Works
His friend Isaac Reed remarked on his easy way at Emmanuel as a successful Master; but as a scholar he was not productive. When a young man he wrote some Directions for Studying the English History, which were printed in the European Magazine for 1791 and in William Seward's Biographiana.
On 15 May 1766 Farmer issued from the university press proposals for printing the history of Leicester, written by Thomas Staveley; but eventually abandoned this plan. Staveley's collections, together with those of the Rev. Samuel Carte, several original manuscripts, and some engraved plates, he presented to John Nichols, who made use of them in his work Leicestershire.
In 1767 he brought out the first edition of his only published work, an Essay on the Learning of Shakspeare (Cambridge), addressed to his friend and schoolfellow, Joseph Cradock of Gumley. A second expanded edition came out in the same year. A third edition was printed at London in 1789. A fourth edition appeared at London in 1821. The essay is also in George Steevens's edition of Shakespeare 1793, in Reed's edition 1803, in Harris's edition 1812, and in Boswell's ‘Variorum,’ 1821. Farmer proposed that Shakespeare's knowledge of classical history was obtained at second hand through translations.
His library, rich in scarce tracts and old English literature, was sold in London in 1798. The catalogue extends to 379 pages, and the separate books number 8,155; it sold for £2,210. A scurrilous pamphlet, entitled ‘The Battle between Dr. Farmer and Peter Musgrave, the Cambridge Taylor, in Hudibrastic verse,’ appeared at London in 1792.
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