Date: 1796

"A plague on stoicks! / I cannot hoop my heart about with iron, / Like an old beer-butt"

— Colman, George, the younger (1762-1836)

Date: 1796

The actor " Miss Farren, too, who might animate any thing but a soul of lead, and a face of iron, experienced the same fate" (the fate of being paired with a dull actor)

— Colman, George, the younger (1762-1836)

Date: 1796

"These upheld the soul, / As ribb'd with triple steel"

— Bruce, Michael (1746-1767)

Date: 1796

"E'en they th' impressive dart of love can feel, / Whose stubborn souls are sheath'd in triple steel."

— Falconer, William (bap. 1732, d. 1770)

Date: 1796

"You steel mens' hearts against you!"

— Colman, George, the younger (1762-1836)

Date: 1796

"Wouldst thou again with amorous rage
Inflame my bosom? Steeled by age, Vain boy, to pierce my breast thine arrows are too weak."

— Lewis, Matthew Gregory (1775-1818)

Date: 1796

"The climate's heat, 'tis well known, operates with no small influence upon the constitutions of the Spanish ladies: but the most abandoned would have thought it an easier task to inspire with passion the marble statue of St. Francis than the cold and rigid heart of the immaculate Ambrosio."

— Lewis, Matthew Gregory (1775-1818)

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

"Such hardships may steel the mind and body against the injuries of fortune; but my timid reserve was astonished by the crowd and tumult of the school; the want of strength and activity disqualified me for the sports of the play-field; nor have I forgotten how often in the year forty-six I was re...

— Gibbon, Edward (1737-1794)

Date: 1796

"Low in a humble Preface authors kneel; / In vain, the wearied reader's heart is steel."

— Disraeli, Isaac (1766-1848)

Date: 1797

"And every sordid, base alloy, / Let's from our bosoms move; / For was our gold but Irish brass, / Good humour's stamp can make it pass"

— O'Keeffe, John (1747-1833)