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ILLIAM CONGREVE, Efq. was defcended from the ancient Family of the Congreves, of Congreve in Staffordshire, his Father being fecond Sou to Richard Congreve, of that Place.-Some Authors, and in particular Sir James Ware, contend for his having been born in Ireland; but as Jacob, who was particularly acquainted with him, and who in his Preface acknowledges his Obligations to Mr. Congreve for his Communication of what related to himself, has abfolutely contradicted that Report, I fhall on his Authority, which I confider to be the fame as Mr. Congreve's own, fix the Spot of his Nativity at a place called Bardja, not far from Leeds in Yorkshire, being Part of the Estate of Sir John Lewis, his Great-Uncle by his Mother's Side.-It is certain, however, that he went over to that Kingdom very young.-For his

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Father being only a younger Brother, and provided for in the Army by a Commiffion on the Irish Establishment, was compelled to undertake a Journey thither in Confequence of his Command; which he afterwards parted with, to accept of the Management of a confiderable Eitate belonging to the Burlington Family, which fixed his Refidence there.-However, though he fuffered this Son to receive his first Tincture of Letters in the great School at Kilkenny, and afterwards to compleat his Claffical Learning under the Direction of Dr. Ah, in the Univerfity of Dublin; yet, being defirous that his Studies fhould be directed to Profit as well as Improvement, he fent him over to England foon after the Revolution, and placed him as a Student in the Temple. The dry, plodding Study of the Law, however, was by no Means fuitable to the sprightly volatile Genius of Mr. Congreve; and therefore, though he did not want Application in thofe Studies to which his Genius led him, yet he did not even attempt to make any Proficiency in a Service which he was probably confcious he fhould make no Figure in. Excellence and Perfection were what, it is apparent, he laid it down as his Principle, from the very firit, to make it his Aim the acquiring; for in the very earliest Exertion of his Genius, and a very early one indeed it was, viz. his Novel, called Love and Daty reconeiled, written when he was not above feventeen Years of Age, he had not only endeavoured at, but indeed fucceeded in, the prefenting to the World not a meer Novel according to Tafte and Fashion then prevailing, but a Piece which fhould point out, and be in itself a Model of, what Novels ought to be. And though this cannot itself be called with Propriety a dramatic Work, yet he has fo ftrictly adhered to dramatic Rules in the Compofition of it, that his arriving at fo great a Degree of Perfection in the regular Drama, in fo fhort a Time afterwards, is hardly to be wondered at.—

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>5 His first Play was the Old Batchelor, and was the Amufenent of fome leifure Hours during a flow Recovery from a Fit of Illnefs, foon after his Return to England, and was in itself fo perfect, that Mr. Dryden, on it's being fhewn to him, declared he had never in his Life feen fuch a firit Play; and that Poet great having, in Conjunction with Mr. Southerne and Arthur Marwaring, Elq. given it a flight Revifal, Dr. Davenant, who was the Manager of Drury Lane Theatre, and was delighted both with the Piece and its Author, brought it on the Stage in 1693, where it met with fuch univerfal Approbation, that Mr. Congreve, though he was but nineteen Years of Age at the Time of his writing it, became now confidered as a Prop to the declining Stage, and a rifing Genius in dramatic Poetry.

The next Year he produced the Double Dealer, which, for what Reafon however I know not, did not meet with fo much Succefs as the former. The Merit of his first Play, however, had obtained him the Favour and Patronage of Lord Halifax, and fome peculiar Marks of Distinction from Queen Mary, on whofe Death, which happened in the Clofe of this Year, he wrote a very elegant, Elegiac Paftoral.

In 1695, when Betterton opened the new Houfe in Lincoln's Inn-Fields, Mr. Congreve joining with him, gave him his Comedy of Love for Love; with which the Company opened their Campaign, and which met with fuch Succefs, that they immediately offered the Author a Share in the Management of the Houfe, on Condition of his furnishing them with one Play yearly. This Offer he accepted of; but whether through Indolence, or that Correctnefs which he looked on as neceffary to his Works, his Maurating Bride did not come out till 1697, nor his Way of the

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World till two Years after that. The indifferent Suecels this latt-mentioned Play, though an exceeding good one, met from the Public, compleated that Difgut to the Theatre, which a long Contest with Jeremy Collier, who had attacked the Immoralities of the English Stage, and more efpecially fome of his Pieces, had begun; and he determined never more to write for the Stage--This Refolution he punctually kept, and Mr. Dennis's Obfervation on that Point will, I am afraid, be found but too true, when he said, "that "Mr. Congreve quitted the Stage early, and that "Comedy left it with him."-Yet, though he quitted dramatic Writing, he did not lay down the Pen entirely; but occafionally wrote many little Pieces both in Profe and Verfe, all of which ftand on the Records of literary Fame.

It is very poffible, however, that he might not fo foon have given Way to this Difguft, had not the Eafinefs of his Circumftances rendered any Subfervience to the Opinions and Caprice of the Town abfolutely unneceffary to him. For his Abilities having very early in Life raised him to the Acquaintance of the Earl of Halifax, who was then the Mecenas of the Age, that Nobleman, defirous of raifing so promifing a Genius above the Neceffity of too hafty Productions, made him one of the Commiffioners for licensing Hackney-Coaches, or, according to Coxeter, a Commiffioner of the Wine Licence. He foon after bestowed on him a Place in the Pipe-Office; and not long after that, gave him a Poft in the Customs, worth fix hundred Pounds per Аппит.

In the Year 1718, he was appointed Secretary of Jamaica, fo that, with all together, his Income towards the latter Part of his Life was upwards of twelvę hundred Pounds a Year. Thus raised above Depen

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dance, it is no Wonder he would no longer render himself fubject to the capricious Cenfures of impotent Critics. And had his poetical Father, Mr. Dryden, ever been raised to the fame Circumftances, it is probable that his All for Love would not now have been esteemed the best of his dramatic Pieces, nor would he have been compelled for a bare Livelihood to the Drudgery of producing four Plays in a Space of Time fcarce inore than fufficient for forming the Plot of one.

But to return to Congrever-The greatest Part of the laft twenty Years of his Life was fpent in Eafe and Retirement, and he either did not, or affected not to give himself any Trouble about Reputation.-Yet fome Part of that Conduct might proceed from a Degree of Pride. T. Cibber, in his Lives of the Poets, Vol. IV. p. 93. relates an Anecdote of him, which I cannot properly omit here-" When the celebrated Voltaire, fays he, was in England, he waited upon Congreve, "and paffed him fome Compliments as to the Reputa"tion and Merit of his Works.-Congreve thanked him, "but at the fame Time told that ingenious Foreigner, "be did not chufe to be confidered as an Author, but only "as a private Gentleman, and in that Light expected to "be vifited.-Voltaire answered, That if he had never been any Thing but a private Gentleman, in all Probability "be had never been troubled with that Vifit.-And ob"ferves in his own Account of the Tranfaction, that "he was not a little difgufted with so unfeasonable a "Piece of Vanity."

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Towards the Clofe of his Life he was much afflicted with the Gout; and making a Tour to Bath, for the Benefit of the Waters, was unfortunately overturned in his Chariot, by which it is fuppofed he got fome inward Bruife, as he ever after complained of a Pain in his Side; and on his Return to London, continued gradually declining in his Health, till the 19th of Jan.