Quotes from work
The Mourning Bride

The Mourning Bride

The Mourning Bride is a tragedy written by British playwright William Congreve. It premiered in 1697 at Betterton's Co., Lincoln's Inn Fields. The play centres on Zara, a queen held captive by Manuel, King of Granada, and a web of love and deception which results in the mistaken murder of Manuel who is in disguise, and Zara's also mistaken suicide in response.


William Congreve photo

“Heav'n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn'd,
Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman scorn'd.”

Act III, scene viii; often paraphrased: "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned". A similar line occurs in Love's Last Shift, by Colley Cibber, act iv.: "We shall find no fiend in hell can match the fury of a disappointed woman".
The Mourning Bride (1697)
Variant: Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned,
Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.
Context: Vile and ingrate! too late thou shalt repent
The base Injustice thou hast done my Love:
Yes, thou shalt know, spite of thy past Distress,
And all those Ills which thou so long hast mourn'd;
Heav'n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn'd,
Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman scorn'd.

William Congreve photo

“Musick has Charms to sooth a savage Breast,
To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak.”

Act I, scene i; the first lines of this passage are often rendered in modern spelling as "Music has charms to soothe a savage breast", or misquoted as: "Music hath charms to soothe the savage beast".
The Mourning Bride (1697)
Context: Musick has Charms to sooth a savage Breast,
To soften Rocks, or bend a knotted Oak.
I've read, that things inanimate have mov'd,
And, as with living Souls, have been inform'd,
By Magick Numbers and persuasive Sound.
What then am I? Am I more senseless grown
Than Trees, or Flint? O force of constant Woe!
'Tis not in Harmony to calm my Griefs.
Anselmo sleeps, and is at Peace; last Night
The silent Tomb receiv'd the good Old King;
He and his Sorrows now are safely lodg'd
Within its cold, but hospitable Bosom.
Why am not I at Peace?

William Congreve photo

Similar authors

William Congreve photo
William Congreve 35
British writer 1670–1729
Richard Brinsley Sheridan photo
Richard Brinsley Sheridan 58
Irish-British politician, playwright and writer
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield photo
Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield 65
British statesman and man of letters
Nicolas Chamfort photo
Nicolas Chamfort 54
French writer
Samuel Johnson photo
Samuel Johnson 362
English writer
Daniel Defoe photo
Daniel Defoe 43
English trader, writer and journalist
Voltaire photo
Voltaire 167
French writer, historian, and philosopher
Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues photo
Luc de Clapiers, Marquis de Vauvenargues 60
French writer, a moralist
Baltasar Gracián photo
Baltasar Gracián 31
Spanish Jesuit and baroque prose writer and philosopher
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing photo
Gotthold Ephraim Lessing 18
writer, philosopher, publicist, and art critic