ABSTRACT
Professed to have been written by an anonymous “Person of Quality”, Serious and Comical Essays consists of a voluminous collection of fictitious letters. This satire comments on a whole range of things from tea tables to lap dogs, politicians to universities. The following excerpt perpetuates many of the stereotypes of eighteenth-century soldiering. It describes the recruiting officer as fond of drink and womanising, spurning religion and knowledge. He is irreverent, flirts with his landlady, and openly boasts of seducing and abandoning young maidens. In these traits, as well as his willingness to make false promises and to collaborate with parents and sweethearts to entice young men into service, this recruiting officer resembles those in Farquhar’s comedy ( Part VI , below). He also brazenly acknowledges having beaten a corporal’s wife when drunk.
