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How much he owed to the French school, and especially to Moliere, may be
judged from the fact that a whole scene in _Love for Love_ is borrowed
from the _Don Juan_ of Moliere. It is that in which Trapland comes to
collect his debt from Valentine Legend. Readers of Moliere will recall the
scene between Don Juan, Sganarelle and M. Dimanche, which is here, with
change of names, taken almost word for word. His men are gallants neither
from love or passion, but from the custom of the age, of which it is said,
"it would break Mr. Tattle's heart to think anybody else should be
beforehand with him;" and Mr. Tattle was the type of a thousand fine
gentlemen in the best English society of that day.
His only tragedy, _The Mourning Bride_, although far below those of
Shakspeare, is the best of that age; and Dr. Johnson says he would go to
it to find the most poetical paragraph in the range of English poetry.
Congreve died in 1729, leaving his gains to the Duchess of Marlborough,
who cherished his memory in a very original fashion.


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