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THE Mourning Bride is the only tragedy that issued from the
pen of Congreve, and he cannot be congratulated upon his effort.
The author is essentially a painter of contemporary life and manners,
and when he treads upon the classic ground of historical
drama his grace and lightness of step desert him. Instead of the
wit and epigram of his comedies we have here dialogue which
is turgid and bombastic, a plot not uninteresting, but lacking in
probability, and love scenes too artificial to be infused with real
passion, and which consequently fail to move us. It is one of
those plays which reads better than it acts. In this play several
couplets, which have since become proverbial, are to be met with.
It was produced in 1697, and at once became a favourite, though
it has long since been banished from the stage.
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