the Indian Emperor, and using a real sword instead of a stage foil, he wounded Price, the actor who represented Vasques, so severely as to endanger his life. The shock of this mishap affected Farquhar so deeply that he abandoned the stage for ever. He was now only eighteen years old, and Wilks the actor, who had been his firm friend, having obtained an engagement in London, Farquhar accompanied him thither in 1696, and was induced to commence writing for the stage. Meantime he obtained the patronage of the earl of Orrery, who gave him a lieutenancy in his own regiment, which he held for several years. In 1698 Farquhar for the first time appeared as an author. His comedy of "Love and a Bottle" was played at Drury Lane with considerable success. This was followed in 1700 by "The Constant Couple," which was more fortunate still, being played for fifty-three nights in London and twenty-three in Dublin. Its success was enhanced by the inimitable acting of Wilks in the character of Harry Wildair, which was written for him. This same year Farquhar went to Holland with his regiment, and after seeing some service there, returned with William to England. The year following he brought out the sequel to "The Constant Couple" in the comedy of "Sir Harry Wildair," and its success was scarcely less than the former. Then followed a miscellany of poems and essays; succeeded in 1703 by "The Inconstant." About this time it was that a lady fell in love with Farquhar, and in order to obtain her wishes passed herself as a rich heiress. The poor playwright was undeceived only after he had made her his wife; yet he had the generosity never to utter a word of reproach, and made her an indulgent husband. Farquhar revisited Dublin in 1704; and having failed in obtaining a subscription to publish his works, he was reduced to so low an ebb that, with the permission of the duke of Ormond (being still in the army), he played Sir Harry Wildair in his own comedy at a benefit representation, and realized one hundred pounds. Next in order followed "The Stage Coach;" "The Twin Rivals;" and "The Recruiting Officer," a sprightly comedy, which had a deservedly great success. Meantime, the author, though advancing in celebrity, was retrograding in fortune. The cares of a family were now added to his difficulties, and in an evil hour he was induced to sell his commission to supply his present necessities, a false patron having promised him preferment in another quarter. The promise was never kept, and Farquhar found himself little better than a beggar. Disappointment and poverty preyed on his mind and hurried him towards a premature grave; and yet in this state, confined as an invalid to his chair, he produced "The Beaux Stratagem," the best of his plays, and, as Hazlitt justly observes, "as a whole infinitely lively, bustling, and full of point and interest." This play, like "The Inconstant," still holds its ground upon the stage. "Its plot," says Leigh Hunt, "is new, simple, and interesting; the characters various, without confusing it; the dialogue sprightly and characteristic; the moral bold, healthy, admirable, and doubly needed in those times in which sottishness was a fashion." But while the theatre was still echoing the laughter at his wit, and the world commending him with unprofitable plaudits, poor Farquhar was called away by the summons of death "as if from a pleasant party, and left the house ringing with his jest." He died in April, 1707, and is supposed to have been buried in St. Martin's-in-the-Fields. The last note he wrote from his death-bed to his friend Wilks, is all the more touching from its affected gaiety,—"Dear Bob, I have not anything to leave thee to perpetuate my memory, but two helpless girls. Look upon them sometimes, and think of him that was to the last moment of his life, thine, George Farquhar." Undoubtedly, Farquhar holds a high place in the dramatists of his day, and it is no mean praise that by many he was considered at least the equal of Congreve. Had he lived longer and been able to mix more with the higher circles of society, it is probable that his plays would have more embellishments and a higher tone; they are obnoxious to the censure of being licentious, but that was the fault of his age, more than of himself. Leigh Hunt's appreciation of Farquhar is in the main correct—"He has humour, character, and invention, added to an unaffected gaiety and spirit of enjoyment which overflows and sparkles in all he does. He makes us laugh oftener from pleasure than from malice. His incidents succeed one another with rapidity, but without premeditation; his wit is easy and spontaneous; his style animated, unembarrassed, and flowing; his characters full of life and spirit, and never overstrained so as to 'o'erstep the modesty of nature,' though they sometimes, from haste and carelessness, seem left in a crude unfinished state. There is a constant ebullition of gay, laughing invention, cordial good humour, and fine animal spirits in his writings." In a sketch called "The Picture," addressed to a lady, Farquhar has drawn himself with a dash of melancholy humour. "My outside is neither better nor worse than my Creator made it; and the piece being drawn by so great an artist, it were presumptuous to say there are many strokes amiss. I have a body qualified to answer all the ends of its creation, and that is sufficient. As to my mind, which in most men has as many changes as their body, so in me, it is generally dressed, like my person, in black. Melancholy is its everyday apparel; and it has hitherto found few holy-days to make it change its clothes. In short, my constitution is very splenetic and very amorous, both of which I endeavour to hide; and my reason is so vigilant in restraining those two feelings, that I am taken for an easy-natured man by my own sex, and an ill-natured clown by yours."—J. F. W.
