Date: 1598

"Those thoughts to me were oaks, to thee like osiers bowed."

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1598

"And why indeed 'Naso' but for smelling out / the odoriferous flowers of fancy, the jerks of invention?"

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1598

"To weed this wormwood from your fruitful brain, / And therewithal to win me if you please."

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: Licens'd Decemb. 22. 1691

"His Incognita was rooted in his Heart, yet could he not Comfort himself with any Hopes when he should see her."

— Congreve, William (1670-1729)

Date: 1682, 1683, 1709

"The Whining Curse I've rooted from my Mind, / And with it, all Regard of Womankind."

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

Date: 1713, 1719

"This Fancy having once taken Root, grew apace, and branch'd it self forth into a thousand vain Conceits."

— Barker, Jane (1675-1743)

Date: 1723

"Cease, prithee, Muse, thus to infest / The barren Region of my Breast, / Which never can an Harvest yield, / Since Weeds of Noise o'er-run the Field."

— Barker, Jane (1675-1743)

Date: 1728

"When Love in an impetuous Torrent flows, / How vainly Reason would its Force oppose; / Hurl'd down the Stream, like Flowers before the Wind, / She leaves to Love, the Empire of the Mind."

— Fielding, Henry (1707-1754)

Date: 1784, 1804

"When this is the case the hedge (to our feelings) is broken down, and we lie exposed to every temptation; as says the Psalmist--'Why hast thou broken down her hedges, so that all they that pass by the way do pluck her?' Psal. lxxx. 12"

— Huntington, William (1745-1813)