First performed in 1693, The Double-Dealer is among the darkest of Congreve’s comedies. Maskwell, a man wholly without honour, manipulates the fashionable society around him for his own advancement — and the play’s portrait of polished villainy gives it an edge missing from lighter Restoration fare. Samuel Johnson called Congreve the best English comic dramatist; The Double-Dealer shows why the claim is arguable.
A fine example of Restoration comedy of manners, cleanly formatted in this free EPUB for any e-reader.