The Beaux' Stratagem

About

Farquhar's final play (1707), written while he was dying, is the most good-natured and romantically sincere of the major Restoration comedies: two gentlemen travel to Lichfield posing as master and servant to repair their fortunes by marrying wealthy women, and the plot's romantic complications culminate in a genuinely touching recognition that some marriages should be dissolved. Farquhar's sympathy with his female characters — Mrs. Sullen in particular, trapped in a brutish marriage — gives the play more emotional warmth than Congreve or Wycherley, and Mrs. Sullen's final freedom is staged with real feeling. The play was a major success and has remained in the repertoire.