Date: 1590?, 1623

"I do desire thee, even from a heart / As full of sorrows as the sea of sands / To bear me company and go with me."

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1594

"Well, I will lock his counsel in my breast / And what I do imagine, let that rest."

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1597

"I pray thee, peace! My soul is full of sorrow."

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1600

"And in her bosom I'll unclasp my heart / And take her hearing prisoner with the force / And strong encounter of my amorous tale."

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1600

"I did never know so full a voice issue from so empty a heart. But the saying is true: 'The empty vessel makes the greatest sound.'"

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1600

"But see, thy fault France hath in thee found out: / A nest of hollow bosoms, which he fills / With treacherous crowns."

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1611-12, 1623

"Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased; / Pluck from the memory of a rooted sorrow; / Raze out the written troubles of the brain; / And with some sweet oblivious antidote / Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff / Which weighs upon the heart?"

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1678

"Into his studious Closet to stuff his Lunatick head, since he can get nothing for his belly."

— Porter, Thomas (1636-1680)

Date: 1680

"And nothing to the Soul can come, / Till th' ushering Senses make it room."

— Shadwell, Thomas (1642-1692)

Date: 1682

"I fear my breast wants room for the excessive joy; is stuck round with the darts of your Beauty, like an Orange that is stuck with Cloves."

— D'Urfey, Thomas (1653?-1723)