r, we have no fowl in the house at present; if you
please, you may have anything else in a moment.

_Hyp._ Then, prithee, get us some young rabbits.

_Host._ Upon my word, Sir, rabbits are so scarce, they are not to
be had for money.

_Trap._ Have you any fish?

_Host._ Fish! Sir; I dressed yesterday the finest dish that ever
came upon a table; I am sorry we have none, Sir; but, if you
please, you may have anything else in a moment.

_Trap._ Hast thou nothing but Anything else in the house?

_Host._ Very good mutton, Sir.

_Hyp._ Prithee, get us a breast, then.

_Host._ Breast! Don't you love the neck, Sir?

_Hyp._ Ha' ye nothing in the house but the neck?

_Host._ Really, Sir, we don't use to be so unprovided, but at
present we have nothing else left.

_Trap._ Faith, Sir, I don't know but a Nothing else may be very
good meat, when Anything else is not to be had.

Sometimes there is a little smartness in the dialogue, and in the
"Careless Husband," Lord Foppington uses such strange expletives as "Sun
burn me," "Stop my breath," "Set my blood." But the greater part of any
amusement that there is, depends, as in the Roman Comedy, upon the
tricks of low-minded mercenary servants.

Although neither of the two last-named writers was English by descent,
they were both so by adoption, and the same may be said of the next
author, Farquhar, who was born at Londonderry in 1678, but whose Irish
characters want the charm of the pure national comicality. He was the
son of a clergyman who sent him to the University, but his taste being
averse to the prescribed course of study, he left it, and became an
actor. Want of voice soon excluded him from the stage, and he entered
the army--a profession which we might conclude, from the experiences of
Wycherley and Vanbrugh, was somewhat favourable for the cultivation of
dramatic talent. The constant companionship of men of wild and fanciful
dispositions, the leisure for observing their talents and peculiarities,
and the perpetual demand for the exercise of light repartee, would all
tend to furnish effective materials for the stage. Farquhar soon
married, and his poverty, with an increasing family, led to his
producing a play nearly every year from 1703 to 1707. Finally he sold
out, and was in deep distress. Speaking of his condition with his
accustomed gaiety, he says:--

"I have very li