Date: April 17, 1795

"Like Britain's Monarch" an audience may "act [their] generous parts, /And fix [their] empire, in [actors] greatful hearts.

— Jerningham, Edward (1727-1812)

Date: w. 1788-93, 1796 (rev. 1815, 1827, 1837, 1897)

"The dissipation of Blandford, and the disputes of Portsmouth, consumed the hours which were not employed in the field; and amid the perpetual hurry of an inn, a barrack, or a guard-room, all literary ideas were banished from my mind."

— Gibbon, Edward (1737-1794)

Date: w. 1788-93, 1796 (rev. 1815, 1827, 1837, 1897)

"But Nature had designed him to think as he pleased, and to speak as he thought: his piety was offended by the excessive worship of creatures; and the study of physics convinced him of the impossibility of transubstantiation, which is abundantly refuted by the testimony of our senses."

— Gibbon, Edward (1737-1794)

Date: 1796

"The trial is dangerous; he is just at that period of life when the passions are most vigorous, unbridled, and despotic."

— Lewis, Matthew Gregory (1775-1818)

Date: 1796

"He closed his eyes, but strove in vain to banish her from his thoughts."

— Lewis, Matthew Gregory (1775-1818)

Date: 1796

"The woman reigns in my bosom, and I am become a prey to the wildest of passions."

— Lewis, Matthew Gregory (1775-1818)

Date: 1796

"His ruling passion was hunting, which he had brought himself to consider as a serious occupation; and, when talking over some remarkable chace, he treated the subject with as much gravity as it had been a battle on which the fate of two kingdoms was depending."

— Lewis, Matthew Gregory (1775-1818)

Date: 1796

"Then banish from your mind the idea of our being ever united."

— Lewis, Matthew Gregory (1775-1818)

Date: 1796

"Pleasure fled, and Shame usurped her seat in his bosom."

— Lewis, Matthew Gregory (1775-1818)

Date: 1796

"He related her adventure; and he added, that since that time his ideas having undergone a thorough revolution, he now felt much compassion for the unfortunate nun."

— Lewis, Matthew Gregory (1775-1818)