Love for Love by William Congreve

Love for Love is a Restoration comedy written by William Congreve, premiered in 1695. Restoration comedy refers to English comedies (plays) between 1660 and 1710. Another term used for the same is Comedy of Manners. Restoration is significant because it marks the reopening of theatre in 1660 after eighteen years ban by the Puritans. It is a renaissance (re-birth) of the English drama. It is also notorious for sexual explicitness. It introduced the first professional actresses (females on stage).

Author: William Congreve (1670-1729)
He was born in Bardsey, Yorkshire. In 1672 his family moved to London, and then in 1674 to the Irish port town of Youghal. Jonathan Swift (now well-known for his work Gulliver's Travels) was a few years ahead in college. At Trinity College Congreve became a devotee of the theatre. He moved to London, and soon became a member of one of the literary circles that met at Will's Coffeehouse; here he met John Dryden. Congreve's first play The Old Bachelor (1693) became an instant hit. His other works are The Double Dealer (1693), Love for Love (1695), The Way of the World (1700), this last being his masterpiece. But ironically The Way of the World did not meet with the expected success, because the audience thought the satire was too sharp, and they were not comfortable with it. After that Congreve didn't write. Congreve in his comedies gave new emphasis to sententiousness, feeling, and melodrama.

Love for Love
This play looks back in atmosphere and relative formal freedom to The Old Bachelor. The Double Dealer has presented an upper-class society, physically contained within a country-house. Love for Love is set within the middle and merchant classes. Love is more important than the legacy-intrigue in this play, unlike in the two earlier plays.

The play opens with Valentine imprisoned in his chamber by the heavy debts he has incurred in his attempts to win Angelica, a rich heiress. The first four Acts are taken up with Valentine's rejection of the earlier answers supplied by Restoration comedy for men in his dilemma. In Act I, Valentine tries out various role - that of the wise man scorning poverty, that of the poet, that of the railer. (To rail here means to utter bitter complaint against someone.) Debarred from all means of livelihood except inherited wealth, Valentine has only two alternatives. He first asks his father's mercy, but Sir Sampson's refusal brings about a struggle between father and son. Valentine is driven to his last resort, trickery. His feigned madness is the climax of his attempts to free himself from his debts in order to win Angelica. Only when such attempts have failed completely can the plot be resolved. Finally, convinced that Angelica really wishes to marry his father, he gives up his pursuit of her. Angelica now admits her love for him; she realises that, in signing away his inheritance , Valentine has performed a most generous act. Angelica's affectation of pretending indifference to Valentine until he has acted generously, re-defines the problems traditionally set by the comedy of manners. Her dominance and her persistent refusal of Valentine as long as he seemed to be worldly, conclude in the statement that love require love in return, and not a reconciliation between love and material interest.

Love for Love is in many respects more reminiscent of the Jonsonian comedy of humours than the Restoration comedy of manners; the devices of an impoverished gallant to avoid his creditors and restore his fortunes as well as to win the love of his mistress, the war between the generations represented by the conflict between Valentine and his unloving father, type characters such as the bluff sailor, the credulous astrologer, the witty and resourceful servant, the awkward country girl, the boastful beau - all this suggests not only Jonson but at time also Plautus. The element of satire in the play is not, however, truly Jonsonian: the exposure of sophisticated manner in the scene where Mr Tattle teaches Prue, the country girl, the importance of saying one thing and doing another brings into the open the contrast between public reputation and private behaviour which is implicit in so many of the Restoration wit-combats. Love for Love is the most satirical of all Congreve's plays: in the prologue Congreve deliberately stated his intention of lashing the age.

Plot Summary
Act 1
Valentine Legend, a gentleman without means, is in his chamber and is trying to avoid his many creditors. He tells his servant Jeremy about his desperate financial situation and his plans to become a playwright; he also confesses that he intends to court Angelica. Scandal, Valentine's best friend, enters and mocks both the resolutions of Valentine (to become a writer and to court Angelica). Then several creditors and Trapland enter; they demand to be paid but they only find Jeremy's false promises. At this point a message from Valentine's father, Sir Sampson Legend, offers a painful way out of his poverty: to hand over his rights of inheritance to his younger brother for four thousand pounds. (Ben, Valentine's younger brother, has recently returned from abroad.) Valentine complains but finally accepts the deal as the only possible way to get rid of his creditors and to continue his courtship of Angelica. The Tattle, a pretender to all ladies and a gossip, and Mrs Frail, a relative of Angelica, enter; they all engage in a witty conversation about female reputation and marriage. Scandal closes Act 1 by mocking Valentine's project of gaining back his mistress "with a losing hand."

