William Congreve

More successful in its day than The Way of the World, which is now accounted Congreve's best play, Love for Love (1695) is a comical farce manifesting the verbal polish and the theatrical wit that audiences so enjoy in Congreve. Valentine, Sir Sampson's dissolute eldest son, finds himself at a standstill; the only way out of his financial difficulties is to give in to his father's pressure to renounce his right of inheritance. While this suggestion immediately increases the chances of his bluff younger brother Ben on the marriage mart, Valentine's own chances with his beloved Angelica would proportionally decrease. To avoid having to sign the renunciation Valentine puts on an 'antic disposition' and pretends to be mad. Angelica, seeing through him, provokes him back into sanity by pretending to agree to marry his father. Valentine recovers, the lovers reunite, and Ben, too, has meanwhile found the girl of his heart

Drama Classics: The World's Great Plays at a Great Little Price A classic comedy of manners from the Restoration period. Mirabell loves the heiress Millamant and must concoct a clever plan which allows him to marry her and keep her fortune despite the vengeful wrath of her aunt, Lady Wishfort. William Congreve's The Way of the World was first performed in March 1700 at the Theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields in London. This edition, in the Nick Hern Books Drama Classics series, is edited and introduced by Trevor Griffiths. The Way of the World is a set text for AQA A/AS Level English Literature and EdExcel A/AS Level English Literature.

The Way of the World is centred on the two lovers Mirabell and Millamant. For them to marry and receive Millamant's full dowry, Mirabell must receive the blessing of Millamant's aunt, Lady Wishfort. Unfortunately, Lady Wishfort is a very bitter lady who despises Mirabell and wants her own nephew, Sir Wilfull, to wed Millamant. Another character, Fainall, is having a secret affair with Mrs. Marwood, a friend of Mrs. Fainall's, who in turn once had an affair with Mirabell. In the meantime, Mirabell's servant is married to Foible, Lady Wishfort's servant. Waitwell pretends to be Sir Rowland and, on Mirabell's command, tries to trick Lady Wishfort into a false engagement.

The career of William Congreve as comic dramatist was brief but highly successful. From the beginning he showed a useful knack for cultivating influential literary friends and for giving audiences what they were sure to like. Early in 1693, his first comedy, The Old Batchelour, pleased the public at Drury Lane, and critics hailed the appearance of a new talent in the theatre who gave a sharp edge to the theatrical conventions at the time. Much was expected of Congreve's second offering, The Double Dealer, mounted later the same year. Its surprisingly bitter tone disconcerted many listeners, however, and the play drew only moderate praise. But this setback proved temporary, and Congreve found his reputation regained with Love for Love, and in 1700 his finest comedy of manners The Way of the World. After this he wrote no more comedies. Aware of changing tastes in his audience, and annoyed by critical squabbles over the question of morality in his plays, he retired at the age of thirty to the life of a gentleman of leisure.

"A woman who is not a fool can have but one reason for associating with a man that is," says Mirabell, the amorous hero of The Way of the World. His cleverness must overcome his own foolishness as he tries to extricate himself from one affair in order to pursue another. His new passion is inspired by Mrs. Millimant, who confides, "I love to give pain." First performed in 1700, The Way of the World has since earned a reputation as a play for connoisseurs, a satire whose every word pricks or scratches. Its portrayal of the petty intrigues and duplicity of genteel society spares neither coquette nor rascal.