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GEORGE FARQUHAR (1677—1707) (The Trinity Monday Memorial Discourse, 1957)
Author(s): FITZROY PYLE
Reviewed work(s):
Source: Hermathena, No. 92 (November 1958), pp. 3-30
Published by: Trinity College Dublin
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23039109 .
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HERMATHENA
GEORGE
Trinity
{The
Ye
FARQUHAR
beaux
Suspend
Memorial
Monday
and
belles
that
form
conversation
your
(1677-1707)
while
Discourse,
this
I
1957)
splendid
ring,
sing.
is my duty and privilege to sing to-day the praises of
who wrote for the stage from 1698 to
George Farquhar,
I
The
lines
have quoted,
though not Farquhar's
1707.
to
a
notice
but Goldsmith's,
bring
general condition of the
It
which has particular
art of the playwright
relevance
for
and
his
time—the
that
that
the
condition,
is,
Farquhar
of a
theatre is a place of social resort, the performance
of
a
social
The
the
occasion
dramatist
gathering.
play
writes for the stage; the stage, as Farquhar
saw, 'cannot
and Force of
subsist without the Strength of Supposition,
'
in
his
in
the
Audience
and
this
was
not always
;
day
Fancy
easy
to
for
secure,
instead
of
as
concentrating
a
matter
of
course upon the play the spectators
(like many nowadays
tended to let their attention
who go to the College Races)
near at
fly off at a tangent to more enticing attractions
hand. Will. Phillips, for example, Farquhar's
contemporary,
who in 1700 gave to the Dublin theatre a comedy with a
in advance
that the playgoer,
setting, complained
far from giving his novel piece an attentive hearing, would
Dublin
in's
Remarks
dull
Neighbour's
whisper
then
the
whole
Judgment
give
Play,
the
in the
Strut
Pit,
Gallery,
Survey
Chat
In
hopes
to
be
lur'd
up
by
some
kind
Ear.
at
Guess,..
.
She.
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4
GEORGE
FARQUHAR
(1677-1707)
for indeed he was
made no such complaints,
Farquhar
himself; and he was all the
given to just such practices
dramatist
for having
to be a successful
better equipped
of the audience
and its ways.
understanding
sympathetic
Many people have written of the world of fantasy behind
the footlights; not many of the world of fantasy in box and
pit.
Farquhar
The Inconstant:
The
Region
did,
in the rhapsody
is
Play-house
of Beauty,
inspiring
the
Ladies,
Air
in the
commanding
them.
about
Jewels,
shining
sparkling
Then
there's
in a Ring.
port
us,
Eeathers,
Applause.
the
of Poetry,
methinks
Element
the
triumphant
sit
they
Slaves
Subject
else,
of Young
Bustle,
on
first Night of a New
than
Thrones
because
have
in
the
a
more
where
any
with
all their
Their
best
best Looks,
Cloaths,
the Treasure
of the World
Eyes,
a hurry
such
of Pleasure
to trans
Noise,
Bows,
Wigs,
I cou'd
wish
Boxes
their
Mirabel
Gallantry,
Smiles,
Oggles,
that
my whole
Garters,
Musick
and
Love,
Life
were
the
long
Equipage,
Play.
The gay, gallant,
Plainly he was in love with the theatre.
unruly, philandering
yet critical audience was his element.
It was all part of the game of play writing, one of the rules,
As he tells his spectators,
indeed, of the game.
speaking
himself:
of
You
He
are
hates
the
dull
Rules
by
reading,
which
but
he
he
writes
studies
his
Plays.
. . .
You.
and the theatre—these,
in ascending
Wine, women,
order of importance,
were Farquhar's
leading interests in
life. If women for him possessed
the intoxication
of wine,
the
theatre
as well the fascination
of women,
possessed
he brought to the conquest
of the theatre the same
inclusive
assurance
that with far
gay, rapid, impudent,
less lasting success he brought to his other adventures
in
and
gallantry.
had that in his behaviour,
he said, that gave
Farquhar
and
strangers a worse opinion of him than he deserved,
in an age of patronage he had to make his career without the
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GEORGE
FARQUHAR
5
(1677-1707)
influence
or support of the great.
The inclusiveness
of his
for wooing
was therefore
an audience
most
as the composition
and tastes of the
especially
were
in a state
of transition.
Etherege,
intellectual,
cynical, urbane, had in the 1660's and '7o's
aptitude
fortunate,
audience
written for a uniform audience,
smart society
measuring
for smart society by the yard-stick of smart society.
The
tone of that society had, however, already altered per
ceptibly by the early 1690's, when Langbaine,
writing of a
comedy over twenty years old, observed that in it Etherege
'drew his characters from what they called the beau monde;
from the manners and modes then prevailing with the gay
and voluptuous
part of the world '; and though Congreve
was for several years after that to establish his reputation
manner
the
upon
plays
perfecting
abandoned
after
1700, when
comedy
the
the
World
with
remark—
Way of
That
it
Expectation;
which
Taste
of
our
succeeded
for but
seems
on
little
now
the
Stage,
of it was
to
be
of
he
was
published
he
The
almost
prepar'd
predominant
Etherege,
beyond
my
for that general
in the Pallats
Audience.
Fashionable
taste in the theatre was no longer uniform or
in undisputed
control: a play had now to widen its appeal
so as to please the middle class as well. On the one hand
a comedy
with less
might still be expected
(though
with
detachment
to
combine
wit,
insistence)
polite
style,
'
'
was
to
Hazlitt
that
of
as
wickedness
which,
put
spice
'
it later,
was a privilege of the good old style of comedy
that
and allowed to assume as valid the rakish postulates
pleasure is the prime end in life and love a game of thrust
involvement.
and parry to be played without emotional
not for
On the other hand there was a growing demand
detachment
not
for
polite
style and wit but naturalness,
but morality;
not for bawdry
but serious involvement,
drama
to confound
for the bourgeois
mind tends always
with real life, and in the very act of doing so to confound
life as it is with life as it ought to be. Since 1695 London
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6
GEORGE
(1677-1707)
FARQUHAR
could again support two playhouses
(one had sufficed for
some years); but the advent of a larger public to the theatre
was not an unmixed blessing, for it meant that the prosaic
and anti-intellectual
elements of society were to gain more
influence
than was good for either them or the drama.
would yield place to
thinking and exact statement
aimed
not at
sentiment
and
verbose
pomposity,
flabby
but
at
the
of the
catching
applause
defining thought
and so known technically
ever since as claptrap.
audience,
Such was the direction things were taking when the
Clear
and Steele
new dramatists
Cibber, Vanbrugh,
Farquhar
Let us glance
started to write near the turn of the century.
at Steele, half rake, half reformer.
In his Lying Lover
the
to
from
the
hero,
quote
preface,
(1703)
makes
false
fifth
Act
and
love,
awakes
remorse
and
drunk,
his debauch,
gets
from
which
is
suitable
to
kills
his
with
a
man's
but in the
man;
the
compunction
finding
himself
in a gaol for the death of his friend, without his knowing why.
The
mutual
in that
but
I
anguish
sorrow
he
distress,
am
sure
are,
there
between
they
expresses
an only
perhaps,
are
a
the
[Steele
on], and
goes
child
a tender
father
and
an injury
justice
to the
to
rules
those
of
of comedy,
morality.
