George Farquhar
born 1678, Londonderry, County Derry, Ire.
died April 29, 1707, London, Eng.
Irish playwright of real comic power who wrote
for the English stage at the beginning of the
18th century. He stood out from his
contemporaries for originality of dialogue and a
stage sense that doubtless stemmed from his
experience as an actor.
The son of a clergyman, Farquhar entered Trinity
College, Dublin, as a sizar (one who received a
college allowance in return for performing
menial duties), but he preferred working as an
unsuccessful actor at the Smock Alley Theatre in
Dublin. During a performance of John Dryden’s
Indian Emperour, he failed to distinguish
between a tipped foil and a deadly rapier,
gravely wounding a fellow actor. After this
incident he abandoned acting, and, encouraged by
a leading actor, Robert Wilks, with whom he had
acted in Dublin, Farquhar decided to go to
London to write comedy. His early plays were
primarily spirited variations on a theme: young
men have their fling for four acts and reform,
unconvincingly, in the fifth. The plays have
freshness, however, as well as wit and a lively
human sympathy.
His first play, Love and a Bottle, was well
received at London’s Drury Lane Theatre in 1699
and was followed in the same year by The
Constant Couple. A sequel to the latter, Sir
Harry Wildair, appeared in 1701. Between 1702
and 1704 he wrote The Inconstant (adapted from
John Fletcher’s Wild-Goose Chase), The
Twin-Rivals, and The Stage-Coach, a farce
translated from French.
Farquhar’s real contribution to the English
drama came in 1706 with The Recruiting Officer
and, in the following year, with The Beaux’
Stratagem, which he finished on his deathbed. In
these plays he introduced a verbal vigour and
love of character that are more usually
associated with Elizabethan dramatists.
