The Recruiting Officer

Recruiting Officer, The

    Author: George Farquhar

    First Performance: 1706, London

    Published: 1706

    Genre: Com. in 5 acts; prose

    Setting: Shrewsbury, early 18th c.

    Cast: 18m, 6f, extras

Captain Plume and Sergeant Kite are in Shrewsbury recruiting for the army, often using devious means. Despite Plume's being a serial seducer and father of several illegitimate children, he is now seriously in love with Silvia, daughter of Balance, a local justice. Plume's friend Worthy is in love with Silvia's cousin Melinda, a lady of fortune, who is also being wooed by a rival recruiting officer, the bombastic Captain Brazen. When the death of her brother makes Silvia the sole heir to Balance's fortune, her father makes her swear that she will not dispose of herself without his consent. Plume pays court to Rose, a...

[The entire page is 369 words long]

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