> as lemmas

1574 B. Rich Right Exelent Dialogue Mercury & Eng. Souldier sig. Iv^v He that were least practised in the affayres of loue.

1611 T. Heywood Golden Age iii. sig. F Faire Sibilla, on thy life, I charge thee tell me..By all the hopes in Saturne thou hast stor'd, Our nuptiall pleasures, and affaires of loue.

1671 A. Behn Amorous Prince ii. i. 22 I'le leave you; For I have a small affair of Love to dispatch.

1772 J. Entick New Spelling Dict. (new ed.) Lovemonger,..one who deals in affairs of love.

1773 H. Chapone Lett. Improvem. Mind I. 182 If your friend should..intend to carry on an affair of love.

1847 E. Bennett Bandits of Osage v. i. 103 You have disturbed me in an affair of love; and who of you, gentlemen, has not at sometime had one of his own.

1904 W. P. Watson Japan viii. 58 It is in the affair of love that their profoundest affections and conservatisms reside.

1997 Africa 67 420 Many authors began by basing their first novel on an experience that had happened to them or their friends, often an affair of love.

2004 J. Hillman Terrible Love of War iii. 175 A cultural clumsiness affects American relations with Aphrodite in the affairs of love and in the ways of war.