Farquhar, GEORGE, was born at Londonderry in 1678, and received his education at Trinity College, Dublin, where, although he did not take any degree, he secured among his comrades the reputation of a wit who was a spendthrift of his witticisms. When he left the university he was engaged as an actor at one of the Dublin theatres, but, like most dramatists who have figured on the stage, he proved to be an indifferent performer. Playing a part in Dryden's Indian Emperor, and forgetting that he wore a sword instead of a foil, he accidentally wounded a brother-performer, and was so shocked by the occurrence that he at once quitted the boards. Accompanied by the actor Wilks, he proceeded to London, and shortly after received a commission in the regiment commanded by the Earl of Orrery, which was then stationed in Ireland. Urged by Wilks, and perhaps stimulated by the gaiety and leisure of a military life, he in 1698 produced his first comedy, entitled Love and a Bottle, which proved a success. Two years afterwards his Constant Couple appeared, which met with a brilliant reception, and to which he wrote a sequel, called Sir Harry Wildair. In 1703 he produced The Inconstant, founded on the Wild-goose Chase of Beaumont and Fletcher, a version in which all the coarseness, and none of the poetry, of the elder dramatists is retained. Having married in the same year, he fell into serious pecuniary difficulties, sold his commission, and, struggling with adverse fortune, succumbed. He died of decline in 1707, leaving 'two helpless girls' to the care of his friend Wilks. During his last illness he wrote the best of his plays, The Beau's Stratagem—in six weeks, it is said—and died while his wit and invention were making the town roar with delight. Another popular play, The Recruiting Officer, had been produced in 1706.
Farquhar is one of the best of our comic dramatists, although Pope called him 'a farce writer.' He is less icily brilliant than Congreve, and possesses on the whole more variety and character than any of his compeers. With wit in abundance, he had humanity too, and was a tender-hearted, somewhat melancholy man—'very splenetic, and yet very amorous.' See Ewald's edition of his works (1893).