 Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
Table of Contents Act Summaries With Notes DEDICATION Summary Congreve dedicates his play, The Way of the World, to Ralph, Earl of Montague, whose company and conversation have made it possible for Congreve to write this comedy. The dedication also constitutes a statement of purpose. Congreve writes that he is aware that the world may charge him with vanity for dedicating his play to the earl. However, he is certain that the world cannot think "meanly" of a play that is meant for the earl’s perusal. Conversely, if the play is attributed "too much sufficiency," it would be an extravagant claim, and merit the test of the earl’s judgment. Congreve humbly states that the earl’s favorable reception of the play will more than compensate for the play’s deficiencies, and he praises the earl lavishly for his patronage. Congreve does not expect the play to succeed on the stage, since he is aware that he is not catering to the current tastes of Restoration society. Congreve states his dissatisfaction with the kind of comedies being written. He points out that the characters meant to be ridiculed in these comedies are largely "gross fools" who can only disturb an audience, rather than stimulate their reflective judgment. Congreve asserts that instead of moving the audience to laughter, comic characters should excite compassion.
Congreve’s dissatisfaction with the contemporary comic mode has led him to design comic characters who will do more than merely appear ridiculous. The "affected wit" of his characters shall be exposed and held up for the audience’s ridicule. Congreve defines this as "a wit, which at the same time that it is affected, is also false." Congreve is aware of the difficulty involved in the creation of such complex characters. He is also aware that his play may not succeed on stage because many people come to the theater prepared to criticize a play without understanding its purpose. Congreve then apologizes for his digression and entrusts his play to the earl’s protection, claiming that only his patronage and the approval of like-minded people will provide recognition to writers of merit. Congreve holds Terence, an ancient Roman author of comedies, as his model. He states that Terence benefited from the encouragement of Scipio and Lelius. Congreve laments that the majority of Terence’s audience was incapable of appreciating the purity of his style, his delicacy of plot construction, and the aptness of his characters. Congreve then sketches a brief history of classical comedy in which he mentions Terence's models and traces the source of his inspiration back to Aristotle. Congreve emphasizes the importance of patronage and claims that contact with such superior people is the only means of attaining perfection in dialogue. Congreve proceeds to attribute all that is best in his style to the society of Ralph, Earl of Montague. He further praises the earl by stating that if this play suffers from any deficiency, it is his (Congreve's) fault, since he could not rise to the stature of Terence even though the earl was his patron. Congreve then mentions that although poetry is "the eldest sister of all arts and parent of most," the earl has never before given a poet his patronage. Poetry addresses itself to the good and great. This relationship is reciprocal: it is the privilege of poetry to address them, and it is their right alone to grant it patronage. Many writers dedicate their works to the good and the great. But Congreve pleads that his address may be exempt from all the trappings of a typical dedication. He states that he is dedicating his play to the earl because he considers him to be the most deserving and is aware of his "extreme worthiness and humanity." Table of Contents | |
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