XVI THE WAY OF THE WORLD

of liaisons exposed in, for instance, William Wycherley's (J 640-1716)

savagely satiric The Country Wife. The Way of the World
The dark side ofWycherley's work was matched by the portrayal
in Vanbrugh's The Provoked Wife (1697) of an ill assorted couple;
the plays written by Sir George Etherege (?1634- ?1691) on the other Congreve's dedication of the play explains something of his aims in
hand have a frothy touch of fantasy and farce about them, even the writing it. He thought that the fools being ridiculed in contemporary
. names of his characters - Sir Frederick Frollick, Sir Justin Jolly- comedies were too gross: they seemed to be objects created for the
sugg\!sting this, though we can see in the names of Courtall and audience's charity rather than contempt; instead of amusing the
Freeman in his play She Would ifShe Could (1668) the kind of men audience they were likely to excite its compassion. Congreve decided
who are apt to find life dull without the pursuit of women. John to invent characters who were not so much ridiculous because they
Dryden's (1631-1700) plays were a mixture of farce and wit, but they were natural fools and therefore incurable)
absurd because t ey a fe1ed t9~ WIUy.
H is
people who were
aims were not
varied in achievement: the diarist Samuel Pepys (1633-1703), whose
comments on the plays of his day are so illuminating, thought one immediately clear: even the clever poet Alexander Pope (J 688-1744)
play of Dryden's 'very smutty' whereas he praised another as the asked if Congreve's fools were fools indeed:
'most entire piece of mirth that was ever writ'. Observe how seldom ev'n the best succeed:
Tell me if Congreve's Fools are Fools indeed?
These comedies of manners held the stage for a relatively long
time. There was, however, a shift in the sensibility of the audience- (Imitations of Horace, Ep. II, i, 287-8)
to which the Rev. Jeremy Collier's pamphlet bears witness - away Congreve commented in the dedication that the play had been
from the convention that a fine gentleman was, in Collier's words, a acted two or three days before the hasty judges in the audience could
'fine whoring, swearing, smutty, atheistical man'. This change can be find the leisure to distinguish 'between the character of a Witwoud
seen in the comedies which were written and were successful after the and a Truewit'. In Witwoud, in The Way of the World, Congreve
turn of the century. The work of the Irish dramatist George drew a character who is absurd because of his affectation, his
Farquhar (1678-1707) illustrates this: his plays The Recruiting pretensions (like those of the other fools in the play) to both
Officer '(1706) and The Beaux Stratagem (1707) move the action out intelligence and judgement. Truwit, a character in Ben Jonson's The
of metropolitan London, 'the Town', into the countryside. Country Silent Woman, exposed the false values and behaviour of the
people, for long the objects of the often contemptuous wit of the misanthropic character Morose in this play. Truewit was an
Town, now appear as the subjects of the plays - and they often intelligent, and well-educated gentleman, though Congreve's' friend
prove kinder than urban characters. Farquhar's characters are Dryden thought Jonson's character was less courtly in behaviour
easier people, perhaps more real than the fine witty people of earlier than might be expected of a Restoration gentleman. It seems curious
comedies, and in The Beaux Stratagem he even sympathises so much that Congreve's mockery of the would-be wits wasn't immediately
with his character Mrs Sullen, married off by her father to a brutish clear to the early audiences of his play, for Witwoud and Petulant are
sot of a husband, that he argues a case for the dissolution of the obviously absurd in their inane affectation. Perhaps it was indeed too
marriage, echoing John Milton's earlier tracts on divorce as he does refined a play for the taste of the audience in 1700.
so. After Farquhar we can see comedy moving into a sentimental vein
There are, however, other difficulties than those aroused by the
in the work of Sir Richard Steele (1672-1729) who gives the
nature ofWitwoud and Petulant. The fullest meanings of the play a~
merchants, the 'cits' so often ridiculed or deceived by the Restoration
?ot likely to be ~d immediately by~reader or an audience, for it
gallants, a new dignity and self-confidence in The Conscious Lovers
~la~in which appearances are decee,tive, some characters Cli"ilnge,
(1722). The audience had changed indeed. It was now middle class and th<:...~t at first seems unduly comple~
ra.the~ !han aristocratic, and sentimentality held sway, with cynical
Wit givmg way to worthy wisdom. XVII
 THE WAY OF THE WORLD XIX
THE WAY OF THE WORLD
XVIIl
sightedly) pretended to be in love with Lady Wishfort in order to
The best way to sort out the names of the characters and to conceal his love for her niece Millamant, who can only inherit half of
resolve some of the complexities of their relationships with each her fortune unless Lady Wishfort, her guardian, approves of her
other is to draw a family tree of the Wishfort family, which looks like marrying. Mirabell also plots against Lady Wishfort by disguising
this: his servant Waitwell as Sir Rowland, Mirabell's supposed uncle, and
gets him to pay court to the widow. (He has taken the precaution of
marrying Waitwell to Lady Wishfort's servant Foible beforehand, so

