Date: 1796

"Alas! there are invisible fetters which no mortal can wrench! both soft and firm are the bonds of virtue, no force can loosen its strong ties, no sword divide it from my soul! it has guided me from childhood to the age of woman, it presided over my marriage, it has attended me in all my wretched...

— Anonymous; Kotzebue (1761-1819)

Date: 1796, 1806

"Ambition!--not that emulative zeal Which wings the tow'ring souls of godlike men! / But bold, oppressive, self-created pow'r, / That, trampling o'er the barrier of the laws, / And scattering wide the tender shoots of pity, / Strikes at the root of reason, and confines / Nature itself in bondage!"

— Robinson [Née Darby], Mary [Perdita] (1758-1800)

Date: 1796

"Camilla dissented not from the opinion; but the doctrine to which it was easy to agree, it was difficult to put in practice; and her ardent mind believed itself fettered for ever, and for ever unhappy."

— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)

Date: 1796

"Should he now, then, make her deem him exacting, and tenacious of prerogative? no; it might shackle the freedom of her mind in their future intercourse."

— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)

Date: 1796

"The speeches of the unsuspicious Eugenia, that a moment before would have past unheeded, now regaled her renovated fancy with a thousand amusing images, which so vigorously struggled against her sadness and her terrors, that they were soon nearly driven from the field by their sportive assailant...

— Burney [married name D'Arblay], Frances (1752-1840)

Date: January 13, 1796

"Forbear! there is a spirit within me, sunk tho' I am in misery and despair, that will not suffer you, tho' now a conqueror in your turn, and towering far above the wretched son of Hastings, to take this base advantage of your fortune, and drag a trembling victim to the altar only to riot in the ...

— Cumberland, Richard (1732-1811)

Date: 1797

"Fear thee, O Death!--Or hug the chains that bind / To joyless, cheerless life, her sick, reluctant mind?"

— Smith, Charlotte (1749-1806)

Date: 1797

"Thus man, the giant who now held her in captivity, would shrink to the diminutiveness of a fairy; and she would experience, that his utmost force was unable to enchain her soul, or compel her to fear him, while he was destitute of virtue."

— Radcliffe [née Ward], Ann (1764-1823)

Date: 1798

"My mother I have never seen--never by affection's ties has she chained my soul to her's!"

— Plumptre, Anne (1760-1818); Kotzebue (1761-1819)

Date: 1798

"Up, break thy fetters! Burst thy prison! My soul is free! My essence knows no chains."

— Render, William (fl. 1790-1801); August Friedrich Ferdinand von Kotzebue (1761-1819)