Murphy's play is a plea for good sense--for all classes of society to avoid extreme behavior. The upper classes tend to be affected or unthinking, boorish pranksters; the lower classes can degenerate into a brutal, capricious mob. Murphy shows that there is room in the English way of life for tolerance, good sense, and patriotism. There was a need for this view in 1756 when riots against the French were common, and it took some skill to write a play that seemed to confirm national prejudices at the beginning and thus insure a hearing and to end by gently exposing those prejudices to ridicule. Had Murphy not been disheartened by Foote's competition, this play might have had its share of success. In trying to retain the flavor of the manuscript, I have altered mainly those aspects which would interfere with an easy comprehension of the piece. To that end I have broken up run-on sentences when it seemed to me that the point was lost in the ramble, though when the meaning was clear I made no changes, because the lack of a full stop preserved the natural flow of spoken words. The dashes were also kept when they gave an indication of the rhythm and flow of dialogue, but when the meaning became confused other punctuation was substituted to preserve the sense. The erratic capitalization of the play was kept for nouns and compound nouns, but capitals always replaced lower case letters for the first letter of a sentence. The original eighteenth-century spelling was retained, but obvious misspellings were corrected. The mangled French of Jack, who is not supposed to be fluent in that language, was not touched, but the French of the Abbé and the French servants was corrected. All stage directions have been given in parentheses, and legible but crossed out sections of dialogue in italics. All editorial insertions have been placed within brackets. Queensborough Community College, The City University of New York THE ENGLISHMAN FROM PARIS[10] * * * * * DRAMATIS PERSONAE SIR ROBERT BROUGHTON Mr. Burton JACK BROUGHTON Mr. Woodward QUICKSETT, _A Country Gentleman, Father to Harriet_ Mr. Bransby FLORID, _A Philosopher and Tutor to young Broughton_ Mr. Yates M. MILLAMOUR, _A French Abbé_ Mr. Blakes BOB WILDFIRE Mr. Palmer HARRY FOXCHASE Mr. Beard ROGER Mr. Clough SIDEBOARD Mr. Jefferson FRENCH SERVANTS, MOB, ETC. LADY BETTY MOCKMODE Mrs. Clive HARRIET, _Daughter to Quicksett_ Miss Miles[11]