'
The play, as Steele afterwards acknowledged,
was
damned
for its piety,' but it shows what was in the air: in reaction
the moral obliquities
of recent drama
against
contrary
and artistically more dangerous
could be offered
obliquities
for approval—-pathos
not wit as the stuff of comedy, and
morals not dramatic
truth and fitness as the standard by
which conduct, character and situation were to be judged
in a play.
Formidable
dangers, then, beset the artistic sense and
of
the
and other considerations
stood
dramatist;
integrity
in the way of his material success:
the small reward that
could at best be obtained,
the appearance
of new and
rivals
in
the
French
popular
theatre—opera,
pantomime,
tumblers and singers. In these circumstances
no one would
seem to have been in a more precarious
than
position
Farquhar.
Vanbrugh
and
Steele
had
other
professional
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GEORGE
FARQUHAR
(1677-1707)
interests and other sources of income.
and theatre manager,
profiting from
besides his own. Farquhar,
alone of the
of his time, made dramatic
writing
Cibber
was an actor
men's plays
leading playwrights
his sole profession.
And yet his capacity
for giving the public what it wanted
did not impair the quality of his work.
For he had the
other
of his audience
both sections
gift of pleasing
by
He could appeal
to the beaux
himself.
by his
from the
gaiety and freedom, his attitude of detachment
of everyday life; he could appeal
to the cits
compulsions
a
because
he was sincere and natural and fundamentally
happy
pleasing
man of feeling; he would appeal to all by his good humour,
in which he is unequalled
in English
a quality
perhaps
and
drama between
Goldsmith.
Shakespeare
*
*
*
the Irish are a nation of born dramatists, naturally
and
witty
entertaining, is an idea that is widely held to-day
But it has not always been held.
—at least outside Ireland.
It was he who,
It was not held before Farquhar's
day.
for that
foundation
laid
the
his
and
fame,
by
example
belief. He was the first dramatist to exploit in his life and
of character regarded both at the time and
plays qualities
That
since
as Irish rather than English.
He was not, of course, the first Irishman to write for the
Tate,
London
stage, nor the first Trinity man to do so.
outlive
to
destined
and
Southerne
though
Congreve,
had all finished the bulk of their dramatic work
Farquhar,
But their Irish breeding and education
before he began.
and writing.
mark on their character
left no distinctive
He
was self
otherwise.
it
was
With Farquhar
quite
man
a
Irish, self-consciously
(none the
Trinity
consciously
of
the
to
less so for having little good
place), and he
say
for
and
drew on his own character
experience
constantly
his
than
rather
the raw material of his art. He, therefore,
from this college, may claim to be
contemporaries
Irish dramatist.
the first considerable
The part which he played on the stage of life and which
elder
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8
GEORGE
FARQUHAR
(1677-1707)
with successive
degrees of refinement he gave the heroes of
his comedies was that of the wild, breezy, rollicking, gay,
devil
irresponsible,
endearing,
pleasure-loving,
impudent,
How
with a heart of gold.
may-care
young scapegrace
far the
man and the mask are to be identified is not a
profitable speculation, for we know Farquhar mainly through
his plays.
He did not consort with people of rank and
fortune and is not much mentioned
by his contemporaries.
in
His only surviving
remains
his
Nothing
handwriting.
he published
himself, and may, therefore,
correspondence
have edited for the press.
accounts
prefixed
Biographical
to posthumous
editions of his works are sketchy at first
and become increasingly
unreliable
as time surrounds his
in
an
aura
of
We know from the
sentiment.
memory
records
the dates of his entry into College and of his burial,
but the dates of his birth, marriage and death are matters
of
inference
and
be
cannot
determined
exactly.
evidence
was
indeed
Documentary
very scanty until recent
finds were reported, throwing
years, when two important
on
The first was twenty years
life.
light
Farquhar's
early
when
Professor
R.
found among the
Sutherland
ago,
J.
Portland
the
attestations
of
widow
papers
Farquhar's
name
had
in
been
unknown
(whose very
pressing
before)
for a royal pension;
the second was Provost Alton's dis
covery in 1945 of entries in the private register of the
an occurrence
at Donnybrook
Fair
concerning
for
two
hundred
and
which
came
to
(forgotten
fifty years)
the serious notice of the Board of the time, and in which
was involved.
But in spite of these additions
Farquhar
to our knowledge
the plays still remain our chief source
College
of information.
These
author's
and
character,
of their
certainly reflect aspects
contain
much else of an
indeed
but it is a precarious
kind;
though
to disentangle
fact from fiction and to
autobiographical
task
fascinating
translate
out of artistic
Any account, therefore,
extent hypothetical.
George Farquhar
terms into
of Farquhar's
was the product
life.
of actual
life must be to some
terms
of turbulent
times and
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GEORGE
FABQVHAR
(1677-1707)
9
What were probably his most impressionable
places.
years
were spent in an atmosphere
of excitement
and adventure,
or actual,
the boy may
impending
tinged with whatever
have sensed
of the peril, loss and suffering that were
involved.
The respective
and
parts played
by nature
nurture in framing his character
we do not know; but it
is very likely that boyhood
experience
helped to form his
resilient mind, his empirical
and his readiness
approach,
to take life as it came. The name Farquhar
implies Scottish
forebears for several generations
stock; George's immediate
had been North of Ireland clergymen;
and he himself was
born
and
This groundwork
bred in the North.
for the
of
a
lad
no
means
was
sturdy, steady-going
by
making
He
born
in
and
was
was
stable,
however,
early upset.
in
whither
his
mother
had
to
seek
1677
'superior
Derry,
gone
medical
and he went to school at the Free
assistance,'
School in that city, certainly after and probably before the
was
It is likely, therefore,
that his schooling
siege.
the wars
It is even said that he followed
interrupted.
This
and carried the colours at the Battle of the Boyne.
is
credible
and
have
may
simply grown out
story
hardly
of the fact that he wrote a Pindaric
Ode on the death of
The
no doubt after he returned to school.
Schomberg,
were
not
the
Battle
of
the
of
and
the
Boyne
siege
Derry
his
His
father's
disturbances
of
rectory at
boyhood.
only
town (whither no doubt the boy
near Donegal
Killymard
had been withdrawn when his school closed) was destroyed
'
burnt out of all he
and his father,
by James's troopers;
his
three
children certainly
soon
died
of
had,'
grief, leaving
of the mother
for
and
orphans;
complete
poor
possibly
we hear not a word, except the phrase that suggests that
she had a difficult confinement with George. Capel Wiseman,
Bishop of Dromore, who may have been a distant relative
of hers, interested himself in the boy, hoping that he might
due to his directing hand
take orders, and it was perhaps
up to Trinity as a sizar, entering in July,
Two months after this Wiseman
at
the
1694,
age of 17.
man
was left without any means of
the
and
died,
young
that
he came
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10
GEORGE
FARQUHAR
(1677-1707)
or support that we know of, unless we
family guidance
count
his brother
who was already
Peyton
Farquhar,
to
a
Dublin
and
a
stationer,
sister, whose name
apprenticed
At
we
not
and age
do
know, afterwards living in Chelsea.
this period, then, George Farquhar
was a country boy,
in dangerous,
uncertain and (to
brought up interruptedly
a boy) exciting times, with no resources worth speaking of
but his own wits—a
rough and ready boy, whose head
we are told, in giving his
master, Ellis Walker, believed,
'much of letters and not too much of manners/
pupils
I believe, not only book
But 'much of letters'
included,
in
but also practical
if rudimentary
experience
learning
The ode
creative writing, and, what is more, in acting.
