Liar

( The ), a farce by Samuel Foote (1761). John Wilding, a young gentleman fresh from Oxford, has an extraordinary propensity for romancing. He invents the most marvellous tales, utterly regardle of truth, and thereby involves both himself and others in endle perplexities. He pretends to fall in love with a Mi Grant am, whom he accidentally meets, and, wishing to know her name, is told it is Godfrey, and that she is an heire . Now it so happens that his father wants him to marry the real Mi Grant am, and, in order to avoid so doing, he says he is already married to a Mi Sibthorpe. He afterwards tells his father he invented this tale because he really wished to marry Mi Godfrey. When Mi Godfrey is introduced, he does not know her, and while in this perplexity a woman enters, who declares she is his wife, and that her maiden name was Sibthorpe. Again he is dumbfounded, declares he never saw her in his life, and rushes out, exclaiming, “All the world is gone mad, and is in league against me!” ⁂ The plot of this farce is from the Spanish. It had been already taken by Corneille in Le Menteur (1642), and by Steele in his Lying Lover (1704). Liar ( The ), Al Aswad; also called “The Impostor,” and “The Weathercock.” He set himself up as a prophet against Mahomet; but frequently changed his creed. Mosëilma was also called “The Liar.” He wrote a letter to Mahomet, which began thus: “From Mosëilma, prophet of Allah, to Mahomet, prophet of Allah;” and received an answer beginning thus: “From Mahomet, the prophet of Allah, to Mosëilma, the Liar.”