The Mourning Bride

by William Congreve

William Congreve (1670-1729) was an English playwright and poet. He wrote some of the most popular English plays of the Restoration period of the late 17th century. By the age of thirty, he had written four comedies, including Love for Love (premiered 1695) and The Way of the World (premiered 1700), and one tragedy, The Mourning Bride (1697). After writing five plays from his first in 1693 until 1700, he produced no more as public tastes turned against the sort of highbrow sexual comedy of manners in which he specialized. He withdrew from the theatre and lived the rest of his life on residuals from his early work. His output from 1700 was restricted to the occasional poem and some translation (notably Molière’s Monsieur de Pourceaugnac). Other works include The Double- Dealer and Incognita; or, Love and Duty Reconcil’d.

Genres: Classics, Plays, Poetry, Fiction, 17th Century

88 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

"William Congreve was an English playwright and poet.... William Congreve wrote some of the most popular English plays of the Restoration period of the late 17th century. By the age of thirty, he had written four comedies, including Love for Love (premiered 30 April 1695) and The Way of the World (premiered 1700), and one tragedy, The Mourning Bride (1697).

Unfortunately, his career ended almost as soon as it began. After writing five plays from his first in 1693 until 1700, he produced no more as public tastes turned against the sort of high-brow sexual comedy of manners in which he specialized. He reportedly was particularly stung by a critique written by Jeremy Collier (A Short View of the Immorality and Profaneness of the English Stage), to the point that he wrote a long reply, "Amendments of Mr. Collier's False and Imperfect Citations."

A member of the Whig Kit-Kat Club, Congreve's career shifted to the political sector, where he held various minor political positions despite his stance as a Whig among Tories."

Reviews

[C.L. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Actually I enjoyed this one, although it is technically a play, not a book, but why split hairs? Better known for the quotes "Music has charms to sooth the savage beast" and "hell hath no fury like a woman scorned" than the play itself. Although the exact quotes are "Musick has Charms to sooth a savage Breast," and "Heav'n has no Rage, like Love to Hatred turn'd, Nor Hell a Fury, like a Woman scorn'd."
Fair warning though there are a few hurtles to overcome. First off as you can see from the quotes, this is High English folks, so be prepared. Next is the story, which has more twists and turns than a California freeway cloverleaf. You've got to pay attention or you will get lost real easy and wonder how the heck you ended up going in the wrong direction.
Okay to the plot, and it has it has a lot of it. What do I mean? Well, the title character is a princess, the heroine, whose father, the story’s bad guy, went to war with another kingdom who had taken her hostage. But rather than disliking the captivity she ended up falling in love with the rival king’s son and marrying him. Her father "rescues" her and she believes her husband has died, hence "The Mourning Bride". Now her father is trying to marry her off to his friend's son, because the friend wants his son to be king someday. Now the princess is less than thrilled by this idea, and she's trying to find a way out of it. To complicate matters further, as if they were not already complicated enough, the father has just gotten back from a different war where he has taken a beautiful queen hostage. The bad guy king has designs on her virtue, but she is in love with a "kinsman" who is not related to her at all, but is in fact the bridegroom (the hero) of the "The Mourning Bride" who isn't dead at all but thinks that his bride is and is trying to avoid the advances of the queen because he's still in love with his wife, and we're not even half way through the book yet!
I'll think I'll let you read the rest of it on your own, I'm exhausted. But if consider Shakespeare light reading this is the book for you. Also the ending is unexpected, so in case you think you have it figured out, although if you do you are a lot smarter than me, you don't.

[Ants Kalda · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned,"

[Lauren McDonald · Rating 1 out of 5]

basically a knockoff Romeo and Juliet but somehow with even MORE angst and LESS character development?? Mr. Congreve girl wha is u doinnnnnn

[Madi Badger · Rating 2 out of 5]

Not the worst play I’ve read, but everyone overreacted the entire time lol

[Richa Sharma · Rating 4 out of 5]

Whew...what a read...so many twists and turns that you will feel your head reeling...It's a very short read but make no mistake, it would rake your brain anyways. Story is a complex web of many characters colliding with each other and influencing everyone. I read this book because i was looking for the quote "hell hath no fury like a women scorned..." and came to know it was used in this book. Needless to say, quote was spot on in story. If you are a person who like complex stories, definitely a good read.

[kibibyte1248 · Rating 5 out of 5]

really lovely play! i read it aloud. i was impressed at the skill of the writing and also the speed with which the plot moved. it's very lovely, and i ought to read it again and soon.

[Marcy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read this, as many others have, to know what all the familiar quotes were about, and because in my readings it is referenced quite a lot. I quite enjoyed it too. It reads, as Congreve says it was written, as a play directed to women, and is a little sentimental for that reason. I was nervous with this to see how everyone was going to fair, and liked that he did the unexpected (maybe wrong?) ending for a tragedy. Maybe, as my introduction says, it is a terrible play for the stage and not highly thought of now, but I tend to agree with 19th century-and-earlier thought more than modern, and I appreciated it and would recommend it.

(And, the last play I read outside of Shakespeare was Cenci by Shelley, included in the Harvard Classics Modern English Drama, and that play was so repetitive and sentimental; I wanted to like it, but think this, and A Blot in the 'Scutcheon, are vastly superior.)

[Sharon Dorival · Rating 4 out of 5]

Though The Mourning Bride was an old fashioned writ, I totally enjoyed it. The way poems were introduced to the play was intriguing.

[BookMoth Bab · Rating 4 out of 5]

I will say this: The language of this play easily equales that of Shakespeare. It is truly beautifully written, with many twists and turns, still the story is a fairly simple one.

[Elise Dieleman · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good, though a little bit difficult to read since it was before modern dictionaries and everything but, the story is very uplifting.