It is an honour to the morality of the present age,that this most entertaining comedy is but seldom performed;and never, except some new pantomime, orother gaudy spectacle, be added, as an afterpiece, forthe attraction of an audience.
The well drawn characters, happy incidents, andexcellent dialogue, in "The Beaux Stratagem," arebut poor atonement for that unrestrained contemptof principle which pervades every scene. Plays ofthis kind are far more mischievous than those, whichpreserve less appearance of delicacy. Every auditorand reader shrinks from those crimes, which are recommendedin unseemly language, and from libertinismunited with coarse manners; but in adorning vicewith wit, and audacious rakes with the vivacity andelegance of men of fashion, youth, at least, will bedecoyed into the snare of admiration.
Charmed with the spirit of Archer and Aimwell,the reader may not, perhaps, immediately perceive,that those two fine gentlemen are but arrant impostors;and that the lively, though pitiable Mrs. Sullen,is no other than a deliberate violator of her marriagevow. Highly delighted with every character, he willnot, perhaps, at first observe, that all the wise andwitty persons of this comedy are knaves, and all thehonest people fools.
It is said, that this play was written in six weeks—itis more surprising still, that it was written by a dyingman!
Farquhar was a gentleman of elegant person andbewitching address, who, having experienced the vicissitudesof life, as a man of fashion, an actor, a captainin the army, an author, a lover, and a husband;and having encountered bitter disappointment in someof his adventures—though amply gratified by others—He,at the age of twenty-nine, sunk into a dejectionof spirits and decline of health; and in this state, hewrote the present drama.—It had only been acted anight or two, when the author, in the midst of thosehonours, which he derived from its brilliant reception—died.
As a proof that Farquhar was perfectly sensible ofhis dangerous state, and that he regained cheerfulness ashis end approached, the following anecdote is told:—
The famed actress, Mrs. Oldfield, performed thepart of Mrs. Sullen, when the comedy was first produced;and being highly interested in its success,from the esteem she bore the author; when it drewnear the last rehearsal, she desired Wilkes, the actor,to go to him, and represent—that she advised him tomake some alteration in the catastrophe of the piece;for that she was apprehensive, the free manner inwhich he had bestowed the hand of Mrs. Sullen uponArcher, without first procuring a divorce from herhusband, would offend great part of the audience."Oh," replied Farquhar, gaily, when this messagewas delivered to him, "tell her, I wish she was marriedto me instead of Sullen; for then, without thetrouble of a divorce, I would give her my bond, thatshe should be a widow within a few days."
In this allusion he was prophetic;—and the apparentjoy, with which he expected his dissolution,may be accounted for on the supposition—that theprofligate characters, which he has pourtrayed in "TheBeaux Stratagem," were such as he had uniformlymet with in th