1. William Congreve was an English playwright, satirist, poet and Whig politician.
20 Facts About William Congreve
1. 2.
William Congreve wrote several other notable plays, including The Old Bachelor, The Double Dealer, Love for Love, and The Mourning Bride, which helped establish him as a great writer in the genre of comedy of manners.
3.
William Congreve died in London in 1729, and was honored with burial at the Poets' Corner in Westminster Abbey.
4.
William Congreve was born in Bardsey Grange, in Bardsey, a village in the West Riding of Yorkshire.
5.
William Congreve's parents were Colonel William Congreve and Mary Browning, who moved to London in 1672, then to the Irish port of Youghal.
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William Congreve was educated at Kilkenny College, where he met Jonathan Swift, and at Trinity College Dublin.
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William Congreve moved to London to study law at the Middle Temple, but preferred literature, drama, and the fashionable life.
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William Congreve used the pseudonym Cleophil, under which he published Incognita: or, Love and Duty reconcil'd in 1692.
9.
William Congreve became a disciple of John Dryden whom he met through gatherings of literary circles held at Will's Coffeehouse in the Covent Garden district of London.
10.
William Congreve was distantly related to Lady Elizabeth Hastings, whose family owned Ledston and was part of the London intelligentsia.
11.
William Congreve wrote a number of articles about her in the Tatler magazine.
12.
William Congreve shaped the English comedy of manners through his use of satire and well-written dialogue.
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William Congreve achieved fame in 1693 when he wrote some of the most popular English plays of the Restoration period.
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William Congreve wrote one tragedy, The Mourning Bride which was extremely popular at the time of creation but is one of his least regarded dramas.
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William Congreve only wrote five plays, authored from 1693 to 1700, in total.
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William Congreve wrote the librettos for two operas that were being created at the time, and he translated the works of Moliere.
17.
William Congreve withdrew from the theatre and lived the rest of his life on residuals from his early work, the royalties received when his plays were produced, as well as his private income.
18.
William Congreve collaborated with Vanbrugh on a 1704 English version of the play called Squire Trelooby.
19.
William Congreve never married; in his own era and through subsequent generations, he was famous for his friendships with prominent actresses and noblewomen for whom he wrote major parts in all his plays.
20.
William Congreve coined another famous phrase in Love for Love :.