\ I 1
that Waitwell will not be tempted to marry Lady Wishfor-t). Fainall is
having an affair with Mrs Marwood who, to complicate things, loves
Mirabell. It is she who, out of jealousy, told Lady Wishfort that he
was deceiving her in his feigned advances. Mrs Marwood's' lover,
Sir Jonathan Wishfort (d) m Lady Wishfort Sister (d) Sister (d) m Sir Witwoud m 2nd wife Fainall, accuses her of jealousy; he tells her that if she had not
hindered Mirabel\'s plans to marry Millamant then Lady Wishfort
would have been so incensed by their marriage that she would have

\ \ \ \
refused to allow her niece Millamant to have more than half of her
fortune - which would then have come to his wife, Lady Wishfort's
daughter. Fainall is plotting, in fact, to acquire, through his wife, half
Arabella (Mrs Fainall) m i) Languish (d) Millamant Sir Wilfull Witwoud Anthony Witwoud
of Millamant's fortune.
ii) Fainall
Other complications are revealed. Mrs Fainall has had an affair
with Mirabell; he has told her of his plan to get Waitwell to pay court
to Lady Wishfort. Once there is a marriage contract drawn up,
This tree shows us how closely linked all the characters are, for Mirabell can threaten Lady Wishfort (by producing Waitwel\'s
Mirabell wants to marry Millamant, to whom Sir Wilfull Witwoud marriage certificate) and thus force her into agreeing to his marrying
also pays his addresses, while Fainall is married to Millamant's Millamant.
cousin Arabella. Lady Wishfort, however, has her own plans of marrying
If we grant that the affectation ofWitwoud and Petulant and the Millamant to Sir Wilfull Witwoud. Admittedly, Foible has, on
more buffoon-like foolishness of Sir Wilfull Witwoud are fairly Mirabel\'s orders, suggested this to her, and Mrs Marwood also
obvious, what is the play really about? To this question an answer suggests it. After Sir Wilfull's awkward meeting with Millamant,
can be marriage and money. There is an unhappy marriage, thaiOt there comes the great scene in which she agrees to marry Mirabell,
the Fainalrs:-(here IS Lady Wishfort, Mrs Fainall's mother, wno succeeded by the drunkenness of Sir Wilfull. Then there follows the
would, despite her age and apparent unattractiveness, like to be comedy of Lady Wishfort's falling for the supposed Sir Rowland.
married again, there are the servants Waitwell and Foible who seem
to enjoy being married and there are Mirabell and Millamant - he is Mrs Marwood'sjealousy leads her to tell Fainall that his wife has
in love with her and she, who loves him, is still hesitant about had an affair with Mirabell; she suggests that he should tell Lady
committing herself to marriage. Money matters greatly in the Wishfort of her daughter's conduct, and threaten to part with her.
fashionable world that Congreve depicts, and a good deal ofthe pIQ! She assures him that Lady Wishfort loves her daughter and will reach
any arrangement to save her reputation. Mrs Marwood then regrets
asbecomes apparent, revolves around it, for money gives power, and
it makes marriage possible for the lovers or tolerable for the having suggested the marriage between Sir Wilfull and Millamant,
but Fainall argues that he can undo that by getting Sir Wilfull drunk.
disappointed. Mrs Marwood then says she will expose Sir Rowland as a fraud.
The play's plot is complicated by intrigues; the characters Fainall tells her that he has a deed of settlement of the best part of his
manipulate each other or are maninulated. Thus Mirabell has (short-
-

