John Collins (1742 – 2 May 1808) was an English entertainer and poet from Birmingham. Life He was born at Bath, and from some lines in his own collection of poems, entitled 'Scripscrapologia,' he would seem to have been a tailor's son. He was bred up to the business of a staymaker, but an occupation of that nature ill accorded with his disposition, and he very early in life made his appearance on the Bath stage, and filled many parts there, extending to 'tragedy, genteel comedy, low comedy, and old men and country boys in farces and operas,' a range of character which could not have been uniformly successful. In October 1764, he appeared at the theatre in Smock Alley, Dublin, as young Mirabel in the 'Inconstant,' and 'proved a very respectable acquisition to the Irish stage.' In Ireland, as at Bath, the characters assigned to him were of necessity often varied, but he seems to have always played with credit, and to have made his mark in comic opera. It is stated in the 'Memoirs of Charles Lee Lewes,' i. 79-85, that Collins played Captain Plume at Covent Garden Theatre 'many years ago,' but that a severe cold prevented him from obtaining the success which his talents deserved, and drove him from the London stage into the country. At a later period he returned to London 'with a very entertaining evening's amusement called "The Brush," composed of pleasant old theatrical stories well told, with humorous songs well written by him-self.' His entertainment had different names at different periods. Dr. Thomas Campbell of Clogher, who paid a visit to London in 1775, went one evening ' to hear Collins lecture upon oratory at the Devil tavern,' and noted in his diary that ' the fellow displayed good enunciation and good sense. His ridicule of the Scots, Welsh, and Irish was passing well'. At Belfast, in 1776, the performance was styled 'The Elements of Modern Oratory ; ' at another date the title of 'The Brush ' was given to it ; and at a still later year the name was changed to 'The Evening Brush.' In substance, however, the entertainment never changed ; it was from first to last a medley of 'story, song, and sentiment.' During the winter of 1791-2 Collins gave his performance at the Lyceum Theatre in London on fifty-two nights, and with that striking tribute to