I will
only call him Mr. Collier, and that I will call him as often as I
think he shall deserve it.

"The corruption of a rotten divine is the generation of a sour
critic."

"Congreve," says Dr. Johnson, "a very young man, elated with
success, and impatient of censure, assumed an air of confidence and
security.... The dispute was protracted through two years; but at
last Comedy grew more modest, and Collier lived to see the reward of
his labours in the reformation of the theatre."--_Life of Congreve._

69 The scene of Valentine's pretended madness in _Love for Love_ is a
splendid specimen of Congreve's daring manner:--

_Scandal._--And have you given your master a hint of their plot upon
him?

_Jeremy._--Yes, Sir; he says he'll favour it, and mistake her for
_Angelica_.

_Scandal._--It may make us sport.

_Foresight._--Mercy on us!

_Valentine._--Husht--interrupt me not--I'll whisper predictions to
thee, and thou shalt prophesie;--I am truth, and can teach thy tongue
a new trick,--I have told thee what's passed--now I'll tell what's to
come:--Dost thou know what will happen to-morrow? Answer me not--for I
will tell thee. To-morrow knaves will thrive thro' craft, and fools
thro' fortune; and honesty will go as it did, frost-nipt in a summer
suit. Ask me questions concerning tomorrow.

_Scandal._--Ask him, _Mr. Foresight_.

_Foresight._--Pray what will be done at Court?

_Valentine._--_Scandal_ will tell you;--I am truth, I never come
there.

_Foresight._--In the city?

_Valentine._--Oh, prayers will be said in empty churches at the usual
hours. Yet you will see such zealous faces behind counters, as if
religion were to be sold in every shop. Oh, things will go
methodically in the city, the clocks will strike twelve at noon, and
the horn'd herd buzz in the Exchange at two. Husbands and wives will
drive distinct trades, and care and pleasure separately occupy the
family. Coffee-houses will be full of smoke and stratagem. And the
cropt prentice that sweeps his master's shop in the morning, may,
ten to one, dirty his sheets before night. But there are two things,
that you will see very strange; which are, wanton wives with their
legs at liberty, and tame cuckolds with chains a