Date: 1594, 1623

"How irksome is this music to my heart! / When such strings jar, what hope of harmony? "

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1597

"Harp on it still shall I, till heart-strings break."

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1600

"Such harmony is in immortal souls, /But whilst this muddy vesture of decay / Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it."

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1603

"Now see that noble and most sovereign reason / Like sweet bells jangled out of tune and harsh."

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1651

"Many erroneous opinions are about the essence and original of [the rational soul]; whether it be fire, as Zeno held; harmony, as Aristoxenus; number, as Xenocrates; whether it be organical, or inorganical; seated in the brain, heart or blood; mortal or immortal; how it comes into the body."

— Burton, Robert (1577-1640)

Date: 1667

"Good Conscience, as Davids Instrument, / Drives away th'evil Spirit of discontent."

— Billingsley, Nicholas (bap. 1633, d. 1709)

Date: 1667; 2nd ed. in 1674

"For I no sooner in my heart divined, / My heart, which by a secret harmony / Still moves with thine, joined in connexion sweet, / That thou on earth hadst prospered, which thy looks / Now also evidence, but straight I felt, / Though distant from thee worlds between, yet felt, / That I must afte...

— Milton, John (1608-1674)

Date: 1667; 2nd ed. in 1674

"Then feed on thoughts, that voluntary move / Harmonious numbers; as the wakeful bird / Sings darkling, and in shadiest covert hid / Tunes her nocturnal note."

— Milton, John (1608-1674)

Date: 1676

"Music so softens and disarms the mind."

— Etherege, Sir George (1636-1691/2)

Date: 1683

"Reason at last, by her all-conquering arts, / Reduced these savages, and tuned their hearts."

— Dryden, John (1631-1700) [Poem ascribed to]