This witty comedy was William Congreve''s last major play written by himself. It was not well received at its first
performance, but has played successfully on stage any number of times since (some think it is too hard to follow without reading it, and some, that it hit too close to home for the people of that time to be comfortable enough to enjoy it) --- however, he was so discouraged by its reception, he gave up serious writing thereafter, writing only one masque, one opera (performed as an oratorio by Handel), and one co-authoring (with Vanbrugh and Walsh) of another play, a comedy.
This play revolves around the romance between MIRABELL and Mrs. MILLAMONT. She stands to lose a tremendous fortune if her aunt disapproves of her marriage partner, and her aunt, LADY
WISHFORT, disapproves of Mirabell with the hatred of a woman scorned (he courted her favour to get close to her niece, Mrs. Millamont).
Mirabell comes up with a scheme to force her consent by getting his
servant, WAITWELL, to pretend to be a gentleman, Sir Rowland, and to court the old lady and marry her (but not consummate the union), his servant, in the meantime, having married her servant, FOIBLE.
Lady Wishfort''s son-in-law, FAINDALL, and Mrs. MARWOOD are having an affair. He wants the niece disinherited and her money given to his wife, which he conspires to take from his wife and go live with his mistress. He treatens to expose his innocent wife as an adulteress. Mrs. Marwood, feigning friendship with Lady Wishfort, paints a distracting and horrible picture of the disgrace that would result.
Meanwhile, Mrs. Millamont, her cousin Sir Willful Witwoud, and Mirabell, have devised another scheme whereby she would marry her cousin, get her inheritance, and then be given to Mirabell, whom she loves and who loves her.
All is straightened out in the end; as it turns out, Mrs. Faindall, the Lady''s daughter, had a previous deed of trust given to Mirabell, so that Faindall can''t get her and her mother''s money after all.
There is a hint of possible future trouble from him , but all ends well and rightly, as the old lady is so grateful to Mirabell for saving her and her daughter from disgrace and financial ruin that she lets him marry his true love without objection from her.
This play is witty in the extreme, funny in a cruel sort of way, and the nobly heroic young man gets the girl (although he appears a real scoundrel at first). Given all the heartless scheming he was up to, he proves to be far better than he knows himself to be. This play is well worth reading, as this summary contains the barest details of the plot, and the play itself contains some of the funniest (and most uncomfortably true, at times) observations on human nature, society, and particularly, the relationships between men and women. Cruel, but beautiful.