Life
1677-1707 [var. 1678; the name prob. from Gaelic fearachar, ‘brave
man’]; b. Derry; descended of Rev. George Farquhar (fl.1633), curate
of Clones, and rector of Kildoney, and son of John Farquhar, appt. prebendary
of Raphoe by Jeremy Taylor, Archbishop of Dromore, in 1667; his mother
was dg. of Capel Wisemen, Dean of Raphoe and later Bishop of Dromore,
who arrived in the train of his kinsman the Earl of Essex, viceroy in
1676; ed. Free Grammar Sch., Derry, directed by Ellis Walker; prob. remained
a student there throughout the siege of Derry under Walker’s replacement,
Joshua Pilott; his father died of grief after the raising by fire of his
home and possessions in Raphoe; a br. Peyton became a printer’s apprentice
in Dublin; George followed the army of William to the Boyne, prob. under
Lord George Hamilton (aetat.24); benefited by the library and educational
improvements installed by William King as Bishop of Derry; wrote "A
Pindarick on the Death of General Schomberg, Killed at the Boyne"
(‘Gods! How he stood,/All terrible in blood/Stopping the torrent
of his foes [...]’); entered TCD, as sizar, 17th July, 1694/5, but
did not graduate; befriended by the actor Wilkes; worked at Smock Alley,
and appeared as Othello; abandoned acting when he accidently stabbed another
actor appearing as Guyomar in Dryden’s Indian Emperor; encouraged
to write comedy by Wilkes; went to London with the manuscript in 1697;
Love and a Bottle (1698), featuring Roebuck, ‘an Irish gentleman
of a wild, roving temper, newly come to London, a penniless and charming
libertine, Wild as Winds, and unconfin’d as Air’, thought to
be based on his own temperament; followed less successfully with The
Constant Couple (1699), a satire on the pilgrimages to Rome in Jubilee
Year, with Wilks as Sir Harry Wildair, the most popular character of the
Restoration stage; married Margaret Pennell, a rich widow, only to find
her fortuneless and with three children from previous marriage; accepted
a commission from Lord Orrery and went recruiting in the Irish midlands;
sold his commission after brief service in Holland; deserted his family;
other plays, Sir Harry Wildair (1701), a sequel to the former;
publ. and essays, Business and Love, containing ‘The Discourse
on Comedy’ (1702) in which defended the English stage against classical
charges of neglecting the Aristotelian three unities; The Inconstant
[after Fletcher’s Wilde Goose Chase, 1621, printed 1652] (1702);
The Twin Rivals (1702); with Peter Anthony Motteux (1660-1718),
The Stage Coach (1704), a one-act farce from French; The Recruiting
Officer (1706), set in Shrewsbury, centred on Plume; received £20
from Wilkes to write his last play; The Beaux’ Stratagem (1707),
set in Lichfield and concerning the adventures of Archer, an impecunious
gentlemen and his servant (played by Garrick); completed during his final
illness and played 8 March [EB]; d. 29 April, possibly of TB, in
London; Barcelona (1708), a poem, was published posthum.; Brecht
used The Recruiting Officer as basis for his play Pauken und
Trompeten; Farquhar was the subject of ‘The Pliant Soul’,
a Northern Ireland BBC broadcast on 28 Aug. 1951; There is an engraving
of Farquhar by R. Clamp. RR CAB DNB PI JMC DIB DIW OCEL OCTH ODQ FDA
OCIL
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Works
Plays [first publication dates],
The Adventures of Covent Garden (London 1698); Love and a Bottle
(London 1699), The Constant Couple, or a Trip to the Jubilee
(London 1699), Sir Harry Wildair, being a sequel to A Trip
to the Jubilee (Lon 1701); The Inconstant, or the Way to Win Him,
after Fletcher’s The Wilde Goose Chase (1621; printed 1652)
(London 1702); The Twin Rivals (London 1703); The Stage Coach
(London 1704), farce from French by Jean de la Chapelle [adapted with
Peter Anthony Motteux, 1660-1718]; Love and Business (London 1702),
The Recruiting Officer (London 1706); The Beaux’ Stratagem
(London 1707).
