Folger Shakespeare Library
CELM

George Farquhar

1677/8–1707

Introduction

Documents and Farquhar's Widow

No example of Farquhar's hand is known to survive, neither have any authoritative manuscripts of any of his works been recorded in modern times.

The extant documents most closely related to the dramatist are a brief series of undated letters and petitions written c.1707-10 by or on behalf of his widow, Margaret. Three are addressed to the Secretary of State, Robert Harley, begging him to help her get a pension from the Queen. These are among the Harley Papers in the Duke of Portland's muniments formerly at Welbeck Abbey and now in the British Library. One, written according to her subscription in my sons hand, is Add. MS 70225, [unnumbered page]. Another, written in a different hand, is Add. MS 70024, ff. 105r-7v. Here she is found commenting on her distressed condition and remarking: I neuer yet receiu'd a farthing from her matie; except ten Guinneys by ye hands of ye Dutchess of Devonshire, vpon ye presentation of my husbands poem. A third letter, in yet another style of hand, is Add. MS 70024, f. 108r-v. Here she refers to Harley's Generous favors in return of my book by my Daughter, asks him to further her petition to the Queen by reading over these papers wch are ye coppys of ye Originalls wch I have by me and refers again to having received ten guineas from the Queen for ye book wch you did me ye honr to receive.

In another division of the Harley Papers, which was at Welbeck Abbey in 1937 but whose present whereabouts is unclear, two of Margaret Farquhar's original petitions to Queen Anne were to be found, accompanied by three certificates concerning Farquhar's military service, signed by the Duke of Ormonde (Lord Lieutenant of Ireland), the Duke of Bolton, and Farquhar's regimental commander, the Earl of Orrery. For these, and related documents, see the discussion and partial transcript in James R. Sutherland, New Light on George Farquhar, TLS (6 March 1937), p. 171, and also the related discussion in Robert John Jordan, George Farquhar's Military Career, Huntington Library Quarterly, 37 (1973-4), 251-64. In her petitions, Margaret Farquhar summarizes her husband's military career (including his being a Voluntier at ye Battle of ye Boyn [in 1690] and Lieutenant of Grenadiers in Orrery's Regiment of Foot [in 1704-5]), while Orrery, in his certificate of support, interestingly describes Farquhar as a Person of great Ingenuity (a phrase reminiscent of the first collected edition of The Works of the late ingenious Mr George Farquhar [1711?]).

Yet another recorded letter by Margaret Farquhar, addressed to the Hon. Mr Vice-Chamberlain and complaining of her inadequate receipts from the playhouse, is cited in Stonehill (I, xxxii). The original letter was offered for sale in Dobell's catalogue No. 26 (1937), as item 117, where more of the text is quoted, including her statement: the players I understand usually allowed for their benefit play but still I hope thro your powerfull mediation it may be reduced to a much less sume, for ye chief actors I presume may be easily prevaild to quett their own charges upon Mr. Farquhars account who has bin so serviceable to them.

In 1710, Farquhar's widow published his Barcellona A Poem or The Spanish Expedition. Presumably this was ye book — my husbands poem — which, according to her letters to Harley, she presented to Queen Anne, although her dedication in the printed edition is to Charles Mordaunt, Earl of Peterborough. The poem was found, she says, among my dear Deceas'd Husband's Writings, the Original being produc'd under his own Hand (Stonehill, II, 363-4).

Letters

Of George Farquhar's own correspondence, a number of texts are preserved only in such (less than totally reliable) publications as Familiar and Courtly Letters, written by Monsieur Voiture (1700-1), Abel Boyer's Letters of Wit, Politicks and Morality (1701), and Farquhar's own Love and Business (1702 [i.e. 1701]), for which see Stonehill, II, 217-343. The addressees of the dedicatory epistle of Farquhar's various published works include Peregrine Osborne, Marquess of Carmarthen (and later second Duke of Leeds); Sir Roger Mostyn, Bt; Arnold Joost Van Keppel, first Earl of Albemarle; Richard Tighe; Henry Brett; Samuel Bagshaw; and Edmond Chaloner.

