Authors

British · 1670–1729

William Congreve

William Congreve was the supreme English Restoration comic playwright whose The Way of the World (1700) — the most formally perfect English comedy, centering on the famous Proviso Scene in which lovers negotiate the terms of their marriage — was poorly received and led Congreve to retire from the theatre at thirty. His earlier comedies — Love for Love, The Double Dealer — are brilliant but The Way of the World is his masterpiece. He spent his last decades in comfortable obscurity and was visited by Voltaire.