Date: 1768

"Hope and fear alternate rising, / Strive for empire o'er my heart."

— Bickerstaff, Isaac (b. 1733, d. after 1808)

Date: 1769

"And still my soul they [cares] hold in pain, / Their cruel empire to maintain."

— Fergusson, Robert (1750-1774)

Date: 1770

"This Night we'd fix her [the Muse of Comedy's] Empire in your Hearts."

— Cumberland, Richard (1732-1811)

Date: 1770

Powerful charms may extend "their empire over the heart"

— Foote, Samuel (1720-1777)

Date: 1770

"Reason and Nature are the judges here."

— Foote, Samuel (1720-1777)

Date: 1771

"But, Sir, my passions are my masters; they take me where they will; and oftentimes they leave to reason and to virtue nothing but my wishes and my sighs."

— Cumberland, Richard (1732-1811)

Date: 1771

"I conjure you--however severe the conflict, gratitude shall ever be the predominant passion of my soul--oh! fly this instant."

— Stevens, George Alexander (1710?-1784)

Date: 1773

Injur'd Reason may "her lost rights again / Resume, and of the passions take the rein"

— Hitchcock, Robert (d. 1809)

Date: 1774

"The nymph, who in my bosom reigns, / With such full force my heart enchains, / That nothing ever can impair / The empire she possesses there."

— Dibdin, Charles (bap. 1745, d. 1814)

Date: 1776

"Oh! jealousy, / Thou tyrant of the mind."

— Dibdin, Charles (bap. 1745, d. 1814)