Prompt-books

Later prompt-copies of Farquhar's best known plays, especially The Beaux' Stratagem, are to be found in various collections. For four 18th-century examples of The Beaux' Stratagem (2), The Constant Couple, and The Twin-Rivals, see Edward A. Langhans, Eighteenth Century British and Irish Promptbooks: A Descriptive Bibliography (New York, Westport, Conn. & London, 1987), pp. 49-51. For some 19th-century examples, see Barry N. Olshen, The Beaux Stratagem on the Nineteenth Century London Stage, Theatre Notebook, 28 (1974), 70-80. Another is in Boston Public Library (*K.38.51), and yet another was sold at Sotheby's, 6 December 1984, lot 44, to the (now defunct) British Theatre Museum.

The Canon

The canon of Farquhar's works is taken to be that established in Stonehill, with the addition of a prologue discovered by Shirley Strum Kenny: see A Broadside Prologue by Farquhar, Studies in Bibliography, 25 (1972), 179-85. Two songs by the composer Richard Leveridge (Early in ye Dawning of a Winters Morn and When Cupid from his Mother fled) which featured in early performances of Farquhar's Love and a Bottle, although they do not appear in the first edition of the text (1699), are copied in a manuscript songbook in the Bodleian (MS Mus. Sch. C. 95, pp. 119, 122). A contemporary printed broadside of these Songs in the new Comedy call'd Love and a Bottle. Sung by Mrs. Allison and including a third song (On Sunday after Mass as sung by Mrs. Mills) is now in the Folger Shakespeare Library. It is reproduced in facsimile and discussed in Shirley Strum Kenny, Songs in Love and a Bottle, The Scriblerian, 17 (1984), 1-7, and in her edition of Farquhar, I, 21.

Editorial Papers

Some original working papers and proofsheets for Stonehill's edition of this author are preserved at Yale (Gen MSS Misc Group 1741, formerly MS Vault file/Farquhar).

Abbreviations

Kenny
The Works of George Farquhar, ed. Shirley Strum Kenny, 2 vols (Oxford, 1988).
Stonehill
The Complete Works of George Farquhar, ed. Charles Stonehill, 2 vols (London, 1930).

Verse

'Courage, the highest gift, that scorns to bend'

First published, as part of the dedicatory epistle to Peregrine Osborne, Marquess of Carmarthen and later second Duke of Leeds, in Love and a Bottle (London, 1699). Stonehill, I, 7. Kenny, I, 25.

FrG 1

Copy.

A quarto miscellany of verse and prose, chiefly in one cursive hand, written from both ends, 271 leaves (including numerous blanks), in contemporary vellum boards.

c.1700
An Epigram, on the Riding-House in Dublin, made into a Chappel ('A Chappel of the Riding-House is made')

First published in Love & Business (London, 1702). Stonehill, II, 283.

FrG 2

Copy.

A quarto composite volume of four MSS, in English and Latin, iii + 187 leaves, in vellum boards.

Part B (ff. 16d-86v): A quarto miscellany of poems and letters, in several hands, compiled by William Elyott (a nephew of Sir Simonds D'Ewes). c.1640-55.

Part C (ff. 86 bis-120r): A quarto verse miscellany compiled by Thomas Axton, M.A. (b.1699/1700), of Trinity College, Cambridge. c.1718-22.

Part C sold at the Thomas Rawlinson sale in March 1733/4, lot 289.

On the Death of General Schomberg kill'd at the Boyn. A Pinadrick ('What dismal Damp has overspread the War?')

First published in Love & Business (London, 1702). Stonehill, II, 279-82.

To the Ingenious Lady, Author of the Fatal Friendship, design'd for a Recommendatory Copy to her Play ('Let others call the sacred Nine to Aid')

First published in Love & Business (London, 1702). Stonehill, II, 282-3.

Written on Orinda's Poem's, lent to a Lady, in imitation of Ovid ('Me Damon sends his amorous Cause to plead')

First published in Love & Business (London, 1702). Stonehill, II, 282.

Dramatic Works

The Beaux Stratagem, Act III, scene iii. Song ('A Trifling Song you shall hear')

First published in London, 1707. Stonehill, II, 113-92 (pp. 154-5). Kenny, II, 159-243 (pp. 197-8).

FrG 7

Copy of Archer's song, headed The Triffle, on a single folio leaf, the verso containing recipes and the note Mr. Cheney at the backside of St Thos. Apostles Key Court near Choue Land. Early 18th century.

A guardbook of miscellaneous separate papers, chiefly folio, 218 leaves.

Early 18th century

Chiefly collected by W.H. Black. Subsequently bought from Miss N.T. Harrison, 1947.

