ction. The scene between Mellefont and Lady Plyant, where she
insists on believing that the gallant, under cover of a marriage with her
stepdaughter, purposes to lead her astray, and where she goes through a
delightful farce of answering her scruples before the bewildered man--the
scene that for some far-fetched reason led Macaulay's mind to the incest
in the _Oedipus Rex_--is perhaps the best comedy of situation in the
piece. But the scene of defamation between the Froths and Brisk is
notable as (with the Cabal idea in _The Way of the World_) the
inspiration of the Scandal Scenes in Sheridan's play. When we remember
that less than two years were gone since the production of _The Old
Bachelor_, the improvement in Congreve is remarkable. Almost his only
concession to the groundlings is the star-gazing episode of Lady Froth
and Brisk: a mistake, because it spoils her inconsequent folly, but a
small matter. In his second play Congreve was himself, the wittiest and
most polished writer of comedy in English. In the face of this fact 'the
public' conducted itself characteristically: it more or less damned _The
Double-Dealer_ until the queen approved, when it applauded lustily. That
occasion gave Colley Cibber his first chance as Kynaston's substitute in
Lord Touchwood. When one remembers Dryden's long, struggling, cudgelling
and cudgelled life, it is impossible to read without emotion his tribute
to a very young and successful author in the verses prefixed to this
play:

Firm Doric pillars found your solid base:
The fair Corinthian crowns the higher space;
Thus all below is strength, and all above is grace.
. . . . .
We cannot envy you, because we love.
. . . . .
Time, place, and action may with pains be wrought,
But Genius must be born, and never can be taught.
This is your portion, this your native store;
Heav'n, that but once was prodigal before.
To Shakespeare gave as much; she could not give him more.

The tribute is indubitably sincere; in point of Congreve's wit and
diction it is as indubitably true.

_Love for Love_ was the most popular of Congreve's comedies: it held the
stage so long that Hazlitt could say, 'it still acts and is still acted
well.' Being wise after the event, one may give some obvious reasons. It
is more human than any other of his plays, and at the same time more
farcical. By 'more human' it is not meant that the characters are truer
to life than tho