Collection No. [#] The Englishman Return’d from Paris, by Samuel Foote
1. Publication details
Author: Foote, Samuel
Author dates: 1720 - 1777
Title: The Englishman Return’d from Paris
First played: 1756
First published: 1756, for Paul Vaillant. 56 p.
C18th availability: Available from ECCO (1756):
http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/ECCO?dd=0&locID=utoronto_main&d1=11966017
00&srchtp=b&c=8&SU=All&d2=1&docNum=CW3306678681&b0=the+englishman+re
turned+from+paris&h2=1&vrsn=1.0&b1=KE&d6=1&ste=10&dc=tiPG&stp=Author&d4
=0.33&n=10&d5=d6
Modern availability: Available from LION (1996):
http://lion.chadwyck.com/toc.do?action=new&divLevel=0&mapping=toc&area=Drama
&id=Z000079855&forward=tocMarc&DurUrl=Yes
2. Genre / subgenre: Comedy / Farce
3. Trend(s): Nationality; Popularity
4. Brief Synopsis
Prologue: reintroduces Buck: “Tho’ to be born a Briton is his crime / He’s manufactured
in another clime”
Act I.
Mr. Crab, executor for the recently deceased John Buck’s will, laments his responsibility
to care for the Buck family. Mr. Latitat, an attorney, arrives. Latitat’s legal jargon
confuses Crab, who despises the law. Crab sees Latitat out. Buck has been delayed at
Calais, but his Scottish tutor Macruthen arrives. Crab offends Macruthen by suggesting
he has been pimping for Buck. Macruthen suggests that they swindle Buck’s money;
furious, Crab makes a jibe at Scots, then dismisses him: “Guilt and Confusion choak thy
Utterance. Avoid my Sight. Vanish.” Lucinda arrives and asks Crab for advice on
whether to marry Buck. News comes that Buck’s coach has been wrecked, but he,
“swear[ing] like a Trooper”, arrives on foot. As Classic predicted in The Englishman in
Paris, upon his return to England, Buck has adopted French affectations:
Buck.
Who, I. Damn your Premises, and Conclusions too. But this I conclude, from
what I have seen, my dear, that the French are the first People in the Universe;
that in the Arts of living, they do or ought to give Laws to the whole World, and
that whosoever wou'd either eat, drink, dress, dance, fight, sing or even sneeze,
avec Elegance , must go to Paris , to learn it. This is my Creed (page 22).
Buck’s friend Lord John philosophizes about the need for exclusive national identities.
Buck banters with Crab, demonstrating how he has been changed by France. Crab reveals
that Lucinda will forego £15,000 of her fortune if she marries Buck (she will be left with
£5,000). Buck leaves to change before seeing Lucinda; Lucinda and Lord John discuss
Buck. Crab summons Lucinda to the library.
Act II.
While preparing his toilet, Buck reveals to Lord John that he does not intend to become a
“happy husband.” Buck’s friends Racket and Tallyhoe arrive, and are taken aback by his
transformation. Buck and Lucinda meet, and discuss the lack of entertainment in London
(Foote’s satire on the popularity of Italian opera and Voltaire’s appellation of the major
works of Shakespeare as “monstrous farces”). Buck has written a French play and recites
some lines. Crab and Lord John leave, and Buck proposes that Lucinda marry Lord John
and become his mistress so the two can share the entirety of her fortune. Lucinda is
horrified and chastises him. Buck leaves; Lord John and Crab have overheard their
conversation, and agree to help Lucinda in her plan to take revenge on Buck. They have
another private meeting, and she serves him English tea, which he accepts. She bids him
goodbye, then reveals she has poisoned the tea: they are both about to die. Buck flees the
room in a panic. Crab makes Buck promise to release Lucinda with her fortune, to
abandon his French fopperies, and to send away his French servants. After this promise
has been secured, Buck learns that the tea was not poisoned. Crab waxes poetic about the
virtue of Britain.
Epilogue: Mrs. Bellamy (Lucinda) pleads in verse for the audience’s approbation.
5. Secondary commentary
5a. Dircks, Phyllis T. ‘Foote, Samuel (bap. 1721, d. 1777)’, Oxford Dictionary of
National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004. Oxford Dictionary of National
Biography. 26 May 2008. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/9808
[On] 3 February 1756 he brought out The Englishman Return'd from Paris, a sequel
to his Englishman in Paris, having stolen the idea from Arthur Murphy, who had
confided in him that he was working on such a play.
5b. Howard, Douglas. ‘Samuel Foote: January, 1721-October 21, 1777.’ Dictionary of
Literary Biography, Volume 89: Restoration and Eighteenth-Century Dramatists,
Third Series. A Bruccoli Clark Layman Book. Edited by Paula R. Backscheider,
University of Rochester. The Gale Group, 1989. Literature Resource Center. 26 May
2008.
http://galenet.galegroup.com/servlet/LitRC?vrsn=3&OP=contains&locID=utoronto_
main&srchtp=athr&ca=1&c=1&ste=6&tab=1&tbst=arp&ai=U13704537&n=10&doc
Num=H1200002827&ST=samuel+foote&bConts=10927
During the summer of 1755, Foote encouraged Arthur Murphy in the latter's plan to
write a sequel to The Englishman in Paris. Inspired by Murphy's idea, however,
Foote secretly wrote his own sequel, The Englishman Returned from Paris, which
opened at Covent Garden on 3 February 1756, two months before Murphy's play.