Miscellaneous Verse and Prose, incl. ‘A Discourse Upon Comedy in Reference to the English Stage’.
Individual Editions, The Beaux Stratagem: A Comedy Written by Mr. Farquhar (Edinburgh: Printed for David Scot and George Stewart 1715), 104pp., 12o.
Collected Works, edns. of 1728, 1742, and 1772; Dramatic Works with a biography by Thomas Wilkes (1775); also incl. in Leigh Hunt, Dramatic Works of Wyhcerley, Congreve, Vanburgh, and Farquhar (1849); A. C. Weald, Dramatic Works of George Farquahr, with Life and Notes, 2 vols. (1891); William Archer, ed., The Best Plays of George Farquhar (1906).
Standard editions, Charles [FDA sic] Stonehill, ed., The Complete Works of Geoge Farquhar (London: Nonesuch Press 1930; rep. NY: Gordian Press 1967); Shirley Strum Kenney, ed., The Works of George Farquhar, 2 vols. (Oxford: Clarendon 1988).
Reprint edns., H. Macauley Ftizgibbon, ed., The Beaux’ Strategem (1898); John Ross, ed., The Recruiting Officer (London: Ernest Benn; NY: W. Norton 1977), 141pp. [contains fold-out facs. ‘Plan of Shewsbury’]; William Myers [Univ. of Leicester], ed., The Recruiting Officer and Other Plays (Oxford: Clarendon Press 1995), 428pp.
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Criticism
‘Life’ in Charles Stonehill, in Complete Works (1930),
Vol. 1, pp.xi-xxxiii.
Peter Kavanagh, ‘George Farquhar’, in The Irish Theatre (1946), pp.195-233.
Willard Connely, Young George Farquhar: The Restoration Drama at Twilight (London: Cassell & Co. 1949), with 8pp. half-tone ills.
Albert J. Farmer, George Farquhar (London: Longman 1966).
Eric Rothstein, George Farquhar (NY: Twayne 1967).
John D Burke, ‘the Stage History of the London Productions of George Farquhar’s The Recruiting Officer, 1706-1964’ (Ohio State Univ. thesis 1971).
Alan Roper, Beaux Stratagem, Image and Action’, in Earl Miner, ed., Seventeenth Century Imagery: Essays on Uses of Figurative Language from Donne to Farquhar (Berkeley: California UP 1971).
Eugene Nelson James, The Development of George Farquhar as a Comic Dramatist (Hague: Mouton 1972).
A. N. Jeffares, The Beaux’ Stratagem, A Critical Introduction (Edin: Oliver & Boyd 1972); Robert J. Jordan, ‘George Farquhar’s Military Career’, in Huntington Library Quarterly 37 (1973-74), pp.251-264.
Raymond A. Anselment, ed., Farquhar, ‘The Recruiting Officer and The Beaux’ Stratagem, A Casebook (London: Macmillan 1977).
Peter Dixon, ed., The Recruiting Officer, Introduction (Manchester UP 1986); E. N. James, George Farquhar, A Reference Guide (Boston: GK Hall 1986).
A. N. Jeffares, ‘George Farquhar’ in Times Literary Supplement (23 July 1971), p.861.
Shirley S. Kenny, ‘George Farquhar’, Times Literary Supplement (17 Sept. 1971), p.119. See also A. Nichol, British Drama (London: Harrap 1951).
R. W. Bevis, English Drama: Restoration and 18th Century, 1660-1789 (London: Longmans 1988); M. Gardner, ed., The Beaux’ Strategem (London: New Mermaids 1976).
Christopher Fitz-Simon, The Irish Theatre (London: Thames & Hudson 1983).
