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"
preview | full record— Mason, William (1725-1797)
Date: 1759
"[A]nd her Mind, at that time, might be likened to a Theatre, on which the Tragedy of a glittering Cross, and a Pair of Diamond Ear-rings, was acting, with much more Propriety than the envious Critic called Othello The Tragedy of the Handkerchief."
preview | full record— Fielding, Sarah (1710-1768)
Date: 1759
"So Thoughts, when become too common, should lose their Currency; and we should send new metal to the Mint, that is, new meaning to the Press."
preview | full record— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)
Date: 1759
"Such demonstration have we, that the theatre is not yet opened, in which solid happiness can be found by man; because none are more than comparatively good; and folly has a corner in the heart of the wise."
preview | full record— Young, Edward (bap. 1683, d. 1765)
Date: 1759
"He shewed, with great strength of sentiment, and variety of illustration, that human nature is degraded and debased, when the lower faculties predominate over the higher; that when fancy, the parent of passion, usurps the dominion of the mind, nothing ensues but the natural effect of unlawful go...
preview | full record— Johnson, Samuel (1709-1784)
Date: 1761
"While Frugi liv'd / Thy sorrows kept possession of my heart, / And Love receded from the stronger guest; / Now his dear image rises to my view / So piteously array'd, with such a train / Of tender thoughts assails this shatter'd frame, / That Reason quits her fort, and flies before, / To the las...
preview | full record— Cumberland, Richard (1732-1811)
Date: 1762-3
"Within the brain's most secret cells / A certain Lord Chief Justice dwells, / Of sovereign power, whom, one and all, / With common voice, we Reason call."
preview | full record— Churchill, Charles (1731-1764)
Date: 1762-3
"Men of sound parts, who, deeply read, / O'erload the storehouse of the head / With furniture they ne'er can use"
preview | full record— Churchill, Charles (1731-1764)
Date: 1762-3
"With these grave fops, whose system seems / To give up certainty for dreams / The eye of man is understood / As for no other purpose good / Than as a door, through which, of course, / Their passage crowding objects force; / A downright usher, to admit / New-comers to the court of Wit."
preview | full record— Churchill, Charles (1731-1764)
Date: 1762
"Thy griefs pent up, have prey'd upon thy heart."
preview | full record— Cradock, Joseph (1742-1826)