Thomas Humphry Ward, ed. The English Poets. 1880–1918.rnVol. III. The Eighteenth Century: Addison to Blake
William Congreve (16701729)Critical Introduction by Henry Austin Dobson
[William Congreve was born in 1670. His first comedy, The Old Bachelor, was acted in 1693. In 1694 and 1695 respectively appeared two others, The Double Dealer and Love for Love. These were followed in 1697 by the tragedy of The Mourning Bride. His last and best comedy, The Way of the World, conspicuous for its all-conquering character of ‘Millamant,’ so admirably interpreted by the beautiful Mrs. Bracegirdle, was produced in 1700. After this he practically retired from literature. His works, which include a volume of miscellaneous poems, were published in 1710. He died in 1729.]
This is beautifully and musically said. The second stanza is not so good; and in the third the charm is altogether loosed by the absurd appearance of Silence, draped in ‘a melancholy Thought,’ and insecurely seated upon ‘an ancient Sigh,’—an intrusion from which the reader barely recovers in time to recognise a strange, and we think hitherto unnoticed, anticipation of the last lines of Keats’ famous ‘last sonnet’ in the concluding couplet of the whole:—
In his songs and minor pieces Congreve is more successful, though he never reaches the level of his contemporary Prior. ‘Amoret,’ which we quote, sets a tune which has often since been heard in familiar verse; and the little song ‘False though she be to me and love’ has almost a note of genuine regret.