REED, Joseph; FARQUHAR, [George]; CUMBERLAND, Richard; KELLY, Hugh; [O'HARA, Kane]
Five 18th-century comedies bound in one volume. Reed was a friend of Tom Jones author Henry Fielding, and Fielding encouraged him to write a comic opera based on his novel; he then praised Reed's version publicly. The Recruiting Officer is a 1706 play by the Irish writer George Farquhar which follows the exploits of two officers named Plume and Brazen in the town of Shrewsbury. The Impostors, by Cumberland, featured Mrs. Jordan when performed at Drury Lane. The Romance of an Hour was a stage success for political writer Hugh Kelly. Midas, by Kane O'Hara, is a "burletta" or mock opera, performed over 200 times at Covent Garden.
