"veffel long retains the fcent which it first receives." In his private relaxation he revived the tavern, and in his amorous pedantry he exhibited the college. But on higher occafions and nobler fubjects, when 'habit was overpowered by the neceffity of reflection, he wanted not wisdom as a statefimen, or elegance as a poet.

CON

CONGREV E.

WILLIAM

ILLIAM CONGREVE defcended from a family in Staffordshire, of fo great antiquity that it claims a place among the few that extend their line beyond the Norman Conqueft; and was the fon of William Congreve, fecond son of Richard Congreve of Congreve and Stratton. He vifited, once at least, the refidence of his ancestors; and, I believe, more places than one are still fhewn, in groves and gardens, where he is related to have writ ten his Old Batchelor.

Neither the time nor place of his birth are certainly known; if the infcription upon his monument be true, he was born in 1672. For the place; it was faid by himself, that he owed his nativity to England, and by every body elfe that he was born in Ireland. Southern mentioned him with fharp cenfure, as a man that meanly disowned his native country. The biographers affigned his nativity to Bardfa, near Leeds in Yorkshire, from the account given by himself, as they fuppofe, to Jacob.

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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 licenfing coaches, and foon after gave him a place in the pipe-office, and another in the customs of fix hundred pounds a year. Congreve's converfation must surely have been at least equally pleafing with his writings.

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

But if The Old Batchelor be more nearly examined, it will be found to be one of those comedies which may be made by a mind vigorous and acute, and furnished with comick characters by the perusal 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 characters both of men and women are either fictitious and artificial, as those of Heartwell and the Ladies; or eafy and common, as Wittol a tame idiot, Bluff a fwaggering coward, and Fondlewife a jealous puritan; and the catastrophe arifes from a mistake not very probably produced, by marrying a woman in a mafls.

Yet

Yet this gay comedy, when all these deductions are made, will still remain the work of very powerful and fertile faculties: the dialogue is quick and fparkling, the incidents fuch as feize the attention, and the wit fo exuberant that it " o'er-informs its tene"ment."

Next year he gave another fpecimen of his abilities in The Double Dealer, which was not received with equal kindness. 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 useless: "de gustibus non eft difputandum;" men may be convinced, but they cannot be pleased, against their will. But though tafte is obftinate, it is very variable, and time often prevails when arguments have failed.

Queen Mary conferred upon both those plays the honour of her prefence; and when he 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 prolifick pen produced Love for Love; a comedy of nearer alliance to life, and exhibiting more real manners, than either of the former. The character of Forefight was then common. Dryden calculated nativities; both Cromwell and king William had their lucky days; and Shaftesbury himself, though he had no religion, was said to regard predictions. The Sailor is not accounted very natural, but he is very pleasant.

With this play was opened the New Theatre, under the direction of Betterton the tragedian; where

he

a very young man, elated with fuccefs, and impatient of cenfure, affumed an air of confidence and fecurity. His chief art of controverfy is to retort upon his adversary his own words: he is very angry, and, hoping to conquer Collier with his own weapons, allows himself in the use of every term of contumely and contempt; but he has the fword without the arm of Scanderbeg; he has his antagonist's coarseness, but not his ftrength. Collier replied; for conteft was his delight, he was not to be frighted from his purpose or his prey.

The cause of Congreve was not tenable; whatever gloffes he might use for the defence or palliation of fingle paffages, the general tenour and tendency of his plays muft always be condemned. It is acknowledged, with univerfal conviction, that the perufal of his works will make no man better; and that their ultimate effect is to reprefent pleasure in alliance with vice, and to relax thofe obligations by which life ought to be regulated.

The stage found other advocates, and the difpute was protracted through ten years: but at laft Comedy grew more modeft; and Collier lived to fee the reformation of the theatre.

Of the powers by which this important victory was atchieved, a quotation from Love for Love, and the remark upon it, may afford a specimen :

66

66

Sir Sampf. Sampfon's a very good name; for your Sampfons were ftrong dogs from the begin"ning."

Angel. "Have a care-If you remember, the ftrongest Sampfon of your name pull'd an old "houfe over his head at laft."

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