The Constant Couple: The Twin Rivals ; The Recruiting Officer ; The Beaux' Stratagem

George Farquhar

Oxford University Press, 1995 - Drama - 399 pages

George Farquhar (1678-1707) wrote some of the most actable and exhilarating comedies in English. He recorded with great frankness the brutality and the disorder of his age as well as its wit and vivacity. In his tragically short life he had wide social experience, moving between Irish country gentry, the theatre, and the army, which enabled him to depict convincingly the lives of the poor, frequently tricked and coerced into army life. he veered between cynical acceptance of current sexual politics and a remarkably understanding view of his women characters. Under the General Editorship of Michael Cordner, of the University of York, the texts of the plays have been newly edited and are presented with modernized spelling and punctuation. They are based on first editions, but later textual changes are also included to reflect the fluid opportunism with which Farquhar handled comic conventions. In addition there is a scholarly introduction and detailed annotation, which bring into focus the many challenges which Farquhar posed to society.

Contents

• THE CONSTANT COUPLE I: 9
• THE RECRUITING OFFICER: 159
• Explanatory Notes: 323

About the author

George Farquhar was Irish by birth. He studied at Trinity College in Dublin but left without earning a degree to become an actor. Later he wrote for the theater. He is most remembered for bringing to English comedy a fresh good humor and an emphasis on country settings. One of his plays, The Recruiting Officer (1706), which Bertolt Brecht rewrote, is a lively takeoff on the author's own military experiences. His best-known play, The Beaux' Stratagem (1707), engages the marriage debate and the difficulty of divorce, drawing on divorce tracts of John Milton. It is a lively, very natural comedy of sensibility. Farquhar wrote Discourse upon Comedy in a Letter to a Friend, in which he defended the genre as "a well-framed tale, handsomely told, as an agreeable vehicle for counsel or reproof." Farquhar married a woman he thought to be wealthy. He was mistaken, however. He died penniless in London at the age of 29.

Bibliographic information

• Title: The Constant Couple: The Twin Rivals ; The Recruiting Officer ; The Beaux' Stratagem; Drama in world's classics; Oxford World's Classics Series; Oxford drama library; World's classics
• Author: George Farquhar
• Editor: William Myers
• Contributor: William Myers
• Edition: illustrated
• Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1995
• Original from: the University of California
• Digitized: May 20, 2008
• ISBN: 0198121539, 9780198121534
• Length: 399 pages
• Subjects: Drama / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh; Literary Criticism / European / English, Irish, Scottish, Welsh