ructive_ as the _Marriage of Figaro_, for I am told it approaches
to those of Mrs. Behn in Spartan delicacy; but I shall see Miss Farren,
who, in my poor opinion is the first of all actresses.' Sir Walter Scott
admired and praised her warmly. But the pinchbeck sobriety of later
times was unable to tolerate her freedom. She was condemned in no small
still voice as immoral, loose, scandalous; and writer after writer,
leaving her unread, reiterated the charge till it passed into a byword
of criticism, and her works were practically taboo in literature, a type
and summary of all that was worst and foulest in Restoration days. The
absurdities and falsity or this extreme are of course patent now, and it
was inevitable the recoil should come.

[Footnote 58: It is ushered in by one 'G. J. her friend'. This was
almost certainly George Jenkins.]

[Footnote 59: _The School for Greybeards_, produced at Drury Lane,
25 November, 1786. It owes much of its business to _The Lucky
Chance_. See the Theatrical History of that comedy (Vol. iii,
p. 180). Miss Farren acted Donna Seraphina, second wife of Don
Alexis, one of the Greybeards. She also spoke the epilogue.]

It is a commonplace to say that her novels are a landmark in the history
of fiction. Even Macaulay allowed that the best of Defoe was 'in no
respect... beyond the reach of Afra Behn'. Above all _Oroonoko_ can be
traced directly and indirectly, perhaps unconsciously, in many a
descendant. Without assigning her any direct influence on Wilberforce,
much of the feeling of this novel is the same as inspired Harriet
Beecher Stowe. She has been claimed to be the literary ancestress of
Bernardin de Saint-Pierre and Chateaubriand; nor is it any exaggeration
to find Byron and Rousseau in her train. Her lyrics, it has been well
said, are often of 'quite bewildering beauty', but her comedies
represent her best work and she is worthy to be ranked with the greatest
dramatists of her day, with Vanbrugh and Etheredge; not so strong as
Wycherley, less polished than Congreve. Such faults as she has are
obviously owing to the haste with which circumstances compelled her to
write her scenes. That she should ever recover her pristine reputation
is of course, owing to the passing of time with its change of manners,
fashions, thought and style, impossible. But there is happily every
indication that-- long neglected and traduced-- she will speedily
vindicate for herself, as she is alre