On the Death of General Schomberg was probably
written
the
under Walker's
and
direction
at
very
encouragement
time when Walker
was himself turning the Encheiridion
of
Epictetus
into
heroic
Further,
couplets.
when
a
few
visited
Walker
at Drogheda
years later John Dunton
Dunton
Grammar School, where he was then headmaster,
noted that the 'Scholars
were acting Henry IV. and a
If Walker
Latin play out of Terence.'
got the boys at
to act Shakespeare,
he may very well have done
Drogheda
I may say,
the same with his boys at Derry.
Farquhar,
venerated
and Henry IV is one of the few
Shakespeare,
There are reasonable
plays that he mentions
by name.
of
for
that the seeds
therefore,
grounds,
conjecturing
Farquhar's
enthusiasm
for the drama
at
Ellis
were sown in practical
Let us,
school.
Walker's
schoolboy
experience
then, pay passing tribute to this enlightened schoolmaster,
who in his day was a Scholar
of this House.
But however much we may attribute to earlier influences,
it was in the Dublin of 1694 to '97 that Farquhar's
character
and habit of life took permanent
College had a
shape.
hand in the process, mainly as an irritant, but its part was
a
none the less important
for that.
It taught Farquhar
his
hatred of pedantry
and theory, and confirmed him in
taste
for the modern
the town.
haunting
and
actual
What
which
formed
while
he acquired
then, were the
him,
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GEORGE
FARQUHAB
11
(1677-1707)
lives of gown and town, of restraint
and
contrasting
of sobriety
and
of idealistic
unrestraint,
recklessness,
remoteness
and desperate
actuality which he led during his
months'
residence
as an undergraduate
in this
eighteen
and in his association
with the Smock
College,
Alley
theatre, which he early frequented as a spectator and where
he spent a year as an actor. These contrasts were probably
an excellent preparation for the future dramatist, sharpening
his wits and
his comic sense.
developing
is
told
that while living in
story
by Chetwood,
one
rooms
sent
to
day to a neighbour
College
Farquhar
'
the
borrow Burnet's
but,'
History of
Reformation;
says
'
the Gentleman
sent him Word, he never lent
Chetwood,
The
any Book out of his Chamber, but if he would come there
This civil
he should make use of it as long as he pleased.'
'
for
A little
if cautious
offer Farquhar
evidently refused;
while after the Owner of the Book sent to borrow Mr.
'
he returned him the Compliment,
Bellows,' and
Farquhar's
"
out of my Chamber, but if he
I never lend my Bellows
to come there, he should make use of them as
be pleas'd
"
'—the sort of quick answer that will
long as he would
raise a ready laugh in the theatre but can incur a deal ol
wrath
in actual
life.
The
biographers
fellow-under
that, irked by
probable
graduates,
with him.
his unseasonable
smartness,
they quarrelled
Indeed while
times in College.
Those were exhilarating
'
the worst in
was in residence there was a riot,
Farquhar
'
in the history of the College, it was afterwards
all respects
'
In the course
affirmed,
except that no Blood was shed.'
report
that
eighteenth-century
with his
Farquhar
quarrelled
but it seems far more
the Provost,
of the proceedings,
George Brown, seeking
to quell
intervention
but foolhardy personal
by laudable
was knocked out by a blow of a brickbat
the disturbance,
was
that Farquhar
It is most unlikely
on the head.
with the
for by that time he was in disgrace
involved,
Board, and had been warned that if he offended again he
He had started his
would be removed from the College.
undergraduate
career
very
promisingly
by
winning
an
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12
GEORGE
FARQUHAR
(1677-1707)
exhibition
of £4 a year within a few months of entering;
after another
few months the exhibition
was
in consequence
of a scrape he got into at Donny
suspended
brook Fair. In this he seems largely to have been the victim
of bad luck.
He was one of a band of five undergraduates
and
then
of his own age, subsequently
joined
of them, I may say, proceeded
to a
'
decree of admonishment
puts it, on
'
at the Fair provoked disputes,' and
by a sixth (only one
degree), who, as the
their first appearance
armed with clubs and
one of the yokels.'
daggers seriously wounded
Farquhar's
were publicly
made to confess
admonished,
companions
their crime in Hall on bended knees, and fined or deprived
of all their emoluments.
was lighter,
His own sentence
'
for he had taken no active part in the affair, but
because
of
one
their
he
been
to
further
number
had
being
prepared
their designs,'
he was admonished
These
suspended.
were
restored
on
and had his emoluments
some
eight
months
later
1 February,
or
But it was too late.
Poverty
1696.
or
him
for
both
had
disinclined
further
College
annoyance
His brother was a printer's apprentice
in the town,
life.
and through him he may at once have sought part-time
work reading proofs.
At any rate, it is as a proof-reader
was restored, we find
that, shortly after his exhibition
him turning actor at the Smock Alley theatre, to be heard
of no more in Trinity.
In 1694, the year in which Farquhar
entered College,
that the young men of the
King reported
than to their
attended
more
to
the Playhouse
metropolis
studies.'
for them to do so,
There was strong temptation
for Smock Alley was a well-appointed
theatre where the
Archbishop
latest
'
and there was free
plays were performed;
of actors between
of the two
the theatres
interchange
In particular there was Robert Wilks, an Irishman,
capitals.
his
twelve
who had made
years older than Farquhar,
debut
was
at Smock
Alley in 1692 when the theatre
London
had acted
reopened,
and on his return
impoverished
and
for a time with Betterton in London,
befriended
the
1696 immediately
in
disgruntled
undergraduate
proof-reader
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GEORGE
FARQUHAB
13
(1677-1707)
who haunted the theatre.
Doubtless
through his influence,
was given a place in the Smock Alley company
Farquhar
at twenty shillings a week, a higher salary than Wilks had
got
from
Dublin.
Betterton,
This
if Wilks
even
after
was
friendship
two
years'
to be of mutual
experience
benefit,
in
for
with presents of money, paid for
helped Farquhar
his funeral at St. Martin's in the Fields and looked after
his orphan daughters,
Farquhar,
having gone to try his
fortune in London,
induced
his friend to return there,
with the result
that Wilks took the leading part in all his
the
laid
first, and thus through Farquhar
plays except
of one of the most brilliant stage careers
the foundation
of his time.
on the professional
No doubt
experience
Farquhar's
a
him
in
stead
as
but the plain
stood
dramatist;
stage
good
fact
'
the
had
he had no great talent for acting.
He
of
a
we
are
told,
very good person,'
advantage
'
and the warmest praise accorded
a weak voice';
'
never met with the least repulse from
that he
is that
had
but
him
the
a
has
curious
audience in any of his performances.'
History
way of repeating itself, and it was again through bad luck
in a wounding
that Farquhar
came to
in being involved
While playing the part of
another crisis in his career.
Indian
he forgot to
in Dryden's
Emperor
Guyomar
for
a
and
sword
wounded—at
first it
his
foil,
exchange
actor with whom he was
was thought dangerously—the
engaged in a stage duel. This so affected his nerve that he
to quit the state at once.
decided
Ashbury, the theatre
him
treated
very generously, giving him a benefit
manager,
'
of the house
—a most unusual
free from the expenses
with
the
concession—and
£50 or so, and a gift
proceeds,
for
London
in 1697 at
he
from
of £10
Wilks,
departed
the age of twenty.
was
*
*
*
soon made himself at home in the
In London Farquhar
is evident from the ephemeral,
as
and theatres,
taverns
Adventures
The
novella,
of Covent Garden,
pot-boiling
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14
GEORGE
FARQUHAR
(1677-1707)
which he wrote while recovering from one of his recurrent
at the end of the following
fits of sickness and published
narrative
of amorous
This swift-moving
year.
escapades,
founded
on personal
contains some
experience,
obviously
and highly perceptive
observations
on the war
Collier and his opponents),
of church and stage (between
critical
if unsubtle,
some
remarks,
lively and practical
on the drama and its function, and at least one passage
of
His
first
Love
and
a
acute
Bottle,
self-analysis.
play,
forceful but somewhat crude and ill-constructed
however—a
incidental
at about
was
the same
time,
produced
piece—which
In later plays we learn
deserves more note on this occasion.
'
'
for
distaste
of Farquhar's
small
Mutton-Commons,'
Books
and sour fac'd Doctors,'
and hear
Beer, crabbed
'
him say through one of his characters,
Tho' I have read
Lies in the University,
Ten thousand
yet I have learn'd
to speak the truth my self '; but the glimpses Love and a
Bottle affords of his response to College life and discipline
are
more
and
ingenuous
exact.
a young
Mockmode,
squire
setting up for a beau,
for a moment the author's
becomes
mouthpiece.
(He is
as
almost
and
like
him
is
is,
aged twenty-two,
Farquhar
'
come
from
the
the
But,'
newly
University.')
says
'
I thought all you that were bred at the
widow Bullfinch,
'
The quite contrary,
University shou'd be Wits naturally.'
Mockmode
'there's
no
such thing there.
Madam,'
replies,
We
dare not have Wit there, for fear of being counted
Rakes.
Your solid Philosophy
is all read there, which is
clear another thing.'
Mockmode
is
Elsewhere,
however,
a fool, and the butt of George Roebuck
of
(the embodiment
'
An Irish Gentleman,
of a wild roving temper;
Farquhar),
Roebuck
calls him a coward.
newly come to London.'
Mock.
My
Coward,
Father
Sir?
was
. . . Have
a
a
Parliament
at the College, Sir.
Roeb.
Oh
then
Senior-Fellow,
were
suckl'd
your
Mothers
I
know
your
and
your
Platonick
by
Milk
in
care
what
Man,
Sir,
Genealogy;
Mother
was
your
Idea's,
Nose
and
you
and
Sir.—
say,
I was
bred
Father
your
an Air-pump.
you
have
was
a
You
some
of
yet.
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GEORGE
Mock.
Form
Roeb.
I
the
told
FARQVHAR
so.—Blow
you
Mode
by
proposition
and
Nose
your
What
Roeb.
Your
Mock.
starch'd
Band
Then
set
have
you
This
notice
have
a
Mode
by
fellow's
blind,
and
Sir.
Figure,
Drunk.
I wear
a
Sir!
a
Childishness
Mock.
set
Band,
Sir?—This
Cravat,
Roeb.
and
slabbering-bib.
Sir?
mean,
d'ye
Sir.
Figure,
Child,
care of dirting your Philosophical
Mock.
15
(1677-1707)
left
good
the
fellow's
of
face
the
upon
matter.
Throw
and Folly with your hanging-sleeves.
him,
an
and
learn,
University,
Atheist,
inform
by
against
the
off
Now
learn.
I'll
take
Universe;
him
for being
Drunk.
informative.
pungent
piece of satire is remarkably
The reference is, of course, to Trinity, which at that time
'
To Farquhar
was known in Dublin simply as the College.'
was too formal, its prevailing
its education
spirit too
and
its
life
too
narrow
restrictive.
The
of
attitude
puritan,
That
the writer is that of the bright young man, deliberately
in outlook,
for whom Senior Fellows
neo-Cavalier
indis
criminately
Roundheads,
represent
repressive,
the
old
obscurantist,
discredited
opposed
spirit
to
of
the
progress.
To say that a man's father was a Senior Fellow sounds like
an undergraduate
joke casting doubts on his legitimacy.
Ashe had put Locke's
on the
To be sure Provost
Essay
course
on
the
after
it
was
Human
shortly
Understanding
a
number
of
the
Fellows
and
he
and
respectable
published,
were Fellows of the Royal Society or members of the Dublin
Club, in close touch with modern intellectual
Philosophical
instruc
but almost inevitably
movements;
undergraduate
tion at the time was cast in the mould of the past (' Form
To say that
the proposition
by Mode and Figure, Sir.').
is
the
Platonic
ideas
Mockmode
was suckled on
jibe of the
up-to-date young man, for whom Hobbes and an enlightened
are the latest thing and idealism insufferably old
the band (part of the academic
For Roebuck
fashioned.
dress of the day, which with more force than delicacy he
'
at once
calls a
slabbering-bib
'), symbolizes
Philosophical
hedonism
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16
GEORGE
FARQUHAR
(1677-1707)
the immaturity
and the restrictiveness
of College life and
And, finally, Farquhar
asserts, to suggest that
teaching.
this starched
is out of touch with life
pseudo-education
and that true learning can begin only when one leaves the
is a sure way to get oneself
University
atheist and drunkard by the good little boys
'
This fellow's an Atheist, by the Universe;
of him, and inform against him for being
branded
as
an
of the College.
I'll take notice
Drunk':
these
like a direct transcript from life, express
humour Farquhar's
for one
contempt
section of the studentry.
And they may contain
a clue
to how the story of his atheism got about; for though he
words, which sound
with characteristic
was, no doubt, careless with his tongue, his letters show
him to have been not only better grounded
in theology
than most laymen
but more seriously
concerned
about
Church
matters.
*
*
*
'
Wild Fowl is lik'd in Playhouse
all the year.'
So wrote
Motteux in 1702, after Farquhar
had stimulated
the public
It was with Sir Harry
appetite for that type of character.
Wildair, the hero of The Constant Couple, or The Trip to
the Jubilee (1699), that Farquhar
made his name.
Roebuck
—' Wild
as Winds,
and unconfln'd
as Air'—was,
like
a
self
himself,
adventurer,
Farquhar
penniless
jauntily
conscious
his provincialism,
about
to denounce
quick
in his manners, and as for bodily habit,
ill
and
His successors,
frequently
easily tired on a journey.
still
to
a
man
wild
and
show
a
This
though
airy,
change.
'
is most evident, perhaps, in Sir Harry Wildair.
He is a
Gentleman of most happy Circumstances,
born to a plentiful
free from the
Estate, has had a genteel and easy Education,
of Teachers,
and
of Schools'—far
rigidness
Pedantry
indeed from the hampering
circumstances
of Farquhar's
'
own case.
From boyhood Farquhar
had been
of a tender
'
constitution.'
Not so Sir Harry.
His florid Constitution,'
'
we are told,
being never ruffled by misfortune, nor stinted
in its Pleasures,
has render'd him entertaining
to others,
and easy to himself—Turning
all Passion
into Gaiety of
pedantry,
uncertain
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GEORGE
FARQUHAR
(1677-1707)
17
Humour,
by which he chuses rather to rejoice his Friends,
than to be hated of any.'
Clearly in Wildair and his like
for the pains and shortcomings
is compensating
Farquhar
of his own condition.
In Sir Harry's crude hedonism
he
his own
expresses
I
make
the
Pleasure's
No
Life's
Farquhar
not given
most
the
Spleen,
ideal:
no
of
Means,
Trouble
but a Span;
Life,
and
no
hour
Pleasure
shall
mispend,
is my
time
my
End.
destroy.
