WILLIAM, the celebrated English dramatist, was a younger brother of an ancient family in Staffordshire. His father was employed as steward on the estates of the Earl of Burlington in Ireland, where he resided many years; and there the future poet was born in 1672. Young Congreve, when he came to England, entered into the Middle Temple, and began to study the law; but the bent of his mind soon attracted him to polite literature and poetry. His first performance was a novel entitled Incognita, or Love and Duty reconciled. He soon afterwards began his comedy of the Old Bachelor, which, though merely the amusement of his leisure hours during a slow recovery from illness, yet was in itself so perfect, that Dryden is said to have declared he had never in his life seen such a first play. When brought on the stage in 1693, it met with universal approbation, and established his fame as a writer of dramatic poetry. It procured him the friendship of Lord Halifax, and elicited a peculiar mark of distinction from Queen Mary. In the following year, he produced the Double Dealer, which, for reasons which are not so obvious, did not meet with so much success as its predecessor. In 1695 his comedy of Love for Love was produced at the opening of the new theatre in Lincoln's Inn Fields, and met with such triumphant success that he was immediately offered a share in the management of the house, provided he would furnish them with one play yearly. This offer he accepted; but whether through indolence, or from that fastidiousness which made him elaborate his works, his Mourning Bride did not appear till 1697, nor his Way of the World till two years afterwards. The indifferent reception which the latter of these met with from the public completed that disgust for the theatre already forced on him by a long contest with Jeremy Collier in regard to the moralities of the English stage and some of his own pieces in particular, and determined Congreve to write no more for the stage. He seems, however, to have abandoned literary composition altogether, as the only pieces written after this period consist of small and fragmentary poems, all of which have been preserved as memorials of this celebrated dramatist. This apathy in regard to literary pursuits seems to have been increased, if it were not produced, by the influence in which his earlier efforts had placed him. Through the friendship of Lord Halifax he was appointed one of the commissioners for licensing hackney coaches, or, according to Coxeter, a commissioner of the wine license. Lord Halifax also bestowed on him a place in the pipe-office, and not long afterwards gave him a situation in the customs worth £600 per annum; while in the year 1718 he was appointed secretary of Jamaica; so that his income, towards the latter part of his life, was upwards of £1200 a-year. The greater part of the last twenty years of his life was spent in ease and retirement; and he either ceased, or affected to cease, caring for his reputation. His conduct in this matter seems to have proceeded in a great measure from pride, as may be seen from the following anecdote related of him by Cibber:—"When the celebrated Voltaire was in England, he waited upon Mr Congreve, and passed some compliments upon the merit and reputation of his works. Congreve thanked him, but at the same time told that ingenious foreigner that he did not choose to be considered as an author, but only as a private gentleman, and in that light expected to be visited. Voltaire answered, that if he had never been anything but a private gentleman, in all probability he had never been troubled with that visit." Voltaire observes, in his own account of the interview, that he was not a little disgusted with so unseasonable a piece of vanity.

Congreve towards the close of his life was much afflicted with gout and blindness. His death, which took place January 19, 1729, was hastened by a fall from his carriage while residing at Bath for the benefit of the waters. He was buried in Westminster Abbey.

"Congreve," says Dr Johnson, "has merit of the highest kind. He is an original writer, who borrowed neither the models of his plot nor the manner of his dialogue. He formed a peculiar idea of comic excellence, which he supposed to consist in gay remarks and unexpected answers; but that which he endeavoured he seldom failed of performing. His scenes exhibit not much of humour, imagery, or passion; his personages are a kind of intellectual gladiators; every sentence is to ward or to strike; the contest of smartness is never intermitted; his wit is a meteor playing to and fro with alternate coruscations. His comedies have therefore, in some degree, the operation of tragedies; they surprise rather than divert, and raise admiration oftener than merriment. But they are the works of a mind replete with images, and quick in combination." It may be added, that their licentiousness and immorality have been severely but justly censured. Of Congreve's miscellaneous poetry nothing favourable can be said. His powers seem to desert him when he leaves the stage, and he becomes feeble, impotent, and dull, without elevation of fancy, selection of language, or skill in versification.

There is an elegant edition of his works in three volumes 8vo, printed by Baskerville in 1761.

Congreve, Sir William, Bart., (1772–1828), inventor of the rocket called by his name, was member of parliament successively for Gatton and Plymouth. He was also a general of artillery, and co-operated with the Duke of York in reforming the British army. He wrote an Elementary Treatise on the Mounting of Naval Ordnance (Lond. 1812); and a Description of the Hydro-pneumatic Lock (Lond. 1815). He died at Toulouse in 1828.

The Congreve rockets, first used against Boulogne in 1806, are of various dimensions, and differently armed, as they are intended for the field or for bombardment. Those of the former class carry shells or case-shot; those of the latter are armed with a very combustible material contained in a strong metallic cylindrical case with a conical head. When once inflamed, this substance is unextinguishable, it scatters its burning particles in every direction, and when spent, the ball explodes like a grenade. The rocket is projected horizontally, and makes a loud whizzing noise in its passage through the air. The ammunition used varies from 6 to 42 lbs. and upwards. These rockets were certainly a very important invention; but from their liability to deflection and other defects, they are now regarded as less advantageous than the ordinary red-hot shot and bombs. The secret of their composition also is not so great as to defy imitation by foreign artillerists.