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Informationen zum Autor George Farquhar (1678-1707) was an Irish-born playwright of the Restoration period. During his ten-year career, he produced two brilliant comedies, The Recruiting Officer in 1706 and The Beaux' Stratagem the following year. The son of a clergyman, he studied at Trinity College, Dublin, before briefly working as an actor at the Smock Alley Theatre in that city. Following an accident during a stage fight, when he mistakenly used a real sword and wounded a fellow actor so badly that he almost died, Farquhar renounced acting. Encouraged by his fellow actor Robert Wilks, he took up the pen and settled in London. His first play Love and a Bottle was well received at Drury Lane in 1698. The following year, T he Constant Couple; or, A Trip to the Jubilee was an even greater hit with Wilks in the lead. After Sir Harry Wildair (1701), a sequel to The Constant Couple , and The Twin-Rivals (1702), he wrote his first great play. The first production of The Recruiting Officer starred Anne Oldfield, with whom Farquhar supposedly had an affair. The following year Farquhar, with "not one shilling" in his pocket, was encouraged by Wilks to produce a hastily written play. The next day Farquhar delivered the plot for The Beaux' Stratagem , which was presented on stage within six weeks. He died from tuberculosis after the third performance. Klappentext It attests to Farquhar's stature as a man that he composed this warm-hearted and vibrant play while he was dying. Like The Recruiting Officer, the play is set in a provincial town and its plot is slight: Aimwell and Archer, two impecunious London gentlemen, arrive in Lichfield looking for an heiress to marry. Aimwell, posing as his elder brother, falls in love with his 'prey' Dorinda and confesses his imposture to her; his 'man-servant' Archer arouses the wistful interest of the unhappily married Mrs Sullen. The introduction to this edition discusses the play for its theatrical merits and argues that it dramatises the ills of marriage in early modern England, shown by Farquhar to be more injurious to the wife than to the husband, and calls for a reform of the divorce laws. Vorwort Play script, including biographical notes, textual details and information about the staging of the play. Zusammenfassung Play script, including biographical notes, textual details and information about the staging of the play....