xx THE WAY OF THE WORLD THE WAY OF THE WORLD XXI

wife's estate in which, if their plot does not work and he does not get In the process of working out his plot Congreve has given us
hold of half of Milliamant's fortune, Mrs Marwood will share. sparkling dialogue: he has provided the high comedy of Lady
The interaction of servants with their mastesrs and mistresses Wishfort dressing, engaging in amorous conversation with Sir
complicates the plot still further. Once Lady Wishfort discovers that Rowland and in savage confrontation with Foible. He has given us
Foible has been aiding Mirabell's plans, and that the supposed Sir pert servants, absurdly affected young men, witty ladies and the
Rowland was Foible's husband, her rage overflows; Waitwell has major conflict, between Fainall, the rake, and Mirabell, the reformed
been arrested at Fainall's instigation and Lady Wishfort wants Foible rake, who has ideals about what marriage can be. Millamant has got a
arrested too. But Foible then tells Mrs Fainall how she and husband wQQ..2grees to her terms, and their marriage seems based
Millamant's servant, Mrs Mincing, know of Fainall's adultery with upon a realistic desire to avoid a merely superficial relationshi
Mrs Marwood and are ready to disclose this. Fainall, we hear from
Mincing, is now threatening to divorce his wife ifhe is not given half
of Millarnant's fortune. Mrs Marwood hypocritically tells Lady
Wishfort that she wants to patch up matters, and Fainall states his
terms: he will allow Lady Wishfort to enjoy her estate during her
lifetime provided that if she remarries he will have the power to chose
her husband; his wife is to settle the remainder of her fortune on him
A NOTE ON THE TEXT
and he will obtain half Millamant's fortune - on the grounds that
she has refused Sir Wilfull Witwoud's proposal of marriage which
was approved of by her aunt. The Way ofthe World was first published in 1700. This quarto edition
Then follows the counter-plot. Millamant agrees - as a ruse- was followed by the second quarto edition in 1706. The text of the
to marry Sir Wilfull Witwoud and Mirabell tells Lady Wishfort that play included in The Works (1710) was divided into a multiplicity of
he is to withdraw from his contract to marry Millamant. When scenes beginning and ending with the entrances and exits of
Fainall seeks to force Lady Wishfort to sign her agreement to his characters. There are several modern editions of the play, listed
terms, she gives her consent to Mirabell's marrying Millamant if he subsequently under the Guide to Further Reading.
can save her from Fainall's demands. The women servants expose
Fainall's affair with Mrs Marwood, Waitwell brings in the black box
which contains a deed previously witnessed by Petulant and
Witwoud, who were unaware of its contents. This was a deed of
conveyance of Mrs Fainall's estate in trust to Mirabell, dated before
the deed in which she had signed over her estate to her husband. All
Fainall's plans have now failed and Mirabell wins Millamant with
Lady Wishfort's approval. Mirabell gives Mrs Fainall back the deed
and hopes this will let her control her husband.
Theyoung lovers, Mirabell and Millamant, have won their battle
to marry despite the oppositions of the older character Lady
Wishfort. The marriage will be based upon Millamant's having all
her fortune. Mrs Fainall has gained independent control over her I

fortune and thus may yet make something of her marriage. Lady'
Wishfort has saved her daughter's reputation and her own. Mrs
Marwood - and Fainall - are the losers, Sir Wilfull retains'hls
reedom and Witwoud and Petulant remain affected fools.