raries. He
had his intrigues, his mistresses, the same love of wine, and the same
addiction to gluttony. He had the reputation of a wit, and with wits he
passed his time, sufficiently easy in his circumstances to feel no
damping to his spirits in the cares of this life. The Island of Jamaica
probably gave him no further trouble than that of signing a few papers
from time to time, and giving a receipt for his salary. His life,
therefore, presents no very remarkable feature, and he is henceforth
known more on account of his friends than for aught he may himself have
done. The best of these friends was Walter Moyle, the scholar, who
translated parts of Lucian and Xenophon, and was pretty well known as a
classic. He was a Cornish man of independent means, and it was to him
that Congreve addressed the letters in which he attempted to defend
himself from the attacks of Collier.

It was not to be expected that a wit and a poet should go through life
without a platonic, and accordingly we find our man not only attached,
but devoted to a lady of great distinction. This was no other than
Henrietta, Duchess of Marlborough, the daughter of 'Malbrook' himself,
and of the famous 'Queen Sarah.' Henrietta was the eldest daughter, and
there was no son to inherit the prowess of Churchill and the parsimony
of his wife. The nation--to which, by the way, the Marlboroughs were
never grateful--would not allow the title of their pet warrior to become
extinct, and a special Act of Parliament gave to the eldest daughter the
honours of the duchy.[17] The two Duchesses of Marlborough hated each
other cordially. Sarah's temper was probably the main cause of their
bickering; but there is never a feud between parent and child in which
both are not more or less blameable.

The Duchess Henrietta conceived a violent fancy for the wit and poet,
and whatever her husband, Lord Godolphin, may have thought of it, the
connection ripened into a most intimate friendship, so much so that
Congreve made the duchess not only his executrix, but the sole residuary
legatee of all his property.[18] His will gives us some insight into the
toadying character of the man. Only four near relations are mentioned as
legatees, and only L540 is divided among them; whereas, after leaving
L200 to Mrs. Bracegirdle, the actress; L100, 'and all my apparel and
linnen of all sorts' to a Mrs. Rooke, he divides the rest between his
friends of the nobility, Lords Cobham and Shannon, the