Early biographers insisted that Foote plagiarized wholesale from Murphy's work, but
the discovery of Murphy's Englishman from Paris in the Newberry Library, and its
publication in 1969 by the Augustan Reprint Society, put such accusations to rest.
Foote was certainly duplicitous in simultaneously encouraging and competing with
Murphy, but he did not steal Murphy's material, and his own play is clearly superior.
In fact, Foote's foppish Buck and wily Lucinda were more successful in this play than
in the original. The Englishman Returned saw nineteen performances by the end of its
first season, and it was acted regularly at Covent Garden until 1760.
6. Overview of varieties / dialects
The Englishman Returned from Paris is an amusing contrast to The Englishman in Paris.
As in its predecessor, this play uses Franglais to signify the adoption of loose French
morals and devious activities, most strikingly portrayed in Buck’s transformation. In this
play, however, Standard English, spoken by Lucinda, Lord John, and Crab, is a sign of
integrity. Latitat’s legal jargon and Macruthen’s strong Scottish accent satirize lawyers
and Scots.
7. Variety: Latitat’s legal jargon
7a. Sample of dialect
[page 10]
Lat.
[25] I wou'd, Mr. Crab , have attended your Summons immediately, but I was oblig'd to
sign Judgment, in Error at the Common Pleas; sue out of the Exchequer a Writ of Quæ
minus , and surrender in Banco Regis the Defendant, before the Return of the Sci fa , to
discharge the Bail.
Crab.
Pr'ythee, Man, none of thy unintelligible Law Jargon to me, but tell me in the Language
of common Sense, and thy Country, what I am to do.
Lat.
Why, Mr. Crab , as you are already possess'd of a Probat , and Letters of Administration
de Bonis , are granted, you may sue, or be sued; I hold it sound Doctrine, for no Executor
to discharge Debts, without a Receipt upon Record: This can be obtain'd by no Means,
but by an Action. Now Actions, Sir, are of various Kinds: There are special Actions,
Actions on the Case, or Assumpsit's ; Actions of Trover, Actions of Clausum fregit ,
Actions of Battery, Actions of--Crab.
Hey, the Devil, where's the Fellow running now?---But heark'ee, Latitat , why I thought
all our Law Proceedings were directed [50] to be in English .
Lat.
True, Mr. Crab .
Crab.
And what do you call all this Stuff, ha!
Lat.
English .
Crab.
The Devil you do.
Lat.
Vernacular, upon my Honour, Mr. Crab.
7b.1 Orthography
7b.2 Grammar
7b.3 Vocabulary
7c. Dialect area represented
7d. Density of dialect representation
7e. Location of dialect
7f. Characteristics of dialect speakers
7g. Consistency of representation
7. Variety: Macruthen’s Scottish dialect
7a. Sample of dialect
[page 14]
Mac.
O, the young Baronet is o'the Road. I was mighty afraid he had o'rta'en me; for between
Canterbury and Rochester , I was stopt, and robb'd by a High-way-man.
7b.1 Orthography
7b.2 Grammar
7b.3 Vocabulary
7c. Dialect area represented -- Scotland
7d. Density of dialect representation
7e. Location of dialect
7f. Characteristics of dialect speakers
7g. Consistency of representation
7. Variety: Buck’s affected French.
7a. Sample of dialect
[page 20]
Buck.
Not a Word, mi Lor, jernie , it is not to be supported!---after being rompu tout vif ,
disjointed by their execrable Pavé , to be tumbled into a Kennel, by a filthy Charbonier ;
a dirty Retailer of Sea-coal, morbleu !
[page 28]
Buck.
And first for the great Pleasure of Life, the Pleasure of the Table: Ah, quelle Difference !
The Ease, the Wit, the Wine, the Badinage , the Perciflage , the double Entendre , the
Chansons à boire , Oh, what delicious Moments have I pass'd chez Madame la Duchesse
de Barbouliac .
7b.1 Orthography
7b.2 Grammar
7b.3 Vocabulary – Suffused with French words; a sign of Buck’s foppish affectation
7c. Dialect area represented -- France
7d. Density of dialect representation
7e. Location of dialect
7f. Characteristics of dialect speakers
7g. Consistency of representation – Fairly consistent throughout the play
8. Narrative comments on dialects and varieties
[page 10]
Crab.
And what do you call all this Stuff, ha!
Lat.
English .
Crab.
The Devil you do.
Lat.
Vernacular, upon my Honour, Mr. Crab.
[page 15]
Crab.
But as to the Language, I suppose, he's a perfect Master of that.
Mac.
He can caw for aught that he need, but he is na quite Maister of the Accent.
Crab.
A most astonishing Progress!
9. Other points of interest
Note: field 7 is recursive; where several varieties are represented a separate record is
completed for each variety."