FARQUHARSON, Rev. James, LL.D., F.R.S., was born in 1781. After graduating at King's college, Aberdeen, in 1799, he was appointed parochial teacher of Alford, and in 1812 minister of that parish. In 1831 he published an essay on the form of Noah's ark, and an exposition of the scriptural Leviathan and Behemoth. Seven years later he gave a new illustration of Daniel's last vision. He contributed extensively to the Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London upon the Aurora Borealis; the course of currents, and their influence upon vegetation; the nature and localities of hoar-frost; the formation of ice beneath running water, &c. These contributions secured for him many merited honours, and the friendship of the most eminent savans of his day. His acquirements were alike varied and accurate. He died on 3rd December, 1843, aged sixty-two years.—J. L. A.
FARR, Samuel, M.D., an English physician, was born in 1741, and died at Taunton, March 11, 1795. He was educated at Warrington, and pursued his professional studies at Edinburgh and Leyden, where he took his degree. To professional acquirements of a high order, he added a respectable acquaintance with general literature and science. He wrote "The Elements of Medical Jurisprudence," and other works.—J. S., G.
* FARR, William, a distinguished statist and writer on public health, was born at Kealey in Shropshire on the 30th of November, 1809. He was educated for the medical profession, and after studying in Paris and London, commenced practice in London. He became, however, deeply impressed with the fact that the prevention of disease was more important for the community than the cure of it, and devoted himself to the study of the causes of disease and their removal. He wrote the article, "Vital Statistics," in M'Culloch's Statistics of the British Empire, and has since contributed various papers on this subject to medical and other journals. The most important of these are his "Statistics of Insanity;" "Statistical Nosology;" "Cholera in England," and his reports published by the registrar-general. In 1838 he obtained an appointment in the general register office, and is now second registrar-general and superintendent of the statistical department in that office. He has published elaborate reports on the "Finance of Life Assurance;" on the "Income Tax;" and on the "Public Health." He was appointed one of the assistant-commissioners to the registrar-general in taking the census of Great Britain in 1857. He has received the degree of M.D. from New York, and is a fellow of the Royal Society. To no one man is greater credit due for the great sanitary movement now going on than to Dr. Farr, who, by the "remorseless logic" of figures, has demonstrated not only the amount of life that is lost by ignorance and neglect, but how much life may be saved by a proper application of the well-known laws of health and disease.—E. L.
FARRANT, Richard, an English musician of great celebrity, was a gentleman of the chapel royal in 1564, and subsequently became master of the choristers of St. George's chapel, Windsor, with an allowance of £81. 6s. 8d. per annum for their diet and teaching. He was also organist, and one of the clerks of the same chapel. Upon accepting these appointments at Windsor, he resigned his office at St. James', but was recalled to it in 1569, and held it till 1580, when Anthony Todd became his successor. His other places he retained till the time of his death, which is supposed to have occurred in 1585; Nathaniel Giles, then a bachelor in music, having been