W. R. Chetwood, General History of the Stage (London 1749), p.148.
Micheál Ó hAodha, Theatre in Ireland, Oxford: Blackwell 1974, p 5.
C. G. Duggan, The Stage Irishman (1937).
J.T.H. Leerssen, Mere Irish & Fíor Ghael (1986), pp.115-120.
J. O. Bartley, Teague, Shenkin, and Sawney (1954).
Thomas Kilroy, ‘Anglo-Irish Playwrights and Comic Tradition’, in The Crane Bag, 3, 1979, pp.19-27; rep. in The Crane Bag Book of Irish Studies, 1982, pp.439-47.
Seamus Deane, A Short History of Irish Literature (Hutchinson 1982), p.120.
Roy Foster, reviewing Declan Hughes’s production of Farquhar’s Love and A Bottle at the Tricycle Theatre (TLS, 12 June 1992).
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In Historical Essays on the Dress of the Ancient and Modern Irish’, Joseph Cooper Walker quotes Farquhar’s Love and a Bottle (1698): ‘Our ignorant nation (says Farquhar, in a comedy written in this [WIII] reign), our ignorant nation imagine a full wig as infallible a token of wit as the laurel’; further quotes: ‘Lucinda: "tell us some hews of your country; I have head the strangest stories, that the people wear horns and hoofs." Roebuck: ‘Yes, faith, a great many wear horns; but we have that, among other laudable fashions, from London; I think it came over with your mode of wearing high top-knots; for ever since the men and wives bear their heads exalted alike. They were both fashions that took wonderfully."’ (From extract cited in Justin McCarthy, gen. ed., Irish Literature, 1904, p. Vol IX, p.3496f.; see also under Farquhar.)
Gilbert, History of Dublin (1854), 1733, New Smock Alley at Aungier St., by architect Edward Lovet Pearce, opens with Farquhar’s The Recruiting Officer, acting, 3 Elringtons and Mrs. Bellamy. Note that an engraving of Farquhar by R. Clamp is printed in Brian de Breffny, ed., Ireland: A Cultural Encyclopaedia (London: Thames & Hudson 1982), p.238.
Dictionary of National Biography, Farquhar said to have died of mortification
at not receiving the captaincy the 2nd Duke of Ormonde promised him. Cf. Henry Boylan,
A Dictionary of Irish Biography [rev. edn.] (Gill & Macmillan
1988), where he is ‘said to have sold his commission to pay debts’,
and note that Margaret Drabble, ed., The Oxford Companion to English
Literature (OUP 1986), tells that [Farquhar] is said to have been
deceived by his wife about her fortune ... but treated her with tenderness
and indulgence; further, that he died in poverty, while a present of 20
guineas from Robert Wilks [sic] gave him the means of writing his last
play, The Beaux’ Stratagem, living just long enough to hear
of its success. ALSO, Constant Couple, or A Trip to the Jubilee (1699), farcical comedy by Farquhar, very successful owing to char. of
Sir Harry Wildair, ‘an airy gentleman, affecting humorous gaiety
and freedom in his behaviour’; sequel less successful. See also Richard
Ryan, Biographia Hibernica: Irish Worthies (1821), Vol. II, pp.117-125.
Justin McCarthy, ed., Irish Literature (Washington: Catholic Univ. of America 1904), ntoes that he secured an army commission through the favour of the Earl of Orrery; financial troubles broke him completely and while The Beaux’ Strategem was rehearsing at Drury Lane he fell into his last sleep (April 1707) [?err]; according to Cowden Clarke, ‘Farquhar’s gentlemen are Irish gentlemen, frank, generous, eloquent, witty, and with a cordial word of gallantry always at command’ [here p.1164]. JMC chooses ‘The Counterfeit Footman’ from Beaux’ Strategem [Scrub, footman, with Archer, supposed footman]; further, quotes from the celebrated death-bed letter to Wilks, ‘Dear Bob, I have not anything 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’. The editor remarks that this has been construed as a request for their care, given into very unsuitable hands. Bibl., Sir John Gilbert, History of Dublin, et al.)
