ࡱ> ;=:%` bjbjNN .*,,  8 $ !< R R R R R R R _!a!a!a!a!a!a!$"h6%!3R R 33!R R !3R R _!3_!R 0 N d_!!0!&I&&R || d SR R R !!YRR R R !3333$   The Book of Irish Writers, Chapter 13 - George Farquhar, 1678-1707 George Farquhar had a ring-side seat for the military and political upheavals of the late 1600s. Although his biography has a number of gaps, we do know that he was born in Derry in 1678, the son of a Church of Ireland clergyman. Its probable that he witnessed the siege of the city - and he may even have followed King Williams army to the Boyne! Certainly, at the age of 14, he wrote a tribute on the death of the Williamite General, Schomberg. From 1694, when he was around 16 years of age, Farquhar attended Trinity College in Dublin as a sizar - a student who received tuition in return for performing menial duties; he would never be rich and was often in need of funds throughout his life. Farquhar was unhappy and rebellious as a student and left Trinity after only a few years, drawn to the exciting theatre life in Dublins Smock Alley. At first he was an actor, despite terrible stage fright - which probably contributed to an unfortunate confusion over props which led him to accidentally stab a fellow cast member! Somewhat more fortunately, it was in Smock Alley that Farquhar met and befriended Robert Wilkes, the leading Irish comic actor of the day; following Wilkes advice he moved to London - bringing with him the manuscript of his first comedy, Love and a Bottle. The play is notable for the character of Roebuck who, like Farquhar himself, is a penniless Irish rake new to London. Previously, stage-Irish figures were largely unsympathetic, even despicable - and Farquhar, in line with anti-Catholic feeling would write other characters like this - but Roebuck begins a long line of stage-Irish characters who are charmingly and wittily roguish. You may guess what you please. I'm as merry after a mistress as after a bottle. All air; brimful of joy, like a bumper of claret, smiling and sparkling. Farquhars intricate plots and eccentric characters engaged and tested his audiences. He was initially successful with Love and a Bottle and its successors, The Constant Couple and Sir Harry Wildair. Even so, the theatre was an uncertain source of income and the failure of his next plays sent him in search of other sources. Farquhars colourful life and the plots of his plays keep leaking into each other. Betrothal to a rich heiress is often the desire of his heroes, but those dramatic heroes are always subject to plot reversals; when Farquhar married his heiress she turned out to be a penniless widow with three children! The lady, Margaret Penmell, had tricked him into the marriage by pretending to have a great fortune. If Farquhar had been writing this the plot would have turned again to his advantage, but his own life was more unforgiving than his plays. In a further attempt to escape penury he took an Army commission and spent a period as a recruiting officer giving him the basis for his 1706 play, The Recruiting Officer. If any gentlemen soldiers, or others, have a mind to serve Her Majesty, and pull down the French king; if any prentices have severe masters, any children have unnatural parents; if any servants have too little wages, or any husband too much wife; let them repair to the noble Sergeant Kite and they shall receive present relief and entertainment. By the time The Recruiting Officer was staged Farquhar had again left the army, having had to sell his commission to settle debts. Still only in his late twenties, but impoverished, ill and surviving only on a loan from his faithful friend Robert Wilkes, Farquhar completed his final and best work The Beauxs Stratagem in 1707. In this play Archer and Aimwell, two young gentlemen who have fallen on hard times plan to travel through small towns, entrapping young  HYPERLINK "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heiress" \o "Heiress" heiresses, stealing their money and moving on. The sense of play and of performance that is a constant feature of Farquhars drama is very much to the fore, and makes him the first of what will be a long line of Irish dramatic migrants to London who, feeling simultaneously familiar and foreign in English society, are able to represent that society with a subversive flair. Characters self-consciously play parts in situations which are fluid and fast moving. Aimwell and Archer in The Beauxs Stratagem are typical: their very names signal their aspirations in a society which may well reward those who are quick-witted enough to capitalize on opportunity when it arises, but that will punish them just as swiftly. Farquhar lived just long enough to hear that The Beauxs Stratagem was a success. He died not quite two months after the play opened; he was not yet 30 years old. Like all great comedians - he left his audience wanting more.     (9CD   A T  KQwop辭xbP#h,jh76CJOJQJ^JaJ+h,jh76CJOJQJ^JaJmH sH )h2h7B*CJOJQJ^JaJph#h2h76CJOJQJ^JaJh|~CJOJQJ^JaJ h2h7CJOJQJ^JaJ+h2h75CJOJQJ^JaJmH sH &h2h75>*CJOJQJ^JaJ.h2h75>*CJOJQJ^JaJmH sH CD    Q R pqrABxy @&^gd2$a$gd2@&gd2xx1$7$8$@&H$gd2pqr&'\dlt=OwxABO}n\n\}}#h,jh76CJOJQJ^JaJh,j6CJOJQJ^JaJ1h2h7B*CJOJQJ^JaJmH phsH +h2h76CJOJQJ^JaJmH sH (h2h7CJOJQJ^JaJmH sH  h2h7CJOJQJ^JaJ)h2h7B*CJOJQJ^JaJph/h2h756B*CJOJQJ^JaJphyAB<=1$7$8$@&H$gd/0`@&gd2O  ;=),\b뼧udO9O9O+h2h76CJOJQJ^JaJmH sH (h2h7CJOJQJ^JaJmH sH  h2h7CJOJQJ^JaJ)h2h7B*CJOJQJ^JaJph8h,jh70J>*B*CJOJQJ^JaJmH phsH (h,jh7CJOJQJ^JaJmH sH 1jh,jh7CJOJQJU^JaJmH sH +h2h76CJOJQJ^JaJmH sH (h2h7CJOJQJ^JaJmH sH hmljhmlU(h/0`h)CJOJQJ^JaJmH sH "h/0`CJOJQJ^JaJmH sH  ,1h. 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