Date: 1738

"Happy, he who can unbind / The Chains that clog the fetter'd Mind!"

— Boyse, Samuel (1708-1749)

Date: 1756

"A lazy languor creeps along my veins; / Dull, and more dull my heavy eyelids grow, / And ev'ry sense accepts the leaden chains."

— Bickerstaff, Isaac (b. 1733, d. after 1808)

Date: 1756, 1766

"But then a question may be asked, What need have we of revelation, since reason can so fully instruct us, and its bonds alone are sufficient to hold us;--and in particular, what becomes of the principal part of revelation, called redemption?

— Amory, Thomas (1690/1-1788)

Date: 1760

"Attend all ye Fair, and I'll tell ye the Art / To bind every Fancy with ease in your Chains, / To hold in soft Fetters the conjugal Heart, / And banish from Hymen his Doubts and his Pains."

— Murphy, Arthur (1727-1805)

Date: 1761

"I have been a slave to a hopeless passion too long; I am now resolved to struggle with my chains: you, Madam, must assist me in breaking them intirely; and I make no doubt but that time, joined to my own efforts, and aided by your sweetness of disposition, your tenderness, and admirable sense, w...

— Sheridan [née Chamberlaine], Frances (1724-1766)

Date: w. 1764, published 1820

"Yet, why repine? What, though by bonds confined, / Should bonds enslave the vigour of the mind?"

— Goldsmith, Oliver (1728?-1774)

Date: 1766

"Fancy leads the fetter'd senses / Captives to her fond controul; / Merit may have rich pretences, / But 'tis Fancy fires the soul."

— Cunningham, John (1729-1773)

Date: 1766

"Far beyond the bonds of meaning / Fancy flies, a Fairy queen!"

— Cunningham, John (1729-1773)

Date: 1767

"Beauty, ye fair, may forge the lover's chain; / But the mind's charms your empire must maintain."

— Murphy, Arthur (1727-1805)

Date: March 5, 1772

"True worth alone can form the charm that binds, / And rivet beauty's chains upon the mind."

— Griffith, Elizabeth (1720-1793)