<DIV>If seventeenth- and eighteenth-century comedy differ in that the former<br>is about sex (and adultery actually happens) while the latter is about<br>love (and adultery is merely threatened), then Congreve - writing at<br>the turn of the century - occupies a phase of transition. Mirabell is<br>no saint, but he deserves the title of 'hero' for masterminding the<br>action with the same wit and humanity with which the dramatist designed<br>the play. Mirabell is both financially and amorously interested in the<br>skittish Millamant, who declares that she might, with certain provisos,<br>'dwindle into a wife'. The introduction to this edition clarifies the<br>playwright's and his characters' highly intricate plotting and argues<br>that the key metaphor of the play is card-playing, in which fortune,<br>cunning, concealment and a high trump drawn from the sleeve at the<br>right moment will win the game - and the heiress.</DIV>