Love for Love (New Mermaids)

More successful in its day than The Way of the World, which is nowaccounted Congreve's best play, Love for Love (1695) is a comical farcemanifesting the verbal polish and the theatrical wit that audiences soenjoy in Congreve. Valentine, Sir Sampson's dissolute eldest son, findshimself at a standstill; the only way out of his financial difficultiesis to give in to his father's pressure to renounce his right ofinheritance. While this suggestion immediately increases the chances ofhis bluff younger brother Ben on the marriage mart, Valentine's ownchances with his beloved Angelica would proportionally decrease. Toavoid having to sign the renunciation Valentine puts on an 'anticdisposition' and pretends to be mad. Angelica, seeing through him,provokes him back into sanity by pretending to agree to marry hisfather. Valentine recovers, the lovers reunite, and Ben, too, hasmeanwhile found the girl of his heart