The Way of the World by William Congreve (bts book recommendations TXT) 📕
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William Congreve’s comedy The Way of the World was first performed in 1700 at the theatre in Lincoln’s Inn Fields, London. It was not well received, and as a result Congreve vowed never to write for the stage again—a vow he kept. Nonetheless the comedy was printed in the same year and has come to be regarded as the author’s masterpiece, a classic of Restoration drama.
In a world still reacting against the puritanism of Cromwell and the Commonwealth, Restoration drama had slowly transitioned from celebrating the licentiousness and opulence of the newly returned court to the more thoughtful and refined comedy of manners that was to dominate the English stage of 18th century. In one way Congreve’s The Way of the World is the last (and best) of its type, and in another way, it is the forerunner of a style that is echoed even now.
The play centers on the love affair of Mirabell and Millamant who are prevented from marrying by a number of obstacles, not the least of which is Mirabell’s past dalliance with Millamant’s aunt’s affections. Intricate, witty, and amusing, the comedy nevertheless concludes with no clear heroes or heroines—one of the things that makes it such an incisive portrait of human experience and an enduring example of its type.
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- Author: William Congreve
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“and Baldwin yonder.” The name of the fox in the beast-epic Reynard the Fox, also applied to the ass by Chaucer. ↩
“A Gemini … you.” Gemini, the name for the twin stars Castor and Pollux was often used of pairs of things. ↩
“Borachio.” A villain, follower of Don John, in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing. Borachio is the Spanish term for a leather wine bottle, hence used for a drunkard. ↩
“bastinadoed with broomsticks.” That is, beaten on the soles of the feet. ↩
“Salopian.” An inhabitant of Salop or Shropshire. ↩
“a ballad-monger.” A seller of ballads. In eighteenth-century London these were sold upon the streets by itinerant pedlars. ↩
“Frisoneer gorget.” A piece of apparel for the neck, a kerchief, made of Frisoneer, perhaps the same word as Frison or frieze, a woollen stuff originally made in Friesland. The word Frisoneer does not apparently occur elsewhere. ↩
“a cast servingman.” A servingman that has been discharged. ↩
“and been put upon his clergy.” Forced to plead the benefit of the clergy, or privilege of exemption from capital punishment because of an ability to read and write. ↩
“meddle or make.” Have anything to do with the affair. ↩
“Abigails and Andrews.” Abigail was a common name for a lady’s maid; Andrew for a valet. ↩
“Philander.” A lover in Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso ruined by the lustful Gabrina. Here merely a lover with an uncomplimentary allusion to Foible. ↩
“I’ll Duke’s-place you.” Marry you in a hurry as they do at Duke’s -place, Aldgate, where St. James’s Church was situated, a place notorious for irregular marriages. ↩
“a Bridewell-bride.” A loose woman committed to a prison for vagrants and social criminals. The prison was supposed to stand over the well of St. Bride. ↩
“a brass counter.” A small piece of metal used as a token and in accounting. ↩
“in a quoif like a man-midwife.” The legal costume of the day included a hood. ↩
“Doomsday Book.” A survey of England taken in 1086. ↩
“cantharides.” A medicament used for blistering. ↩
“the Temple.” One of the Inns of Court, where students at law were educated. ↩
“exceeding the barbarity of a Muscovite husband.” The Russian was often used in the eighteenth century as the symbol of roughness and cruelty. ↩
“from his Czarish majesty’s retinue.” An allusion to the visit of the Czar, Peter the First, three years before. ↩
“while the instrument is drawing.” While the agreement is being drawn up. ↩
“By’r Lady.” By Our Lady. ↩
“o’ the quorum.” Certain justices of the peace whose presence was essential to constitute a bench. ↩
“an old fox.” A colloquial name for a sword. ↩
“a mittimus.” A command in writing to a jailer to keep the person in custody in close confinement; here the vellum upon which such an order might be written. ↩
“bear-garden flourish.” A flourish suitable for a bear-garden. Bear-baiting formed one of the lowest types of amusement in seventeenth-century London. These places were the scenes of many brawls. ↩
“Messalina’s poems.” Messalina was the wife of the emperor Claudian. Her name is constantly associated with incontinence. ↩
“paid in kind.” In order to realize the full sense of this play upon words one must bear in mind that the idea of children was seldom separated from the word kind. ↩
ColophonThe Way of the World
was published in 1700 by
William Congreve.
This ebook was produced for
Standard Ebooks
by
B. Timothy Keith,
and is based on a transcription produced in 1998 by
David Price and The Online Distributed Proofreading Team
for
Project Gutenberg
and on digital scans available at the
Internet Archive.
The cover page is adapted from
The Love Letter,
a painting completed in 1770 by
Jean Honoré Fragonard.
The cover and title pages feature the
League Spartan and Sorts Mill Goudy
typefaces created in 2014 and 2009 by
The League of Moveable Type.
The first edition of this ebook was released on
August 27, 2020, 4:51 p.m.
You can check for updates to this ebook, view its revision history, or download it for different ereading systems at
standardebooks.org/ebooks/william-congreve/the-way-of-the-world.
The volunteer-driven Standard Ebooks project relies on readers like you to submit typos, corrections, and other improvements. Anyone can contribute at standardebooks.org.
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