William Congreve was an English playwright and poet. Born January 24, 1670, died January 19, 1729.
Congreve wrote his most famous play,
The Mourning Bride, in 1697.
The Mourning Bride is known for two turns of phrase that are fairly universally known, though the passage of time, with centuries of repetition, have slightly altered the famous phrases from the words written by Congreve.
The first famous phrase was spoken by Almeria in Act I, Scene 1, saying "Music has charms to soothe a savage breast." In modern times this is often changed to "Music hath charms to soothe a savage beast."
The change to beast makes sense to me, the changing of has to hath, less so.
And then there is the most famous thing Congreve ever wrote, spoken by Zara in Act 3, "Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, Nor hell a fury like a woman scorned."
Time has changed Congreve's words to "Hell hath no fury like a woman scorned."
I have eye-witnessed the behavior, a time or two, of scorned women. The fury is not a pretty sight. I've seen it a time or two in Washington, three times in Texas. The Texas scorning is out of proportion to the time I've spent in Texas, compared to Washington.
The fury of a scorned Texas woman, at least in my experience, is far more hellish than a scorned Washington woman. I know my sampling of scorned women, in either state, is not large enough to be able to make any sort of statistically significant conclusion.
Suffice to say, in my experience, I'd rather experience the hell of a scorned Washington woman that a scorned Texas woman. Most Washington women do not pack heat.
