Date: 1652

"Ne're tell us that you wanted origanical dispositions, for you plainly have recourse to the sensitive powers, and must needs subscribe to this, that al knowledg comes flourishing in at these lattices. Why else should not your Candle enlighten you before? who was it that chained up; and fettered ...

— Culverwell, Nathanael (bap. 1619, d. 1651)

Date: 1661

"Such were Love's Ardors, he could scarce forbear / His fettering flesh, his free Soul's chaines, to tear."

— Pordage, Samuel (bap. 1633, d. c. 1691)

Date: 1664

"They are moved (if I may dare to say so) like the rational creatures of the Almighty Poet, who walk at liberty, in their own opinion, because their fetters are invisible; when, indeed, the prison of their will is the more sure for being large; and instead of an absolute power over their actions,...

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: 1664

"Come! let thy locks (whose every Hair / A willing Lover doth ensnare) / Fetter my Soul, in those soft Chaines, / Where Beauty link't with Love, remains!"

— Bold, Henry (1627-1683)

Date: 1664

"Come! let thy locks (whose every Hair / A willing Lover doth ensnare) / Fetter my Soul, in those soft Chaines, / Where Beauty link't with Love, remains!"

— Bold, Henry (1627-1683)

Date: 1664

"But that benefit which I consider most in it [rhyme], because I have not seldom found it, is, that it bounds and circumscribes the fancy: for imagination in a poet is a faculty so wild and lawless, that, like an high-ranging spaniel, it must have clogs tied to it, lest it outrun the judgment."

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: August, 1674; 1675

"How! Is your Soul once more enter'd into that Bondage?"

— Crowne, John (bap. 1641, d. 1712)

Date: 1675

"But when Christ's spirit comes i'th' soul to be, / From sin and bondage Christ doth set it free."

— Keach, Benjamin (1640-1704)

Date: May 25, 1676

"I'th' worst of Prisons I'll my Body bind, / Rather than Chain my free-born mind, / For such a foolish Toy."

— Shadwell, Thomas (1642-1692)

Date: July 25, 1676; 1677

"Therefore keep back the heart you come to restore, mine from this hour shakes off your bonds, and that you may not again enslave it, this day I will put it under the protection of one who is at least as fair as you."

— Ravenscroft, Edward (c.1650- c.1700)