E-text prepared by Delphine Lettau
and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Canada Team
(http://www.pgdpcanada.net)
George Farquhar, the author of this comedy, wasthe son of a clergyman in the north of Ireland. Hewas born in the year 1678, discovered an early tastefor literature, and wrote poetic stanzas at ten yearsof age.
In 1694 he was sent to Trinity College, Dublin, andthere made such progress in his studies as to acquireconsiderable reputation. But he was volatile andpoor—the first misfortune led him to expense; thesecond, to devise means how to support his extravagance.
The theatre has peculiar charms for men of letters.Whether as a subject of admiration or animadversion,it is still a source of high amusement; andhere Farquhar fixed his choice of a profession, in theunited expectations of pleasure and of profit—he appearedon the stage as an actor, and was disappointedof both.
The author of this licentious comedy is said to havepossessed the advantages of person, manners, andelocution, to qualify him for an actor; but that hecould never overcome his natural timidity. Courageis a whimsical virtue. It acts upon one man so as tomake him expose his whole body to danger, whilsthe dares not venture into the slightest peril one sentimentof his mind. Such is often the soldier's valour.—Anothertrembles to expose his person either to awound or to the eye of criticism, and yet will dare topublish every thought that ever found entrance intohis imagination. Such is often the valour of a poet.
Farquhar, abashed on exhibiting his person uponthe stage, sent boldly thither his most indecorousthoughts, and was rewarded for his audacity.
In the year 1700 he brought out this comedy of"The Constant Couple; or, A Trip to the Jubilee."It was then the Jubilee year at Rome, and the authortook advantage of that occurrence to render the titleof his drama popular; for which cause alone it mustbe supposed he made any thing in his play refer tothat festival, as no one material point is in any shapeconnected with it.
At the time Farquhar was a performer, a sincerefriendship was formed between him and Wilks,the celebrated fine gentleman of the stage—for him,Farquhar wrote the character of Sir Harry Wildair;and Wilks, by the very admirable manner in whichhe supported the part, divided with the author thosehonours which the first appearance of the work obtainedhim.
As a proof that this famed actor's abilities, in therepresentation of the fine gentlemen of his day, werenot over-rated, no actor, since he quitted the stage,has been wholly successful in the performance ofthis character; and, from Wilks down to thepresent time, the part has only been supported, with celebrity,by women.
The noted Mrs. Woffington was highly extolled inSir Harry; and Mrs. Jordan has been no less admiredand attractive.
But it must be considered as a disgrace to the memoryof the men of fashion, of the period in whichWildair was brought on the stage, that he has eversince been