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after having paffed through the usual preparatory ftudies, as may be reasonably fuppofed great celerity and fuccefs, his father thought it proper to affign him a profeffion, by which something might be gotten; and about the time of the Revolution fent him, at the age of fixteen, to ftudy law in the Middle Temple, where he lived for several years, but with very little attention to Statutes or Reports.

His difpofition to become an author appeared very early, as he very early felt that force of imagination, and poffeffed that copiousness of sentiment, by which intellectual pleasure can be given. His first performance was a novel, called Incognita, or Love and Duty reconciled: It is praifed by the biographers, who quote fome part of the preface, that is indeed, for fuch a time of life, uncommonly judicious. I would rather praise it than read it.

His firft dramatick labour was the Old Batchelor; of which he fays, in his defence against Collier," that comedy was written, feveral know, fome years before it

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was acted. When I wrote it, I had little 66 thoughts of the ftage; but did it, to amufe myself, in a flow recovery from a fit of "fickness. Afterwards through my indif "cretion it was feen, and in fome little time

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more it was acted; and I, through the re"mainder of my indifcretion, fuffered myself "to be drawn in, to the profecution of a "difficult and thanklefs ftudy, and to be in"volved in a perpetual war with knaves and "fools."

There seems to be a ftrange affectation in authors of appearing to have done every thing by chance. The Old Batchelor was written for amusement, in the languor of convalefcence. Yet it is apparently compofed with great elaboratenefs of dialogue, and inceffant ambition of wit. The age of the writer confidered, it is indeed a very wonderful performance; for, whenever written, it was acted (1693) when he was not more than twenty-one years old; and was then recommended by Mr. Dryden, Mr. Southern, and Mr. Maynwaring. Dryden said that he never had seen fuch a firft play; but they found it deficient in fome things requifite to

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the fuccefs of its exhibition, and by their greater experience fitted it for the stage. Southern used to relate of one comedy, probably of this, that when Congreve read it to the players, he pronounced it fo wretchedly that they had almoft rejected it; but they were afterwards fo well perfuaded of its excellence, that, for half a year before it was acted, the manager allowed its author the privilege of the house.

Few plays have ever been fo beneficial to the writer; for it procured him the patronage. of Halifax, who immediately made him one of the commiffioners for licensing coaches, and foon after gave him a place in the pipeoffice, and another in the customs of fix hundred pounds a year. Congreve's converfation. must furely have been at least equally pleafing with his writings.

Such a comedy, written at such an age, requires fome confideration. As the lighter fpecies of dramatick poetry profeffes the imitation of common life, of real manners, and daily incidents, it apparently prefuppofes a familiar knowledge of many characters, and

VOL. III.

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exact obfervation of the paffing world; the difficulty therefore is, to conceive how this knowledge can be obtained by a boy.

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But if the Old Batchelor be more nearly examined, it will be found to be one of thofe comedies which may be made by a mind vigorous and acute, and furnished with comick characters by the perufal of other poets, without much actual commerce with mankind. The dialogue is one conftant reciprocation of conceits, or clafh of wit, in which nothing flows neceffarily from the occafion, or is dictated by nature. The cha-' racters both of men and women are either fictitious and artificial, as thofe of Heartwell and the Ladies; or eafy and common, as Wittol a tame idiot, Bluff a swaggering coward, and Fondlewife a jealous puritan; and the catastrophe arifes from a mistake not very. probably produced, by marrying a woman in a mask.

Yet this gay comedy, when all thefe deductions are made, will ftill remain the work of a very powerful and fertile mind: the dialogue is quick and sparkling, the incidents

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fuch as feize the attention, and the wit fo exuberant that it d'er-informs its tenement.

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Next year he gave another fpecimen of his abilities in The Double Dealer, which was not received with equal kindnefs. He writes to his patron the lord Halifax a dedication, in which he endeavours to reconcile the reader to that which found few friends among the audience. Thefe apologies are always uselefs; de guftibus non eft difputandum; men may be convinced, but they cannot be pleased, against their will. But though taste is obftinate, it is very variable, and time often prevails when arguments have failed.

Queen Mary conferred upon both thofe plays the honour of her prefence; and when fhe died, foon after, Congreve teftified his gratitude by a despicable effufion of elegiac paftoral; a compofition in which all is unnatural, and yet nothing is new.

In another year (1695) his prolific pen produced Love for Love; a comedy of nearer alliance to life, and exhibiting more real manners, than either of the former. The

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