The Way of the World

FAINALL: Satire, he thinks, you ought not to expect;

For so reformed a town who dares correct?

To please this time has been his sole pretense;

He will not instruct, lest it should give offense.

Should he by chance a knave or fool expose

That hurts none here; sure here are none of those.

One complaint against “moral” comedies was that the characters too explicitly try to explain what is moral or immoral, and Congreve dispels this criticism in advance by noting that none of the characters can instruct on morality. However, the satirical point of the Prologue is that all the characters are fools, so each member of the audience is likely to relate to at least one character even if they do not realize it.

MIRABELL: You are a fortunate man, Mr. Fainall.

FAINALL: Have we done?

MIRABELL: What you please. I’ll play on to entertain you.

FAINALL: No, I’ll give you your revenge another time, when you are not so indifferent; you are thinking of something else now, and play too negligently. The coldness of a losing gamester lessens the pleasure of the winner. I’d no more play with a man that slighted his ill fortune then I’d make love to a woman who undervalued the loss of her reputation.

This opening passage foreshadows the events of the play, as Fainall does not want to play cards against Mirabell, who seems disinterested. For the remainder of the play, Mirabell gets his “revenge” through the competing schemes to secure Lady Wishfort’s wealth. Fainall ironically pairs this comment with a comparison to women’s reputations, which he will later use to try a last effort at winning against Mirabell’s scheme.

MIRABELL: I did as much as a man could, with any reasonable conscience. I proceeded to the very last act of flattery with her, and was guilty of a song in her commendation. Nay, I got a friend to put her into a lampoon, and compliment her with the imputation of an affair with a young fellow, which I carried so far, that I told her the malicious town took notice that she was grown fat of a sudden; and when she lay in of a dropsy, persuaded her she was reported to be in labor. The devil’s in’t, if an old woman is to be flattered further, unless a man should endeavor downright personally to debauch her; and that my virtue forbade me. But for the discovery of that amour, I am indebted to your friend, or your wife’s friend, Mrs. Marwood.

Mirabell’s scheme, prior to the events of the play, involves an extensive plot to convince Lady Wishfort he wanted to marry her rather than Millamant. This passage highlights the extent of this plan, but it ends with an accusation that Fainall is the person responsible for the plot’s failure. By noting Mrs. Marwood as Fainall’s friend, Mirabell implies that Fainall told Marwood to reveal the plan and thwart Mirabell’s desires.

MIRABELL: I’ll tell thee, Fainall, she once used me with that insolence, that in revenge I took her to pieces; sifted her and separated her failings; I studied ‘em, and got ‘em by rote. The catalogue was so large that I was not without hopes one day or other to hate her heartily: to which end I so used myself to think of ‘em that at length contrary to my design and expectation, they gave me every hour less and less disturbance; till in a few days it became habitual for me to remember ‘em without being displeased.

Mirabell’s story of how he fell in love with Millamant follows an unconventional route. Rather than enjoying Millamant’s positive qualities, he focuses on her flaws until they become the objects of his affection. This passage foreshadows Mirabell’s later discussion with Millamant about marriage, in which they heartily disagree and yet agree to get married.

MIRABELL: He is a fool with a good memory and some few scraps of other folks’ wit. He is one whose conversation can never be approved, yet it is now and then to be endured. He has indeed one good quality, he is not exceptious, for he so passionately affects the reputation of understanding raillery, that he will construe an affront into a jest, and downright rudeness and ill language satire and fire.

Mirabell’s criticism of Witwoud is that he is unoriginal rather than that his comparisons are entirely false. A “high wit” would be characterized by a strong comparison of both fact and concept, whereas Witwoud can only make factual comparisons, or “low wit.” Still, Mirabell concedes that Witwoud is a peaceful person, which makes his pretend wit an asset in maintaining decorum. These complicated and sometimes arbitrary social customs drive home how performative many of the expectations of upper-class society are.

PETULANT: Not I, by this hand! I always take blushing either for a sign of guilt or ill-breeding.

