William Congreve as a dramatist

William Congreve’s life

William Congreve was born in February, 1670, in a good

Staffordshire family seated at a place whence it took its name, at

a house in Bardsey, Yorkshire, near Leeds (the house belonged

to his mother’s uncle ). Congreve’s father was an army officer,

posted at youghal in Ireland, commanding a garrison there. He

later joined the Earl of Cork to become the agent of his estates.

Understandably Congreve was educated in Ireland. First he went

to Kilkenny school the best grammar School, and later to Trinity

College, Dublin, form where he took M.A. sgree. At both these

institution, Jonathan Swift was his senior by two years and they

were intimate friends. From Trinity College, Dublin, Congreve

went to Middle Temple, London to study law. But he was not

interested in a career in law. He soon turned to literatrure and

began his career with publication of a prose romance ‘ Incognita

or Love and Duty Reconciled’ under the pseudonym Cleophil, in

the year 1692.

William Congreve enjoyed fame and wielded considerable

influence during his life-time he was in affluent circumstances.

He was very popular and his friendships were very warm and

constant besides being numerous. Dryden and Swift loved and

patronized him. He was singled out by Pope for the signal

honour of dedicating his translation of ‘Iliad’ to him. Similarly

Richard Steele also dedicated his edition of Addison’s The

Drummer to Congreve.

His work

Contrive wrote FOUR comedies and one tragedy:

Comedies:

The Old Bachelor 1690

The Double dealer 1693

Love for Love 1695

Thy Way of the World 1700

Tragedy :

The Mourning Bride 1697

COMEDIES

Congreve’s four comedies advance with a singularly even and

rapid progression.

‘THE OLD BACHELOR’

It was written by Congreve to amuse himself during his

convalescence in 1690 but it was staged in 1693. This play is not

much better than Wycherley’s. its hero ( not the title hero) ,

Vainlove, is, with a young man’s exaggeation, made to out do

all the other heroes from Dorimant downward, whom he copies,

in loveless and joyless debauchery. Its plot is indifferent and it is

written under the influence of Ben Jonson.

‘THE DOUBLE DEALER’

Encouraged by the warm reception and success of this first play

The Old Bachelor, Congreve produced this play the same year,

1693. This play was better than The Bachelor although it could

not get the applause due to it. This play was saved from disaster

by the generous praise of john Dryden and by the patronage of

the Queen.

Love for Love

Love for Love, was Congreve’s nest play Congreve was gaining

in confidence, and was also maturing as a dramatist of great

power. This play was staged at the New Theatre, in Lincoln’s

Inn Fields in April, 1695. It was a grand success and Congreve

became on of the managers of the New Theatre. Many critics

consider love for love as Congreve’s masterpiece. The plot is

compact and well-defined; characters are natural and interesting;

and dialogues are scintillating.

‘THE WAY OF THE WORLD’

This play ushered in the new century for it was staged in the

year 1700 and was a failure with the audience , this is the last

and perhaps the most highly esteemed of Congreve’s plays

today. Smarting with disappointment, Congreve abruptly gave

up his dramatic writing.

In the way of world, in some points Congreve returns to the

mixed and semi-tragic, or at least serious, cast of The Double

Dealer. it is a better-knit play than love for love, and contains

Millamant , the coquettish heroine, the queen of all her kind.

Congreve has indeed borrowed the lay figure for her – and

something more- from and excellent paly which nobody reads.

Dryden’s ‘Marriage a la Mode’ but he has given her a tenfold

portion of air ad fire, and indeed left nothing to be done the

same direction. Lady Wishfort, too, is another masterly

personage, and the more sinister figures of fainall and Mrs.

Marwood are full of power , which indeed, in one way or

another, few of the characters lack. What one of them lack is

wit, the mere writing of the play being better than that of love

for love itself.

WILLIAM CONGREVE- THE ARTIST

Congreve is , of course, above all , a master of comedy. In

construction and grasp of character, Congreve improved steadily

with each succeeding play. But it must be said to the credit of

Congreve that from the very first he exhibited himself as a

master of light and witty dialogue . it was there that Congreve’s

greatness and strength lay.

The construction of The Double Dealer is greatly superior to that

of The old Bachelor, and the Dialogue is rich in happy conceits,

but the characterization is of small account. It is merely a peg

for the author’s wit.

