iss my
chain
And ne'er think more of liberty again.[4]

It is said, some of the letters of which we have been speaking, were
published from the copies returned him at his request, by Mrs. Oldfield,
and that she delighted to read them many years after they were printed,
as she also did the judicious essay at the end of them, which is called
a Discourse upon Comedy, in Reference to the English Stage; but what
gives a yet more natural and lively representation of our author still,
is one among those letters, which he calls the Picture, containing a
description and character of himself, which we should not now omit
transcribing, if his works were not in every body's hands.

In 1703 came out another Comedy, entitled the Inconstant, or the Way to
Win Him, which had sufficient merit to have procured equal success to
the rest; but for the inundation of Italian, French, and other farcical
interruptions, which, through the interest of some, and the depraved
taste of others, broke in upon the stage like a torrent, and swept down
before thorn all taste for competitions of a more intrinsic excellence.
These foreign monsters obtained partisans amongst our own countrymen, in
opposition to English humour, genuine wit, and the sublime efforts of
genius, and substituted in their room the airy entertainments of dancing
and singing, which conveyed no instruction, awakened no generous
passion, nor filled the breast with any thing great or manly. Such was
the prevalence of these airy nothings, that our author's comedy was
neglected for them, and the tragedy of Phaedra slid Hippolitus, which for
poetry is equal to any in our tongue, (and though Mr. Addison wrote
the prologue, and Prior the epilogue) was suffered to languish, while
multitudes flocked to hear the warblings of foreign eunuchs, whose
highest excellence, as Young expresses it, was,

'Nonsense well tun'd with sweet stupidity.'

Very early in the year 1704, a farce: called the Stage Coach, in the
composition whereof he was jointly concerned with another, made its
first appearance in print, and it has always given satisfaction.

Mr. Farquhar had now been about a twelve-month married, and it was at
first reported, to a great fortune; which indeed he expected, but was
miserably disappointed. The lady had fallen in love with him, and so
violent was her passion, that she resolved to have him at any rate; and
as she knew Farquhar was too much dissipated in life to fall in love,