Drama · 1695
Love for Love
A Comedy
Valentine Legend is deep enough in debt that his own father offers him a way out: sign away his inheritance to his younger brother Ben, a blunt sailor fresh off a ship who has no interest in fine society, and take a lump sum instead. Valentine's only real chance of getting both the money and the woman he actually wants — Angelica, wealthy, quick-witted, and unwilling to be won by anything less than proof he means it — is to out-scheme his own family before the ink dries.
William Congreve's comedy premiered in London in 1695 and was an immediate hit, confirming him, alongside Wycherley, as a leading voice of Restoration comedy's wit-driven marriage plots and scheming servants; only The Way of the World (1700), his last and now most celebrated play, would eventually eclipse it.
This Bibliomancer edition presents the complete text.
Contents
- Epigraph
- Dedication
- Prologue
- Epilogue
- Dramatis Personæ
- Act I — Scene I
- Scene II
- Scene III — Valentine, Scandal
- Scene IV — Valentine, Scandal, Jeremy
- Scene V — Valentine, Scandal, Trapland, Jeremy
- Scene VI
- Scene VII
- Scene VIII — Valentine, Scandal
- Scene IX
- Scene X — Valentine, Scandal
- Scene XI
- Scene XII
- Scene XIII
- Scene XIV
- Scene XIV
- Act II — Scene I
- Scene II
- Scene III — Angelica, Foresight, Nurse
- Scene IV
- Scene V
- Scene VI
- Scene VII — Foresight, Sir Sampson, Valentine, Jeremy
- Scene VIII — Valentine, Jeremy
- Scene IX
- Scene X
- Scene XI — Tattle, Miss Prue
- Act III — Scene I
- Scene II — Tattle, Miss Prue
- Scene III — Tattle, Valentine, Scandal, Angelica
- Scene IV
- Scene V — Angelica, Sir Sampson, Tattle, Mrs. Frail, Miss Prue
- Scene VI
- Scene VII
- Scene VIII
- Scene IX
- Scene X
- Scene XI — Scandal, Foresight
- Scene XII
- Scene XIII
- Scene XIV — Scandal, Mrs. Foresight
- Scene XV
- Act IV — Scene I
- Scene II
- Scene III — Scandal, Angelica, Jenny
- Scene IV
- Scene V
- Scene VI
- Scene VII — Sir Sampson, Valentine, Scandal, Jeremy
- Scene VIII — Sir Sampson, Valentine, Scandal
- Scene IX
- Scene X — Sir Sampson, Valentine, Scandal, Jeremy
- Scene XI — Sir Sampson, Scandal, Foresight, Miss Foresight, Mrs. Frail
- Scene XII — Scandal, Foresight, Mrs. Foresight, Mrs. Frail
- Scene XIII — Mrs. Frail, Ben
- Scene XIV — Mrs. Frail, Mrs. Foresight
- Scene XV
- Scene XVI
- Scene XVII
- Scene XVIII — Angelica, Valentine
- Scene XIX
- Scene XX — Valentine, Angelica, Jenny
- Scene XXI — Valentine, Jeremy
- Act V — Scene I
- Scene II — Angelica, Sir Sampson
- Scene III — Tattle, Jeremy
- Scene IV — Tattle, Miss Prue
- Scene V
- Scene VI — Foresight, Miss Prue
- Scene VII
- Scene VIII — Foresight, Scandal, Mrs. Foresight, Ben
- Scene IX
- Scene X
- Scene XI
New editions
Never lose your place.
This book is free to read in full, and stays that way. Leave an address: one click confirms it and opens a free account, so your progress and bookmarks sync across every device. You'll also hear when the next restored edition enters the archive. Terminate at any time.
About this edition
The text is free of copyright. This edition was prepared from an authoritative digitisation, processed by Bibliomancer under its own review protocol; every automated correction is recorded in its transformation log. Rights assessed for CA, EU, GB, US.
Source mind
About the author
1670–1729 · Enlightenment
William Congreve (1670–1729) was born in England but raised largely in Ireland, where his father was stationed with the army, and studied at Trinity College Dublin alongside Jonathan Swift before returning to London to read law. His first play, the comedy The Old Bachelor (1693), was an immediate success, and Love for Love (1695) confirmed him as the leading playwright of Restoration comedy; The Way of the World (1700), now considered his masterpiece, was coolly received in his own lifetime and proved to be his last play. He lived out his remaining three decades on the income from public offices and the friendship of London's literary world, including Swift and Alexander Pope. He died in London at fifty-eight from injuries sustained in a carriage accident months earlier, and was buried in Westminster Abbey.
Adjacent records
