Epilogue Summary

The epilogue is said in the text to have been delivered by Mrs. Bracegirdle, the actress who played Millamant in one of the play's earliest productions. In the epilogue, Congreve notes that there are three types of critics. The first type of critics, he says, are always going to dislike the plays they see. The second group of critics is failed poets who will find fault with the play even though they lack the qualifications to judge another writer's work.

The final type of critic is almost like a tabloid reporter who will be looking for ways to connect Congreve's characters with real celebrities. Congreve adds that these critics should all be the subject of on-stage satire, but that doing so would inflate their sense of self-importance. He ends by saying that a good satirist (such as himself) keeps his subjects anonymous in...