Date: 1713

"I've been surprized in an unguarded Hour, / But must not now go back: The Love, that lay / Half smother'd in my Breast, has broke through all / Its weak Restraints, and burn's in its full Lustre, / I cannot, if I wou'd, conceal it from thee."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: 1713

"And yet methinks a Beam of Light breaks in / On my departing Soul."

— Addison, Joseph (1672-1719)

Date: 1715

"Thy Virtues flash, / They break at once on my astonish'd Soul; / As if the Curtains of the Dark were drawn, / To let in Day at Midnight."

— Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718)

Date: 1715

"Light of my Soul, my Hearts refined part, why dost thou weep, why like distilling Roses waste, dissolving thus thy Beauties to a Dew?"

— Bullock, Christopher (bap. 1690, d. 1722)

Date: February 22, 1723

"If my Flaminius ever wou'd reward / My constant ardor, with an equal flame; / Engag'd by such endearing decencies, / As make the lamp of love in Herod's breast / To burn so bright, and never to consume."

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)

Date: 1724

"I not upbraid your love, but your wild passions, / Which wou'd, like envious shades, eclipse those beauties, / That else, with justice, sure, must charm mankind!"

— Savage, Richard (1697/8-1743)

Date: 1724

"When all at once / A thousand anxious Thoughts that slept by Day, / Swarm'd in my Brain, 'till it resembled Hell, / Hot, dark and hot: my sick Imagination, / Assisted by the Shades of Night, would give / A gloomy turn to each Idea there."

— Jeffreys, George (1678-1755)

Date: 1724

"I cannot speak the rest--the Thought is Hell-- / How my Brain glows! now Reason keep thy Seat."

— Jeffreys, George (1678-1755)

Date: 1728

"A Lover, when he is admitted to Cards, ought to be solemnly silent, and observe the Motions of his Mistress. He must laugh when she laughs, sigh when she sighs. In short, he shou'd be the Shadow of her Mind."

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: 1730

"What dreadful havoc in the human breast / The passions make, when unconfin'd, and mad, / They burst, unguided by the mental eye, / The light of reason; which in various ways / Points them to good, or turns them back from ill."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)