Date: 1739

"Thy hand can trace the characters divine, / And stamp celestial beauty on my soul"

— Rowe [née Singer], Elizabeth (1674-1737)

Date: 1742

A lady may be "tortured with Perplexity; opposite Passions distracting and tearing her Mind different ways"

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: 1742

"The same Mistakes may likewise be observed in Scarron, the Arabian Nights, the 'History of Marianne' and 'Le Paisan Parvenu', and perhaps some few other Writers of this Class, whom I have not read, or do not at present recollect; for I would by no means be thought to comprehend those great ...

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: 1749

"Stamp Thine image on our heart"

— Wesley, John and Charles

Date: w. 1749, 1751

"O Master of the heart whose magic skill / The close recesses of the Soul can find."

— Edwards, Thomas (d. 1757)

Date: 1755

"So that our author did not enter the lists against the memory of the real substantial chivalry, which he held in veneration; but, with design to expel an hideous phantome that possessed the brains of the people, waging perpetual war with true genius and invention."

— Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de (1547-1616); Smollett, Tobias (1721-1771)

Date: 1755

"I revised my comedies, together with some interludes which had lain some time in a corner, and I did not think them so wretched, but that they might appeal from the muddy brain of this player, to the clearer perception of other actors less scrupulous and more judicious."

— Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de (1547-1616); Smollett, Tobias (1721-1771)

Date: 1755

"In this manner did he invent names for a great many knights in either army, to all of whom also he gave arms, colours, mottos and devices, without the least hesitation, being incredibly inspired by the fumes of a distempered fancy"

— Cervantes Saavedra, Miguel de (1547-1616); Smollett, Tobias (1721-1771)

Date: 1757

" To trace the actions of the good and great: / And stamp bright virtue's image on the heart"

— Boyce, Samuel (d. 1775)

Date: 1763

"Grown old in villainy, and dead to grace, / Hell in his heart, and TYBURNE in his face; / Behold, a Parson at thy Elbow stands, / Low'ring damnation, and with open hands / Ripe to betray his Saviour for reward; / The Atheist Chaplain of an Atheist Lord."

— Churchill, Charles (1731-1764)