FAR'REN, EuzAnETir ( e.1759-1829 ) . A noted English actress, who became in 1797 Countess of Derby. She was the daughter of an itinerant actor named George Farren, and appeared upon the stage when a child. About 1774 she obtained an engagement under Younger. at Liverpool, where she first played Lady Townley in The Pro voked husband. She first appeared in London at the Haymarket in 1777, taking the part of Miss Hardeastle in She Stoops to Conquer. In the fall of 1778 she appeared at Drury Lane, where she became established at first in tragedy, and, after the departure of Mrs. Abingdon in 1782, as leading lady in comedy. She was very popu lar, Charles James Fox being one of her admirers. She is best known for her impersonations of fine ladies in the comedy of high life. Among her favorite parts were Clarinda in The Suspicious Husband, Lady Betty Modish in The Care less Husband, Lady Emily Gayyllle in The Heiress, Julia in The Rivals, and Lady Teazle in The School for Scandal. In this last role she
made her final appearance April '3, 1797. She had previously been received in aristocratic so ciety, and on May 1st of that year she was mar ried to the Earl of Derby, who had long been devoted to her. She died at Knowsley Park, Lan cashire. Boaden's remark upon her career is well known, that after her retirement comedy de generated into farce. There is a somewhat coarse work called Memoirs of the Present Countess of Derby, Late Miss Parrett, by "Petronius Arbiter" (London, 1797), to which two crude responses were published by more friendly pens. Consult: Geneste, History of the Stage (Bath, 1832) ; Doran. Annals of the Stage, ed. by Lowe (Lon don. 1888) ; Galt, Lives of the Players (London, 1831) ; and Lowe, in Actors and Actresses of Great Britain and the United States, ed. by Matthews and Hutton (New York, 1886).