# Foible — The Way of the World character guide

> Foible in The Way of the World by William Congreve.

**Role:** supporting

**Also known as:** Mrs. Foible

**First appearance:** 0006-act-i

## Snapshot

Lady Wishfort's maid, who serves her mistress's vanity and Mirabell's schemes with equal fluency, inventing slander on demand and never losing her footing.

## Who they are

Foible lives by her wits in the gap between what her lady wants to hear and what her lady's enemies need her to say. Caught between Mirabell and Lady Wishfort, she improvises a tale of his insults so vivid that it turns suspicion into rage and rage into a wedding date. She matters because she is the play's engine of intrigue, the servant whose quick tongue moves the plot while her betters congratulate themselves on their own cleverness.

## Relationships

### [Lady Wishfort](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/the_way_of_the_world_se/characters/lady_wishfort)

_professional_

Foible is Lady Wishfort's maid, but secretly works against her to aid Mirabell and Mrs. Millamant.

## Links

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