUCTION

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

ACT the Ist

ACT the 2nd

Transcriber’s Notes:

The Englishman from Paris

By

Arthur Murphy

The Englishman from Paris

Published by Yurita Press

New York City, NY

First published circa 1805

Copyright © Yurita Press, 2015

All rights reserved

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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

INTRODUCTION

..................

ARTHUR MURPHY’S AFTERPIECE, THE ENGLISHMAN From Paris, was given its first and last performance at Drury Lane on 3 April 1756. According to the prompter’s account the play went off well, and the receipts for the night, £240, indicate that a large audience attended. However, despite these optimistic signs, Murphy never published the play nor did he allow it to be presented again on any stage. It is even possible that Murphy tried to destroy all traces of it; for the Lord Chamberlain’s copy from which this edition is printed 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 of auctions as an unconsidered part of a lot of rare biblical and Shakesperian items. In this manner the play finally came into the possession of the Newberry Library where it eventually was correctly catalogued, but its adventitious provenance is marked by it being the only manuscript play in the collection.

The London Stage 1660-1800, ed. George Winchester Stone, Jr. (Carbondale, Ill., 1962), Part 4, II, 536. I would like to thank the Newberry Library for permission to reproduce this previously unpublished manuscript of Murphy’s Englishman From Paris.

Simon Trefman, Arthur Murphy’s Long Lost Englishman From Paris: A Manuscript Discovered, Theatre Notebook, XX (Summer 1966), 137-138.

Certainly one important reason for Murphy’s reticence to exhibit his play can be found in the events leading up to its production. Samuel Foote, who at this time was known as a comic actor and a writer of farces, was a close friend of Murphy’s and in the summer of 1754, when Murphy was short of money,