The Old Bachelor
Old Bachelor, The,the first comedy of Congreve , produced 1693 .
The ‘Old Bachelor’ is Heartwell, a ‘surly old pretended woman-hater’, who falls in love with Silvia, not knowing her to be the forsaken mistress of Vainlove, and is inveigled into marrying her, only discovering her true character afterwards from the gibes of his acquaintances. The parson who has been brought in to marry them, however, is in fact Vainlove's friend Bellmour, who has assumed the disguise for the purpose of an intrigue with Laetitia, the young wife of an uxorious old banker, Fondlewife; and Heartwell is relieved to find the marriage is only a pretence. The comedy includes the amusing characters of Sir Joseph Wittol, a foolish knight, who allows himself to be really married to Silvia, under the impression that she is the wealthy Araminta; and his companion, the cowardly bully Captain Bluffe, who under the same delusion is married to Silvia's maid....
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