revenge is sweet

English

Phrase

revenge is sweet

1. Said when one is satisfied in taking revenge.
   • 1609 December (first performance), Beniamin Ionson [i.e., Ben Jonson], “Epicoene, or The Silent Woman. A Comœdie. […]”, in The Workes of Beniamin Ionson (First Folio), London: […] Will[iam] Stansby, published 1616, →OCLC, Act IV, scene ii, page 579:

     […] wee can force no anſwere from him, but (Ô reuenge, how ſweet art thou! I will ſtrangle him in this towell) […]

   • 1846, [Edward Bulwer-Lytton], Lucretia: Or The Children of Night. […], volume I, London: Saunders and Otley, […], →OCLC:

     The ci-devant marquis was caught disguised in her apartment. She betrayed for him a good, easy friend of the people who had long loved her, and revenge is sweet.

   • 1866, Charles Reade, Griffith Gaunt, or Jealousy, Boston: Ticknor and Fields:

     All revenge is sweet; but what revenge so sweet to any man as that which came to his arms of its own accord? I do notice that men can't read men, but any woman can read a woman.

   • 1879, W[illiam] S[chwenck] Gilbert, Arthur Sullivan, composer, The Pirates of Penzance  […], Philadelphia: J.M. Stoddart & Co., published 1880, →OCLC:

     With base deceit / You worked upon our feelings! / Revenge is sweet, / And flavours all our dealings!

Translations

said when one is satisfied in taking revenge

• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 报仇雪恨，大快人心, 報仇雪恨，大快人心／报仇雪恨，大快人心

• Finnish: kosto on suloinen
• French: vengeance en représailles
• German: Rache ist süß
• Polish: zemsta jest słodka, zemsta jest rozkoszą bogów f

See also

• revenge is a dish best served cold

Further reading

• Jennifer Speake, editor (2015), “REVENGE is sweet”, in Oxford Dictionary of Proverbs, 6th edition, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, →ISBN, page 265.