The Works of George Farquhar

The Works of George Farquhar
Author: George Farquhar
Publisher:
Total Pages: 664
Release: 1988
Genre: Drama
ISBN:

George Farquhar captivated audiences with his lively, good-natured comedy, philandered with the leading actresses and female playwrights, married a widow with children, and wrote, besides the eight plays, many poems, letters, prologues and epilogues, an epic, and a miscellany, before his untimely death in 1707. Shirley Strum Kenny has added to the canon materials not printed since the beginning of the eighteenth century, some of which have never before been identified as Farquhar's. Each play has an introduction describing its sources and composition, theatrical and publication history, influence, and textual problems. The introductions to the non-dramatic works contain similar information, and relate the works to the contemporary events which occasioned them. Questions of authorship for newly-identified works, and possible or doubtful attributions are carefully considered.

The Beaux' Stratagem

The Beaux' Stratagem
Author: George Farquhar
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
Total Pages: 189
Release: 2014-06-26
Genre: Drama
ISBN: 140814428X

It attests to Farquhar's stature as a man that he composed this warm-hearted and vibrant play while he was dying. Like The Recruiting Officer, the play is set in a provincial town and its plot is slight: Aimwell and Archer, two impecunious London gentlemen, arrive in Lichfield looking for an heiress to marry. Aimwell, posing as his elder brother, falls in love with his 'prey' Dorinda and confesses his imposture to her; his 'man-servant' Archer arouses the wistful interest of the unhappily married Mrs Sullen. The introduction to this edition discusses the play for its theatrical merits and argues that it dramatises the ills of marriage in early modern England, shown by Farquhar to be more injurious to the wife than to the husband, and calls for a reform of the divorce laws.