I'll every Inch enjoy.
did not brood on what might have
to self-pity.
But to us it is pathetic
been, was
to see this
avail to enjoy
young consumptive
straining without
inch
of
his
short
every
span of life and vicariously
enjoying
the
instead
existence
of those whose
florid
imaginary
is never ruffled by misfortune or stinted in its
constitution
gay
pleasures.
*
*
*
The Trip to the Jubilee was an instant success, being
performed fifty-three times in five months, an unparalleled
was delighted with himself.
'I am
achievement.
Farquhar
the Beauties
of this
very willing,' he said, 'to acknowledg
those of the third Night,'—the
author's
Play, especially
which not to
benefit night (later he got three more)—'
. . . When
be proud of, were the heighth of Impudence.
have had better success,
I find that more exact
Plays
In this
I'll talk with the Criticks about Decorums,
&c.'
in a young man of twenty-two,
mood, surely excusable
while he could, and what
lived expensively
he probably
illness and doctors,
with love affairs, a trip to Holland,
all he gained
no doubt
pretty quickly.
got through
in the next two years we find him scraping
Accordingly
letters
he had written and received—mostly
love
together
letters of no great worth, but some of them highly percipient
of life and
affairs in Holland—and
accounts
with
the
odd
them
along
scraps of undistinguished
publishing
in his Irish days and since.
After
verse he had composed
the triumph of The Jubilee he probably hoped for an easy
success with Sir Harry Wildair (1701), but whether because
critical
B
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GEORGE
18
FARQUHAB
(1677-1707)
like most sequels it was something of a rechauffe or because
of the sharp edge of its satire, it failed to please the town.
The Inconstant came next and was likewise a failure. This
ingenious rehandling of Fletcher's Wild Goose Chase deserved
a firm favourite later;
a better fate and indeed became
it was first put on just before the Lenten
but unfortunately
and
was
over when the Theatre
passed
Royal
closing,
'
he
So
as
without
one
left,
said,
reopened.
Farquhar,
for
half
a
that
he
had
down
taken,'
years pains
got
farthing,
to work again, and before the end of the same year (1702)
It ran for only thirteen
The Twin-Rivals
was produced.
much
we
However
may dislike the tone of this
nights.
with
its
midwife-bawd
its hunchback
Mandrake,
piece
hates
his
brother
villain Young
Wou'dbe
and plots
(who
last-minute
to supplant
reformation
him), its sentimental
of the cad Richmore, and its general leaning in the direction
of
the
melodramatic
is an original
mark
to
out
'
play
with
a
a
zone
between
The
purpose,
and sincere, if perhaps
comedy
Twin-Rivals
wrong-headed,
and
tragedy
attempt
and
to
a middle sort of Wickedness,
too high for the
depict
and
too
low
for
the
Buskin.'
was furious
Sock,
Farquhar
at its ill success.
To please the people had been for him a
cardinal rule of play writing, justified, he believed, by the
that had greeted The Jubilee. But now, when they
applause
The Twin-Rivals,
a piece of which
rejected
he turned and rent them for their hatred
he was proud,
of innovation
and
For
their bourgeois
habit of 'taking every thing at sight.'
a year and more he nursed his grievance;
and when
in
he
The
a little farce
1704
early
produced
Stage-Coach,
from the French, he printed it with a long and
adapted
in the style of Ben Jonson, whom he
dedication
pompous
gloried
to resemble
in this—
I am
assaulted
with
the
of partial
and
Ignorance
as
has
a
Readers;
prejudicial
sufficiently
appeared
by
I lately
which
because
it looked
all
Publish't,
piece
upon
with
an Impartial
. . . (remote
from
servile
Eye,
Flattery)
that
...
whom
is
hated
it toucht
as pity.
for
but
those
Truth,
speaking
to the quick,
their
I
Anger
Camels
gall'd
as much
scorn
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GEORGE
FARQUHAR
19
(1677-1707)
So much for the middle sort of playgoer:
had
Farquhar
And he had broken already with the
broken with them.
In a letter published
three years before, he had
fops.
'
the
against
flashy, noisy, rhiming, atheistical
inveighed
who arrogate to themselves
the Title of Wit
Gentlemen,
and Sense, for no other Cause but the Abuse of it.' Further,
at the same time,
in his Discourse
upon Comedy, published
satirised not only the kind of play that might be
'
'Fellow
of a College,' with
Cap'
by the
Square
'
the help of Aristotle, Scaliger with their Commentators,'
of
but also the performance
he had
written
a
sort
arrive
of
Gentlemen
at
Years
handsome
have
Plot,
and
own
set
Intreagues
his
[and
up
hero,]
very
before
Age
shift
to
they
a
spend
Thousand
all
the
size
and
a
Evening
in their
Pound,
a
being
Gentleman,
between
the
Pockets;
[he
knack
on] upon
goes
of witticising
. . .
Playwright.
for a
immediately
are sufficient
the
[says
spark]
Speculative
Character.
was
three
Hands
of this
Gentleman
Now that (except
a year)
away
their
of Covent-Garden,
Knowledge
his
Cups,
own
a
sauntering
with
or
a
all Night, lolling A-bed all the
in the Tavern
by soaking
to
coming
make
Discretion,
of two
Patrimony
and
Morning,
two
Play-houses
shall
. . . who
of
compound
is ten
to
to
found
of Practical
the
one,
you
his
in
My
the
Rake,
Author's
for the patrimony
of two or three thousand
much
own
Farquhar's
case
when
he
wrote
his first play; and I believe that in those words he is laughing
at himself as he had recently been; for the last lines I have
quoted are straight out of Love and a' Bottle, where Lyrick,
the Hero in Comedy
asserts that
the budding dramatist,
'—'
A
of practical
is always the Poet's Character
Compound
Gentleman.'
then, had
Farquhar,
Rake, and speculative
of the cits, and grown
grown out of the wits, grown out
self. He was now his own man
out of his own adolescent
as
an
good
artist.
for him.
The
failure
*
of The
*
Twin-Rivals
had
been
*
for his art, yes, but not good for his ultimate
for it was that failure, I believe, that led him to
happiness;
Not knowing where to turn for
take a disastrous
step.
Good
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20
GEORGE
FARQUHAR
(1677-1707)
hoping for
money, he made a rash and hasty marriage,
a poverty such as he had
ease and plenty but achieving
The lady, Margaret Pemell, a widow
never known before.
ten years his senior, caught him, it was said, by giving it
That was not altogether
out that she had £700 a year.
untrue: it was merely a mistake in tense. She had had such
a fortune, or would have had if her first husband had had
All she had in
better luck or a better head for business.
the present was three children, two of them at an expensive
her second
marriage
produced
age; and in due course
In a desperate
two more.
effort to meet the situation
secured through his friends a lieutenant's
com
Farquhar
in Orrery's newly-raised
regiment of foot at three
From
his
a
day.
early
shillings
days of poverty in London
he had, it is evident, toyed with the idea of making the
and Steele had done before
army his career, as Vanbrugh
'
sensible how far a Lac'd
Coat
him.
He was especially
and Feathers
Sex,' but the
usually work upon the Female
at Smock Alley and his immediate
accident
abandonment
of the stage in consequence
numerous
touches in
(besides
his plays) suggest that he had little stomach for the grimmer
side of a soldier's
attacks
work; and indeed his repeated
of sickness show that he had not the constitution
for it.
mission
a commission
His seeking
was, therefore, a last resort.
