The Works of William Congreve

D. F. McKenzie was the leading bibliographer of his generation, and his Panizzi Lectures on 'Bibliography and the Sociology of Texts' revolutionized Anglo-American approaches to bibliography and the history of the book. He was a most stimulating and influential teacher: at the Victoria University of Wellington, where he was Professor of English Language and Literature 1969-87, and in Oxford, as Lyell Reader in Bibliography and as Professor of Bibliography and Textual Criticism. He was the driving force in the planning of the multi-volume Cambridge History of the Book in Britain. The McKenzie Trust was established after his death to promote excellence in teaching and research and there is an annual McKenzie Lecture in Oxford in June.

• Congreve's Preface ; Plays: The Old Batchelor, The Double-Dealer, and Love for Love ; Music: The Old Batchelor, The Double-Dealer, and Love for Love ; Commentary:The Old Batchelor, The Double-Dealer, and Love for Love ; Early Performers ; Acknowledgements ; Textual Introduction ; Note on this Edition ; Early Editions and Variant Readings: The Old Batchelor, The Double-Dealer, and Love for Love ; Abbreviations and Works Frequently Cited

The new edition of [Congreve's] works, edited by D.F. McKenzie, does him full justice. It identifies and explains every topical allusion and informs us of every word that has slightly changed its meaning during the intervening centuries. All that Congreve wrote is printed in an accurate text, and everything written or said about him during his lifetime is made available. His debt to his predecessors, including Shakespeare and Ben Jonson, is acknowledged and displayed.