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George Farquhar and ‘the Bus'ness of a Prologue’
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 21 October 2010
Extract
If George Farquhar knew, as these lines from his prologue to David Crauford's Courtship A-la-Mode indicate, the futility of trying to bolster the popularity of a bad play by its prologue, his career as a prologist and epilogist must have reinforced his scepticism. Besides the five prologues and four epilogues he wrote for his own plays, Farquhar wrote at least three prologues and two epilogues for other authors' plays, plus two occasional prologues and one occasional epilogue, a total of ten known prologues and seven epilogues.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright © American Society for Theatre Research 1978
References
NOTES
1 See Appendix for listing. Stonehill, Charles, in his edition of The Complete Works of George Farquhar (1930; rpt. New York, 1967)Google Scholar includes fourteen of these poems but omits the prologues for Courtship A-la-Mode, All for the Better, and the opening of the Theatre in the Haymarket.
2 Knapp, Mary E., Prologues and Epilogues of the Eighteenth Century (New Haven, 1961), pp. 1–23.Google Scholar
3 Chetwood, W. R., A General History of the Stage From Its Origin in Greece Down to the Present Time (London, 1749), p. 254.Google Scholar
4 Preface, , The Perplex'd Lovers (London, 1712).Google Scholar
5 Farquhar's own occasional prologues were printed in Love and Business, The Poetical Courant, and by half-sheet broadside. See Appendix.
6 Knapp, p. 6.
7 Wiley, Autrey Nell, Rare Prologues and Epilogues 1642–1700 (London, 1940), p. 68.Google Scholar
8 Scholars have assumed Farquhar served as a recruiting officer in 1705–1706. However, Robert Jordan demonstrates that Farquhar may well have begun his tour of duty as early as June 1704. See “George Farquhar's Military Career,” Huntington Library Quarterly, 37 (1973–1974), 251–64.
9 Colley Cibber took Xerxes to Lincoln's Inn Fields in February 1699 when he was a member of the Drury Lane company.
10 Cunningham, Robert Newton, Peter Anthony Motteux, 1663–1718, A Biographical and Critical Study (Oxford, 1933), pp. 201–5.Google Scholar
11 According to tradition, The Stage-Coach opened at Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1704; however, it probably opened between fall 1700 and late February 1702. See my article “The Mystery of Farquhar's Stage-Coach Reconsidered,” SB. 32 (1979), forthcoming.
12 Clark, William Smith, The Early Irish Stage (Oxford, 1955), p. 101.Google Scholar I am indebted to Highfill, Philip Jr, Langhans, Edward A., and Burnim, Kalman for access to the files of A Biographical Dictionary of Actors, Actresses, Musicians, Dancers, Managers, and Other Stage Personnel in London, 1660–1800 (Carbondale, 1973-)Google Scholar, in progress.
13 Hitchcock, Robert, An Historical View of the Irish Stage from the Earliest Period Down to the Close of the Season 1788 (Dublin, 1788–1794), I, 30–31.Google Scholar
14 The London Stage 1660–1800 (Carbondale, 1960–1968), Part I, ed. William Van Lennep, p. 507.
15 See the prefaces to The Constant Couple, The Inconstant, and The Beaux Stratagem.
16 An Apology for the Life of Colley Cibber, ed. B. R. S. Fone (Ann Arbor, 1968), p. 149.
17 Gore-Browne, Robert, Gay Was the Pit, The Life arid Times of Anne Oldfield (London, 1957), pp. 34–44.Google Scholar
18 Connely, Willard, Young George Farquhar The Restoration Drama at Twilight (London, 1949), p. 203.Google Scholar
19 Wilkes, Thomas, Life of Farquhar, in Collected Works of George Farquhar (Dublin, 1775)Google Scholar, p. vi; Biographia Dramatica (London, 1812), 3 vols., I, 227.
20 Cibber, , Apology, p. 178.Google Scholar
21 A11 dates of performance are taken from The London Stage 1660–1800, Parts I and II, passim.
22 A Comparison Between the Two Stages, ed. Staring B. Wells (Princeton, 1942), p. 18.
23 George Villiers, Duke of Buckingham, and others, The Rehearsal, third edition, 1675, reprinted in The Rehearsal, ed. Montague Summers (Stratford-Upon-Avon, 1914), p. 9.
24 Kenny, Shirley Strum, “Theatrical Warfare, 1695–1710,” Theatre Notebook, 27 (1973), 137.Google Scholar
25 See, for example, Prologue, Pix, Mary, The Different Widows (1703)Google Scholar; Dedication, Corey, John, A Cure for Jealousy (1701)Google Scholar; Prologue, Gildon, Charles, Love's Victim (1701)Google Scholar; Prologue, Rowe, Nicholas, The Ambitious Stepmother (1701)Google Scholar; Prologue, Boyle, Charles, As You Find It (1703).Google Scholar
26 Letters of Wit, Politicks, and Morality, comp. Abel Boyer (London, 1701), p. 367, Letter XLII “Damon to Astrea,” in “Original Letters of Love and Gallantry.” Oldmixon's name was omitted when the letter was published.
27 See Rogers, J. P. W., “The Dramatist vs. The Dunce: George Farquhar and John Oldmixon,” Restoration and 18th Century Theatre Research, 10 (1971), No. 2, 53–58.Google Scholar
28 Preface, David Crauford, Courtship A-la-Mode (London, n. d.).
29 Connely, p. 128.
30 ”The Retrospect: or A Poetical Survey of the Author's Life and Fortunes. Written to … in 1737,” published in Poems Written at Different Times on Several Occasions, By a Gentleman who resided many Years abroad in the Two last Reigns with a Public Character (London, 1752), pp. 245–55.
