Date: 1714
"Was our Reason given / For such a Use! to be thus puff'd about / Like a dry Leaf, an idle Straw, a Feather, / The Sport of every whifling Blast that blows?"
preview | full record— Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718)
Date: First performed February 17, 1720.
"The Threats of Death are nothing; / Tho' thy last Message shook his Soul, as Winds / On the bleak Hills bend down some lofty Pine; / Yet still he held his Root; till I found Means, / Abating somewhat of thy first Demand, / If not to make him wholly ours, at least / To gain sufficient to our End."
preview | full record— Hughes, John (1678?-1720)
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: 1744, 1772, 1795
"What pity then / Should sloth's unkindly fogs depress to earth / Her [the soul's] tender blossom; choak the streams of life, / And blast her spring!"
preview | full record— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)
Date: 1788
"Ah, not alone of power possest / To check each virtue of the breast; / As when the numbing frosts arise / The charm of vegetation dies."
preview | full record— Williams, Helen Maria (1759-1827)
Date: 1800
"So the schemes / Rais'd by fond Hope in youth's unclouded morn, / While sanguine youth enjoys delusive dreams, / Experience withers; till scarce one remains / Flattering the languid heart, where only Reason reigns!"
preview | full record— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)