Date: 1778

"Apropos--the charming little thing she reigns a very tyrant in my heart, and I long to see her Lady Rampart."

— Robertson, James (fl.1768-1788)

Date: 1778

"O love, thou dear sweet tyrant of the soul, / Where you possess you must engross the whole."

— Robertson, James (fl.1768-1788)

Date: 1778

"Do you think the public opinion, his various doubts of himself, and of her, the pride of his family, and the loud claims of avarice, his ruling passion 'till now, won't prove near an equipoise to his love?"

— Foote, Samuel (1720-1777)

Date: 1780

"Once love gets into a man's head, poor reason is brought before a court-martial of the passions, and cashiered without a hearing"

— Pilon, Frederick (1750-1788)

Date: 1785

Play [gambling] may be a ruling passion

— MacNally, Leonard (1752-1820)

Date: 1785

"I was surpriz'd, taken unawares, passion ran away with me like an unbroke horse: but I have got him under now; I can govern him with a twine of thread."

— Cumberland, Richard (1732-1811)

Date: 1786

Love of admiration may be a ruling passion

— Pilon, Frederick (1750-1788)

Date: 1787

Money may be a ruling passion

— Holcroft, Thomas (1745-1809)

Date: 1788

Lovers are governed by Cupid and must obey the "laws of a monarch, whose throne is the heart"

— Cobb, James (1756-1818)

Date: 1789, 1797

"Still in this breast shall dearest Emma reign, / Nor e'er my will your virgin choice shall sway."

— Berkeley, George Monck (1763-1793)