William Congreve

Born 24 January 1670, Bardsey, Yorkshire, England. Died 19 January 1729, London. Restoration playwright.

Life

In 1674 Congreve's father joined the garrison at Youghal, in Ireland and so the family moved to Carrickfergus, where Congreve, was sent to school at Kilkenny (the Eton of Ireland) in 1681. Five years later, he entered Trinity College, Dublin. In 1690 Congreve's father became estate agent to the earl of Cork and in the following year, Congreve became a law student at the Middle Temple and started writing and publishing. He rose to some fame instantly and thus the great John Dryden made him his protégé. They even published a translation of the satires of Juvenal and Persius together. In early 1693 Congreve’s production The Old Bachelour at the Theatre Royal in Drury Lane earned him some respect. Congreve claimed to have composed this play to amuse himself during convalescence. In 1695 he became a manager of the new theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields. When Congreve's masterpiece The Way of the World failed to be successful in 1700, he refrained from writing plays. But he did not, desert the stage entirely, writing librettos for operas and collaborating on a translation of Molière's Monsieur de Pourceaugnac in 1704. Due to his substantial income Congreve was able to pass the rest of his life quietly. His interest for the stage probably decreased because of his plays failing and due to the so-called Collier-attack, which was launched against him by Jeremy Collier, criticizing the immorality of the Restoration stage. Congreve is also notorious for his affairs with several women. He finally died after a carriage accident in 1729.

Works

Drama

Congreve's comedies are similar to George Etherege's comedies of manner. But being born after the Restoration William Congreve belongs to the second generation of writers, together with Richard Steele, and not like Etherege to the Carolean dramatists. He is famous for his Comedy of manners, treating mainly themes such as the manners and behavior of the upper class to which it was addressed, i.e. the antipuritanical theatre audience. It dealt with imitators of French customs, conceited wits, and fantastics of all kind. Its major theme, however, was the liberal and experimental sexual life of many courtiers. Congreve's first play The Old Bachelour (1693) was an enormous success, running for the then unprecedented length of a fortnight and commended even by John Dryden. Congreve's following play, The Double-Dealer, played in the same year at the Drury Lane Theatre but unfortunately it was not very successful. As opposed to this, Love for Love, which was first performed in 1695, was almost as successful as his first play. It was also the first production being staged in the new theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, opening after several crises in the old Theatre Royal. Congreve had promised to write one play a year for the Lincoln's Inn theatre but failed to do so and thus his next play The Mourning Bride was only performed in 1697. Nowadays his tragedies are his least regarded drama, however, during the Restoration they were his most famous plays. In March 1700, Congreve's The Way of the World was staged and failed to be successful. Its failure is often attributed to the complexity of the plot, which ropes around the lovers Mirabell and Millamant who have to overcome several difficulties in order to marry and secure Millamant's substantial inheritance.

Poetry

In 1695 Congreve turned to writing poetry, such as his pastoral on the death of Queen Mary II and his Pindarique Ode, Humbly Offer'd to the King on his taking Namure and several poems. The volume containing these odes also contained his Discourse on the Pindarique Ode (1706) and brought some order to a form that had become very unrestrained since the days of the poet Abraham Cowley.

Sources

Corman, Brian. “Comedy” in The Cambridge Companion to English Restoration Theatre. Ed. D. Payne Fisk. Cambridge: CUP, 2003.
Korninger, Siegfried. The Restoration Period and the Eighteenth Century. 1660 – 1780. München: Österreichischer Bundesverlag Wien, 1964.
"Congreve, William." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online. 22 May 2009 <http://www.search.eb.com/eb/article-1477>.