George Farquhar
'GEORGE FARQUHAR'Bold text
Irish playwright and dramatist of Restoration comedy; born between 1677[1] and 1678[2] in Londonderry, Ireland; died in 1707 in London. He started his studies at Trinity College in Dublin but had to leave college due to a boyish prank. He started as an actor – though not a very good one[2] – at the Smock-Alley-Theatre in Dublin. Due to an accident during fencing rehearsals on stage where Farquhar wounded a colleague he left theatre. He started a career as writer. It is not clear when he moved to London or whether he wrote his first play Love and a Bottle in Dublin on demand of his close friend Robert Wilks, a famous British actor.[3] The play was performed at Drury Lane in 1698. His second play, The Constant Couple, or A Trip to the Jubilee, was performed in 1699 starring Robert Wilks. Due to financial problems he worked between 1704 and 1705 as a recruiting lieutenant which inspired him to write the play The Recruiting Officer (1706). George Farquhar was, however, not only concerned with writing plays but with the development of English theatre in general.[3] His plays were marked by humour, cynicism and sexual frankness.[4] Beyond these features of the restoration comedy his plays showed a high level of realism, a professional mediation of dialogues and a creation of credible characters.[3] In 1707 he wrote his most famous play The Beaux' Stratagem. A few weeks after the premiere Farquhar, who had been seriously ill for a long time, died impoverished in London. Farquhar's plays belong due to their wittiness and frankness to important literary pieces of restoration comedy. Moreover, he also tried to establish more realistic, natural and profound styles of writing and performance in English comedy theatre.[2]
Works
Love and a Bottle (1698) The Adventures of Covent-Garden (1699) A Constant Couple, or A Trip to the Jubilee (1699) Love and Business (1701) Sir Harry Wildair (1701) The Inconstant, or The Way to Win Him (1702) The Twin-Rivals (1702) The Stage-Coach (1704) The Recruiting Officer (1706) The Beaux' Stratagem (1707)
Sources
[1] Drescher, Horst W. Lexikon der Englischen Literatur. Stuttgart: Kröner, 1979.
[2] Kreutzer, Eberhard; Nünning, Ansgar. Metzler Lexikon Englischsprachiger Autorinnen und Autoren. Stuttgart, Weimar: Verlag J. B. Metzler, 2002.
[3] George Farquhar In: Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, 1911
[4] Drabble, Margaret (ed.) The Oxford Companion to English Literature. New Edition. Oxford University Press, 1985, Fifth Edition.