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A COMIC OPERA,

IN THREE ACTS;

BY ISAAC BICKERSTAFF.

AS PERFORMED AT THE

THEATRE ROYAL, COVENT GARDEN.

PRINTED UNDER THE AUTHORITY OF THE MANAGERS

FROM THE PROMPT BOOK.

WITH REMARKS

BY MRS. INCHBALD.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR LONGMAN, HURST, REES, AND ORME, PATERNOSTER ROW.

REMARKS.

This is an opera, in which plot, incident, and character are not subservient to the harmony of sweet sounds; but where sound and sense happily unite, to give entertainment to that taste, which is refined both in the one and the other.

None but a churlish spectator can behold this village groupe, without sharing in all their various interests and sensations-their family quarrels, petty intrigues, diminutive gallantries, clownish stupidities, rural festivities, sparkling anger, flaming love, and all those freaks of pain, pleasure, or absurdity, which passion deals out in the circle of a village, as well as in the precincts of a metropolis.

"Love in a Village" was first performed in 1763; and is entitled to particular notice, because it has ever since been a favourite opera, and will certainly preserve to future times the station it has obtained upon the English stage.

Bickerstaff, the author, has borrowed part of this production from a work, entitled, the "Village Opera," by Charles Johnstone, and also from the "Gentleman Dancing Master," by Wycherley, one of the most indifferent among that poet's dramas; and

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