MIRABELL: I confess you ought to think so. You are in the right, that you may plead the error of your judgment in defense of your practice.

Where modesty’s ill manners, ’tis but fit

That impudence and malice pass for wit.

This passage displays the dramatic irony of Mirabell’s critiques of Petulant and Witwoud. Though Mirabell would be correct in criticizing Petulant and Witwoud’s mistakes of wit, modesty, impudence, and malice, the play centers on how Mirabell and Fainall use modesty and manners to disguise their own malice. In short, for Mirabell and Fainall, modesty and good manners also make impudence and malice pass for wit.

MRS. FAINALL: Then it seems you dissemble an aversion to mankind, only in compliance with my mother’s humour.

MRS. MARWOOD: Certainly. To be free, I have no taste of those insipid dry discourses with which our sex of force must entertain themselves, apart from men. We may affect endearments to each other, profess eternal friendships, and seem to dote like lovers; but ‘tis not in our natures long to persevere. Love will resume his empire in our breasts; and every heart, or soon or late, receive and readmit him as its lawful tyrant.

Mrs. Marwood explicitly criticizes feminine friendships in the Restoration period here, which stands out against Congreve’s other, more veiled criticisms of society. Marwood notes how women’s friendships seem superficial, noting the need to pretend agreement to maintain these connections. Though Marwood later recants this view, her point carries throughout the novel, since none of the women involved truly hate men, and few of the characters of any gender are consistently honest.

FAINALL: Your fame I have preserved. Your fortune has been bestowed as the prodigality of your love would have it, in pleasures which we both have shared. […] And wherefore did I marry, but to make a lawful prize of a rich widow’s wealth, and squander it on love and you?

MRS. MARWOOD: Deceit and frivolous pretense!

Fainall’s outline of his plan follows that he wants to secure both Millamant and Mrs. Fainall’s money to share with Marwood. However, since Fainall is overall dishonest, Marwood accuses him of lying to her as well. This passage highlights the challenge of maintaining these schemes, as they make it hard for even one’s true friends to know whether one might betray them.

MIRABELL: Why do we daily commit disagreeable and dangerous actions? To save that idol, reputation. If the familiarities of our loves had produced that consequence of which you were apprehensive, where could you have fixed a father’s name with credit, but on a husband? I knew Fainall to be a man lavish of his morals, an interested and professing friend, a false and a designing lover; yet one whose wit and outward fair behavior have gained a reputation with the town enough to make that woman stand excused who has suffered herself to be won by his addresses. A better man ought not to have been sacrificed to the occasion; a worse had not answered to the purpose. When you are weary of him, you know your remedy.

Mirabell highlights two critical components of the gendered differences in Restoration society and underscores The Complexities of Gender Dynamics in Personal and Financial Power. First, reputation is the best possible credit, and it is even more crucial for women, who rely on reputation to maintain the respect of men. Second, men have the ultimate control over finances, meaning Mrs. Fainall needed to get married to fully enjoy her own wealth. The end of this passage foreshadows Mirabell’s control over Mrs. Fainall’s wealth, which he returns to her in the end of the play.

MIRABELL: I have something more—Gone! Think of you! To think of a whirlwind, though ‘twere in a whirlwind, were a case of more steady contemplation; a very tranquility of mind and mansion. A fellow that lives in a windmill has not a more whimsical dwelling than the heart of a man that is lodged in a woman. There is no point of the compass to which they cannot turn, and by which they are not turned; and by one as well as another, for motion, not method, is their occupation. To know this, and yet continue to be in love, is to be made wise from the dictates of reason, and yet persevere to play the fool by the force of instinct.

Mirabell’s comparison of Millamant to a whirlwind and love to a compass displays his internal conflict at genuinely falling in love with Millamant. Generally, Mirabell is a rational person, and his love for Millamant has confused and frightened him in the way it makes him choose courses that may not be safe, sure, or ethical. Instead, he must use his instincts to fight for an outcome that results in marrying Millamant, with or without her money.

