The Beaux-Stratagem

This play belongs to the genre of Restoration Drama and in most ways adheres to the expected norms of such a play. It has a simple plot where two young men, Aimless and Archer, take it in turns to play either gentleman or manservant and set about finding a young woman to marry. The virtue of this play is that Farquhar himself had a rather low opinion of the state of matrimony and manages to make this point by using another character to downplay the excitement of a forthcoming marriage.