Frontispiece ofThe Mourning Bride published in 17031757 costume drawing for Zara inThe Mourning Bride
The Mourning Bride is atragedy written by English playwrightWilliam Congreve. It premiered in1697 at Betterton's Co., Lincoln's Inn Fields. The play centers on Zara, a queen held captive by Manuel, King ofGranada, and a web of love and deception which results in the mistaken murder of Manuel who is in disguise, and Zara's also mistaken suicide in response.
The word "breast" is often misquoted as "beast" and "has" sometimes appears as "hath". The lines are probably inspired byPharsalia, written byLucan.[2]
Also often repeated is a quotation of Zara in Act III, Scene II:
Erskine-Hill, H., Lindsay, A. (eds),William Congreve: The Critical Heritage, Routledge (1995).
Congreve, W.,The Works of Mr. Congreve: Volume 2. Containing: The Mourning Bride; The Way of the World; The Judgment of Paris; Semele; and Poems on Several Occasions, Adamant Media (2001), facsimile reprint of a 1788 edition published inLondon.
McKenzie, D.,The Works of William Congreve: Volume I, OUP Oxford (2011), v. 1, pp. 5–94.
Congreve, William (1753). The Mourning Bride: A Tragedy. Dublin: J. and R. Tonson and S. Draper in the Strand. p. 46.https://books.google.com/books?id=U3ACAAAAYAAJ Retrieved 18 Aug. 2017.
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