Excerpt from Life and Writings of William Congreve

This is the first time that any attempt has been made to write a detailed biography of Congreve, and that circumstance may be held to excuse the intrusion of what is commonly dispensed with in the volumes of this series - a lengthy prefatory note. There can be no question that, unless fresh material should most unexpectedly turn up, the opportunity for preparing a full and picturesque life of this poet has wholly passed away. The task should have been undertaken a hundred and fifty years ago, when those were still alive who had known him personally. This occasion was unaccountably allowed to slip by, partly, no doubt, because the modern art of biography was but very poorly understood, but partly, also, because Congreve was no very fascinating or absorbing human being. Correct biographies of Pope or Swift were not published until long after the decease of those writers, yet we have no difficulty whatever in restoring them to life in fancy. But then they possessed an interesting personal quality, of which the author of The Way of the World seems to have been devoid.

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