Date: 1800

"So the schemes / Rais'd by fond Hope in youth's unclouded morn, / While sanguine youth enjoys delusive dreams, / Experience withers; till scarce one remains / Flattering the languid heart, where only Reason reigns!"

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)

Date: 1807, 1810

Genius may give an actor "despotic empire o'er the heart"

— Seward, Anna (1742-1809)

Date: 1807, 1810

"Passions that now are but illusive deem'd, / Then shall their empire in thy heart attain"

— Seward, Anna (1742-1809)

Date: 1810

"Bid Rowe, bid Otway's magic softness rise, / Steal o'er his form, and languish in his eyes; / Melt in his voice, till Memory hints no more / The woes unreal; but, with forfeit power, / Resigns her empire o'er the yielding soul / To sighs and tears she ceases to controul."

— Seward, Anna (1742-1809)

Date: 1810

"And, sexual pride subdued, at length disown / The Salique Law for Wit and Fancy's throne!"

— Seward, Anna (1742-1809)

Date: 1814

"The memory is sometimes so retentive, so serviceable, so obedient--at others, so bewildered and so weak--and at others again, so tyrannic, so beyond controul!"

— Austen, Jane (1775-1817)