31 Pinkus, Philip, Grub St. stripped bare (London, 1968), p. 74.Google Scholar
32 Flying Post, 11–14 April 1702.
33 Wells, Staring B., “An Eighteenth-century Attribution,” JEGP, 38 (1939), 233–46.Google Scholar
34 For examples, see Wells's article, p. 235.
35 Wells, p. 243, n. 42.
36 Wells, p. 243, n. 42.
37 Gildon, Charles, The Patriot (London, 1703), p. [56].Google Scholar Farquhar is spelled Tarquhar in some uncorrected copies.
38 Connely, p. 107.
39 Farquhar, George, Love and Business (London, 1702), pp. 16–38, 102–4Google Scholar letters from the Brill dated 10 August 1700 N. S., from Leyden 15 October 1700, and from The Hague 23 October N. S. (no year given in the last date).
40 Bowyer, John Wilson, The Celebrated Mrs. Centime (Durham, N.C., 1952), p. 253.Google Scholar
41 Blanchard, Rae, Introduction, The Occasional Verse of Richard Steele (Oxford, 1952), p. xiii.Google Scholar
1 Epilogue, The Constant Couple, spoken by Wilks, Drury Lane, probably November 1699, published 11 December1 with the date 1700.
2 Prologue, Sir Harry Wildair, Drury Lane, April or early May 1701, published 13 May.
3 Epilogue, The Twin Rivals, spoken by Mrs. Hook, Drury Lane, 14 December 1702, published 29 December with the date 1703.
4 Prologue, The Stage-Coach, theater and date uncertain, probably opened in Lincoln's Inn Fields between fall 1700 and late February 1702, published London 1705.
5 Epilogue, The Stage-Coach.2
6 Prologue, The Recruiting Officer, Drury Lane, 8 April 1706, published about 25 April 1706.3
7 Epilogue, The Recruiting Officer.
8 Prologue, The Beaux Stratagem, spoken by Wilks, Queen's Theatre in the Haymarket, 8 March 1707, published 27 March. Of the other eight pieces written for his first runs, two were by the comedian Joe Haines, two by Peter Anthony Motteux,4 one each by Nicholas Rowe5 and Edmund Smith, and two anonymously "By a Friend." Nine of Farquhar's prologues and epilogues written for other occasions are known: 1 "An Epilogue, spoken by Mr. Wilks at his first Appearance upon the English Stage," Drury Lane, probably in the fall of 1699, printed in Love and Business, 1702.
2 Epilogue, John Oldmixon's The Grove. Or. Love's Paradice, Drury Lane, on or before 19 February 1700, published 1700.
3 Prologue, David Crauford's Courtship A-la-Mode, spoken by Powell, Drury Lane, 9 July 1700, published 1700.
4 The New Prologue to The Constant Couple, an occasional prologue against Oldmixon's attack on the author, Drury Lane, 13 July 1700, published with the third edition of the play 20 August 1700.
5 "A Prologue on the propos'd Union of the Two Houses," probably 1701, printed in Love and Business, 1702, and reprinted in The Poetical Courant, No. 22, 22 June 1706.
6 Prologue, Francis Manning's All for the Better: or. The Infallible Cure, spoken by Wilks, Drury Lane, late October or early November 1702, published 1702.
7 Epilogue, Charles Gildon's The Patriot: or. The Italian Conspiracy, spoken by Pinkethman dressed as a beau, Drury Lane, late November or early December 1702, published 18 December 1702 with the date 1703.
8 "The Prologue Spoken by Mr. Wilks, At the Opening of the Theatre in the Hay Market, October the 15th, 1706," published as a half-sheet broadside probably the same day.6
9 Prologue, Susanna Centlivre's The Platonick Lady, spoken by Betterton, Queen's Theatre in the Haymarket, 25 November 1706, published December 1706 with the dale 1707.
1 The date occurs in a note in an eighteenth-century hand in Folger Mss. Y. d. (185). Items in Farquhar's plays are attributed to Farquhar if no other author is named or indicated in a printed byline.
2 Peter Anthony Motteux, his collaborator in The Stage-Coach, may have figured in the epilogue to the farce. The epilogue was largely plagiarized from The Careless Shepherdess, a play first performed in 1636 and published in 1656; there is no recorded performance of the play in London in Farquhar's years there.
3 Michael Shugrue in the Regents Restoration Drama Series edition of The Recruiting Officer (Lincoln, Neb., 1965) lists 12 April as the publication date (p. ix). On that day the theatrical advertisement in the Daily Courant was followed by "This Play, is Sold by J. Knapton . . . and B. Lintott. . . ." The wording was however a formula repeated daily in the theatrical advertisements. On 25 April an advertisement read, "There is now publish'd . . . The Recruiting Officer. . . ." On 2-4 May the Post Man advertised it as "Newly publish'd." First advertisements often read "This day is publish'd . . . " but 25 April seems to be the correct date.
4 Motteux's prologue to The Inconstant was printed in the first edition but not spoken the first night. A headnote to the printed prologue explains: "The Prologue that was spoke the first night receiv'd such additions from Mr. who spoke it, that they are best if bury'd and forgot. But the following Prologue is literally the same that was intended for the Play, and written by Mr. Motteux." One can only speculate on which actor ad libbed, doubtless bawdily, at the premiere.
5 All editions read "Nathaniel Rowe" instead of Nicholas.
6 This prologue is reprinted in my article, "A Broadside Prologue by Farquhar," SB, 25 (1972), 182-83. Extant broadside prologues are, of course, rare.