27. WILLIAM CONGREVE was born at Bardsey, near Leeds, in February 1669;* but, his father being a military man, and having a command in the army, which made it necessary for him to visit Ireland, he was consequently educated in the sister kingdom. After the customary grammatical discipline in the public school of Kilken- · ny, he was sent to the university of Dublin, and, having there perfected himself in classical literature, he came over to England, and was entered as a student of the law at the Middle

Temple.

He soon, however, relinquished the initiatory studies of the law for the more inviting region of the Muses; and ventured, at a very early period of life, to solicit the attention of the literary world, by the publication of a work of fancy under the title of Incognita, or Love and Duty reconciled. Vivacity and imagination are to be found in this production, but neither nature nor probability; it has deservedly, therefore, dropped into oblivion; nor was its original reception fortunately such as to encourage our young au

• Mr. Malone has, in his life of Dryden, published the entry of Congreve's baptism at Bardsey, and consequently terminated the dispute which has so long subsisted relative to the place of his birth.

thor in the prosecution of novel-writing.-In a moment truly auspicious to the lovers of the drama, he commenced his first comedy, entitled The Old Batchelor, to amuse himself, as he affirmed, in a slow recovery from a fit of sickness. "The age of the writer considered," says Johnson, "it is indeed a very wonderful performance; for, whenever written, it was acted (1693) when he was not more than twenty-one years old."* It is evident, from the entry discovered by Mr. Malone, that the Doctor has made a considerable mistake with regard to the age of the author, and which has been followed by every succeeding biographer. Congreve must have been four and twenty when the Old Batchelor was first produced upon the stage; these additional three years, however, detract little or nothing from the value of the play, which still merits the encomium of Dryden, who declared, "that he never saw such a first play in his life."

To the applause which Congreve received from the public in consequence of this dramatic effort, was added the substantial patronage of Lord Halifax, who, with a generosity highly to be praised, immediately made him a commissioner for licensing hackney coaches; and, shortly afterwards, presented him with a place

Lives of the Poets, vol. ii. p. 187.

in the Pipe-office, and another in the Customs, the annual value of which was estimated at six hundred pounds.

Thus encouraged, our author exhibited great fertility, as well as great genius, in the rapid production of his pieces. In the year 1694, appeared his Double Dealer, a comedy; in 1695, his Love for Love, a comedy; and in the year 1697, The Mourning Bride, a tragedy. Of these plays, the Double Dealer was the only one which was coldly received. The new theatre, which Betterton had built in Lincoln's-inn-fields, was very successfully opened with Love for Love; and the Mourning Bride was, if possible, more rapturously welcomed than even the effusions of the laughter-loving muse.

When Dr. Johnson asserts that Congreve "had produced these four plays before he had passed his twenty-fifth year," he is again led into an error; the poet had attained the age of twentyeight on the completion of his tragedy; they cannot, therefore, in my opinion, warrant the extraordinary encomium which the learned biographer has lavished upon them in the following sentence: Among all the efforts of early genius which literary history records, I doubt whether any one can be produced that more surpasses the

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common limits of nature than the plays of Congrevé."

Shortly after the appearance of the Mourning Bride, a most violent, and, at the same time, we are sorry to say, a justly merited, attack was made by Jeremy Collier upon the licentiousness of the English theatre. It was entitled, A short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage, and exposed, with keen wit and great warmth of indignation, the indecency and bad tendency of the comedies of Dryden, Vanbrugh, and Congreve. Dryden, though much chagrined, was prudently silent; but Vanbrugh and Congreve endeavoured to reply, and were, as ought ever to be the case in such a cause, completely defeated.

The disgust which our author felt in consequence of this exposure was greatly increased by the reception which his next comedy, called The Way of the World, experienced from the public. He had bestowed more than usual attention on the conduct and evolution of the fable and incidents of this drama; and when he found it neglected on the stage, he embraced the resolution of no longer cultivating a department of

Lives, vol. ii. p. 190.

literature so subject to the decisions of ignorance and bad taste.

The residue of life was spent by Congreve in the enjoyment of literary ease, unviolated by the contentions of party and faction. He was an object of esteem to both Whigs and Tories, the beloved friend of Steele, of Pope, of Swift; admired and caressed by the great, and almost adored by Henrietta Duchess of Marlborough, who entertained for him a regard so singular and romantic, that it appeared sometimes the consequence rather of insanity than of affection.

What greatly contributed to render Congreve an object of more than common attention and regard, was the undeviating sweetness of his temper, combined with a tasteful and elegant affluence; for, on the return of the Whigs to power, his income was increased to twelve hun. dred pounds a year, by the gift of the sinecure place of secretary to the island of Jamaica. That his manners and conversation were likewise polished and interesting, there is every reason to believe, not only from the singular attachment

⚫ Common fame reports, says Dr. Kippis, that she had his figure made in wax after his death, talked to it as if it had been alive, placed it at table with her, took great care to help it with different sorts of food, had an imaginary sore on its leg regularly dresɛed, and, to complete all, consulted physicians with relation to its health. Biographia Britannica, ed edit, vol. iv. p. 79.