ABSTRACT
Thus George Farquhar’s Irishman adventurer in The Stage-Coach (1705) breezily reviewed the possibilities for social advancement.1 He could win money at play; he could marry a merchant’s widow and inherit the business; or he could go into the liberal professions. This litany had some piquancy, since Farquhar was himself an impoverished Ulsterman struggling to make a living in England – in his case, as a dramatist.
