Date: 1730

"[Y]our Heart is like a Coffee-House, where the Beaus frisk in and out, one after another; and you are as little the worse for them, as the other is the better"

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: 1731

"How shall I move, in this dark Maze of Passion!"

— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)

Date: June 1, 1732

"Oh! give me way, come all you Furies, come, / Lodge in th'unfurnish'd Chambers of my Heart, / My Heart which never shall be let again / To any Guest but endless Misery, / Never shall have a Bill upon it more."

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: 1739

"I know thou hast a serpentizing Genius, / Can'st wind the subtlest Mazes of the Soul, / And trace her Wand'rings to the Source of Action."

— Brooke, Henry (c. 1703-1783)

Date: 1739

"Thus, thus to be driven out from my own Breast! / To have no Shed, no shelt'ring Nook at Home / To take Reflection in!"

— Brooke, Henry (c. 1703-1783)

Date: 1743

"Of what Use is Reason then? Why, of the Use that a Window is to a Man in a Prison, to let him see the Horrors he is confined in; but lends him no Assistance to his Escape"

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: 1745

"Off! Traitors! off! or my distracted Soul / Will burst indignant from this Jail of Nature! / To where she beckons yonder."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1756

"Oh, God of Sleep! arise, and spread / Thy healing vapours round my head; / To thy friendly mansions take, / My soul that burns, / Till he returns, / For whom alone I wish to wake."

— Bickerstaff, Isaac (b. 1733, d. after 1808)

Date: Performed Dec 1756, published 1757

"They little know mankind / Who doubt its [flattery's] operation: 'tis my key, / And opes the wicket of the human heart."

— Home, John (1722-1808)

Date: 1759, performed 1776

The soul may be "Snatch'd by the power of music from her cell / Of fleshly thraldom" and feel "herself upborn / On plumes of ecstasy"

— Mason, William (1725-1797)