His only tragedy, The Mourning Bride, although far below those of Shakspeare, is the best of that age; and Dr. Johnson says he would go to it to find the most poetical paragraph in the range of English poetry.  Congreve died in 1729, leaving his gains to the Duchess of Marlborough, who cherished his memory in a very original fashion.  She had a statue of him in ivory, which went by clockwork, and was daily seated at her table; and another wax-doll imitation, whose feet she caused to be blistered and anointed by physicians, as the poet’s gouty extremities had been.

Congreve was not ashamed to vindicate the drama, licentious as it was.  In the year 1698, Jeremy Collier, a distinguished nonjuring clergyman, published A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage; a very vigorous and severe criticism, containing a great deal of wholesome but bitter truth.  Congreve came to the defence of the stage, and his example was followed by his brother dramatists.  But Collier was too strong for his enemies, and the defences were very weak.  There yet existed in England that leaven of purity which has steadily since been making its influence felt.

VANBRUGH.—­Sir John Vanbrugh (born in 1666, died in 1726) was an architect as well as a dramatist, but not great in either role.  His principal dramas are The Provoked Wife, The City Wives’ Confederacy, and The Journey to London (finished by Colley Cibber).  His personages are vicious and lewd, but quite real; and his wit is constant and flowing. The Provoked Wife is so licentious a play that it is supposed Vanbrugh afterwards conceived and began his Provoked Husband to make some amends for it.  This latter play, however, he did not complete:  it was finished after his death by Cibber, who says in the Prologue: 

This play took birth from principles of truth,
To make amends for errors past of youth.

* * * * *

Though vice is natural, ’t was never meant
The stage should show it but for punishment. 
Warm with such thoughts, his muse once more took flame,
Resolved to bring licentious life to shame.

If Vanbrugh was not born in France, it is certain that he spent many years there, and there acquired the taste and handling of the comic drama, which then had its halcyon days under Moliere.  His dialogue is very spirited, and his humor is greater than that of Congreve, who, however, excelled him in wit.

The principal architectural efforts of Vanbrugh were the design for Castle Howard, and the palace of Blenheim, built for Marlborough by the English nation, both of which are greater titles to enduring reputation than any of his plays.