Date: 1582

"So great a Light hath set my mind on fire, / That flesh and bone consume with secret flame"

— Watson, Thomas (1555/6-1592)

Date: Licens'd Decemb. 22. 1691

"I burn and am consumed with hopeless Love; those Beams in whose soft temperate warmth I wanton'd heretofore, now flash destruction to my Soul, my Treacherous greedy Eyes have suck'd the glaring Light, they have united all its Rays, and, like a burning-Glass, Convey'd the pointed Meteor to-my Hea...

— Congreve, William (1670-1729)

Date: 1693

"Bracilla the Young, and the Charming, that had grown up on the Stage, amidst the perpetual Addresses of her Admirers, and yet seem'd insensible of all the Efforts of Love, as if Heaven had given her Charms to enflame the Heart, without any Compassion to Redress those Miseries her Eyes daily caus...

— Anonymous

Date: 1693

"Wine, my Lord the Count here, and I went behind the Scenes. Bracilla happen'd to Act that Night, the Wife of an Vnhappy Favourite, and look'd so Charming in the Expression, of all the Innocence and Passion, her part requir'd, that whilst she well represented Love without any, she fir'd my Heart ...

— Anonymous

Date: 1696

"Odsheart, she longs to see thee, and she is a curious fine Creature, ye Rogue! such Eyes! such Lips!--and such a Tongue between 'em! ah, the Tip of it will set a Mans Soul on fire!"

— Cibber, Colley (1671-1757)

Date: 1696

"No! my very Soul's on fire, and nothing but the Villain's blood shall quench it."

— Cibber, Colley (1671-1757)

Date: 1696

"Hark! how the Warlike Notes inspire / In ev'ry Breast a glowing Fire."

— Cibber, Colley (1671-1757)

Date: 1696

"Long since alas! the airy Vision's fled, / And I with wandring Flames my Passion feed."

— Cibber, Colley (1671-1757)

Date: 1719-1720, 1725

"Be Witness for me Heaven! how much I have struggled with this rising passion, even to Madness struggled!--but in vain; the mounting Flame blazes the more, the more I would suppress it--my very Soul's on fire."

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

Date: 1719-1720, 1725

"How I cou'd despise thee for this Narrowness of Mind, were there not something in thy Eyes and Mien which assure me, that this negligent Behaviour is but affected; and that there are within thy Breast, some Seeds of hidden Fire, which want but the Influence of Charms, more potent perhaps than yo...

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