Date: 1723

"Then, gentle Muse, be still my Guest; / Take full Possession of my Breast."

— Barker, Jane (1675-1743)

Date: 1723

"When Friends Advice with Lovers Forces joyn, / They conquer Hearts more fortified than mine."

— Barker, Jane (1675-1743)

Date: 1723

"Mine [heart] open lies, without the least Defence; / No Guard of Art; but its own Innocence; / Under which Fort it could fierce Storms endure: / But from thy Wit I find no Fort secure."

— Barker, Jane (1675-1743)

Date: 1726

One may find "his own Affections ... impossible to conquer, or bring into any bounds of Reason."

— Barker, Jane (1675-1743)

Date: 1726

"But as we are always ready to flatter our selves, so did our Lover, and took the Lady's Courtesie for Kindness, and her smiling Looks for interiour Affection."

— Barker, Jane (1675-1743)

Date: 1726

"[H]e promis'd me a thousand Fineries, gave me an handful of Gold, told me I should have a fine House of my own, a Coach and Servants, with all manner of Imbellishments to grace and adorn my Beauty; which Beauty (continu'd he) has chain'd my Heart, ever since the moment I beheld it in the Milline...

— Barker, Jane (1675-1743)

Date: 1727

"But each Man's secret Standard in his Mind, / That casting Weight, Pride adds to Emptiness"

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: w. 1707, published 1728-9

Dulness is "the safe Opiate of the Mind."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1728, 1729, 1736

"A brain of feathers, and a heart of lead;] i. e. A trifling head, and a contracted heart,as the poet, book 4. describes the accomplished Sons of Dulness; of whom this is only an Image, or Scarecrow, and so stuffed out with these corresponding materials."

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)

Date: 1728, 1729, 1736

"She form'd this image of well-bodied air, / With pert flat eyes she window'd well its head, / A brain of feathers, and a heart of lead, / And empty words she gave, and sounding strain, / But senseless, lifeless! idol void and vain!"

— Pope, Alexander (1688-1744)