Quote#Poetry
It is the business of a comic poet to paint the vices and follies of…
Quote byWilliam Congreve · 1670–1729
Commonly attributed — not confirmed in an authoritative edition. Cited on Wikiquote to: The Double Dealer (1694), Epistle dedicatory.
English (original)
It is the business of a comic poet to paint the vices and follies of human kind.
— William Congreve
More from William Congreve
Defer not till tomorrow to be wise, Tomorrow's sun to thee may never rise.
Pious Selinda goes to Pray’rs, If I but ask the Favour; And yet the tender Fool’s in Tears, When she believes I’ll leave her.Wou’d I were free from Restraint, Or else had Hopes to win her; Wou’d she cou’d make of me a Saint,
Careless she is with artful care, Affecting to seem unaffected.
Ah! Whither, whither shall I fly, A poor unhappy Maid; To hopeless Love and Misery By my own Heart betray’d?
Invention flags, his brain goes muddy, And black despair succeeds brown study.
In my conscience I believe the baggage loves me, for she never speaks well of me herself, nor suffers any body else to rail at me.