William Congreve
William Congreve
William Congrevewas an English playwright and poet...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionPlaywright
Date of Birth24 January 1670
bliss grateful hours oft present though
In hours of bliss we oft have met:They could not always last;And though the present I regret,I'm grateful for the past.
bliss grateful hours oft present though
In hours of bliss we oft have met: They could not always last; And though the present I regret, I'm grateful for the past.
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.
boxes cheering ears fill happier hearts lives love sealed speak tenderness thrilled until words
Do not keep the alabaster boxes of your love and tenderness sealed up until your friends are dead. Fill their lives with sweetness, speak cheering words while their ears can hear, and while their hearts can be thrilled and made happier by them.
branch fellows flood wash
A branch of one of your antediluvian families, fellows that the flood could not wash away.
left
You were about to tell me something, child, but you left off before you began.
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.
A wit should be no more sincere than a woman constant.
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.
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.