Special Collections

Book of the Month, January 2010

The First-[Third] Volume of the Works of Mr. William Congreve
William Congreve
L ondon: Printed for Jacob Tonson, 1710
[S.L.] I [Congreve - 1710]

This three-volume work is the first set of collected works of the dramatist William Congreve (1679-1729). It is notable for having been edited by Congreve himself, with various alterations. It includes some work for the first time – notably the opera Semele – and Congreve carefully revises plays which had been rushed through for publication in the 1690s, as he explains in his preface:

‘This edition … is … the least faulty impression, which has yet been printed; in which, care has been taken both to revise the press, and to review and correct many passages in the writing’.

 and:

‘It will hardly be deny’d, that it is both a respect due to the publick, and a right which every man owes to himself, to endeavour that what he has written, may appear with as few faults, as he is capable of avoiding. The consideration alone, were sufficient to have occasion’d this edition; but it has been hasten’d by another motive, which is, that these five plays, have lately undergone a spurious impression, and have been very faulty, as well as very indirectly published, in a volume less than this; in prejudice both to the author, and the bookseller who has the property of the copy.’

That the works were published by Jacob Tonson signifies Congreve’s status: Tonson’s other publications included the works of Dryden and Milton and the most popular play of the period, Addison’s Cato, and shrewd business practice and first-class literature rendered him a prestigious publisher.

Three of the four works in Volume Two, shown here, are significant. The Mourning Bride, produced in 1697 and adapted in various ways here, is Congreve’s only tragedy and his major poetic work of the 1690s. It gained instant popularity and remained a favourite throughout the eighteenth century. Semele was designed to revive and develop a specifically English operatic tradition, while The Way of the World is not only Congreve’s last major comedy, but is often considered the culmination of Restoration comedy.

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