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10 WILLIAM CONGREVE
The muse of Congreve appeared during this period of
transition. His comedies are happily lacking in the gross
indecency of Etherege and Wycherley, yet compared with
those of his successors in the earlier half of the eighteenth
century their lax and dissolute character is plainly visible.
Still they occupy, and deservedly occupy, a prominent place
on the shelves of English literature, and their author rightly
fills his niche in the temple of fame. His wit, apparent in
every line of his dialogue, is brilliant and trenchant in the
extreme; indeed he is the most polished and mordant master
of dialogue in our language. Dialogue is so woven into the
texture of his plays that if we try to separate it for the sake
of better understanding the story, the whole falls to pieces.
Plot, probability, the progress of events, the interest attached
to the motives and movements of individuals are all secondary,
sometimes even sacrificed, to the setting of the conversation.
In the construction of plot Congreve is either careless
or so elaborate as to weary us with unnecessary details; but
it is evident that, provided his characters talk their very best,
he is indifferent to the causes which bring them into action.
Hence it is that, with the exception of Love for Love, his
comedies arc better to read than to act. He is more the
dramatist of the library than of the stage. As a painter of
contemporary life and manners, studied from the vantage
point of fashion, he has no equal.
The whole of Congreve's plays are included in the present
volume, and for the first time they have been annotated.
Macaulay's brilliant account of Congreve's career is well
known; it would, however, be difficult to improve upon it,
and, with some additional notes, it has been used as an
introduction to this edition.
A. C. E.