William Congreve, a scion of a good Staffordshire family, was born at Bardsey, near Leeds, in 1670. His father, an officer in the army, obtained a command in Ireland, where a branch of the family is still settled, and Congreve received his education at Kilkenny and at Trinity College, Dublin. In 1691 he came to London, and at once found admission to the best literary circles. A novel by him, _Incognita_, was published anonymously at the beginning of 1692. Later in the year he co-operated in a translation of Juvenal by various hands, and submitted his _Old Bachelor_ to Dryden, who declared that he had never seen such a first play, and lent his aid in adapting it for the stage. It was produced with great success in January, 1693. In November of the same year _The Double-Dealer_ appeared, but, though preferred by the judicious, was less popular with the town. It was published with an elegant preface by the author, and a noble panegyric from Dryden. 'Perhaps,' says Mr. Gosse, 'there is no other example of such full and generous praise of a young colleague by a great old poet.' Dryden's notions of architecture, indeed, seem borrowed from the churches of his time, where we not uncommonly see a spire in one style clapped upon a body in another: 'Fine Doric pillars found your solid base, The fair Corinthian crowns the higher space, Thus all below is strength and all above is grace.' But the lines in which he adjures Congreve to protect his own memory are an unparalleled blending of pathos and compliment: 'Be kind to my remains, and O, defend, Against your judgment, your departed friend, Let not the insulting foe my fame pursue, But shade those laurels which descend to you.'