Love for love is on a higher plane. Here within well-defined

limits, many of the characters have vitality and distinctiveness.

The surly-tempered Sir Samson Legend, the fine-natured

youthful Valentine, the pretentious impostor, astrologer, and

palmist, foresight, are acutely observed and admirably

portrayed. There is a farcical strain in the story, less happy in

invention, but the play as a whole deserves much of the

tremendous praise poured upon it by John Dryden.

In the way of the world we find Congreve at his happiest.

Construction, characterization, dialogue are alike brilliant. The

story scarcely matters. There is never much resemblance to real

life in the plots and machinations of the Restoration Drama. This

play is no exception in this respect. But such scenes as those

where reputations are murdered by gossip, such characters as

Mrs. Millamant and Mirabell, such flashes of witr in the talk

between Mrs. Marwood and Mrs. Millamant- or for the matter of

that any scene where Mrs. Millamant is to the fore- reveal the

Restoration Drama at its highest point.

Congreve is master of dialogue. He is clever, ingenious, brilliant

and he reveals the finer shades of character. He has not much to

do with the mechanical construction of a plot. At times he puts

together several episodes, and sometimes they remain separate.

It is by interlocking of dialogues that they are brought into

relation. It is the dialogue which is of the vital importance, the

connecting link, in the whole drama. The whole drift of the play,

the conic tone and spirit are imparted through dialogue.

William Congreve – his style

In his famous ‘ Lectures on the English Comic writers’, William

Hazlitt observes, “ his style is inimitable, very perfect. It is the

highest model of comic dialogue. Every sentence is replete with

sense and satire conveyed in the most polished and pointed

terms. Every page presents a shower of brilliant conceits, is a

tissue in prose, is a new triumph of wit, a new conquest over

dullness.

It bears every mark of being what he himself, in dedication to

one of his plays , tells us that it was a spirited copy taken off and

carefully revised from the most select society of his time,

exhibiting all the sprightliness, care and animation of familiar

conversation, with the correctness and delicacy of most finished

composition. ..

As we look at William Congreve’s language in order to study

his STYLE we notice that much of his language (like the

language of other Restoration Age dramatists) is borrowed from

real life, and possesses the charm of the ordinary speech turned

rhetorical. It is simple and direct. The real beauty and power of

his language lie in its concision, lucidity, economy and

brilliance.

About William Congreve’s style George Meredith writes:

“….. [ Congreve ] hits the mean of a fine style and a natural

dialogue. He is, at once, precise and voluble.” And at another

place he observes:

“Where Congreve excels all his English rivals in his literary

force, and a succinctness of style peculiar to him. He had correct

judgment, a correct ear, readiness of illustration within a narrow

range, in snapshots of the obvious, at the obvious and copious

language…. If you have ever thought upon style you will

acknowledge it to be a single achievement. In this he is a classic

and is worthy of treading a measure with Moliere.”

William Congreve was a genius. Yes, it was stroke of genius

that he chose to use prose in preference to the Heroic couplet for

his comedy. Congreve’s prose is poetic, marked, like poetry, by

shifting cadence , by sound echoing sense, by balance and

antithesis and by melodic rhythm. His wit is exquisite,

unmatched and it tempered his style. There is no sense strain , so

fluid and easy elegant. The signal achievement of Congreve is

his dialogue.

Congreve’s style is non-metaphoric but sometimes it (in

comparisons, mainly) has the power and effect of metaphor. His

language is not concerned with the immediate and sensory world

of experience. It is clear, rational and logical. Shakespeare’s

language is the language of literature while that of Congreve is

the language of logic.

Conclusion

William Congreve is undeniably a great writer whose worth is

acknowledged and recognized by such great masters as Haztitt,

Macaulay and Meredith. Congreve’s greatness as a dramatist

lies in the completeness of his vision. In the vision of a very

shallow world, he has an exquisite accuracy in depiction its

values. His words shone like diamonds in the witty setting of his

dialogues. He had the eye to discern the real potential of words

and sounds and exploited them to the full to make his prose what

is really is. The source of Congreve’s imagery are vast and

varied from life, literature, birds and animals trees and fruits ,

nature , music , love etc. Congreve is a great comic artist. The

way of the world possesses wit, humour art , vivacity and it is

equal to the best comedies. Denis says “ comedy left it with

him” when Congreve left the stage.