Why do we say "Marry in haste, repent at leisure"?

Well-Known Expressions

Marry in haste, repent at leisure

Meaning:

Get to know somebody very well before you marry them, or you may regret it later.

Background:

The sentiment of this proverb has been traced back to Edmund Tilney's, A briefe and pleasant discourse of duties in mariage, called the flower of friendshippe, published in England in 1566:

This loue must growe by little and little,
and that it may be durable, must by degrées
take roote in the hart. For hasty loue is soone gone.
And some haue loued in post hast,
that afterwards haue repented them


But the first known expression in broadly its modern form is in William Congreve's comedy of manners The Old Batchelour, 1693:

Thus grief still treads upon the heels of pleasure:
Married in haste, we may repent at leisure.

In between these dates, Shakespeare took a stab at the concept in The Taming of the Shrew (1590/1592)

Katharina
No shame but mine: I must, forsooth, be forced
To give my hand opposed against my heart
Unto a mad-brain rudes by full of spleen;
Who woo'd in haste and means to wed at leisure.
I told you, I, he was a frantic fool,
Hiding his bitter jests in blunt behavior:
And, to be noted for a merry man,
He'll woo a thousand, 'point the day of marriage,
Make feasts, invite friends, and proclaim the banns;
Yet never means to wed where he hath woo'd.
Now must the world point at poor Katharina,
And say, 'Lo, there is mad Petruchio's wife,
If it would please him come and marry her!'

And Lord Byron expressed it elegantly in Don Juan (1819-24)

Now hatred is by far the longest pleasure;
Men love in haste, but they detest at leisure.

More expressions and their source

Challenge yourself with BookBrowse Wordplays

Win This Book
Win Theo of Golden

Theo of Golden by Allen Levi

One spring morning, a stranger arrives in the small southern city of Golden. No one knows where he has come from…or why…

Enter

BookBrowse Book Club

  • Book Jacket
    Days of Sun and Shadow
    by India Hayford
    A young woman’s coming-of-age story set in the early American frontier, shaped by tragedy, nature, and resilience.
  • Book Jacket
    Chelsea Girls
    by Catherine Lloyd
    A glamorous biographical novel on Mary Quant, whose daring design of the miniskirt revolutionized fashion.

Members Recommend

  • Book Jacket
    Somebody Worth Killing
    by Jessica Payne
    Meet Nadia Davis, loving mom, devoted wife, secret assassin… and she needs a babysitter.
  • Book Jacket
    Summer of Love
    by Kerri Maher
    Three women reshape their family's Napa Valley winery after the 1967 Summer of Love.
Book
Trivia
  • Book Trivia

    Can you name the title?

    Test your book knowledge with our daily trivia challenge!

Wordplay

Solve this clue:

The C is A R

and be entered to win..

Your guide toexceptional          books

BookBrowse seeks out and recommends the best in contemporary fiction and nonfiction—books that not only engage and entertain but also deepen our understanding of ourselves and the world around us.