The girl is allowed to marry the Captain and settles down, we may suppose, to the pleasures of domesticity and woman's gowns.

The comedy was admirably acted throughout, Wilks, Cibber, and that prince of mimics, Dick Estcourt, being in the cast, and the seal of popular approval was quickly put upon the production.

At present such a seal should bring hundreds, perhaps thousands, of dollars into the pockets of the author, but it is possible that a few paltry pounds represented the profits of Farquhar.[A] [Footnote A: The "Recruiting Officer" first saw the light in April 1706.] In the meantime the spirit of discontent was abroad among the members of the Drury Lane company.

Well it might be when the manager of the house, as Cibber points out, "had no conception himself of theatrical merit either in authors or actors, yet his judgment was govern'd by a saving rule in both.

He look'd into his receipts for the value of a play, and from common fame he judg'd of his actors.