The Beaux' Stratagem is a 1707 play, a Restoration Comedy by the Irish playwright George Farquhar.
Set in Lichfield, it tells the tale of Aimwell and Archer, two young men from wealthy backgrounds who've now fallen on hard times. As a last option before giving up and enlisting in the army, they opt to pose as master and servant, travel the country and con eligible young women out of their riches.
In Lichfield, they target Dorinda, daughter of Lady Bountiful, but their plans become unexpectedly tangled. Aimwell fears that Archer will genuinely fall in love with one of the women of Lichfield. Meanwhile, Dorinda's sister-in-law, trapped in an unhappy marriage to Squire Sullen, wants a way to make her doltish husband jealous...
And then there's Boniface, landlord of the inn where the two travellers stay, who rightly suspects they're rogues, but mistakes them for villains of a very different kind, and fears they might be unwanted competition for his own schemes.
The Beaux' Stratagem contains examples of the following tropes:
- Awful Wedded Life: Squire Sullen and his wife loathe each other. But her money funds the squire's booze and lifestyle, so he's unwilling to end the marriage.
- Con Man: Aimwell and Archer are would-be con men from relatively upper class backgrounds. Lacking an inheritance, they pretend to be master and servant, seeking to court eligible young ladies and embezzle their wealth. Lichfield, however, is their first and last attempt.
- Funetik Aksent: Foigard's strong accent is represented by phonetic dialogue.
- George Lucas Altered Version: Farquhar significantly rewrote the play after its first few performances, changing the last two acts and entirely removing the character of Count Bellairs. As of 2023, both versions have endured in print.
- The Highwayman:
- Boniface and Cherry incorrectly believe Aimwell's a highwayman. He rides a black horse, he's a mysterious traveller whose plans are vague and subject to change, and he's carrying a significant amount of money.
- Gibbet, Hounslow and Bagshot really are highwaymen, conspiring with Cherry and Boniface, although they don't restrict their robberies to the roads.
- Honor Among Thieves: Boniface is a crook who claims to have a code of honor, but it's subverted when he states that he'll only deal with his own faction honorably.Boniface: Since he don't belong to our fraternity, we may betray him with a safe conscience: I don't think it lawful to harbour any rogues but our own.
- Meaningful Name:
- Aimwell and Archer are both con men, very focused on their targets.
- Lady Bountiful is benevolent and well-liked.
- Squire Sullen is a drunken, uncommunicative dolt, described as "a country blockhead" in the dramatis personae.
- Gibbet is a highwayman, named after the gallows used to execute such outlaws.
- Nosebleed: Aimwell plans to visit the church, fix his attention on a suitable young lady, and then bring on a nosebleed through force of will. He hopes this shall signal his interest while making him seem more reputable and innocent than his true character.
- Pilfering Proprietor: the innkeeper Boniface, who is in league with a gang of highwaymen, conspires with them to burgle the home of the local noblewoman (who owns the land that the tavern is on), in addition to planning to rob the protagonists, who he mistakenly believes are also highwaymen (but fair game because they aren't part of his gang). Somewhat downplayed in that he is a comedic character, which probably explains why boniface entered the English language
as a term for an (implicitly benevolent) innkeeper. - Restoration Comedy: As with Farquhar's earlier work, it's very much a Restoration comedy, taking advantage of the newly permissive culture to tell a humorous tale of lustful scoundrels.