LADY WISHFORT: Let me see the glass. Cracks, say’st thou? Why I am arrantly flayed; I look like an old peeled wall. Thou must repair me, Foible, before Sir Rowland comes, or I shall never keep up to my picture.

FOIBLE: I warrant you, madam, a little art once made your picture like you; and now a little of the same art must make you like your picture. Your picture must sit for you, madam.

Lady Wishfort and Foible’s discussion of makeup centers on the difficulties of Lady Wishfort’s desire to get remarried. She uses outdated portraits to draw in a suitor, then she needs makeup to make her look like she does in her pictures. This exchange is Congreve’s critique of both The Manipulation of Appearances for Personal Gain and the dishonesty required in navigating social circumstances.

LADY WISHFORT: But art thou sure Sir Rowland will not fail to come? Or will he not fail when he does come? Will he be importunate, Foible, and push? For if he should not be importunate, I shall never break decorum. I shall die with confusion, if I am forced to advance. Oh no, I can never advance! I shall swoon if he should expect advances. No, I hope Sir Rowland is better bred than to put a lady to the necessity of breaking her forms. I won’t be too coy neither. I won’t give him despair; but a little disdain is not amiss, a little scorn is alluring.

In addition to makeup, which physically disguises Lady Wishfort’s age, she also debates how to behave around Sir Rowland. Her focus on decorum and when or how to break decorum shows the hindrance of desire in social norms. While she would like to simply assert her interest in Rowland, she must wait for him to show interest before she can make a move. In fact, her conclusion that “a little scorn is alluring” indicates that she might feign disinterest to provoke Rowland, even though it would be dishonest.

Song, set by Mr. John Eccles and sung by Mrs. Hodgson

I

Love’s but the frailty of the mind,

When ‘tis not with ambition joined;

A sickly flame, which, if not fed, expires,

And feeding, wastes in self-consuming fires.

II

‘Tis not to wound a wanton boy

Or amorous youth, that gives the joy;

But ‘tis the glory to have pierced the swain,

For whom inferior beauties sighed in vain.

III

Then I alone the conquest prize,

When I insult a rival’s eyes;

If there’s delight in love, ‘tis when I see

That heart, which others bleed for, bleed for me.

Millamant requests this song while arguing with Marwood, whom she knows was interested in Mirabell. This song calls into question whether Millamant actually loves Mirabell or if she wants him solely because she is proud to win a man that other women want. The opening stanza criticizes love like Mirabell does, but unlike Mirabell’s perspective, the final stanza maintains a lack of interest in love in favor of manipulation.

FAINALL: Jealous! No, by this kiss. Let husbands be jealous; but let the lover still believe. Or if he doubt, let it be only to endear his pleasure, and prepare the joy that follows, when he proves his mistress true. But let husbands’ doubts convert to endless jealousy; or if they have belief, let it corrupt to superstition and blind credulity. I am single, and will herd no more with ‘em. True, I wear the badge, but I’ll disown the order. And since I take my leave of ‘em, I care not if I leave ‘em a common motto to their common crest:

All husbands must or pain or shame endure;

The wise too jealous are, fools too secure.

Fainall claims he is not jealous of Mirabell, knowing that Mrs. Fainall had an affair with him and that Marwood was attracted to him. Fainall’s argument essentially follows that he is uninterested, since any true husband must either be jealous or unaware of his foolishness. This argument is inherently misogynistic, since it assumes that all women will cheat on their husbands, either because of their husband’s jealousy or security.

LADY WISHFORT: Well, and how shall I receive him? In what figure shall I give his heart the first impression? There is a great deal in the first impression. Shall I sit? —No, I won’t sit—I’ll walk—aye, I’ll walk from the door upon his entrance; and then turn full upon him. —No, that will be too sudden. I’ll lie—aye, I’ll lie down—I’ll receive him in my little dressing room; there’s a couch—yes, yes, I’ll give the first impression on a couch. —I won’t lie neither, but loll and lean upon one elbow, with one foot a little dangling off, jogging in a thoughtful way—yes—and then as soon as he appears, start, aye, start and be surprised, and rise to meet him in a pretty disorder—yes—oh, nothing is more alluring than a levee from a couch in some confusion.

