''The Oxonian in Town'' is a 1767 play by
George Colman the Elder
George Colman (April 1732 – 14 August 1794) was an English dramatist and essayist, usually called "the Elder", and sometimes "George the First", to distinguish him from his son, George Colman the Younger. He also owned a theatre.
Early lif ...
. It premiered on 7 November 1767 and was later published in 1769. A
satire
Satire is a genre of the visual, literary, and performing arts, usually in the form of fiction and less frequently non-fiction, in which vices, follies, abuses, and shortcomings are held up to ridicule, often with the intent of shaming ...
, the work depicts a naive
student of
Oxford University
Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to th ...
travelling south to
London
London is the capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary dow ...
where he becomes mixed up with shady company, only to be rescued by a fellow
undergraduate
Undergraduate education is education conducted after secondary education and before postgraduate education. It typically includes all postsecondary programs up to the level of a bachelor's degree. For example, in the United States, an entry-le ...
from Oxford.
[Womersley p. 294]
References
Bibliography
* Kinservik, Matthew J. ''Disciplining Satire: The Censorship of Satiric Comedy on the Eighteenth-Century London Stage''. Associated University Presses, 2002.
* Wormersley, David. ''Gibbon and the 'Watchmen of the Holy City': The Historian and his Reputation, 1776–1815''. Oxford University Press, 2002.
Plays by George Colman the Elder
1767 plays
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