The earliest portion of _The Man of the World_ in the Larpent Collection is a passage in the fourth act of _The School for Husbands_, performed at Covent Garden as _The Married Libertine_ on 28 January 1761, twenty years before _The Man of the World_ was finally presented in London. Elsewhere I have compared the three complete versions submitted to the Examiner and have shown why the Lord Chamberlain could not permit it to be licensed.[4]
_The Man of the World_ was first published in England, with Macklin's farce _Love a la Mode_, by subscription, in a handsome quarto. Facing the title-page is a portrait of the author, "in his 93.^d Year," engraved by John Condé after Opie, for which the trustees of the fund paid 25 guineas. Preceding the text of the play are the list of subscribers, which contains many eminent names, an "Advertisement from the Editor," explaining the occasion and method of publication and giving an account of the handling of the fund by the trustees, and a dedication to Lord Camden, dated 10 December 1792, and signed by Macklin, though one rather suspects that Arthur Murphy had a hand in its composition. These pieces of front matter have been omitted from the present reproduction as containing nothing material to the reading or interpretation of the play. The _Dramatis Personae_ follow, and the text begins with signature B page 1, and runs to signature K2^{ V}. _Love a la Mode_, not reprinted here, then follows, with separate title-page and pagination.
[Footnote 1: See _Catalogue of the Larpent Plays in the Huntington Library_ (1939), Nos. 55, 58, 64, 96, 184, 274, 311, 500, 558.]
[Footnote 2: _Biographia Dramatica_ (1812), III, 15.]
[Footnote 3: Quoted by Edward Abbot Parry, _Charles Macklin_ (1891), p. 179.]
[Footnote 4: See _The Huntington Library Bulletin_, No. 10 (October, 1936), pp. 79-101.]
_THEATRES-ROYAL, DRURY-LANE AND COVENT-GARDEN_.
PRINTED BY J. BELL, BOOKSELLER TO HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS THE PRINCE OF WALES, AT THE BRITISH LIBRARY, STRAND.
[Illustration: CHARLES MACKLIN (COMEDIAN) _in his 93d. Year_.
Printed for the Author by John Bell British Library London July 1792]
_SIR PERTINAX MACSYCOPHANT_, MR. WILSON. _EGERTON_, MR. LEWIS. _LORD LUMBERCOURT_ MR. THOMPSON. _SIDNEY_, MR. AICKIN. _MELVILLE_, MR. HULL. _COUNSELLOR PLAUSIBLE_ MR. CUBITT. _SERJEANT EITHERSIDE_, MR. MACREADY. _SAM_, MR. LEDGER. _JOHN_, MR. ROCK _TOMLINS_, MR. EVATT.