Dept. of English, RNLKWC--SEM- II—HCC3—The Way of the World—Part 2 (SUPROMIT MAITI) The Department of English RAJA N.L. KHAN WOMEN’S COLLEGE (AUTONOMOUS) Midnapore, West Bengal Course material- 2 on The Way of the World (The author and his works) For English Hons. Semester- II Paper- HCC3 (British Literature: 18th Century) Prepared by SUPROMIT MAITI Faculty, Department of English, Raja N.L. Khan Women’s College (Autonomous) Prepared by: Supromit Maiti. April, 2020 1 Dept. of English, RNLKWC--SEM- II—HCC3—The Way of the World—Part 2 (SUPROMIT MAITI) The Way of the World The realm of Restoration comedy that featured wit, concise prose and précised dialogues reached excellence in the distinguished hand of William Congreve. The dramas, penned down by Congreve, did a thorough justice to the features of Restoration Comedy of Manners, and a close reading of his plays would arm the readers to understand and appreciate the artistic nuances of this new comedy. The way William Congreve lived his life Born on 24th January, 1670 in Bardsey near Leeds, William Congreve moved with his parents, Colonel William Congreve and Mary Browning, who had a good reputation, first to London in 1672 and finally settled in Ireland. Congreve was admitted in Kilkenny School where he got the company of Jonathan Swift. Later he was educated in Trinity College, Dublin. Afterwards, he decided to study law and moved to London to pursue the same in Middle Temple. However, it was not too late when he listened to his heart’s Prepared by: Supromit Maiti. April, 2020 2 Dept. of English, RNLKWC--SEM- II—HCC3—The Way of the World—Part 2 (SUPROMIT MAITI) murmur and deserted law school to choose literature and aspired to live a life of glory and fame. Congreve started framing stories at a very young age and clearly found pleasure in it. He published his first composition Incognita: or, Love and Duty Reconcil’d in 1692 under the pseudonym of Cleophil. This composition paved the path to step into the contemporary literary scenario and made the subsequent walk a smoother one. During those days, he attended various gatherings of literary figures assembled and mingled with the upper aristocracy in parties and balls. On one such gathering, at Will’s Coffeehouse, he was introduced to John Dryden who guided and favoured him throughout his life, which, I (SM) feel, was the best thing that could have happened to him at that stage. Dryden even scribbled down complementary introductions for the literary pieces produced by a young Congreve. Any individual with a brilliant imagination could only wonder about the brilliant tete-a-tetes that could have transpired between the two. Those gatherings also offered Congreve a chance to come in close acquaintance with Lady Elizabeth Hastings who was a significant part of London’s intelligentsia and was known widely. The city of London witnessed the first play by Congreve, The Old Bachelor in 1693. It was considered a success and lingered on stage for two weeks, but was not thoroughly true to the restoration mode. Blending farce satire and Jonsonian humour make it as much Elizabethan too. Dryden called it a brilliant first piece and hailed Congreve as the rising star and considered him the greatest writer of the species of comedy. To believe the critics, the play was bright and easy but confused in action. In the same year, Congreve staged his second play, The Double Dealer which didn’t enjoy success as its predecessor. Love for Love, the third production of Congreve came on stage in 1695 and was appreciated by one and all. To believe the popular sayings, its plot was the best one that Congreve devised among his plays. After this production, Congreve became one of the managers of Lincoln’s Inn Fields. The Prepared by: Supromit Maiti. April, 2020 3 Dept. of English, RNLKWC--SEM- II—HCC3—The Way of the World—Part 2 (SUPROMIT MAITI) spectators of London got to experience Congreve’s command on tragedy with the premiere of The Morning Bride in 1697. It was instantly considered a masterpiece, according to the taste of the time and it held stage for many years. However, if the corpus of Congreve’s work is concerned, The Morning Bride appears to be the least referred. Three years later, in 1700, Congreve’s most notable play, The Way of the World, was staged at the theatre in Lincoln’s Inn Fields. It was a failure on the stage at that time but, centuries later, here we are, taking up a copy of it in a post-colonial classroom and appreciating Congreve while having a real laugh. There could be very little doubt that this was arguably the best play produced