Date: 1778, 1779

"The very idea was a dagger to my heart!"

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

Date: 1779

"Not Man, but thriftless Nature, be accused, / Who to seductions left our minds a prey-- / --Nay more, who doth herself ensnare us; / Hath hung us round with senses exquisite, / Hath planted in our hearts resistless passions, / The first to weaken, and the last to war / On poor, defenceless, nake...

— Cowley [née Parkhouse], Hannah (1743-1809)

Date: 1780

"Ten thousand terrors now besieg'd her soul; / Ten thousand nothings, which her fancy drest / In colour, substance, circumstance, and form."

— Cowley [née Parkhouse], Hannah (1743-1809)

Date: 1777, 1780

"He made but little reply; but the impression sunk deep into his rancorous heart; every word in Edmund's behalf was like a poisoned arrow that rankled in the wound, and grew every day more inflamed."

— Reeve, Clara (1729-1807)

Date: 1782

"But still she wished with the utmost ardour to know the length of their acquaintance, how often they had met, when they had conversed, what notice he had taken of her, and how so dangerous a preference had invaded her heart."

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

Date: 1782

"Did I suffer my eagerness to conquer my reason?"

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

Date: 1782

"Compared with the general lot of human misery, Cecilia had suffered nothing; but compared with the exaltation of ideal happiness, she had suffered much; willingly, however, would she again have borne all that had distressed her, experienced the same painful suspence, endured the same melancholy ...

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

Date: 1782

"But fifteen summers had she bloomed, and her heart was an easy conquest; yet, once made mine, it resisted all allurement to infidelity."

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

Date: 1782

"Heavens! what a life of struggle between the head and the heart! how cruel, how unnatural a war between the intellects and the feelings!"

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

Date: 1783, 1810

"As when thou call'st the shuddering thoughts to mourn / O'er talents wither'd in the untimely urn; / To grieve that Penury's resistless storm / Beat cold and deadly o'er the shrinking form, / Where mighty Genius had those powers enshrined, / Whose reign is boundless o'er each feeling mind; / To ...

— Seward, Anna (1742-1809)