e jealous; for I must not love you; therefore don't hope; but don't
despair neither. They're coming; I _must_ fly.--_The Double Dealer_,
act II, scene v, page 156.

70 "There seems to be a strange affectation in authors of appearing to
have done everything by chance. _The Old Bachelor_ was written for
amusement in the languor of convalescence. Yet it is apparently
composed with great elaborateness of dialogue, and incessant
ambition of wit."--JOHNSON, _Lives of the Poets_.

71 "Among those by whom it ('Will's') was frequented, Southerne and
Congreve were principally distinguished by Dryden's friendship....
But Congreve seems to have gained yet farther than Southerne upon
Dryden's friendship. He was introduced to him by his first play, the
celebrated _Old Bachelor_ being put into the poet's hands to be
revised. Dryden, after making a few alterations to fit it for the
stage, returned it to the author with the high and just
commendation, that it was the best first play he had ever
seen."--SCOTT'S _Dryden_, vol. i, p. 370.

72 It was in Surrey Street, Strand (where he afterwards died), that
Voltaire visited him, in the decline of his life.

The anecdote in the text, relating to his saying that he wished "to
be visited on no other footing than as a gentleman who led a life of
plainness and simplicity", is common to all writers on the subject
of Congreve, and appears in the English version of Voltaire's
_Letters concerning the English Nation_, published in London, 1733,
as also in Goldsmith's _Memoir of Voltaire_. But it is worthy of
remark, that it does not appear in the text of the same Letters in
the edition of Voltaire's _OEuvres Completes_ in the _Pantheon
Litteraire_, Vol. v. of his works. (Paris, 1837.)

"Celui de tous les Anglais qui a porte le plus loin la gloire du
theatre comique est feu M. Congreve. Il n'a fait que peu de pieces,
mais toutes sont excellentes dans leur genre.... Vous y voyez
partout le langage des honnetes gens avec des actions de fripon; ce
qui prouve qu'il connaissait bien son monde, et qu'il vivait dans ce
qu'on appelle la bonne compagnie."--VOLTAIRE, _Lettres sur les
Anglais_, Let. 19.

73 On the death of Queen Mary, he published a Pastoral--"The Mourning
Muse of Alexis." Alexis and Menalc