by Congreve and is the most discussed and read text among his plays. It would not be an over the top statement if we argues that this play has, perhaps, the most important role to play in immortalizing Congreve’s reputation as a playwright in the English literary scene. David Daiches went on to call it Congreve’s “last and finest comedy.” One of the representative figures of Restoration comedy of manners, his plays provides a faithful reflection of the upper-class life with all its fopperies ad hypocrisies. The way he appropriated the use of wit and humour in his plays has a major say in his use of language that saved undoubted immorality from being objectionable. In his plays, he employs a self-satisfied corruption and basks in the elegance of it. Congreve’s career as a playwright, unfortunately, was a brief one. He contributed only five creations to the genre of drama. This was partly due to the changes in the taste of the time, when comedy of manners were gradually losing its popularity and the licentiousness it had to offer was too much to take for the audience of the contemporary theatre. The spectators, somehow, started detesting the form of Comedy of Manners which Congreve mastered. The another cause could be the stern criticism of Jeremy Collier in A Short View of the Immortality and Profaneness of the English stage which affected Congreve to such extent that he wrote a long reply Amendments of Mr. Collier’s Prepared by: Supromit Maiti. April, 2020 4 Dept. of English, RNLKWC--SEM- II—HCC3—The Way of the World—Part 2 (SUPROMIT MAITI) False and Imperfect Citations. Although Congreve ceased to be a playwright but he continued to practice the art of writing. In the latter half of his life, Congreve became a common name in the sphere of politics. He was a member of Whig Kit-Kat Club and spent the rest of the life as a popular society gentleman while government secured his bread and butter by providing him generous pensions. Congreve’s literary output, after 1700, restricted itself to occasional poems and and attempting translations of popular works of Homer, Juvenal, Moliere, Ovid and Horace. Congreve’s translation of Moliere’s Monsieur de Pourceaugnac is a notable one that had enjoyed popularity. To talk about his personal life, Congreve was never married, though he was famous for his friendships with popular actresses and noblewomen. Congreve shared a celebrated friendship with Henrietta Godolphin, 2nd Duchess of Marlborough who was also the daughter of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough. Congreve met a carriage accident in September, 1728 from which he didn’t recover due to an internal injury. He passed away in January, 1729, perhaps worrying about the ways of the world, and was buried in Poets’ Corner in Westminster Abbey. Prepared by: Supromit Maiti. April, 2020 5 Dept. of English, RNLKWC--SEM- II—HCC3—The Way of the World—Part 2 (SUPROMIT MAITI) References and suggestions for further reading Baker, Roger. Drag: A History of Female Impersonation in The Performing Arts. New York City: NYU Press, 1994. Bisaria, Subhash ed. William Congreve: The Way of the World, New Delhi: Educational Publishers, 2014 Daiches, David. A Critical History of English Literature, Vol. II, New Delhi: Supernova Publishers, 2014 Sengupta, Kajal ed. William Congreve: The Way of the World, New Delhi: Oxford University Press, 2011 http://www.cliffnotes.com/litrature/w/the-way-of-the-world/character-analysis, Accessed on 22.04.2020 *Note: The following parts of the module will be uploaded soon. P.S.: Along with this material that I have prepared, I am also attaching Susan J. Rosowski’s essay, “Thematic Development in the Comedies of William Congreve: The Individual Society”, which, I believe, is supposed to be very useful. Prepared by: Supromit Maiti. April, 2020 6 Rice University Thematic Development in the Comedies of William Congreve: The Individual in Society Author(s): Susan J. Rosowski Source: Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900, Vol. 16, No. 3, Restoration and Eighteenth Century (Summer, 1976), pp. 387-406 Published by: Rice University Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/449722 Accessed: 23-04-2020 11:58 UTC JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at https://about.jstor.org/terms Rice University is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900 This content downloaded from 157.43.170.101 on Thu, 23 Apr 2020 11:58:01 UTC All use subject to https://about.jstor.org/terms Thematic Development in the Comedies of William Congreve: The Individual in Society* SUSAN J.