Charles Read, ed., A Cabinet of Irish Literature (3 vols., 1876-78) also quotes Cowden Clarke, though more extensively than JMC: ‘The character of Wildair ... one of the most naturally bouyant pieces of delineation that was ever written - bouyant without inanity; reckless, wanton, careless, irrepressibly [vacuous], and outpouring, and all the while totally free from any thing of vulgarity in the composition. [Passage on Irish gentlemen follows]; cites also Hazlett on his ‘unaffected gaiety, spirit of enjoyment, animated style, and characters full of life and spirit.’ CAB selects ‘A Woman of Quality’ from The Constant Couple; ‘A Gentlemanly Caning’, from Sir Harry Wildair [‘Still brisk and airy, I find, Sir Harry’ ... ‘Why marriage is the devil. But I will marry you’], and ‘The Counterfeit Footman’, from The Beaux’ Strategem; ‘Father and Son’ from The Inconstant.
Peter Kavanagh, Irish Theatre (1946); Love and a Bottle (Drury Lane, [Dec.] 1699); The Constant Couple (Drury Lane, Nov 1699); Sir Harry Wildair (Drury Lane, [April] 1701); 1704 The Stage Coach, 2 act farce (Lincoln’s Inn Fields, 2 Feb. 1704); The Inconstant (Drury Lane, 28 Nov. 1699); The Twin Rivals Drury Lane, 14 Dec. 1702); The Recruiting Officer (Haymarket 3 Apr. 1706); Beaux’ Stratagem (Haymarket 8 March 1707). Note that the dedication to The Stage Coach claims affinity with Ben Jonson. The preface to The Twin Rivals notes Farquhar wrote that play to please city tastes, while prologue of Love and a Bottle bespeaks favour from audience for untried author.
Robert Hogan, ed., Dictionary of Irish Literature (Dublin: Gill & Macmillan 1979), calls him chronically impecunious; the son of Anglican clergyman, he lived through siege; poss. in Williamite army at Boyne; studied TCD, went became Smock Alley actor; travelled to London with script of Love and a Bottle (Drury Lane 1698); The Constant Couple 1699), his great success; Sir Harry Wildair (1701); The Inconstant (1702); The Twin Rivals (1702); The Recruiting Officer (1706); The Beaux Strategem (May 23 1707); marriage in 1703 brought meagre dowry; stage Irish characters in his plays include Roebuck, ‘an Irish gentleman of a wild, roving temper, newly come to London’ in Love and a Bottle; also Teague, the loyal comic servant in The Twin-Rivals, and Macahone, the Booby Squire in The Stage Coach (1904), differing only in name; Foigard, chaplain to French prisoners-of-war with a pidgin-Irish dialect in The Beaux Strategem pretends to be a native of Brussels, and attempts the seduction of an English lady. Bibl., George [sic] Stonehill, ed., The Complete Works of George Farquhar, 2 vols. (NY: Gordian 1930; rep. 1967).
Seamus Deane, gen. ed., Field Day Anthology of Irish Writing (Derry: Field Day 1991), Vol. 1, BIOG & CRIT, 654 [as supra]; cites a 1st Dublin edition of The Recruiting Officer (1722); ditto of The Beaux’ Stratagem (1729).
William Smith Clarke (Early Irish Theatre, 1955), writes that Farquhar appeared as Othello at Smock Alley in 1696; he returned to Dublin to appear as Sir Harry Wildair in his own Constant Couple in 1704 [pp. 104, 120].
Belfast Central Public Library holds W. Connely, Young George Farquhar, the Restoration Drama at Twilight ([Cassell] 1949).
Eric Stevens (1992) lists C. [sic] Stonehill Sale, ed., The Complete Works of George Farquhar, 2 vols. (Nonesuch Press 1930) [here called best and most complete ed.], £85.
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Princess Grace Irish Library (Monaco)