Poetical Justice, The Contrivances of Providence, and the Works of William Congreve

Abstract

Some years before the appearance of William Congreve's first work in 1693, the Rev. John Tillotson, Archbishop of Canterbury, delivered a sermon in which he urged the greatest wits of his age to put aside their conceit with that scoffing humour which is so easy, and so ill-natured, and is not only an enemy to religion, but to every thing else that is wise and worthy, and to undertake instead a nobler exercise for their tongues and pens. Wit, he said, is a keen instrument, and every one can cut and gash with it, but to carve a beautiful image and to polish it requires great art and dexterity. He proposed, therefore, a subject great enough to exercise the wit of men and angels ; he proposed that they praise that infinite goodness, and almighty power, and exquisite wisdom which made us and all things, that they vindicate the wise and just providence of God, in the government of the world, and that they endeavor to make out the beauty and harmony of all the seeming discords and irregularities of the divine administrations. 1 Whether or not Congreve ever regarded this particular exhortation by one of the greatest preachers of his age is unimportant to my argument (though I should note that Congreve's library did contain at least three separate editions of Tillotsons' sermons 2) . Nevertheless, the archbishop does provide me with fit terms for my argument, which is simply this: the plays of William