William Congreve
William Congreve
William Congrevewas an English playwright and poet...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPlaywright
Date of Birth24 January 1670
anger fury heaven hell love nor rage woman
Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.
bred education pedantic servant tis
Tis well enough for a servant to be bred at an university: but the education is a little too pedantic for a gentleman.
A wit should be no more sincere than a woman constant.
alluring couch disorder meet rise
Rise to meet him in a pretty disorder - yes- O, nothing is more alluring than a levee from a couch in some confusion.
leisure married repent
Married in haste, we may repent at leisure.
almost looks sweet treats whom
Whom she refuses, she treats still / With so much sweet behaviour, / That her refusal, through her skill, / Looks almost like a favour.
men rest wives
Wife, spouse, my dear, joy, jewel, love, sweet-heart and the rest of that nauseous cant, in which men and their wives are so fulsomely familiar.
heart marry purely rid
I could find it in my heart to marry thee, purely to be rid of thee.
aversion care chiefly impress infancy initiate rudiments sight tender virtue
I chiefly made it my own care to initiate her very infancy in the rudiments of virtue, and to impress upon her tender years a young odium and aversion to the very sight of men.
estate good man sir
If I marry, Sir Sampson, I'm for a good estate with any man, and for any man with a good estate.
pale till veracity
If I have not fretted myself till I am pale again, there's no veracity in me.
left
You were about to tell me something, child, but you left off before you began.
revenge hate one-day
She once used me with that insolence, that in revenge I took her to pieces; sifted her, and separated her failings; I studied 'em, and got 'em by rote. The catalogue was so large, that I was not without hopes, one day or other to hate her heartily.
honor enemy half
Honor is a public enemy, and conscience a domestic, and he that would secure his pleasure, must pay a tribute to one and go halves with t'other.