William Congreve - Famous Lines

Famous Lines

Two of Congreve's turns of phrase from The Mourning Bride (1697) have become famous, albeit frequently in misquotation:

  • "Music has charms to soothe a savage breast," which is the first line of the play, spoken by Almeria in Act I, Scene 1. (The word "breast" is often misquoted as "beast", and "has" sometimes appears as "hath".)
  • "Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned," spoken by Zara in Act III, Scene VIII. (This is usually paraphrased as "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned")

Congreve coined another famous phrase in Love for Love (1695):

  • "O fie, miss, you must not kiss and tell."

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Famous quotes containing the words famous and/or lines:

    “When I was bound apprentice, in famous Lincolnshire,
    Full well I served my master for more than seven year,
    Till I took up poaching, as you shall quickly hear:
    Oh, ‘tis my delight on a shining night, in the season of the year.”
    —Unknown. The Lincolnshire Poacher (l. 1–4)

    “His more memorable passages are as naturally bright as gleams of sunshine in misty weather. Nature furnishes him not only with words, but with stereotyped lines and sentences from her mint.”
    —Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)