Date: 1778, 1804
"There is some kind and courtly sprite / That o'er the realm of Fancy reigns."
preview | full record— Langhorne, John (1735-1779)
Date: 1782
"Had they mingled in the world, fed high their fancy with hope, and looked forward with expectation of enjoyment; had they been courted by the great, and offered with profusion adulation for their abilities, yet, even when starving, been offered nothing else!"
preview | full record— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)
Date: 1782
"In this view of the case perhaps that species of detraction, which a court of law will not denominate a libel, in a court of conscience and in the eye of Heaven shall amount to murder. I had almost forgot to add that Castillo was a poet."
preview | full record— Cumberland, Richard (1732-1811)
Date: 1783
"Learn hence, that husbands will be blind / To every beauty but the mind; / Great Venus there should hold her court; / should the Loves and Graces sport / There rapture beam'd in every feature, / Bound by that Cestus, called Good Nature."
preview | full record— Dibdin, Charles (bap. 1745, d. 1814)
Date: 1784
"I love to weep, love the soft feast of grief, / Court mournful thoughts, nor ever wish relief;-- / Sadness I woo, yet still the phantom flies, / And joy seduces, whilst I ask for sighs."
preview | full record— Cowley [née Parkhouse], Hannah (1743-1809)
Date: 1785
Jealousy's monsters may hurl "frighted Reason from her throne, / And with her all the charities that wait / To grace her virtuous Court"
preview | full record— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)
Date: 1785
When Passion dwells in the heart it is "Pleasure's court"
preview | full record— Lovibond, Edward (bap. 1723, d. 1775)
Date: 1788
"Impressed with these ideas, he paid his court most assiduously to the housekeeper, who put down all his compliments to the account of her own attractions; and was extremely pleased with her conquest; which she exhausted all her eloquence and all her wardrobe to secure."
preview | full record— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)