A Discourse Upon Comedy: The Recruiting Officer and The Beaux Stratagem

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D. C. Heath & Company, 1914 - Strauss, Louis A., 1872- - 358 pages

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Page 204 - Sir, I have now in my cellar ten tun of the best ale in Staffordshire ; 'tis smooth as oil, sweet as milk, clear as amber, and strong as brandy ; and will be just fourteen year old the fifth day of next March, old style.
Page 23 - The Rules of English Comedy don't lie in the Compass of Aristotle, or his Followers, but in the Pit, Box, and Galleries.
Page 225 - ... about the room, like sick passengers in a storm, he comes flounce into bed, dead as a salmon into a fishmonger's basket; his feet cold as ice, his breath hot as a furnace, and his hands and his face as greasy as his flannel night-cap.
Page 205 - At a meal, you mean, if one may guess your sense by your bulk. Bon. Not in my life, sir : I have fed purely upon ale ; I have eat my ale, drank my ale, and I always sleep upon ale.
Page 46 - I don't beat my drums here to ensnare or inveigle any man; for you must know, gentlemen, that I am a man of honour. Besides, I don't beat up for common soldiers ; no, I list only grenadiers — grenadiers, gentlemen.
Page 224 - O Sister, Sister! if ever you marry, beware of a sullen, silent sot, one that's always musing, but never thinks. There's some diversion in a talking blockhead; and since a woman must wear chains, I would have the pleasure of hearing 'em rattle a little.
Page 230 - There's something in that which may turn to advantage; the appearance of a stranger in a country church draws as many gazers as a blazing star; no sooner he comes into the cathedral, but a train of whispers runs buzzing round the congregation in a moment; - who is he? Whence comes he? Do you know him?
Page 231 - ... the whole church my concern by my endeavouring to hide it; after the sermon, the whole town gives me to her for a lover, and by persuading the lady that I am a-dying for her, the tables are turned, and she in good earnest falls in love with me.
Page 311 - ... like a youthful, gay and burning Bridegroom. [Here Archer steals out of the Closet.] with Tongue enchanting, Eyes bewitching, Knees imploring. [Turns a little o...
Page 296 - You mistake me, Sister. It happens with us as among the men, the greatest talkers are the greatest cowards; and there's a reason for it; those spirits evaporate in prattle, which might do more mischief if they took another course.

About the author (1914)

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.

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