George Farquhar

Michael Cordner

The Beaux' Stratagem

Since its first appearance in 1706, The Recruiting Officer has remained a scathing satire of military recruitment. George Farquhar knew the subject well, since he had been involved himself in the tricks and intimidation that enlisted recruits for Queen Anne's army in the War of Spanish Succession from 1703-1705. In Farquhar's play, two recruiting officers compete for recruits in the same locale. Recruiting in those years required more than patriotism and the lure of glory: it relied on bribery, alcohol, and the whole armory of deceit. Farquhar's play makes connections explicit, further setting off their dramatic power by linking recruiting tactics to the rites of courtship. His satire is intensified by his much-admired portrayals of the characters and situations of rural life; Farquhar brought the men and women of field and village truly to the stage.

The Recruiting Officer

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The Beaux-Strategem

A Comedy. By Mr. George Farquhar

The Beaux Stratagem

The Beaux Stratagem, 1707

BEAUX.

The Beaux Stratagem, Etc. [By George Farquhar.].

The 18th century was a wealth of knowledge, exploration and rapidly growing technology and expanding record-keeping made possible by advances in the printing press. In its determination to preserve the century of revolution, Gale initiated a revolution of its own: digitization of epic proportions to preserve these invaluable works in the largest archive of its kind. Now for the first time these high-quality digital copies of original 18th century manuscripts are available in print, making them highly accessible to libraries, undergraduate students, and independent scholars. Western literary study flows out of eighteenth-century works by Alexander Pope, Daniel Defoe, Henry Fielding, Frances Burney, Denis Diderot, Johann Gottfried Herder, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and others. Experience the birth of the modern novel, or compare the development of language using dictionaries and grammar discourses. ++++ The below data was compiled from various identification fields in the bibliographic record of this title. This data is provided as an additional tool in helping to insure edition identification: ++++ British Library N032529 With a final advertisement leaf. Glasgow: printed and sold by Robert and Andrew Foulis, 1755. 85, [3]p., plate; 8°

A Comedy. by George Farquhar

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A Comedy - Primary Source Edition

The Beaux-Stratagem

The Beaux Stratagem ... The Eighth Edition

The Beaux' Stratagem, Etc

Excerpt from The Beaux-Stratagem An empty purse may cramp your genius, I desire you to ace, my mite; here is twenty guineas.' Farquhar set to work, an brought the plot of his play to Wilks the next day; the latte: approved the design, and urged him to proceed without delay. Mostly written in bed, the whole was begun, finished, and acted within six weeks. The author designed to dedicate it to Lord Cadogan, but his lordship, for reasons unknown, declined the honour he gave the dramatist a handsome present, however. Thus was Tbe Bmtratagem written. Farquhar is said to have felt the approaches of death ere he finished the second act. On the night of the first performance Wilks came to tell him of his great success, but mentioned that Mrs. Oldfield wished that he could have thought of some more legitimate divorce in order to secure the honour of Mrs. Sullen. Oh, ' said Farquhar, I will, if she pleases, solve that im mediately, by getting a real divorce marrying her myself, and giving her my bond that she shall be a widow in less than a fortnight! Subsequent events practically fulfilled this pre diction, for Farquhar died during the run of the play: on the day of his extra benefit, Tuesday, 29th April 1707, the plaudits of the audience resounding in his ears, the destitute, broken. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

The Beaux-Stratagem (Classic Reprint)

Stratford Festival Collection (University of Guelph)

Antoni Cimolino

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.

A Comedy ; as it is Acted at the Theatre Royal in Drury-Lane, by His Majesty's Servants

The Beaux-Stratagem by George Farquhar was an early eighteenth-century comedy focusing on two friends, Aimwell and Archer, who wanted to renew their dwindling fortunes. Through several escapades, they find romance with the daughter and daughter-in-law of the wealthy Lady Bountiful. The Beaux-Stratagem was first produced in 1707.

Richard Cumberland

The Comedy of the Beaux Stratagem

A Comedy

The Beaux Stratagem. A Comedy [in Five Acts and in Prose], Etc

“The” Beaux Stratagem

"The Beaux-Stratagem" by George Farquhar. Published by Good Press. Good Press publishes a wide range of titles that encompasses every genre. From well-known classics & literary fiction and non-fiction to forgotten−or yet undiscovered gems−of world literature, we issue the books that need to be read. Each Good Press edition has been meticulously edited and formatted to boost readability for all e-readers and devices. Our goal is to produce eBooks that are user-friendly and accessible to everyone in a high-quality digital format.

George Farquhar

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