"Captain is a good travelling name and so I take it"
About this Quote
A title like "Captain" works the way a well-cut cloak does: it travels, it flatters, and it hides the seams. Farquhar, a stage-savvy chronicler of Restoration hustle, gives us a line that’s both breezy and quietly corrosive. "Good travelling name" frames identity as luggage - something you pack for the road, not something you are. The speaker isn’t aspiring to military honor so much as exploiting the social shorthand that comes with it: instant respectability, a whiff of authority, and just enough danger to read as masculine competence.
The subtext is transactional. In a world of coaching inns, roaming soldiers, and brittle class boundaries, a self-bestowed rank is a forged passport. "So I take it" lands like a shrug, but it’s a flex: taking a name is taking a role, and taking a role is taking permission. Farquhar’s comedy often turns on this kind of performance, where survival depends on how convincingly you can act your station. The line assumes the audience understands the scam and enjoys it - not because the con is noble, but because society itself is shown to be gullible, addicted to labels, and eager to outsource judgment to titles.
Context matters: early 18th-century Britain was full of veterans, impostors, and itinerant men reinventing themselves between wars and cities. Farquhar, who knew military life firsthand, turns that reality into a neat little barb. "Captain" isn’t a moral identity; it’s a practical costume, chosen for maximum mobility.
The subtext is transactional. In a world of coaching inns, roaming soldiers, and brittle class boundaries, a self-bestowed rank is a forged passport. "So I take it" lands like a shrug, but it’s a flex: taking a name is taking a role, and taking a role is taking permission. Farquhar’s comedy often turns on this kind of performance, where survival depends on how convincingly you can act your station. The line assumes the audience understands the scam and enjoys it - not because the con is noble, but because society itself is shown to be gullible, addicted to labels, and eager to outsource judgment to titles.
Context matters: early 18th-century Britain was full of veterans, impostors, and itinerant men reinventing themselves between wars and cities. Farquhar, who knew military life firsthand, turns that reality into a neat little barb. "Captain" isn’t a moral identity; it’s a practical costume, chosen for maximum mobility.
Quote Details
| Topic | Travel |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
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