Bodleian Library, Eng. misc. MSS (MS Eng. misc. c. 292 f. 101r)
FrG 7.5

Copy of the song, untitled, on the first two pages of a pair of conjugate quarto leaves (the second leaf blank).

An unbound folder of verse MSS, in various hands and paper sizes, 138 leaves.

Volume CCXXXVI of the Trumbull Papers, of the Trumbull family, including chiefly William Trumbull (1576/80?-1635), diplomat and government official. Later belonging to the Marquess of Downshire, of Easthampstead Park. Formerly Berkshire Record Office Trumbull Add 17 and 18.

Sotheby's sale catalogue, The Trumbull Papers (14 December 1989), part of lot 39.

FrG 8

Copy, headed Nonsensical Folkes, &c - a Song.

A verse miscellany, in English and Latin, 83 leaves.

Compiled by William Parry, vicar of Shipton-on-Stow, Warwickshire.

c.1741

Once owned by one Anne Bromage. P.J. & A.E. Dobell, sale catalogue No. 73 (1928), item 487.

Bodleian Library, Eng. misc. MSS (MS Eng. misc. e. 183 ff. 18v-19r)
FrG 9

Copy, headed The Trifle.

An octavo miscellany of poems, many on affairs of state and with Jacobite sympathies, in a single hand, with an index, iv + 182 pages, in vellum boards.

c.1742

Owned in 1742 by John Conyers, of Copt Hall, Essex. Pickering & Chatto, sale catalogue No. 353 (1953), item 490.

Bodleian Library, Eng. poet. e. MSS (MS Eng. poet. e. 87 pp. 26-7)
FrG 10

Copy, headed The Trifle By Mr Farquhuar.

A folio miscellany of chiefly verse, in a single hand, entitled The Famous Miscellany, 248 leaves, in 19th-century half-calf.

Compiled by Ashley Cowper, Clerk of the Parliaments (signed, f. 1v, Ashley Cowper 1747).

c.1747
FrG 11

Copy, headed The Trifle A Song by Mr: Farquar 1703 To the Tune of old Simon the King.

A large folio composite miscellany of poems generally on affairs of state, in one or more professional hands, 289 leaves, in half crushed morocco on marbled boards.

c.1730
The British Library: Lansdowne MSS (Lansdowne MS 852 f. 40r-v)
FrG 11.5

Copy of the song, headed A Song on a Trifle, subscribed Andover 17. Aug. 1730.

An octavo verse miscellany, predominantly in a single hand, written from both ends, the contents collected over a period but not entered in chronological order, 171 leaves, in contemporary panelled calf.

Inscribed (f. 1r) Benj: Coles At Great Forster's. near Egham. In Surrey. owns this book MDCCXXXII and the miscellany evidently compiled by Coles. A similar inscription on f. 31r rev. dated 3d. Jany 1740/1.

c.1729-41

Inscribed (f. iiv) purchased by R Brown, for a valuable consideration of Benjamin Coles Anno 1754. August 8th. Later owned by James Langlands and, in 1965, by Mrs V.J. Dawson, of Southan, Gloucestershire.

The Constant Couple, Act IV, scene ii. Song ('Thus Damon knock'd at Celia's Door')

First published in London, 1699. Kenny, I, 149-233 (p. 203).

FrG 12

Copy of the song, headed in ye Iubilly and here beginning Poor Damon knockt at Celeias door.

A folio formal verse miscellany, comprising c.406 poems, many of them song lyrics, in various neat hands, compiled probably over a period, 8 blank leaves (pp. [i-xvi]) + 10 unnumbered pages of poems (pp. [xvii-xxvi]) + 9 numbered pages (pp. 1-9) + ff. [9v]-151v + 12 leaves at the end blank but for a poem on the penultimate page (f. [11v]), in contemporary calf gilt.

Once erroneously associated with Thomas Killigrew (1612-83), whose hand does not appear in the volume.

Mid-17th century-c.1702

Inscribed (f. [ir]) Sr Robert Killigrew / 1702. Later in the library of Sir Thomas Phillipps, Bt (1792-1872), book and manuscript collector: Phillipps MS 9070. Sotheby's, 19 May 1897, lot 455.

Discussed, with a facsimile example, in Nancy Cutbirth, Thomas Killigrew's Commonplace Book?, Library Chronicle of the University of Texas at Austin, NS No. 13 (1980), 31-8.

University of Texas at Austin (Ms (Killigrew, T) Works B Commonplace book p. [xxii])

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