Library of the world's best literature, ancient and modern . s not interesting, but the play is cele-brated for its witty and eloquent dialogue. which even Sheridan did not surpass; it has a lightness which noth-ing that preceded it had equaled. The characters are not very ori-ginal, yet it has variety and diverting action. Returning now to his rival ambition, that of achieving social suc-cess, Congreve pretended that he had merely ** scribbled a few scenesfor his own amusement,** and had yielded unwillingly to his friendsdesire to try his fortune on the stage. But in 1694 he brought outhis se
Library of the world's best literature, ancient and modern . s not interesting, but the play is cele-brated for its witty and eloquent dialogue. which even Sheridan did not surpass; it has a lightness which noth-ing that preceded it had equaled. The characters are not very ori-ginal, yet it has variety and diverting action. Returning now to his rival ambition, that of achieving social suc-cess, Congreve pretended that he had merely ** scribbled a few scenesfor his own amusement,** and had yielded unwillingly to his friendsdesire to try his fortune on the stage. But in 1694 he brought outhis second play, < The Double Dealer. It was not a favorite, thoughin it all the powers which made a success of were present, mellowed and improved by time. The dialogue is lightand natural; but the grim and offensive characters of Maskwell andLady Touchwood disgusted even an audience of the seventeenth cen-tury. Dryden, however, wrote a most ingenious piece of commenda-tory verse for the play; gradually the public came to his way of. COXGRKVF. 3946 WILLIAM CONGREVE thinking; and when, the next year, < Love for Love * appeared, it wassaid that scarcely any comedy within the memory of the oldest manhad been equally successful. This play was the triumph of his art;and it won Congreve a share in the theatre in which it was played, — the new theatre which Betterton and others had opened near Lin-colns Inn. Jeremy, the gentlemans gentleman, is delightfully witty, — he has the seeds of rhetoric and logic in his head,** — and Valen-tines mock inadness is amusing; but as Sir Sampson remarks of him,Body o me, he talks sensibly in his madness! has he no inter-vals ? ** Jeremy replies, Very short, sir. ** In about two years Congreve produced ^The Mourning Bride,* atragedy which was over-lauded, but stands high among the dramasof the century. It ranks with Otways * Venice Preserved * and * TheFair Penitent.* A noble passage describing the temple, in Act ii.,Scene 3, was ext
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