Congreve's  second  theatrical  venture  was  the  Double  Dealer,  acted  in
1694.  /  The  success  of  this  comedy  was  much  less  than  that  of  its  pred-
ecessor ;  and  the  comparative  failure  is  to  be  attributed  to  the  admix-
ture, in  the  plot,  of  characters  and  incidents  too  gloomy  and  tragic  to
harmonize  with  the  follies  and  vanities  that  form  the  woof  of  comedy.
The  wickedness  of  Lady  Touchwood  is  of  a  tint  too  funereal  to  har-
monize with  the  brilliant  and  shifting  colors  of  comedy ;  and  the  vil-
lanous  plots  of  Maskwell  are  so  intricate  and  complex  that  the  puzzled
reader  is  unable  to  follow  them.  As  in  Shakspeare's  Comedy  of  Errors,
the  confusion  between  the  two  pairs  of  twins  is  so  complete  that  the
reader,  as  much  embarrassed  as  the  personages  in  the  piece,  loses  the
thread  of  the  story,  and  therefore  the  interest  which  is  the  source  of
pleasure,  so  in  Congreve's  play  the  abstruseness  of  the  intrigue  defeats
its  own  purpose.  Many  of  the  minor  scenes  and  characters,  however,
are  full  of  comic  verve.
Congreve's  masterpiece  is  Love  for.Love,  which  was  acted  in  1695.
