Book dossier

Love for Love

by William Congreve

Valentine, Sir Sampson's dissolute eldest son, finds himself at a standstill; the only way out of his financial difficulties is to give in to his father's pressure to renounce his right of inheritance. While this suggestion immediately increases the chances of his bluff younger brother Ben on the marriage mart, Valentine's own chances with his beloved Angelica would proportionally decrease. To avoid having to sign the renunciation Valentine puts on an 'antic disposition' and pretends to be mad. Angelica, seeing through him, provokes him back into sanity by pretending to agree to marry his father. Valentine recovers, the lovers reunite, and Ben, too, has meanwhile found the girl of his heart. More successful in its day than *The Way of the World*, which is now accounted Congreve's best play, *Love for Love* (1695) is a comical farce manifesting the verbal polish and the theatrical wit that audiences so enjoy in Congreve.