Date: 1682

"Judge then what my Heart Feels, who, like a fire but lightly cover'd o're with the cold Ashes of Despair, with the least blast, breaks out into a flame."

— Behn, Aphra (1640?-1689)

Date: 1688

"I will be deaf and blind, and guard my Heart with Walls of Ice, and make you know, that when the Flames of true Devotion are kindled in a Heart, it puts out all other Fires; which are as ineffectual, as Candles lighted in the Face of the Sun."

— Behn, Aphra (1640?-1689)

Date: 1688

"But Love, who had hitherto but play'd with her Heart, and given it naught but pleasing, wanton Wounds, such as afforded only soft Joys, and not Pains, resolv'd, either out of Revenge to those Numbers she had abandon'd, and who had sigh'd so long in vain; or to try what power he had upon so fickl...

— Behn, Aphra (1640?-1689)

Date: 1688

"He finds this dreaded Rival in the same House with him, with an Authority equal to his own; and fansies, where two Hearts are so entirely agreed, and have so good an Understanding, it wou'd not be impossible to find Opportunities to satisfie and ease that mutual Flame that burnt so equally in bo...

— Behn, Aphra (1640?-1689)

Date: 1688

"Nor cou'd all his Sufferings, and the Prospect of Death it self, drive from his Soul one Spark of that Fire the obstinate God had fatally kindl'd there."

— Behn, Aphra (1640?-1689)

Date: 1696

"Ambition only fired my Youth, and led me on to Greatness; but now a gentler Flame hath filled my Heart, yet more tormenting."

— Pix, Mary (c.1666-1720)

Date: 1696

"At these difficulties Alphonsus abandons himself to Despair; threatens to be rid of life, since no fairer Prospect was in view to ease his Heart of Love's tormenting Fires."

— Pix, Mary (c.1666-1720)

Date: 1696

"My longing looks devour your Charms; my Sighs redouble at your sight; and every Motion shows the Fires of my Soul!"

— Pix, Mary (c.1666-1720)

Date: 1713

"Away the Skilful Doctor comes / Of Recipes and Med'cines full, / To check the giddy Whirl of Nature's Fires, / If so th' unruly Case requires; / Or with his Cobweb-cleansing Brooms / To sweep and clear the over-crouded Scull, / If settl'd Spirits flag, and make the Patient dull."

— Finch [née], Anne, Countess of Winchilsea (1666-1720)

Date: 1719-1720, 1725

"Be Witness for me Heaven! how much I have struggled with this rising passion, even to Madness struggled!--but in vain; the mounting Flame blazes the more, the more I would suppress it--my very Soul's on fire."

— Haywood [née Fowler], Eliza (1693?-1756)