The Way of the World

New Edition

William Congreve

• Publisher: Methuen Drama
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781350106406
• eBook ISBN: 9781350106413
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Literatur
• Subtopic: Britisches Drama

Hero longing for heiress. Obstacles in the way. Marriage eventually secured. It sounds simple. But the lasting appeal of this, one of the most performed and discussed of all Restoration plays, lies in Congreve's sophisticated grasp of plot, back-story, characterization and language. Set in high-society London, his comic masterpiece features scenes of uproarious comedy, Machiavellian scheming and devastating wit. Its sparring between sexes is enchanting but shadowed by melancholy and the ethical uncertainty latent in the title. If this is the way of the world, are we supposed to cheer, despair, or shrug our shoulders?

In this new edition of William Congreve's The Way of the World, David Roberts peels back the layers of the plot to tell the story of the play's stage and critical history from 1700 to the present day, bringing voices from universities and theatres into debate about this enigmatic landmark in English comedy.

Supplemented by a plot summary and annotated bibliography, it is ideal for students of Congreve, comedy and early modern drama.

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ACT 1

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A Chocolate-House

MIRABELL and FAINALL (rising from cards), BETTY waiting

MIRABELL

You are a fortunate man, Mr Fainall.

FAINALL

Have we done?

MIRABELL

What you please. I’ll play on to entertain you.

FAINALL

No, I’ll give you your revenge another time, when you are not so 5 indifferent; you are thinking of something else now and play too negligently. The coldness of a losing gamester lessens the pleasure of the winner. I’d no more play with a man that slighted his ill fortune than I’d make love to a woman who undervalued the loss of her reputation.

MIRABELL

10 You have a taste extremely delicate, and are for refining on your pleasures.

FAINALL

Prithee, why so reserved? Something has put you out of humour.

MIRABELL

Not at all. I happen to be grave today and you are gay, that’s all.

FAINALL

Confess. Millamant and you quarrelled last night after I left 15 you. My fair cousin has some humours that would tempt the patience of a stoic. What, some coxcomb came in and was well received by her while you were by?

MIRABELL

Witwoud and Petulant, and what was worse, her aunt, your wife’s mother, my evil genius, or to sum up all in her own name, 20 my old Lady Wishfort came in –

FAINALL

Oh, there it is then. She has a lasting passion for you, and with reason. What, then my wife was there?

MIRABELL

Yes, and Mrs Marwood and three or four more whom I never saw before. Seeing me, they all put on their grave faces, 25 whispered one another, then complained aloud of the vapours and after fell into a profound silence.

FAINALL

They had a mind to be rid of you.

MIRABELL

For which reason I resolved not to stir. At last the good old lady broke through her painful taciturnity with an invective against 30 long visits. I would not have understood her, but Millamant joining in the argument, I rose and with a constrained smile told her I thought nothing was so easy as to know when a visit began to be troublesome. She reddened and I withdrew without expecting her reply.

FAINALL

35 You were to blame to resent what she spoke only in compliance with her aunt.

MIRABELL

She is more mistress of herself than to be under the necessity of such a resignation.

FAINALL

What? Though half her fortune depends upon her marrying 40 with my lady’s approbation?

MIRABELL

I was then in such a humour that I should have been better pleased if she had been less discreet.

FAINALL

Now I remember, I wonder not they were weary of you. Last night was one of their cabal-nights. They have ’em three times 45 a week and meet by turns at one another’s apartments, where they come together like the coroner’s inquest to sit upon the murdered reputations of the week. You and I are excluded, and it was once proposed that all the male sex should be excepted; but somebody moved that to avoid scandal there might be one 50 man of the community, upon which motion Witwoud and Petulant were enrolled members.

MIRABELL

And who may have been the foundress of this sect? My Lady Wishfort, I warrant, who publishes her detestation of mankind, and full of the vigour of fifty-five declares for a friend and 55 ratafia; and let posterity shift for itself, she’ll breed no more.

FAINALL

The discovery of your sham addresses to her, to conceal your love to her niece, has provoked this separation. Had you dissembled better, things might have continued in the state of nature.

MIRABELL

I did as much as man could with any reasonable conscience. I 60 proceeded to the very last act of flattery with her, and was guilty of a song in her commendation. Nay, I got a friend to put her into a lampoon and compliment her with the imputation of an affair with a young fellow, which I carried so far that I told her the malicious town took notice that she was grown fat of a 65 sudden; and when she lay in of a dropsy, persuaded her she was reported to be in labour. The devil’s in’t if an old woman is to be flattered further, unless a man should endeavour downright personally to debauch her, and that my virtue forbade me. But for the discovery of that amour I am indebted to your friend, or 70 your wife’s friend, Mrs Marwood.

FAINALL

What should provoke her to be your enemy, without she has made you advances which you have slighted? Women do not easily forgive omissions of that nature.

MIRABELL

She was always civil to me till of late. I confess I am not one of those coxcombs who are apt to interpret a woman’s good 75 manners to her prejudice, and think that she who does not refuse ’em everything can refuse ’em nothing.

FAINALL

You are a gallant man, Mirabell, and though you may have cruelty enough not to satisfy a lady’s longing, you have too much 80 generosity not to be tender of her honour. Yet you speak with an indifference which seems to be affected, and confesses you are conscious of a negligence.

MIRABELL

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Table of contents

• Cover
• Half-Title Page
• Series
• Title Page
• Contents
• List of Illustrations
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• Note on the Text
• List of Abbreviations
• Further Reading
• THE WAY OF THE WORLD
• Prologue
• Dramatis Personae
• The Text
• Copyright