Fortunately the list can be made to give information about the one who collected and used the books. We know less, perhaps, about Congreve than about any other equally significant writer of the period; and consequently, additional information about him is especially important. We have long known of course, that he made translations from the French, the Latin, and the Greek and have assumed that he read those languages. We feel more confident about the extent of his reading when we find a full fourth of his library in French, nearly a fifth in Latin, and a goodly number of volumes in Greek. About twenty titles in Italian make us reasonably sure that he read that language also. And since he had in Spanish only a Spanish-English dictionary and two Spanish books (for each of which he had a translation in another language), we may assume that his knowledge of Spanish must have been slight indeed. His deficiency in German is strongly suggested by the fact that German is represented in the list only in translation.

As a translator from the Greek and the Latin Congreve first brought himself to the attention of Dryden, who pronounced the youthful Congreve “more capable than any man I know” to translate the whole of Homer. Congreve never completed that proposed translation, but years later he was singled out by Pope for the dedication of his Homer. That Congreve’s genuine interest in the classics continued throughout his life is attested by the constant and carefully chosen additions to his library. His collection is richest in the works of Cicero, Homer, Horace, and Virgil, but he owned the collected works of many other classical authors. The breadth of his interest is shown by the fact that over sixty Greek and Latin writers are either represented in his library or referred to in his own writings. The Italian Louis Riccoboni visited Congreve in 1727 and was surprised to find that a dramatist could be so scholarly. In Congreve, he said, “Taste [was] joined with great Learning.”[1]

Certain items in the inventory tend to confirm reports that have hitherto been given little credit. One of these has to do with Congreve’s interest in horses and horseback riding, which seems to be supported by item Number 277:

The gentleman’s jockey, and approved farrier; instructing in the natures, causes, and cures of all diseases incident to horses. 8o. London, 1717.

Many people will find it difficult to associate with Congreve a special interest in horses, particularly an interest that extended beyond his youth, as suggested by the late date 1717. Another report that has seemed even less in keeping with Congreve concerns the impact of Quakerism on him. Could he have taken a special interest in one of the Quakers, visited him repeatedly, and could he have seriously considered adopting the beliefs of the Quakers? The report that he did so has not been taken seriously. But we must not overlook the fact that Congreve owned (as item Number 53 in his list) the most important document of Quakerism, the 574–page analysis and defense by Robert Barclay entitled An Apology for the True Christian Divinity as the same is Held Forth, and Preached, by the People, called in Scorn, Quakers, London, 1701 (or 1703).

Congreve did not, like his friend Jonathan Swift, lose interest in the purchase of books during the last third of his life. For Swift’s library we have an inventory made when Swift was about fifty. Another inventory at his death more than twenty-five years later showed but few additions. In the case of Congreve, the earliest inventory—the 587 items in the first hand made out about 1726—came only three years before his death. But active buying must have continued throughout his life as shown by the dates in the imprints. The thirty-one entries by the second hand seem to indicate approximately the purchases for 1727 and the forty-one entries by the third hand approximately those for 1728. Congreve was evidently an active purchaser of books from his youth and did not stop during his last years.

Congreve’s list emphasizes collected editions, especially for plays, and contains very few quartos. When he collected his works in three volumes in 1710, he apparently destroyed (at least he did not list) the earlier editions of his plays in quarto. He loved to write such ballads as the racy “Jack French-Man’s Defeat,” but he never recognized these by including them in his book list or in his collected works; nor did he list his youthful novel Incognita (1691), if indeed he had a copy of it. Such omissions were later made by men with much greater novels to their credit. In the sales catalogues listing the books of Defoe and Fielding, one looks in vain for Robinson Crusoe or Tom Jones.

But perhaps most important is the information given by the list about Congreve’s special fields of interest and the fact that the list provides likely sources for his literary work. Mention should be made of his fine collection of drama (Greek, Roman, French, and English); of some one hundred titles of literary criticism; of nearly as many carefully selected works in biography and history; of a choice collection of thirty travel books and somewhat smaller lots in medicine, music, and cookery. Many of the books might be classified under religion and philosophy. The poets, both English and foreign, are well represented. And surprisingly enough, there are more than one hundred items of prose fiction, chiefly French. The influence of this fiction, if any, on Congreve’s own Incognita, and the influence of the literary criticism on his essay Concerning Humour in Comedy, are only two of many studies that might be based on Congreve’s book list. Perhaps someone will use the works on astrology to help account for one of his humorous characters, old Foresight of Love for Love. Since many of the 659 items consist of collected works, the library is actually more extensive than the number of items might indicate. Jacob Tonson had good reason for wanting his nephew to buy Congreve’s “genteel & well chosen” library.

[ Acknowledgments]

The editor is deeply grateful to the many librarians on both sides of the Atlantic and to others who have generously assisted in the preparation of this study. A grant from the American Philosophical Society in 1949 made possible the search which incidentally turned up Congreve’s manuscript book list, and grants from the Henry E. Huntington Memorial Library (1951) and the Folger Shakespeare Library (1952) provided time and rare faculties for the editing.