George Farquhar,
the successor of Wycherley and Congreve, was the son of an Irish clergyman,
Londonderry being his native city and Trinity college, Dublin,
his alma mater. He was entered as a sizar or servitor, a class
of poor scholars, who were compelled to wear a peculiar dress
and perform menial offices. These are no longer exacted from
their successors, but Goldsmith, sixty years after Farquhar's
admission, had to submit to the same humiliations--to sweep out
the college courts, to carry up the fellow's dinner to table,
and to wait in the hall till the fellows had dined. It certainly
implied a contradiction, as Goldsmith observed, for men to be
"at once learning the liberal arts, and at the same time
treated as slaves," and neither in the case of Farquhar
nor of Goldsmith was the system attended with favorable results.
The former soon broke away from his studies, attached himself
to a strolling company of players, and after a single season
appeared as an actor on the Dublin stage. He had the advantage
of a good person, though with a weak voice, but was timid and
sensitive, and an accident which happened to him when he had
only been a twelvemonth on the boards made him resolve to quit
the profession. When performing the part of Guyomar in Dryden's
Indian Emperor, he had omitted to exchange his sword for
a foil, and in a fencing scene wounded a brother performer so
severely that his life was endangered. Farquhar never again returned
to the stage. The earl of Orrery gave him a lieutenancy in his
regiment then in Ireland, and as a soldier Farquhar is said to
have given proofs of his courage and good conduct, though none
are recorded. Even in his own letters, written from Holland at
this time, no mention is made of his military services. In the
reports of his superior officers, however, there is nothing to
his discredit.
The Constant Couple
While yet a minor Farquhar appeared as a dramatist, producing
his comedy of Love and a Bottle at Drury Lane when twenty
years of age. Its success far exceeded his expectations, and
his next comedy, The Constant Couple, was still more favorably
received. Wilks, a popular comedian and a special friend of Farquhar's,
by his performance of the part of Sir Harry Wildair contributed
very much to the popularity of the play. "He made
the part," says Farquhar; but it was the lively acting of
the beautiful Peggy Woffington, and the glee and spirit which
Mrs. Jordan afterward threw into it, which gave Sir Harry Wildair
a permanent foothold on the stage, his strong animal spirits
and untamable vivacity recommending him, for more than a century,
to the play-going public.
Sir Harry Wildair
As a sequel to The Constant Couple, Farquhar brought
out Sir Harry Wildair, with the acting of Wilks again
a strong attraction; but like all continuations--that of Don
Quixote alone excepted--the second part was far inferior
to the first. Leigh Hunt tells us that Mrs. Oldfield performed
to perfection the character of the heroine, Lady Lurewell. It
is even said that she took to the stage by Farquhar's advice,
and certain it is that she played in the two last and best of
his comedies. For a time Mrs. Oldfield became the theatrical
idol of the day; her exquisite acting and ladylike carriage were
the delight of her contemporaries, and her beauty and generosity
found innumerable eulogists--
- Engaging Oldfield, who, with
grace and ease,
- Could join the arts to ruin
and to please.
In 1702 Farquhar published a volume of "Miscellanies"--poems,
letters and a discourse on comedy. The poems are below mediocrity
and the letters are written in the overstrained style of gallantry
and smartness which was then fashionable and considered witty.
In one he gives a lady a picture of himself, "drawn from
the life." His mind, he says, was generally dressed, like
his person, in black; he was taken for an easy-natured man by
his own sex, and an ill-natured clown by the ladies; strangers
had a worse opinion of him than he deserved, but this was recompensed
by the opinion of his acquaintance, which was above his desert.
Self-portraiture is seldom faithful, but we may conclude from
this outline that the young dramatist was somewhat grave and
reserved, and wanting in address for general society. He was
liveliest with the pen in his hand. The discourse on comedy is
more worthy of the author than his poems or letters. In it he
defends the English disregard of the dramatic unities. "The
rules of English comedy," he says, "don't lie in the
compass of Aristotle or his followers, but in the pit, box and
galleries." Soon Farquhar had another comedy on the stage--The
Inconstant, or the Way to Win Him--the hint of which, he
says, he took from Fletcher's Wild Goose Chase, but was
charged with spoiling the original. The poetry of Fletcher certainly
evaporates when its scenes are transmuted into the prose dialogue
of Farquhar.
Farquhar's Wife
About this time the dramatist was betrayed into what was perhaps
the greatest blunder of his life. A lady conceived a violent
passion for him, and, though penniless like himself, contrived
to circulate a report that she was possessed of a large fortune.
Farquhar snapped at the gilded bait. He married the lady, and
found too late that he had been deceived. It is related, however,
that he had the magnanimity to pardon a deception which must
have appeared a compliment to his genius, and in truth there
was something to forgive on his own part for having been so readily
entrapped, contrary to all the rules of love and drama. Increased
exertion, however, was necessary, and in 1704 he produced The
Stage Coach, a piece which he adapted from the French, in
conjunction with Anthony Motteux, a clever playwright and essayist,
and remarkable as having, though a Frenchman, given to the world
the best English translation of Don Quixote. Three more
comedies were written before Farquhar's career was sadly closed
at the age of thirty--The Twin Rivals, The Recruiting Officer
and The Beaux Stratagem. The last two are vastly superior
to Farquhar's other plays, and are the works by which he is now
remembered.
The Beaux Stratagem was written in six weeks, while
death was impending over its author. Before he had finished the
second act he knew that he was stricken with a mortal illness,
but it was necessary to persevere to be "consumedly lively"
to the end; for he had received in advance £30 for the
copyright. The play was brought on the stage, and Farquhar lived
to have his third night, as was the custom, and an extra benefit
on the day, it is said, when he died. He left his two children
to the care of his friend Wilks, to whom he writes:
"Dear Bob: I have nothing
to leave thee to perpetuate my memory but two helpless girls.
Look upon them sometimes and think of him that was to the last
moment of his life thine,
GEORGE FARQUHAR."
Wilks obtained a benefit for the dramatist's widow, and the
daughters had each a pension of £30 a year, which one of
them was receiving as late as 1764.
Farquhar's Works
The plots of Farquhar's comedies are skillfully conducted
and evolved; his situations are well chosen and his dialogues
are full of life and spirit. To the polished wit and brilliancy
of Congreve he has no pretension. His scenes are light and sketchy,
and his characters altogether on a lower level than Congreve's,
but they are quite equal to them in stage effect. He has also
several distinct and original characters which long charmed on
the stage, while the incidents with which they are mixed--the
unexpected encounters, adventures, artifices and disguises--are
irresistibly comic and attractive in representation. Pope considered
Farquhar a mere farce writer, while Goldsmith, who evidently
adopted him as a model, preferred him to Congreve. On the stage,
with good actors, he might be so preferred, but never in the
library. He had the advantage of being less licentious than Congreve,
for he was the cleanest comic writer of his age. Love intrigues
then formed the chief business of comedy, and in the management
of them the homely domestic virtues that form the happiness and
cement of society were disregarded or made the subject of ridicule.
This article was originally published
in The Drama: Its History, Literature and Influence on Civilization,
vol XIV ed. Alfred Bates. New York: Historical Publishing
Company, 1906. pp. 128-134.
|