How much he owed to the French school, and especially to Molière, may be judged from the fact that a whole scene in _Love for Love_ is borrowed from the _Don Juan_ of Molière. It is that in which Trapland comes to collect his debt from Valentine Legend. Readers of Molière 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. She had a statue of him in ivory, which went by clockwork, and was daily seated at her table; and another wax-doll imitation, whose feet she caused to be blistered and anointed by physicians, as the poet's gouty extremities had been. Congreve was not ashamed to vindicate the drama, licentious as it was. In the year 1698, Jeremy Collier, a distinguished nonjuring clergyman, published _A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage_; a very vigorous and severe criticism, containing a great deal of wholesome but bitter truth. Congreve came to the defence of the stage, and his example was followed by his brother dramatists. But Collier was too strong for his enemies, and the defences were very weak. There yet existed in England that leaven of purity which has steadily since been making its influence felt. VANBRUGH.--Sir John Vanbrugh (born in 1666, died in 1726) was an architect as well as a dramatist, but not great in either rôle. His principal dramas are _The Provoked Wife_, _The City Wives' Confederacy_, and _The Journey to London_ (finished by Colley Cibber). His personages are vicious and lewd, but quite real; and his wit is constant and flowing. _The Provoked Wife_ is so licentious a play that it is supposed Vanbrugh afterwards conceived and began his _Provoked Husband_ to make some amends for it. This latter play, however, he did not complete: it was finished after his death by Cibber, who says in the Prologue: This play took birth from principles of truth, To make amends for errors past of youth. * * * * * Though vice is natural, 't was never meant The stage should show it but for punishment. Warm with such thoughts, his muse once more took flame, Resolved to bring licentious life to shame.