E-text prepared by Steven desJardins and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team Note: Project Gutenberg also has an HTML version of this file which includes the original illustrations. See 20177-h.htm or 20177-h.zip: (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/0/1/7/20177/20177-h/20177-h.htm) or (https://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/2/0/1/7/20177/20177-h.zip) Transcriber's note: Typographical errors in the original 1807 edition have been left uncorrected. JOHN BULL; Or, The Englishman's Fireside: A Comedy, in Five Acts; by GEORGE COLMAN, THE YOUNGER. As Performed at the Theatre Royal, Covent Garden. Printed Under the Authority of the Managers from the Prompt Book. With Remarks by Mrs. Inchbald. [Illustration: JOHN BULL JOB THORNBERRY.--THERE--'TIS FIT IT SHOULD BE FILLED BY SOMEBODY. ACT V, SCENE II. PAINTED BY SINGLETON PUBLISHED BY LONGMAN & CO. ENGRAVED BY FITTLER] London: Printed for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, Paternoster Row. William Savage, Printer, London. REMARKS. "Yet be not blindly guided by the throng; "The multitude is always in the wrong." Roscommon surely meets with a bold contradiction in this comedy--for it was not only admired by the multitude, but the discerning few approved of that admiration. The irresistible broad humour, which is the predominant quality of this drama, is so exquisitely interspersed with touches of nature more refined, with occasional flashes of wit, and with events so interesting, that, if the production is not of that perfect kind which the most rigid critic demands, he must still acknowledge it as a bond, given under the author's own hand, that he can, if he pleases, produce, in all its various branches, a complete comedy. The introduction of farces into the entertainments of the theatre has been one cause of destroying that legitimate comedy, which such critics require. The eye, which has been accustomed to delight in paintings of caricature, regards a picture from real life as an insipid work. The extravagance of farce has given to the Town a taste for the pleasant convulsion of hearty laughter, and smiles are contemned, as the tokens of insipid amusement.