Barry and Mrs. Bracegirdle
remained true to the old man. Congreve, to his honour, espoused the same
cause, and the theatre opened with his play of 'Love for Love,' which
was more successful than either of the former. The veteran himself spoke
the prologue, and fair Bracegirdle the epilogue, in which the poet thus
alluded to their change of stage:

'And thus our audience, which did once resort
To shining theatres to see our sport,
Now find us tost into a tennis-court.
Thus from the past, we hope for future grace:
I beg it----
And some here know I have a _begging face_.'

The king himself completed the success of the opening by attending it,
and the theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields might have ruined the older
house, if it had not been for the rapidity with which Vanbrugh and
Cibber, who wrote for Old Drury, managed to concoct their pieces; while
Congreve was a slower, though perhaps better, writer. 'Love for Love'
was hereafter a favourite of Betterton's, and when in 1709, a year
before his death, the company gave the old man--then in ill health, poor
circumstances, and bad spirits--a benefit, he chose this play, and
himself, though more than seventy, acted the part of Valentine,
supported by Mrs. Bracegirdle as Angelina, and Mrs. Barry as Frail.

The young dramatist with all his success, was not satisfied with his
fame, and resolved to show the world that he had as much poetry as wit
in him. This he failed to do; and, like better writers, injured his own
fame, by not being contented with what he had. Congreve--the wit, the
dandy, the man about town--took it into his head to write a tragedy. In
1697 'The Mourning Bride' was acted at the Tennis Court Theatre. The
author was wise enough to return to his former muse, and some time after
produced his best piece, so some think, 'The Way of the World,' which
was also performed by Betterton's company; but, alas! for
overwriting--that cacoethes of imprudent men--it was almost hissed off
the stage. Whether this was owing to a weariness of Congreve's style,
or whether at the time of its first appearance Collier's attacks, of
which anon, had already disgusted the public with the obscenity and
immorality of this writer, I do not know: but, whatever the cause, the
consequence was that Mr. William Congreve, in a fit of pique, made up
his mind never to write another piece for the stage--a wise resolution,
perhaps--and to turn fine gentleman instead. With