ance; for, whenever written, it was acted (1693) when he was not more than twenty-one years old; and was then recommended by Mr. Dryden, Mr. Southern, and Mr. Maynwaring. Dryden faid that he never had seen fuch a first play; but they found it deficient in fome things requifite to the fuccefs of its exhibition, and by their greater experience fitted it for the ftage. Southern used to relate of one comedy, probably of this, that when Congreve read it to the players, he pronounced it fo wretchedy, that they had almoft rejected it; but they were afterwards fo well perfuaded of its excellence, that, for half a year before it was acted, the manager allowed its author the privilege of the houfe.

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 commiflioners for licensing coaches, and foon after gave him a place in the pipe-office, and another in the cuftoms of fix hundred pounds a-year. Congreve's converfation must furely 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 dramatic 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 perufal of other poets, without much actual commerce with.

mankind. The dialogue is one conftant reciprocation of conceits, or clafh of wit, in which nothing hows neceffarily from the occafion, or is dictated by nature. The characters both of men and women are either fictitious and artificial, as thofe of Heartwell, and the Ladies; or eafy and common, as Wittil a tame ideot, 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 mask.

Yet this gay comedy, when all these deductions are made, will ftill 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-inform its tenement."

Next year he gave another fpecimen of his abilities in The Double Dealer, which was not received with equal kindnefs. He writes to his patron 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 ufelefs: "de guftibus 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 thofe plays the honor of her prefence; and when the died, foon after, Congreve teftified his gratitude by a defpicable effufion of elegiac paftoral; a compofition in which all is unnatural, and yet nothing is

new.

In another year (1695) his prolific 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 faid 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 exhibited two years afterwards (1697) The Mourning Bride, a tragedy, fo written as to fhew him fufficiently qualified for either kind of dramatic poetry.

t;

In this play, of which, when he afterwards revifed it, he reduced the verfification to greater regularity, there is more bustle than fentiment the plot is bufy and intricate, and the events take hold on the attention; but, except a very few paffages, we are rather amufed with noife, and perplexed with ftratagem, than entertained with any true delineation of natural characters. This, however, was received with more benevolence than any other of his works, and ftill continues to be acted and applauded.

But whatever objections may be made either to his comic or tragic excellence, they are loft at once in the blaze of admiration, when it is remembered that he had produced thefe four plays before he had paffed his twenty-fifth year, before other men, even fuch as are fome time to fhine in eminence, have paffed their probation of literature, or prefume to hope for any other notice than fuch as is bestowed on diligence and inquiry. Among all the efforts of early genius which literary hiftory records, I doubt whether any one can be produced

that

that more furpaffes the common limits of nature than the plays of Congreve.

About this time began the long-continued controversy between Collier and the poets. In the reign of Charles the First the puritans had raised a violent clamour against the drama, which they confidered as an entertainment not lawful to Chriftians, an opinion held by them in common with the church of Rome; and Prynne published Hiftrio-maftix, a huge volume, in which ftage plays were cenfured. The outrages and crimes of the Puritans brought afterwards their whole system of doctrine into difrepute, and from the Restoration the poets and players were left at quiet; for to have molested. them would have had the appearance of tendency to puritanical malignity.

This danger, however, was worn away by time; and Collier, a fierce and implacable Non-juror, knew that an attack upon the theatre would never make him fufpected for a puritan; he therefore (1698) published A Short View of the Immorality and Prophaneness of the English Stage, I believe with no other motive than religious zeal and honeft in dignation. He was formed for a controvertist; with fufficient learning; with diction vehement and pointed, though often vulgar and incorrect; with unconquerable pertinacity; with wit in the highest degree keen and farcaftick; and with all those powers exalted and invigorated by juft confi

dence in his caufe.

Thus qualified, and thus incited, he walked out to battle, and affailed at once moft of the living writers, from Dryden to Durfey. His onfet was violent: thofe paffages, which while they ftcod.. fingle had paffed with little notice, when they

were accumulated and expofed together, excited horror; the wife and the pious caught the alarm, and the nation wondered why it had fo long fuffered irreligion and licentioufness to be openly taught at the public charge.

Nothing now remained for the poets but to refift or fly. Dryden's confcience, or his prudence, angry as he was, withheld him from the conflict: Congreve and Vanbrugh attempted answers. Congreve, a very young man, elated with fuccefs, and impatient of cenfure, affumed an air of confidence and fecurity. His chief artifice of controverfy is to retort upon his adverfary 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 Scanderberg; he has his antagonist's coarfenefs, but not his ftrength. Collier replied; for conteft was his delight, he was not to be frighted from his purpose or his prey.

The caufe of Congreve was not tenable: whatever gloffes he might ufe 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 represent pleafure in alliance with vice, and to relax thofe obligations by which life ought to be regulated.

The ftage found other advocates, and the difpute was protracted through ten years: but at last Comedy grew more modeft; and Collier lived to fee the reward of his labour in the reformation of the theatre.

Of