Title: The Author's Farce Content: right|thumb|Titlepage to The Author's Farce|alt=A document reading, "The Author's Farce; and the Pleasures of the Town. As Acted at the Theatre in the Hay-Market. Written by Scriblerus Secundus. —Quis iniquæ / Tam patiens urbis, tam ferreus, ut teneat se? Juv. Sat. I." At the bottom is "London: Printed for J. Roberts, in Warwick-Lane. MDCCXXX." Henry Fielding wrote the play The Author's Farce and the Pleasures of the Town. It was first acted on 30 March 1730 in the Haymarket Theatre. The play responds to the rejection of Fielding's early plays and was his first success. Harry Luckless is the main character of the play. He tries to write a play in the first act and completes the play in the second act. It is a puppet play called "The Pleasures of the Town". Many theatres do not accept the play but it is later shown within the third act. The play is about the puppet character Goddess Nonsense who wants a husband. The end of The Author's Farce combines the characters of the puppet play and the main play for humour. Fielding became a popular writer in London after The Author's Farce. The Haymarket Theatre let him experiment with his plays and Fielding changed the comedy genre. The puppet play within the main play made fun of other London plays. The Author's Farce was first a success. Then, it was ignored by critics until the 20th century. Critics focused on the play's effects on Fielding's work. ==Plot== The Author's Farce has three acts. The play begins with Harry Luckless wanting a relationship with his landlady's daughter Harriot. Also, he is a writer and he is writing a play. The start of the play is like Fielding's other plays but the rest of the play is different.Rivero 1989 pp. 35–36 Luckless wants to be a good writer but he cannot make money. Other people want to give Luckless money but he does not want it. When Luckless's friend Witmore pays Luckless's rent, Luckless steals the money back. In the second act, Luckless asks for help to finish his puppet play "The Pleasures of the Town". However, people give him bad advice and theatres reject the play. Later, a theatre shows the play.Pagliaro 1999 pp. 70–71 The third act is the puppet play. The puppets are acted by real people and not puppets.Rivero 1989 pp. 37 The third act is the puppet play and is a play within a play. It takes place along the River Styx and starts with the Goddess of Nonsense wanting a husband. There are many possible husbands there and they are stupid. They are Dr Orator, Sir Farcical Comic, Mrs Novel, Bookseller, Poet, Monsieur Pantomime, Don Tragedio, and Signior Opera.Pagliaro 1999 pp. 71–72 She selects Signior Opera after he sings for her. He is an opera signior and a castrato. Mrs Novel claims that she and Signior Opera had a child.Campbell 1995 p. 33 This makes the Goddess of Nonsense angry but she forgives Signior Opera. The puppet play is stopped by the characters Constable and Murdertext. They want to arrest Luckless for hurting the Goddess of Nonsense. Mrs Novel asks for the play to be completed and they agree. However, a person from the land of Bantam stops the play and says that Luckless is the prince of Bantam. Another messenger comes and says that the King of Bantam died and Luckless is the new king. Luckless is told that his landlady is the Queen of Old Brentford and her daughter Harriot is a princess. The play ends with four poets saying how they would end the play. They are stopped by a cat that looks like a person. The cat person ends the play.Hunter 1975 p. 54 ==Meaning== The Author's Farce show parts of Fielding's life and experience with the London theatre community.Pagliaro 1999 pp. 69–70 Some of his other plays were rejected from the Theatre Royal.Koon 1986 p. 123 The Author's Farce was put on at a small theatre. This allowed Fielding to experiment. He could not experiment at larger theatres.Rivero p. 23 The play was the first to have things found in his later plays. However, he did not come up with them all. He got many of his ideas from the Scriblerus Club. Their members were Alexander Pope, Jonathan Swift, John Gay, and John Arbuthnot.Rivero 1989 pp. 31–34 One idea is his character Nonsense. She is similar to Pope's character Dulness in the Dunciad.Pagliaro 1999 p. 71 Both characters promote bad writing. Fielding gave Nonsense a sexual aspect. It is funny when she chooses as a lover a man who is sexless.Campbell 1995 pp. 32–34 Other parts of the play are similar to Gay's Beggar's Opera.Warner 1998 p. 242 The play is a farce. Farces use slapstick and physical humour to be funny. They also use absurd plots. A farce also makes serious situations funny.Rivero pp. 38–41 Fielding thought that theatre was becoming bad. He mocked theatre and theatre audiences in his play.Freeman 2002 pp. 59–63 His character Luckless states that for someone to become successful they must write nonsense.Fielding 1967 p. 16 His only desire is to make money. Other characters feel that money is all that matters. They do not care about good writing. Even Harriot believes that a good lover is one who is rich.Rivero pp. 33–37 Fielding made the same claims about people when he attacked Samuel Richardson's novel, Pamela.Warner 1998 p. 241 The ending of the play merges real and fake.Freeman 2002 pp. 64–65 Fielding defends an old view of writing. He also attacks new types of writing. He uses puppets to represent various genres.Ingrassia 2004 pp. 21–22 He made fun of people liking Italian opera.Roose-Evans 1977 p. 35 The puppet character Signior Opera is a castrato. Castratos are men without testicles. The character Nonsense wants him as a lover. Mrs Novel says that Signior Opera had a baby with her. However, Signior Opera can't have sex or have babies. Fielding is mocking how women like Italian opera singers. Other writers mocked Italian opera singers. William Hogarth says the castratos are related to politics.Campbell 1995 pp. 33–34 Many other writers make fun of women who favour castratos.Campbell 1995 pp. 32–36