Once he had taken this step he doubtless
enjoyed being
'
call'd
Sir, by all the Coffee-men,
mistakenly
Captain,
and Groom
Porters in London';
Whores
and
Drawers,
of
his
because
he
was
not
sent
to
poor health)
(perhaps
abroad but to recruit in the provinces.
Even that
'
him
and
endless
Pain.'
lasting
Plague,
Fatigue
His duties kept him in the
But there were compensations.
wife, and brought him
country away from his embittered
serve
caused
at
Lichfield
and
into
the society
of easy,
unsophisticated
country gentry which he greatly
It was in this mood and this atmosphere of warmth
enjoyed.
and good feeling that he wrote
The Recruiting
Officer,
Shrewsbury
friendly,
environment
at Shrews
drawing heavily on his immediate
bury for character and incident, with himself as the original
for Captain
Plume, and his sergeant, Jones, as the model
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GEORGE
FARQUHAR
(1677-1707)
21
for that admirable
comic creation,
Kite.
He
Sergeant
had already
used a country setting in The Stage Coach,
and now, two years later, he went further and did what
in his age was a new thing—founded
the spirit, intrigue
and manners
of his entire play upon the country rather
than the town.
The theme was topical;
Ormonde
and
the
their approval;
and Lintot
the
Orrery gave
piece
that he paid heavily for the copy
before its first production.
The
success on the stage,
Recruiting Officer was a resounding
both houses putting it on time after time for several months
of
and seeking to outdo one another in the performance
printer liked
almost
two
it so much
months
it—-a most extraordinary
situation.
He
But still Farquhar
could not make ends meet.
Ormonde
to get him a captaincy.
Ormonde
besought
said he would see what he could do and advised him in the
This he
commission.
meantime
to sell his lieutenant's
done.
In
or
have
November
December,
1706, illness
may
of his friends.
want drove him to shun the company
from his lodging
Unable
to pay his rent, he disappeared
and wrote to Robert
Wilks from a back garret in St.
'
He told Wilks he was
heart broken.'
Martin's
Lane.
him to start writing
Wilks lent him money, persuaded
the plan of
and a week later saw and approved
again,
sickness
he
had
a
settled
The Beaux Stratagem.
Although
he
before
of
death
him
and
the
approaches
upon
perceived
and
the play
had finished the second act, Farquhar
completed
him £30 for the
in six weeks.
Lintot at once advanced
twice as much as he had given for The
copy, almost
on 8 March, so
Recruiting Officer. It was first produced
In spite of
time for revision.
that there was probably
one of The Stage-Coach
benefit nights, including
several
'
seems to have con
for
a half-starved
poet,' Farquhar
He
the
end of April.
his
death
at
tinued in poverty until
'
Dear
Bob,
left behind him a letter for Wilks, which read:
thee to perpetuate
have not any thing to leave
my
Memory, but two helpless Girls; look upon them sometimes,
and think of him that was to the last Moment of his Life,
I
Thine,
G. Farquhar.'
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22
GEORGE
FARQUHAR
(1677-1707)
He does not mention his wife, only his daughters;
and
with any
his memory
have
they cannot
perpetuated
them
Wilks looked after them and apprenticed
kindness.
to a mantua maker; but one died shortly after her marriage
and the other had in the 1760's
to a low tradesman;
'
into a maidservant
without any knowledge
of
dwindled
'
refinement either in sentiment
or expenses,'
taking no
'
in every respect
pride in her father's fame,' and her mind
fitted to her humble
situation.'
*
*
*
owed his success to the rapid action of his
Farquhar
his
and especially
the
plays,
dialogue,
easy, unstudied
'
he
a
for
gift (which
prized most)
drawing
gay, splendid,
easie, fine young Gentleman.*
generous,
John Oldmixon,
in his obituary notice in The Muses Mercury, gave a very
just
of his worth:
appraisal
All
of
that
Mr.
love
Farquhar,
that
was
them
the
Criticks
but
Mr.
to hear
sorry
last
had
Plays
humorous
and
diverting.
Comedy
whose
and
his
phrase
Audience
love
than
of the
something
'
Tis
Death
in
true
Part
of them
to be regular;
any
a Genius
had
for Comedy,
of which
one
Farquhar
that
it was
above
Rules
than
below
them.
rather
Dialogue,
his
Wit,
word,
be
two
truly
will not allow
may
say,
His Conduct,
tho not
tho not Great,
were
His
will
was
artful,
tho
just:
loose
tho
not
His
and
tho
incorrect,
gay
Characters,
low,
and
super-abundant,
pleasant.
in the toute ensemble,
as the
have
Plays
it, a certain
Novelty
time
every
they
to
His
surprizing:
Humour,
at the
Theater,
laugh
now
they
imagine.
and
were
will
Mirth,
which
represented;
probably
diverting:
agreeable;
In
a
Painters
the
pleas'd
as
And
such
miss
him
more
As Oldmixon
mind is swift and direct,
implies, Farquhar's
not painstaking
or subtle.
His strength lies not in conscious
artistry and wit but in facility and freshness of humour.
He is to be compared
not with Congreve
but Vanbrugh.
His closest
is Goldsmith,
whose
however,
counterpart,
humour, not confining itself to fine society, was likewise
'
branded as
low.'
Oldmixon
wrote prophetically
when he
said that' such as love to laugh at the Theater, will probably
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GEORGE
FARQVHAR
23
(1677-1707)
miss him more than they now imagine/
for laughing
stands for in dramatic
comedy is what Farquhar
history,
and sentimental
comedy, the comedie larmoyante, was just
about to establish
its long ascendancy
in the theatre.
the extraordinary
success
of The Constant
Despite
'
Oldmixon
refers only to the
two last Plays.'
Couple,
In this again he shows sound sense; for, though The Constant
was famous on the London
stage for a century
Couple
and
in the repertory of provincial
companies
sixty years ago, none of the early plays but The
Inconstant can be said to have worn well.
They are well
rather
than
and
their heroes'
natured,
meaning
good
offensive attitude to women, an attitude of impudence
and
until
kept a place
between
them and the
effrontery, however
gay, stands
modern reader—I
for
for
The
reader,
say
Inconstant)
(except
they are no longer performed.
They possess, what is more,
an inner disharmony:
head and heart are at odds in them.
On the one hand they assume
that every woman is fair
on
the
other
assert
the romantic doctrine (to
game;
they
which the rake at the last minute conforms) that virtue
is
its
own
defence
—mouthing
and
of
power
to
the
reclaim
out this belief at times in discordant
wayward
blank verse
cadences.
In the last two plays, however, there is no occasion for
to effect an
such mouthing,
nor for a cor ex machina
improbable
transformation
the
of disharmony
of
character
at
the
for
end,
or
plausibly
danger
the
avoided
Plume,
recruiting officer,
altogether.
Captain
rake—an
inveterate
is a rake, but a romantic
wencher,
That
in love with Silvia from the start.
yet genuinely
is not left
such a character is both credible and laudable
is either
resolved
from the
of faith or deduced
in
it
is
demonstrated
lady's loyalty to her roving lover:
no less a person than her father, the good Justice Ballance,
son-in
of Plume as a prospective
who heartily approves
'
at his Age,' he
I was much such another Fellow
law.
