nt's (along with
Wycherley, Vanbrugh, and Congreve), and Ewald's (1892), in
two volumes large octavo.

ADVERTISEMENT

The reader may find some faults in this play,
which my illness prevented the amending of;
but there is great amends made in the representation,
which cannot be matched, no more than
the friendly and indefatigable care of Mr. Wilks,
to whom I chiefly owe the success of the play.
GEORGE FARQUHAR.

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

With names of the original actors and actresses.

[Illustration: Dramatis1]

S C E N E.--Lichfield.

PROLOGUE

_Spoken by Mr. Wilks_.

WHEN strife disturbs, or sloth corrupts an age,
Keen satire is the business of the stage.
When the _Plain-Dealer_ writ, he lash'd those crimes,
Which then infested most--the modish times:
But now, when faction sleeps, and sloth is fled,
And all our youth in active fields are bred;
When through Great Britain's fair extensive round,
The trumps of fame, the notes of UNION sound;
When Anna's sceptre points the laws their course,
And her example gives her precepts force: {10}
There scarce is room for satire; all our lays
Must be, or songs of triumph, or of praise.
But as in grounds best cultivated, tares
And poppies rise among the golden ears;
Our product so, fit for the field or school,
Must mix with nature's favourite plant--a fool:
A weed that has to twenty summers ran,
Shoots up in stalk, and vegetates to man.
Simpling our author goes from field to field,
And culls such fools as many diversion yield {20}
And, thanks to Nature, there's no want of those,
For rain or shine, the thriving coxcomb grows.
Follies to-night we show ne'er lash'd before,
Yet such as nature shows you every hour;
Nor can the pictures give a just offence,
For fools are made for jests to men of sense.

THE BEAUX-STRATAGEM

ACT I., SCENE I.

_A Room in Bonifaces Inn_.
_Enter Boniface running_.

_Bon_. Chamberlain! maid! Cherry! daughter Cherry!
all asleep? all dead?

_Enter Cherry running_.

_Cher_. Here, here! why d'ye bawl so, father? d'ye think
we have no ears?

_Bon_. You deserve to have none, you young minx! The
company of the Warrington coach has stood in the
hall this hour, and nobody to show them to their
chambers.

_Cher_. And let 'em wait farther; there's neither red-coat
in the coach, nor footman behind it. {10}

_Bon_. But they threaten to go to another inn to-night.

_Ch