Date: February 22, 1723

"Prepare with every smiling grace t'adorn / The festival; and let victorious joy / Chase every black idea from thy mind: / For ever banish from thy gentle breast / All cares, except the pleasing cares of love!"

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)

Date: February 22, 1723

"If she were yet on earth, where cou'd she find / A nobler palace than a brother's breast?"

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)

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: February 22, 1723

"If this poor stock / Of artless beauty hath such fatal pow'r, / When you, Arsinoe, have a daughter born, / Beg all deformities of shape and face, / T'insure her quiet from that monster, man! / Who quitting reason, a celestial claim, / To the sweet harmony of souls prefers / A little white and re...

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)

Date: February 22, 1723

"I thought my heart was arm'd with adamant / Against remorse, but nature fools me now; / A faint cold shiv'ring seizeth every limb."

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)

Date: February 22, 1723

"The balm of sleep / Can ne'er refresh these eyes, 'till the pale hand / Of death shall draw their curtains, and exclude / The busy buzzing swarm of stinging thoughts."

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)

Date: February 22, 1723

"Sir, let her crime / Erase the faithful characters, which love / Imprinted on your heart."

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)

Date: February 22, 1723

"Alas! the pain / We feel, whene'er we dispossess the soul / Of that tormenting tyrant [love], far exceeds / The rigor of his rule."

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)

Date: February 22, 1723

"With reason quell / That haughty passion; treat it as your slave: / Resume the monarch!"

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)

Date: February 22, 1723

"At this late hour, / What discord breaks the virtuous harmony, / Which wont to reign within thy pious breast?"

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)