Love for Love

More successful in its day than The Way of the World which is now<br/>accounted Congreve's best play Love for Love (1695) is a comical farce<br/>manifesting the verbal polish and the theatrical wit that audiences so<br/>enjoy in Congreve. Valentine Sir Sampson's dissolute eldest son finds<br/>himself at a standstill; the only way out of his financial difficulties<br/>is to give in to his father's pressure to renounce his right of<br/>inheritance. While this suggestion immediately increases the chances of<br/>his bluff younger brother Ben on the marriage mart Valentine's own<br/>chances with his beloved Angelica would proportionally decrease. To<br/>avoid having to sign the renunciation Valentine puts on an 'antic<br/>disposition' and pretends to be mad. Angelica seeing through him <br/>provokes him back into sanity by pretending to agree to marry his<br/>father. Valentine recovers the lovers reunite and Ben too has<br/>meanwhile found the girl of his heart