(_b_) The prevailing love-theme is treated in a characteristic fashion which is fortunately rare in English. It is not handled coarsely; indeed, the age shows a ridiculous squeamishness at the grosser forms of vice; but it is handled with a cool licentiousness and a vicious pleasure that are often exceedingly clever, but always repulsive. It is art, but art of a perverted kind. (_c_) The style of the comedy suits the treatment. It is prose of a neat and brilliant kind: deft and forcible, clean-cut and precise. The style of Congreve, a specimen of which is given below, is a model of its kind. =William Congreve (1670–1729).= Though Congreve is not the first in time, he is probably the first in merit among the comedy-writers. He had a long life, but a glance at the table at the head of the chapter will show that only a short period of his life was productive of literary work. His plays were produced between 1693 and 1700. The last play was not successful, and repeated attacks were forthcoming upon his defects, so he wrote no more. His first comedy was _The Old Bachelor_ (1693); then came _The Double Dealer_ (1693 or 1694), _Love for Love_ (1695), and _The Way of the World_ (1700). In 1697 he produced one tragedy, _The Mourning Bride_, which had no success. The earlier plays have a slight touch of seriousness, which is rarer still in the later comedies. All are marked by the same features. The characters are numerous, brilliant, and sharply defined. In each case, however, they are too one-sided to be real; but they fulfill their purpose in the plays. The plots are full of scandalous notions delicately adumbrated; and the style is as keen and deadly as a sharp sword. The following is a passage from _The Way of the World_. Two gentleman are backbiting an acquaintance. _Fainall._ He comes to town in order to equip himself for travel. _Mirabell._ For travel! Why the man that I mean is above forty. _Fainall._ No matter for that; ’tis for the honour of England, that all Europe should know that we have blockheads of all ages. _Mirabell._ I wonder there is not an act of parliament to save the credit of the nation, and prohibit the exportation of fools. _Fainall._ By no means, ’tis better as ’tis; ’tis better to trade with a little loss, than to be quite eaten up with being overstocked. _Mirabell._ Pray, are the follies of this knight-errant, and those of the squire his brother, anything related? _Fainall._ Not at all; Witwoud grows by the knight, like a medlar grafted on a crab. One will melt in your mouth, and t’other set your teeth on edge; one is all pulp, and the other all core. _Mirabell._ So one will be rotten before he be ripe, and the other will be rotten without ever being ripe at all. OTHER COMEDY-WRITERS