Date: 1778, 1779

"The hint thrown out concerning myself, is wholly unintelligible to me: my heart, I dare own, fully acquits me of vice, but without blemish, I have never ventured to pronounce myself."

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

Date: 1778, 1804

"There is some kind and courtly sprite / That o'er the realm of Fancy reigns."

— Langhorne, John (1735-1779)

Date: 1778

"Apropos--the charming little thing she reigns a very tyrant in my heart, and I long to see her Lady Rampart."

— Robertson, James (fl.1768-1788)

Date: 1778

"O love, thou dear sweet tyrant of the soul, / Where you possess you must engross the whole."

— Robertson, James (fl.1768-1788)

Date: 1778

"Do you think the public opinion, his various doubts of himself, and of her, the pride of his family, and the loud claims of avarice, his ruling passion 'till now, won't prove near an equipoise to his love?"

— Foote, Samuel (1720-1777)

Date: 1778, 1788

"Thy tragic pencil, Aristides, caught / Each varied feeling, and each tender thought; / While moral virtue sanctified thy art, / And passion gave it empire o'er the heart."

— Hayley, William (1745-1820)

Date: 1779, 1794

"For still its own severest judge, / The generous mind appears; / And when it errs, against itself / A dread tribunal rears."

— Whalley, Thomas Sedgwick (1746-1828)

Date: 1779

"Whate'er this voice by sceptics may be found, / Faction's false cry, or Truth's prophetic sound, / Let ev'ry Briton, with bold Blake, proclaim, / His ruling passion is his Country's fame!."

— Hayley, William (1745-1820)

Date: w. c. 1779

"[T]hen prudence took her Seat / Within the Soul, and reign'd in Virtue's room."

— Crabbe, George (1754-1832)

Date: 1780, 1785

"Come then dear and decent favour, / Learn what thou wilt ne'er impart;/ Fix thy throne, and fix it ever, / In the regions of my heart."

— Pratt, Samuel Jackson [pseud. Courtney Melmoth] (1749-1814)