The recruiting officer / George Farquhar ; edited by Tiffany Stern.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Farquhar, George, 1677?-1707.

Contributor:

Stern, Tiffany.

Series:

New mermaids

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Military towns--Drama.

Military towns.

Recruiting and enlistment--Drama.

Recruiting and enlistment.

Shrewsbury (England)--Social life and customs--18th century--Drama.

Shrewsbury (England).

Genre:

Drama.

Physical Description:

xxix, 157 pages ; 21 cm.

Edition:

Second edition.

Place of Publication:

London : Methuen Drama, 2011.

Summary:

The Recruiting Officer is set in Shrewsbury in 1704 and describes what happens in a country town when the army come to stay. At first it seems that Kite, servant to the dashing recruiting officer Captain Plume, is duping all the locals into joining the army. But little do the men realize that the women are doing some recruiting of their own. When Silvia dresses as a man in order to be 'recruited' by Plume, the play's themes of love and war come to a climax.

The earliest documented play to have been staged in New York [1732], Kingston, Jamaica [1750], and Sydney, Australia [1789], The Recruiting Officer's light-hearted comedy and healthy rural optimism has long appealed to nostalgic settlers abroad. More recently, however, it has drawn attention as an account of army corruption and sexual intrigue, becoming the source for Brecht's Trumpets and Drums, and the subject of Keneally's The Playmaker, and Wertenbaker's Our Country's Good. Whether seen as cynical or sentimental, its geniality ensures that, as Hazlitt put it, we 'laugh from pleasure oftener than from malice.

This student edition contains a fully annotated edition of the play in modern spelling. The introduction provides information about the author and a history of the play including its staging, critical interpretation, date and sources.

The New Mermaids plays offer:

Modernized versions of the play text edited to the highest textual standards

Fully annotated student editions with obscure words explained and critical, contextual and staging insight provided on each page

Full Introductions analyzing Context, themes, author background and stage history Book jacket.

Contents:

The Recruiting Officer 1

Epistle Dedicatory 3

Dramatis Personae 6

The Prologue 7

The Play 9

Epilogue 145.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references.

ISBN:

9781408134535

1408134535

9780713673791

0713673796

OCLC:

720898285