The Recruiting Officer is a 1706 play by the Irish writer George Farquhar, which follows the social and sexual exploits of two officers, the womanising Plume and the cowardly Brazen, in the town of Shrewsbury (the town where Farquhar himself was posted in this capacity) to recruit soldiers. The chaacters of the play are generally stock, in keeping with the genre of Restoration comedy.

In this new edition, The Beaux' Stratagem is seen as a traditional work, combining characteristics of the Restoration comedy of manners with those of the more conventionally moral comedy that followed. Mr. Fifer discusses the numerous alterations made in the text during the century, many of which eliminated racy dialogue or diminished the importance of the marriage-divorce theme. Farquhar's views on divorce were influenced by Milton; he is also concerned...