Date: 25 B.C.
"But, Venus, my devoted heart is ever at your service [your slave]. / Have mercy. Why in rancour burn the harvest that is yours?"
preview | full record— Tibullus, Abius (c. 54-19 B.C.)
Date: 1687
"At this enrag'd, the injur'd Deity / Chose out the best of his Artillery, / And in a blooming Virgin's Dove-like Eyes / He planted his Victorious Batteries; / (Phillis her Name, the best of Woman-kind, / Could Love have gain'd the Empire of her Mind) / These shot so furiously against my Heart, /...
preview | full record— Cutts, John, Baron Cutts of Gowran (1660/1-1707)
Date: 1706
"And therefore wert thou bred to virtuous Knowledge, / And Wisdom early planted in thy Soul; / That thou might'st know to rule thy fiery Passions, / To bind their Rage, and stay their headlong Course."
preview | full record— Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718)
Date: 1727
Women have the same "Passions and Inclinations [as Men], which when let loose without a Curb, grow wild and untameable, defy all Laws and Rules, and can be subdued by nothing but what they are seldom Mistresses of"
preview | full record— Davys, Mary (1674-1732)
Date: 1728
"When Love in an impetuous Torrent flows, / How vainly Reason would its Force oppose; / Hurl'd down the Stream, like Flowers before the Wind, / She leaves to Love, the Empire of the Mind."
preview | full record— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)
Date: 1731
"Proud of Dominion, yet enslav'd to Fear, / Kings who love Blood, thro' one long Tempest steer, / While the calm Monarch, who with Smiles controuls, / Roots his safe Empire, and is King of Souls."
preview | full record— Hill, Aaron (1685-1750)
Date: 1745
"Behold the fatal Work of my dark Hand, / That by rude Force the Passions would command, / That ruthless sought to root them from the Breast; / They may be rul'd, but will not be opprest."
preview | full record— Thomson, James (1700-1748)
Date: 1746, 1749
"But, since we never from the Breast of Fools / Can root their Passions, yet while Reason rules, / Let her hold forth her Scales with equal Hand, / Justly to punish, as the Crimes demand."
preview | full record— Francis, Philip (1708-1773)
Date: 1752
"Ambition scarce ever produces any Evil, but when it reigns in cruel and savage Bosoms; and Avarice seldom flourishes at all but in the basest and poorest Soil."
preview | full record— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)
Date: 1753
"He combats Passion, rooted in the Soul, / Whose Powers at once delight ye and controul; / Whose Magic Bondage each lost Slave enjoys, / Nor wishes Freedom, tho' the Spell destroys."
preview | full record— Moore, Edward (1712-1757)