Date: 1598

"As you shall deem yourself lodged in my heart , / Though so denied fair harbour in my house. "

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1675

"But though my Person, nor my Wealth, should find / A room unfurnish'd in your well-built mind: / I'll rather be for plain defects despis'd, / Than for low cheats and false Perfections, priz'd"

— Fane, Sir Francis (d. 1691)

Date: 1678

"And yet the soul, shut up in her dark room, / Viewing so clear abroad, at home sees nothing"

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: 1687

"What Humane Passion does with Tears implore, / The Intellect Enjoys, when 'tis in Love / With the Eternal Soul, which here does move / In Mortal Closet, where 'tis kept in Store"

— Ayres, Philip (1638-1712)

Date: 1692

"A Nobler, a Diviner Guest, / Has took possession of my Breast; / He has, and must engross it all, / And yet the room is still too small."

— Norris, John (1657-1712)

Date: Licens'd Decemb. 22. 1691

"She had proceeded thus far in a maze of Thought, when she started to find her self so lost to her Reason, and would have trod back again that path of deluding Fancy."

— Congreve, William (1670-1729)

Date: December 13, 1700; 1701

"I ne'er saw any yet so fair! such Sweetness in her Look! such Modesty! if we may think the Eye the window to the Heart, she has a thousand treasur'd Virtues there."

— Cibber, Colley (1671-1757)

Date: 1682, 1683, 1709

A woman's heart is a "black Mansion" in which nothing resides "But Spite, Contention, Luxury, and Pride"

— Gould, Robert (b. 1660?, d. in or before 1709)

Date: 1745

"New to each hour what low delight succeeds, / What precious furniture of hearts and heads!"

— Akenside, Mark (1720-1771)

Date: 1760, 1850

"Yet still in fancy's painted cells / The soul-inflaming image dwells."

— Hamilton, William, of Bangour (1704-1754)