grave, but their names lived in their wives. Mrs.
Mountfort 'was mistress of more variety of humour than I ever knew in any
one woman actress . . . nothing, though ever so barren, if within the
bounds of nature, could be flat in her hands.' Indeed 'she was so fond
of humour, in what low part soever to be found, that she would make no
scruple of defacing her fair form to come heartily into it'--assuredly a
rare actress! About Mrs. Leigh Cibber is less enthusiastic, but grants
her 'a good deal of humour': her old women were famous. Mrs. Barry was a
stately, dignified actress, best, no doubt, in tragedy. Lastly, there
was Mrs. Bracegirdle, the innocent _publica cura_, whom authors courted
through their plays, and who had all the men in the house for longing
lovers. Who shall say how far 'her youth and lively aspect' influenced
the criticisms that have come down to us? She played Millamant to
Congreve's satisfaction.

V.

It is not difficult to understand how it was that Dryden thought _The Old
Bachelor_ the best first play he had seen, and the town applauded to the
echo. But it is a little hard to understand why later critics, with the
three other comedies before them, have not more expressly marked the
difference between the first and those. There is no new tune in _The Old
Bachelor_: it is an old tune more finely played, and for that very reason
it met with immediate acceptance. It is not likely that Dryden--a great
poet and a great and generous critic, it may be, but an old man--would
have bestowed such unhesitating approval on a play which ignored the
conventions in which he had lived. As it was, he saw those conventions
reverently followed, yet served by a master wit. The fact that Congreve
allowed Dryden and others to 'polish' his play, by giving it an air of
the stage and the town which it lacked, need not of course spoil it for
us. The stamp of Congreve is clearly marked on the dialogue, though not
on every page. You may see its essentials in two passages taken
absolutely at random. 'Come, come,' says Bellmour in the very first
scene, 'leave business to idlers and wisdom to fools; they have need of
'em: wit be my faculty and pleasure my occupation, and let Father Time
shake his glass.' Or Fondlewife soliloquises: 'Tell me, Isaac, why art
thee jealous? Why art thee distrustful of the wife of thy bosom? Because
she is young and vigorous, and I am old and impotent. Then why didst
thee marry,