Act 2
The action moves to Foresight's house. His niece, Angelica, asks him for his coach and horses only to find an angry refusal. He argues he must keep her at home on account of a prognostication he has read in the stars. Then Angelica threatens to expose him as a fake astrologer and runs away as Sir Sampson enters. He has come to pursue the marriage arrangements between his son Ben - now his official heir - and Foresight's daughter, Miss Prue. Valentine arrives expecting to find Angelical but meet, once more, his father's accusations. As they leave Mrs Foresight and her sister, Mrs Frail, arrive. They chide each other for their impudence but finally resolve to make peace and see to their real problems: Mrs Frail wants to marry Ben Legend, now a suitable wealthy match, but first she will have to break up his engagement with Miss Prue. In order to do so she has been fostering the young girl’s infatuation with Tattle. So as these two characters come on stage, the two ladies leave them alone. Tattle instructs Prue about the right attitudes of fashionable ladies when courted.

Act 3
Still at Foresight's house, Valentine accuses Angelica of inconstancy and leaves as his friend Scandal promises to help him. When Ben Legend arrives he proves a rude fellow without manners but Mrs Frail, who is ready to take advantage of the situation, praises his plain humour and flirts with him until Sir Sampson asks everybody to leave Ben and Prue alone. This encounter proves a complete disaster: Prue rejects him and confesses she is in love with Tattle, and Ben retaliates speaking of his admiration for Frail; after a strong argument they call off their marriage. Scandal enters to tell Sir Sampson and Foresight that Valentine has suddenly taken ill and has some secrets to reveal to both of them. Sir Sampson fears a trick but Foresight is too much intrigued by the prospect of Valentine's newly acquired visionary powers. As Mrs Foresight enters, Scandal flirts with her and she arranges to meet him later in her room; in the meantime, Frail and Ben agree to marry but she asks him to keep it secret until he secures his estate.

Act 4
Act four takes place at Valentine's lodgings. Angelica, who has heard news of his mental illness, feels guilty. Nevertheless she immediately suspects the truth and leaves. Sir Sampson comes in with a lawyer in order to make Valentine sign off his primogeniture rights; now Scandal's plan comes to the open: as Sir Sampson demands his signature, Valentine speaks and behaves madly. The lawyer consequently declares him non compos mentis and the legal transaction impossible. Sampson leaves in a rage as Foresight, his wife and Mrs Frail enter to pay a visit to Valentine. As they learn the latest news Frail reconsiders her marriage to Ben. So when Ben tells her he has informed his father he will marry for love, she accuses him of ill-treating his father and calls off her love promises. But she is determined to marry an estate and Sir Sampson's fury against his two sons looks like a potential path to get the old gentleman to marry her. But Mrs Foresight comes up with a better plan. Now that Valentine is insane but keeps his rights of inheritance, they will try to make him marry Frail. In the meantime, Tattle tries to court Angelica, but she manages to get rid of him and the rest of the company. When Valentine and Angelical are left alone, Valentine tells her the truth about his madness and about his renewed love for her, only to be challenged by Angelica's wit.

Act 5
At Foresight's house, Angelica meets Sir Sampson and tells him she is ready to marry and asks his advice to find someone who is neither "an absolute with nor a fool." She also confesses that Valentine is feigning his madness, and suggests a plan: to let Valentine know she and Sir Sampson are about to get married; this will force him to reveal the truth if he wants to stop them. Sir Sampson apparently agrees, but in fact has decided to marry her himself. Angelica asks him to provide a special settlement to secure an estate for her descendants instead of his two sons. In the meantime, Jeremy pretends to help Tattle meet Angelical and advises him to disguise himself as a friar since she will be dressed as a nun. The Foresight enters and informs the company that his daughter Prue will not marry Ben and has chosen Tattle; but Tattle refuses to mary her. Angelica, Sir Sampson and the lawyer enter and announce their engaement. Then Tattle and Frail enter and complain that Jeremy has tricked them into marrying each other. Finally Valentine, Scandal and Jeremy come in, and Valentine declares his ready to sign off his rights, as his counterfeited madness has proved useless to gain Angelica. At this point Angelica admits that she loves Valentine. Sir Sampson leaves in anger, while the rest of the cast join in a dance.

(Sources: Ramji Lall, introduction to the play [Delhi: Surjeet Publications, 2011] xix-xx, xxiii; and http://institucional.us.es/restoration/samples/love_for_love.pdf.)