'
both to my self
but what was very surprising
recalls,
to be assumed
and
Friends,
as an article
I chang'd
o'th'
sudden
from the most
fickle
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24
Lover
GEORGE
to be
the
FARQUHAR
most
constant
(1677-1707)
Husband
in the World.'
So the way is satisfactorily
prepared for Plume to do like
wise when the time comes.
In The Beaux Stratagem the
matter is handled differently. The two sides of Farquhar's
nature
are
and
distributed
two
between
apart
is the engaging
but hard-headed
mercenary,
disinterestedly
fighting wars of the heart for
Aimwell is the romantic,
the man of
gain and pleasure;
The two types of character are kept distinct and
honour.
characters.
taken
Archer
in dramatically
effective contrast.
presented
The women
an
important
part in
play
increasingly
At
first
the
tone
of
comedies.
determining
Farquhar's
and the women
the heroes engross most of his attention;
characters
are either female rakes or routine mouthpieces
of virtue,
objects of intrigue rather than real persons. But
with
The Inconstant
the heroines
become
more
starting
and
and
handled
with
are
womanly
greater
interesting,
sympathy and insight. It is not until The Beaux Stratagem,
that they take on instant and continuous
life.
however,
Even
in
The
Silvia, the open-air
girl
Recruiting
Officer,
is rather too obviously
a dramatic
contrivance.
She is
and
tireless
frank, assured,
physically
gay, good-natured
ideal character)—
of Farquhar's
(a feminine embodiment
'
she says,
with neither Spleen,
nor
troubled,
Cholick,
'
and
from
the
Plume
asserts,
free,
Vapours,'
Ingratitude,
of her
and Vanity
Dissimulation,
Pride, Avarice,
Envy,
'
Sister Females.'
In short, as he concludes,
there's some
Add to this that,
thing in that Girl more than Woman.'
lost
her
in
has
been brought up
mother
she
having
infancy,
entirely in her father's ways and company,
see that if in her consistent heartiness
Silvia
and
we . can
strikes us as
less (as well as something
something
more) than woman,
she is the victim of the dramatist's
concern that she shall
for half the play masquerade
as a soldier—
convincingly
and at the same
her wholesome
time temper through
'
animation
the crudities
which a
breeches
of innuendo
'
in a military play.
involves,
part
especially
One further point should be made about the develop
ment of Farquhar's
a point which will
gift for comedy,
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GEORGE
FARQUHAR
25
(1677-1707)
help to modify what has been said about the early plays.
Love and a Bottle is too firmly grounded in fact: Roebuck's
standards
character,
the author's
and
circumstances
are
too
plainly
But
in The Constant Couple an element
The quality of wildness, of gay abandon,
own.
of fantasy appears.
of unconcern
with mundane matters, lightens the sense of
Sir
of course, but
actuality.
Harry Wildair is Farquhar,
from
his
freed
cares and anxieties.
day-to-day
Farquhar
'
He, rather than Roebuck, is Wild as Winds, and unconfin'd
He is at once true and untrue to life—Farquhar
as Air.'
not as he is but as he would be if he had health and fortune.
Moreover, we cannot pin him down: he is now on the side
of honour, now of rakishness;
and the result, since he is
intended
to be approved
of, is that our concern
clearly
both is for the time relaxed,
and we inhabit a world
are less compulsive.
of fantasy where everyday compulsions
In The Inconstant
the reckless heaping
of disguise upon
hero
and
heroine
has
the same effect.
both
disguise
by
of
The two last plays present a breath-taking
prodigality
.about
scale
of comic force, on an altogether
a breadth
incident,
from
anything
Farquhar
virtuosity
in the control
of
diverse
character
art
not
Kite
and
of action,
that
The
nature.
had
fantasy
attempted
is
world
as
a
cumulative:
tricks
Plume's
and display
movement,
their
stamps
different
before—a
world
of
one
any
would
of
be
perhaps
recruiting
even perhaps
by Farquhar
played
it is the
in enlisting recruits:
sergeant
that
charms
of
their
devices
and
riotous
profusion
variety
to what is
likeness and unlikeness
us with its combined
credible
himself
or could
enough,
and his
was
be.
Stratagem is the summit of his achievement.
is quite beautiful.
construction
Persons,
plots and
and
most
are
incidents
interrelated,
contrived,
admirably
abandon
air
of
artless
an
with
controlled,
yet presented
All is charm and
to the country setting.
appropriate
warmth and good feeling. We have not to make allowances
The Beaux
Its
for
the
manners
or
dramatic
conventions
been
has exception
only one incident
without justification—Archer's
attempt
of
the
taken,
upon
time.
and
Mrs.
To
surely
Sullen.
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GEORGE
26
FARQZJHAR
(1677-1707)
different
is a very
This
end-of-scene
thing from the
of Berinthia
in Vanbrugh's
abduction
by Loveless
Relapse,.
'
where the lady, on being carried off, expostulates
very
Here Mrs. Sullen, in love with Archer, gives vent
softly.'
'
— / and
Murther
to a full-throated
Thieves,
Thieves,
indeed there are though she did not know it, and
'
Scrub, the man of all work, rushes in crying
Thieves,.
and thinking Archer is one of
Thieves,
Murther, Popery,'
the thieves falls at his feet, begging him to spare all he
has and take his life; and the scene continues
with bustle
and confusion, pistols and dark lanthorns, and the rounding
Sullen in her fright all the time
up of the robbers—Mrs.
seducer
on
to
the
would-be
for protection.
That
holding
of spirit that inform
is typical of the force and liveliness
the whole piece.
. Aimwell and Archer, knights-errant,
as they call them
thieves
selves,
a year,
master
have
both
now
and
and
man
gone
are
turn
a
through
fortune
on their last
about
in
one
of
ten
thousand
few hundred,
town
after
playing
in
another
if all else
and prepared
their search for a rich heiress,
and fight in the wars.
fails to make sail for Holland
They
'
have now arrived in Lichfield.
loves,
Archer, who
fights,
is Farquhar's
all in a Breath,'
old hero (by
and banters
comment
this time much refined), setting off by mock-heroic
and contrary example the world of romance, which contains
of irony, raillery and realism.
its own correctives
Aimwell,
Mrs. Sullen and Cherry all fall in love at first
Dorinda,
Mrs..
and Dorinda
can marry:
sight, but only Aimwell
the
and
is
Sullen is married already,
born,
Cherry
lowly
hearts of both are set on Archer, whose mark is pleasure
Nor is the mood fixed for long
and fortune not marriage.
there
and tenderness
in the same key.
What
delicacy
as
she
are in the delineation
of Dorinda's
love
young
'
I'm
O Sister,
admits
her feelings to her sister-in-law:
but a young Gunner, I shall be afraid to shoot, for fear the
But over against
recoil and hurt my self.'
Piece shou'd
of the sentimental'
tenderness
that there is the burlesque
highwayman
includes
two
Gibbet—that
hundred
delightful rogue-—whose
in cash.
pounds
booty
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GEORGE
But
Cherry.
who
FARQUHAR
had
you
Gibbet. Ah! poor Woman!
from
just
elop'd
and
Cargo,
she
drive;
and
I
so
was
told
left
the
her;—From
bound
Husband,
for Ireland,
me
her
her
of
half
a
from?
Money
I pitied
her
27
(1677-1707)
she
had
as
hard
Husband's
a poor Lady
made
as
her
up
she
barbarous
cou'd
Usage,
Crown.
'
True to Archer's ideal, Farquhar
his Five Senses
kept
keen and bright as his Sword.'
