Thus  from  the  past,  we  hope  for  future  grace  j

I  beg  it

And  some  here  know  I  have  a  begging  face.'

The  king  himself  completed  the  success  of  the  opening  by
attending  it,  and  the  theatre  in  Lincoln's  Inn  Fields  might
have  ruined  the  older  house,  if  it  had  not  been  for  the
rapidity  with  which  Vanbrugh  and  Gibber,  who  wrote  for  Old


CONCRETE  ABANDONS  THE  DRAMA.        137

Drury,  managed  to  concoct  their  pieces  ;  while  Congreve  was
a  slower,  though  perhaps  better,  writer.  '  Love  for  Love '
was  nereafter  a  favourite  of  Betterton's,  and  when  in  1709,  a
year  before  his  death,  the  company  gave  the  old  man — then  in
ill  health,  poor  circumstances,  and  bad  spirits — a  benefit,  he
chose  this  play,  and  himself,  though  more  than  seventy,  acted
the  part  of  Valentine,  supported  by  Mrs.  Bracegirdle  as
Angelina,  and  Mrs.  Barry  as  Frail.
The  young  dramatist,  with  all  his  success,  was  not  satisfied
with  his  fame,  and  resolved  to  show  the  world  that  he  had  as
much  poetry  as  wit  in  him.  This  he  failed  to  do ;  and,  like
better  writers,  injured  his  own  fame,  by  not  being  contented
with  what  he  had.  Congreve — the  wit,  the  dandy,  the  man
about  town — took  it  into  his  head  to  write  a  tragedy.  In
1697  'The  Mourning  Bride'  was  acted  at  the  Tennis  Court
Theatre.  The  author  was  wise  enough  to  return  to  his  former
muse,  and  some  time  after  produced  his  best  piece,  so  some
think,  '  The  Way  of  the  World,'  which  was  also  performed  by
Betterton's  company ;  but,  alas !  for  overwriting — that  ca-
coethes  of  imprudent  men — it  was  almost  hissed  off  the  stage.
