Date: 1705

"Polish'd in Courts, and harden'd in the Field, / Renown'd for Conquest, and in Council skill'd, / Their Courage dwells not in a troubl'd Flood / Of mounting Spirits, and fermenting Blood; / Lodg'd in the Soul, with Virtue over-rul'd, / Inflam'd by Reason, and by Reason cool'd, / In Hours of Peac...

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: 1705

"At length a Court of Conscience is erected by the Mind, where all particular Acts are scrupulously examined, by reason of these frequent Variances of the Souls, the Animal Spirits, as being too much, and in a manner perpetually exercised, and being commanded here and there contrary ways, and alm...

— Beaumont, John (c.1640-1731)

Date: 1706

"Not in the Court of Conscience, Sir."

— Centlivre [née Freeman; other married name Carroll], Susanna (bap. 1669?, d. 1723)

Date: 1710, 1714

"As cruel a Court as the Inquisition appears; there must, it seems, be full as formidable a one, erected in our-selves; if we wou'd pretend to that Uniformity of Opinion which is necessary to hold us to one Will, and preserve us in the same Mind, from one day to another."

— Cooper, Anthony Ashley, third earl of Shaftesbury (1671-1713)

Date: 1715

"Love is a Court of Honour in the Heart"

— Johnson, Charles (1679?-1748)

Date: 1684, 1717

"Fancy sits Queen of all; / While the poor under-Faculties resort, / And to her fickle Majesty make Court"

— Duke, Richard (1658-1711)

Date: 1684, 1717

The understanding is first to pay court to Queen Fancy, "plainly clad,
But usefully; no Ent'rance to be had"

— Duke, Richard (1658-1711)

Date: 1684, 1717

The Will, "that Bully of the Mind," is next to pay court to Queen Fancy: "Follies wait on him in a Troop behind; / He meets Reception from the Antick Queen, / Who thinks her Majesty's most honour'd, when / Attended by those fine drest Gentlemen"

— Duke, Richard (1658-1711)

Date: 1684, 1717

"Reason, the honest Counsellor, this knows, / And into Court with res'lute Virtue goes; / Lets Fancy see her loose irregular Sway, / Then how the flattering Follies sneak away!"

— Duke, Richard (1658-1711)

Date: 1719-1720, 1725

"But when he consider'd how much he had struggled, and how far he had been from being able to repel Desire, he began to wonder that it cou'd ever enter into his Thoughts, that there was even a Possibility for Woman, so much stronger in her Fancy, and weaker in her Judgment, to suppress the Influe...

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