Part of the humor of Lady Wishfort’s character is that she acts like a young woman, as seen in this passage. Her debate on how to sit, act, and address Rowland reads much like modern teen dramas, in which young women might be seen posturing or affecting airs to give a specific impression to a romantic interest. Lady Wishfort, despite her age, acts this way because she is most interested in romance, even if it is “childish” to the audience.

MILLAMANT: As liberty to pay and receive visits to and from whom I please; to write and receive letters, without interrogatories or rye faces on your part; to wear what I please; and choose conversation with regard only to my own taste; to have no obligation upon me to converse with wits that I don’t like, because they are your acquaintance; or to be intimate with fools, because they may be your relations. Come to dinner when I please; dine in my dressing room when I’m out of humour, without giving a reason. To have my closet inviolate; to be sole empress of my tea table, which you must never presume to approach without first asking leave. And lastly, wherever I am, you shall always knock at the door before you come in.

Millamant’s demands in marriage focus on independence and the desire to run her own life as she pleases. Her specific demands are largely social, such as wanting to see and speak with her friends while avoiding uninteresting or foolish company. Her desire for privacy, too, highlights the prior discussions in the play on infidelity, as her demand that Mirabell knock before entering imply that she might be with someone else. This passage emphasizes the complexities of gender dynamics in personal and financial power, given how vastly her requests differ from Mirabell’s; success and freedom take are perceived differently by the two lovers.

MIRABELL: I thank you. Imprimis, then, I covenant that your acquaintance be general; that you admit no sworn confidante, or intimate of your own sex; no she-friend to screen her affairs under your countenance, and tempt you to make trial of a mutual secrecy. No decoy-duck to wheedle you a fop, scrambling to the play in a mask; then bring you home in a pretended fright, when you think you shall be found out, and rail at me for missing the play, and disappointing the frolic which you had, to pick me up and prove my constancy.

MILLAMANT: Detestable imprimis! I go to the play in a mask!

Mirabell’s use of legal language arranges his demands in the frame of a contract, and his primary concerns are controlling Millamant’s behavior. However, the Restoration audience would know that his demand that Millamant avoid confidantes and never go to the play in a mask references sex work and infidelity. In many Restoration comedies, including this one, affairs happen when arranged through friends, and the Restoration audience would know that women at the theater in masks are looking for sexual adventures.

LADY WISHFORT: I conjure you, Sir Rowland, by all your love, not to fight.

WAITWELL: I am charmed, madam; I obey. But some proof you must let me give you; I’ll go for a black box, which contains the writings of my whole estate, and deliver that into your hands.

LADY WISHFORT: Aye, dear Sir Rowland, that will be some comfort; Bring the black box.

WAITWELL: And may I presume to bring a contract to be signed this night? May I hope so far?

LADY WISHFORT: Bring what you will; But come alive, pray come alive. Oh, this is a happy discovery!

The discourse between Rowland and Lady Wishfort highlights her desire to see Rowland as a legitimate suitor. Even with evidence in hand that Rowland is an imposter, she chooses to believe in the theoretical “black box,” which is itself a reference to the black box of Charles II. The “real” black box was said to prove the legitimate claim of the Duke of Monmouth to the throne of England, but it was never shown to exist.

LADY WISHFORT: What, then I have been your property, have I? I have been convenient to you, it seems! While you were catering for Mirabell, I have been broker for you? What, have you made a passive bawd of me? This exceeds all precedent; I am brought to fine uses, to become a botcher of secondhand marriages between Abigails and Andrews! I’ll couple you! Yes, I’ll baste you together, you and your Philander! All Duke’s Place you, as I’m a person! Your turtle is in custody already; you shall coo in the same cage, if there be constable or warrant in the parish.

