Date: 1666

"The composition of all poems is or ought to be of wit, and wit in the poet, or wit writing (if you will give me leave to use a school distinction), is no other than the faculty of imagination in the writer, which, like a nimble spaniel, beats over and ranges through the field of memory, till it ...

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: 1666

Elocution is " that art of clothing and adorning that thought so found and varied, in apt, significant, and sounding word."

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: 1667

"Had we forgotten His, or to strange Names / Of Idol-gods stretch'd out our suppliant hands, / Should not God know, and visit this in flames, / Who the vast Empire of all hearts commands, / And thoughts, more than we actions, understands?"

— Woodford, Samuel (1636-1700)

Date: 1667

"Within my heart Thy [the Lord's] love shall gain, / Such conquests, that the Trophies shall like Heav'n remain"

— Woodford, Samuel (1636-1700)

Date: 1667

"From Sons has made you Lords of th' Earth, / And on yours stampt the Portrait of His minde."

— Woodford, Samuel (1636-1700)

Date: 1672?

"Our Hearts are Paper, Beauty is the Pen, / Which writes our Loves, and blots 'em out agen"

— Sedley, Sir Charles (1639-1701)

Date: 1678

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

— Porter, Thomas (1636-1680)

Date: 1681

"This [sadness] fetters all our Senses, pulleth down / Heav'ns Image, Reason from her rightful Throne / And in her room, by Fancies pow'rful Charm, / Sets up a feigned Ill to work our Harm."

— Chamberlayne, Sir James (c.1640-1699)

Date: 1684

A "charming Voice, and Art" may gain "the conquest of my Heart

— Oldham, John (1653-1683)

Date: 1684

"All in thy faithful Glass were so express'd, / As if they were Reflections of thy Breast, / As if they had been stamp'd on thy own mind"

— Oldham, John (1653-1683)