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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 . Accessed: 20/11/2012 09:47 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. . Trinity College Dublin is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Hermathena. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.52.70 on Tue, 20 Nov 2012 09:47:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 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. This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.52.70 on Tue, 20 Nov 2012 09:47:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 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 This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.52.70 on Tue, 20 Nov 2012 09:47:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 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 This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.52.70 on Tue, 20 Nov 2012 09:47:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 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 This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.52.70 on Tue, 20 Nov 2012 09:47:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 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 This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.52.70 on Tue, 20 Nov 2012 09:47:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 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 This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.52.70 on Tue, 20 Nov 2012 09:47:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 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 This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.52.70 on Tue, 20 Nov 2012 09:47:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 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, This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.52.70 on Tue, 20 Nov 2012 09:47:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 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 This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.52.70 on Tue, 20 Nov 2012 09:47:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 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 This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.52.70 on Tue, 20 Nov 2012 09:47:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 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 This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.52.70 on Tue, 20 Nov 2012 09:47:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 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. This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.52.70 on Tue, 20 Nov 2012 09:47:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 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 This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.52.70 on Tue, 20 Nov 2012 09:47:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 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 This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.52.70 on Tue, 20 Nov 2012 09:47:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 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 This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.52.70 on Tue, 20 Nov 2012 09:47:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 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 This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.52.70 on Tue, 20 Nov 2012 09:47:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 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 This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.52.70 on Tue, 20 Nov 2012 09:47:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 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 This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.52.70 on Tue, 20 Nov 2012 09:47:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 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.' This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.52.70 on Tue, 20 Nov 2012 09:47:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 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 This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.52.70 on Tue, 20 Nov 2012 09:47:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 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 This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.52.70 on Tue, 20 Nov 2012 09:47:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 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, This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.52.70 on Tue, 20 Nov 2012 09:47:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 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. This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.52.70 on Tue, 20 Nov 2012 09:47:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 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 This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.52.70 on Tue, 20 Nov 2012 09:47:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 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 This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.52.70 on Tue, 20 Nov 2012 09:47:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 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 This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.52.70 on Tue, 20 Nov 2012 09:47:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 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 This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.52.70 on Tue, 20 Nov 2012 09:47:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 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 This content downloaded by the authorized user from 192.168.52.70 on Tue, 20 Nov 2012 09:47:32 AM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions