Date: 1730

"No light the darkness of that mind invades, / Where Chaos rules, enshrin'd in genuine Shades; / Where, in the Dungeon of the Soul inclos'd,/ True Dulness nods, reclining and repos'd.

— Harte, Walter (1708/9-1774)

Date: 1730

A "mimic gleam of transient light" may break through the gloom of dullness "and then they think they write"

— Harte, Walter (1708/9-1774)

Date: 1730

"Ye Spirits, who reign, / In Cells of the Brain,/ Assume your Chimerical Shapes;/ Make English Hearts glad, / To see Devils run mad!"

— Odingsells, Gabriel (1690-1734)

Date: 1730

"Take heed then, heedless Swains, how you come nigh her, / For if she pop her Head but out of Windows, / Your Hearts, as sure as Fate, are burnt to Cinders."

— Mottley, John (1692-1750)

Date: 1730

"And know, that I am capable of resenting such ill Treatment, tho' you charge me with a Meanness that my Soul's a Stranger to; but I despise the Accuser and the Accusation both alike."

— Mottley, John (1692-1750)

Date: 1730

"Beauteous Creature! while I behold you, Thoughts crowd on Thoughts, and even obstruct the little Eloquence that I am Master of"

— Cibber, Theophilus (1703-1758)

Date: 1730

"[Y]our Heart is like a Coffee-House, where the Beaus frisk in and out, one after another; and you are as little the worse for them, as the other is the better"

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: 1730

"I obliterated all former Notions received from Education, Discourse, or Reading, in Relation to Actions or Characters of any Persons or Parties; and turned my Mind into a Rasa Tabula, that the Impressions I should receive from this more accurate Examination I was going to begin, might n...

— Baker, Richard, Sir (c. 1568-1645)

Date: 1730, 1731

"But now, my Muse, the arduous Task engage, / And show the Charming Figure on the Stage, / Describe her Look, her Action, Voice and Mein, / The gay Coquette, soft Maid, or haughty Queen, / So bright she [Mrs. Oldfield] shone in every different Part, / She gain'd despotick Empire o'er the Heart, /...

— Savage, Richard (1697/8-1743)

Date: April 30, 1730

"The spirit of the brain, distilled by the heat of the imagination, like some chemical preparations, when exposed to the air, is apt to smoke, to take fire, to crack, and bounce, to the no small disturbance of the neighbourhood."

— Richard Russel and John Martyn