George Farquhar, a British comic dramatist, born in Londonderry, Ireland, in 1078, died in London in April, 1707. After a brief career at Trinity college, Dublin, he appeared in his 17th year as a comedian upon the Dublin stage. While performing in the "Indian Emperor" of Dryden, he accidentally inflicted a serious wound upon his antagonist in fencing, which caused him to renounce the boards for ever. He went to London in 1090, obtained a commission in the army, and applied himself to dramatic composition. He lived gayly and licentiously, and during the ten years before he sank a victim to anxiety and'ill health he produced seven comedies, superior in vivacity and ease of style, and in clear and rapid development of intrigue, to any that had before appeared in England. The last and best of these was the "Beaux Stratagem'* (1707), which still keeps the stage. He also left a volume of "Miscellanies," consisting of poems, essays, and letters. His works have much of the smartness and indelicacy fashionable in his time, but are written in better language and are less designedly vicious than the plays which preceded the revolution of 1088. He passed a troubled though merry life, and left two daughters in indigence, whom in a brief and touching note he recommended to the kindness of his friend the actor Wilks. A complete edition of his works appeared in 2 vols. 12mo in 1772.