He found enjoyment
in
the most everyday sights and occupations.
This is evident
from the images he uses to convey his sense of fun. Take
Scrub's account of Archer and the French Count's footman
'
French like two intreaguing
Ducks in a Mill
Gabbering
of
he
or
Archer's
how
Pond,'
can play with a Girl as an Angler do's with his Fish;
it at
keeps
down
the
the
the
end
of his
till at
Stream,
and
so whips
Trout,
he
runs
Line,
it up the Stream,
and
it to hand,
tickles
brings
his Basket.
he
last,
it into
And
a similarly realistic image can give comic expression
to matter not at all comic in itself, as when Mrs. Sullen
to Dorinda:
talks of her husband
O
There's
a
Sister!
Sister,
silent
must
Woman
of
'em
hearing
Morning
Man
and
in
a
at
wear
rattle
his
usual
he had
rowl'd
he comes
Storm,
a Fishmonger's
into
It is its close
makes
if ever
one
that's
Sot,
some
Diversion
The
strikingly
characters
Beaux
displays
Squire
you
always
in a
Chains,
a little.
but
. . .
He
about
into
came
a sullen,
thinks:—
and
the
since
Pleasure
home
this
his
after
[and]
like sick Passengers
dead
as a Salmon
Bed,
Four,
the Room
flounce
of
never
Blockhead;
talking
I wou'd
have
of
Hour
beware
marry,
musing,
. . .
Basket.
combination
Stratagem
Farquhar's
and Mrs.
feeling that
and most
great comedy
His
stature as a humourist.
a
of gaiety
Sullen
are,
married.
and
like
Yet
himself
and
he handles
Farquhar,
unhappily
Margaret
He
bitterness.
a trace of personal
this theme without
of himself but the
makes the woman—not
an embodiment
woman—the
injured party; and yet, though she engages
our fullest sympathy,
he plays fair by the man—that
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GEORGE
.28
FARQUHAR
(1677-1707)
'
a natural Aversion
of
sullen, silent, sot—and
gives him
his side.'
The Sullen plot is a plea for the right of divorce
of temperament,
but
The
for incompatibility
Beaux
.Stratagem is no problem play, for the serious intention of
with the pervasive
comic spirit of
this plot is harmonized
at work on the play Farquhar
went to
of The Doctrine and Discipline
advocacy
the poet wrote soon after his own rash
turned
from it into
and hasty marriage—and
passages
'
Here
is
a
realistic
You're
dialogue.
specimen.
starkly
'
Sullen
to
his
I
wife.
was
ever
impertinent,'
says Squire
'
one Flesh
since I became
with you.'
so,' she replies,
'
two
One
Flesh!
rather
Carcasses
join'd
unnaturally
'
'
she
a living Soul coupled
Or
rather,'
rejoins,
together.'
Such snatches
of unrelieved
to a dead Body.'
realism,
and
to the play;
substance
used, give depth
discreetly
his superb
and elsewhere,
gift for combining
exercising
raises that substance
into
realism and fantasy, Farquhar
A
Take
for
instance.
this,
high comedy.
countrywoman
for her mother-in-law
enters and mistakes
Mrs. Sullen
a charitable
Lady Bountiful,
lady expert in cures.
the whole.
While
Milton's passionate
of Divorce—which
I
Worn.
come
seventeen
sore
Husband's
Mrs.
Worn.
Sull.
Your
Husband!
Sull.
Mrs.
Well
You
I
There,
good
must
lay
have
to
a
confess,
I'll
your
Choping-knife,
then
can,
you
soundly
with
Sore
you
tell
Husbands
you
must
cure
Woman,
his
Woman,
a
Flesh
what
for
Man,
Ay,
poor
from
Home.
Mail
long
Cure
for
my
Leg.
have
you
Leg
must
won't
Leg
a
rowling
let
him
stir
me a Reason.
given
what
must
do—
you
a Table,
and with
upon
it
take
lay
out
Husband!
your
the
open
Bone,
as
broad
and
pin, then
as
beat
take
you
the
Salt,
Mace
and
some
sweet
Cloves,
Herbs,
Pepper,
Ginger,
and
it very
season
then
rowl
it up like Brawn,
and
well,
it into
the
Oven
for two
Hours.
put
Worn.
Here
•country
Heavens
reward
Mrs. Sullen's
life which
your
distaste
he forces
Ladyship.
for her husband
and for the
her to live receives highly
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GEORGE
FARQUHAR
29
(1677-1707)
effective comic expression as she seeks relief for her feelings
of her fancies.
in the vigour and extravagance
Lady
Bountiful herself now appears, and hearing that the woman
for her husband's
wants something
leg, asks what is the
with it.
matter
It
Worn.
come
as
first
in
Dizziness
his
one
might
he had
then
Foot,
with
a
sort
of
say
a kind
of a Laziness
in his Joints, and then his Leg broke out, and then it
and
swell'd,
then
it
clos'd
and
then
it broke
again,
and
then
it grew
better,
it fester'd,
and
then
again,
worse
it grew
then
again.
Sull.
Mrs.
ha,
Ha,
out
and
ha.
This is sensitive writing. The woman is, of course, altogether
serious in her account of her husband's
symptoms, but she
and
a
confused
Mrs.
laughable
country way.
puts it in
Sullen is highly wrought: she needs but a trifling stimulus
This the woman's
to make her give vent to her emotion.
and she bursts out laughing.
her laughter
would
speech provides,
had not been
and
heartless
Bountiful,
Boun.
L.
other
Sull.
Mrs.
Boun.
L.
own
Mrs.
Sull.
comic
cruel,
engrossed
How
can
Because
worst
you
be
my
own
the
kind-hearted
thinks
with
merry
the
make
Reason
shou'd
Misfortunes
But
indeed
it to be.
the
Lady
Misfortunes
of
?
People
The
as
in diagnosis,
If that speech
have
seemed
in
me
the
teach
sad,
World,
to
you
Misfortunes
Woman's
nothing alike, her Husband
in Health.
Madam.
Daughter,
others.
your
pitty
and
mine
husband,
alas, was by no means
Farquhar's
Margaret
and yet he never wrote better in his life.
health;
*
*
are
is sick, and mine, alas,
is
in
*
it is idle to speculate.
he lived longer—but
Young
was
remarkable.
No eighteenth
achievement
his
or old,
century playwright was more popular in his own century;
Had
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30
GEORGE
FARQUHAR
(1677-1707)
The Beaux Stratagem (which has been
often than any other piece written within
is still assured
of
of the Restoration)
If
one
of
his
audience
to-day.
only
plays
and
the stage, of how
that be said?
many
of the older
performed more
a hundred years
an appreciative
has survived
dramatists
can
on
even
was an Irishman;
he fixed for the
George Farquhar
a
theatre
certain type of Irish character,
English
long
The Inconstant
as such; and in dedicating
to
recognised
at Trinity (in whom he
Richard
Tighe, his contemporary
saw a likeness to his own Sir Harry Wildair),
he compli
'
the place
of [his] Pupilage'
on having
mented
given
'
'
'
the seeds of his Education
to
so fine a Gentleman.'
In this first year of the Irish Theatre Festival,
while some
of his writings are on exhibition
in the College Library,
it is fitting that we should return the compliment,
and do
honour
on
this
day
to
one
of our
in the two-hundred-and-fiftieth
most
celebrated
anniversary
FITZROY
dramatists
of his death.
PYLE
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