Lady Wishfort’s complaint is that she has been used like property, but she is also embarrassed to have been part of marriages between “Abigails and Andrews,” generic names used to refer to servants. Likewise, she criticizes the relationships of the other characters, despite wanting such a relationship for herself. In short, this passage shows some of Lady Wishfort’s performative aspects of social interaction; she only feigns certain beliefs or ideals insofar as they serve her. In reality, she hypocritically treats servants like property and craving a romantic partnership that she criticizes in others.

MRS. MARWOOD: Prove it, madam? What, and have your name prostituted in a public court! Yours and your daughter’s reputation worried at the bar by a pack of bawling lawyers! To be ushered in with an Oyez of scandal, and have your case opened by an old fumbling lecher in a quoif like a man midwife; to bring your daughters infamy to light; to be a theme for legal punsters and quibblers by the statute, and become a jest against a rule of court, where there is no precedent for adjust in any record, not even in Doomsday Book; to discompose the gravity of the bench, and provoke naughty interrogatories in more naughty law Latin, while the good judge, tickled with the preceding, simpers under a gray beard, and fidges off and on his cushion as if he had swallowed cantharides, or sat upon cow-itch.

Marwood paints an in-depth picture of how a court case might destroy Lady Wishfort’s reputation. Though the case could absolve Mrs. Fainall of any guilt in Fainall’s accusation of infidelity, it would also involve digging into Mrs. Fainall’s life and the lives of her family. This is also a moment of betrayal, as Marwood has been loyal to Lady Wishfort throughout the play. She encourages Lady Wishfort to give in to Fainall here because Marwood will share the money they get from the blackmail.

MIRABELL: Aye, madam, but that is too late; my reward is intercepted. You have disposed of her who only could have made me a compensation for all my services. But be it as it may, I am resolved I’ll serve you; you shall not be wronged in this savage manner.

LADY WISHFORT: How! Dear Mr. Mirabell, can you be so generous at last? But it is not possible. Harkee, I’ll break my nephew’s match; you shall have my niece yet, and all her fortune, if you can but save me from this imminent danger.

Mirabell’s attitude in this passage betrays his skill in the manipulation of appearances for personal gain. He is pretending to appear friendly and kind, when his true intention is to extort Lady Wishfort into allowing him to both marry Millamant and get her money. Lady Wishfort’s reaction is precisely what Mirabell would hope for, as she believes that Mirabell has had a change of heart and decided to help out of pure altruism.

FAINALL: Go, you are an insignificant thing! Well, what are you the better for this? Is this Mr. Mirabell’s expedient? I’ll be put off no longer. You thing, that was a wife, shall smart for this! I will not leave thee wherewithal to hide thy shame; your body shall be as naked as your reputation.

MRS. FAINALL: I despise you, and defy your malice! You have aspersed me wrongfully. I have proved your falsehood. Go you and your treacherous—I will not name it, but starve together, perish!

This argument brings out the full resentment and anger of Fainall and Mrs. Fainall’s marriage. When Mrs. Fainall says Fainall “aspersed” her wrongly, she is referring both to his accusation that she cheated on him and his initial desire to marry her. Mrs. Fainall knows that Fainall only married her for money, and her final insult—that Marwood and Fainall starve—highlights the poverty Fainall faces after this falling out.

MIRABELL: Yes, sir. I say that this lady, while a widow, having, it seems, received some cautions respecting your inconstancy and tyranny of temper, which from her own partial opinion and fondness of you she could never have suspected—she did, I say, by the wholesome advice of friends and of sages learned in the laws of this land, deliver this same as her act indeed to me in trust, and to the uses within mentioned. You may read if you please [holding out the parchment.]—though perhaps what is inscribed on the back may serve your occasions.

In Mirabell’s reveal, he prefaces handing over the documentation for the trust by insulting Fainall. The “cautions” Mrs. Fainall received are only the schemes Mirabell used to get Fainall and Mrs. Fainall to get married at all. He implies that Mrs. Fainall did love Fainall once, but his focus is on Fainall’s “inconstancy and tyranny of temper,” which would have been the warning Mirabell gave Mrs. Fainall while arranging the marriage. This passage shows that Mirabell knew long before the events of the play that he would eventually betray Fainall.