Love and Business
By
George Farquhar

            "There are some books, like some people, of whom we form an indulgent opinion without finding it easy to justify our liking. The rare, and yet not celebrated, miscellany of which I am about to write has this character. It is not instructive, or very high-toned, or exceptionally clever, but if it were a man, all people that are not prigs would say that it was a very good sort of fellow. Love and Business has one definite merit. Wherever we dip into its pages we may use it as a telephone, and hear a young Englishman, of the year 1700, talking to himself and to his friends in the most unaffected accents." Thus Edmund Gosse, of this miscellany, published in 1702 by George Farquhar, playwright best known for The Recruiting Officer and The Beaux' Stratagem.

The collection contains poetry, an account of a trip to Holland, an essay on play writing, and – with perhaps doubtful taste – the love letters he wrote to his wife when they were courting. There is something for every taste here!

 

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