Date: w. c. 1210

"As a prudent workman, construct the whole fabric within the mind's citadel; let it exist in the mind before it is on the lips."

— Vinsauf, Geoffrey of [called Galfridus Anglicus] (fl. 1208-1213)

Date: 1384

"O Thought, that wroot al that I mette, / And in the tresorie hit shette / Of my brayn!"

— Chaucer, Geoffrey (c. 1340-1400)

Date: 1389

"The innere witte is departed a þre by þre regiouns of þe brayn, for in þe brayne beþ þre smale celles."

— Trevisa, John (b. c. 1342, d. in or before 1402); Bartholomeus (1203-1272)

Date: 1590

The body is a Castle

— Spenser, Edmund (1552-1599)

Date: 1590?, 1623

"O thou that dost inhabit in my breast , / Leave not the mansion so long tenantless / Lest, growing ruinous, the building fall / And leave no memory of what it was."

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1592

Elizabeth preferred not "to make windows into men's hearts and secret thoughts, except the abundance of them did overflow into overt and express acts and affirmations."

— Bacon, Sir Francis, Lord Verulam (1561-1626)

Date: w. 1592-3 or 1595?, 1623

"My heart, sweet boy, shall be thy sepulchre, / For from my heart thine image ne'er shall go."

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: w. 1592-3 or 1595?, 1623

"Now my soul's palace is become a prison."

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1592

"Thine eye the glasse where I behold my hart, / mine eye the window, through the which thine eye / may see my hart, and there thy selfe espye / in bloudie colours how thou painted art."

— Constable, Henry (1562-1613)

Date: 1594

"This poor right hand of mine / Is left to tyrannize upon my breast, / Who, when my heart, all mad with misery, / Beats in this hollow prison of my flesh, / Then thus I thump it down."

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)