Date: 1651

"'Tis but the Body that blind Fortunes spight / Can chain to Earth; the nobler Soul doth slight / Her servill Bonds, and takes to Heaven her flight."

— Sherburne, Sir Edward (bap. 1616, d. 1702)

Date: 1651

"Why break'st thou not (my Soul) this Chain / Of Flesh? why lett'st thou that restrain / Thy nimble Flight into his Arms, / Whose only Look with gladness charms?"

— Sherburne, Sir Edward (bap. 1616, d. 1702)

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: 1682

"If it so happen, that a Man be ty'd up to Business, which he can neither loosen, nor break off; let him imagine those Shackles upon his Mind to be Irons upon his Legs: They are Troublesome at first, but when there's no Remedy but Patience, Custom makes them easie to us, and Necessity gives us Co...

— L'Estrange, Sir Roger (1616-1704)

Date: 1682

"The Body is but the Clog and Prisoner of the Mind; tossed up and down, and persecuted with Punishments, Violences, and Diseases; but the Mind it self is Sacred, and Eternal, and exempt from the Danger of all Actual Impression."

— L'Estrange, Sir Roger (1616-1704)

Date: 1682

"The Body is but the Prison, or the Clog of the Mind; subjected to Punishments, Robberies, Diseases; but the Mind is Sacred, and Spiritual, and Liable to no Violence."

— L'Estrange, Sir Roger (1616-1704)

Date: June, 1684

"All this I think is in the power of Love, and yet it cannot work a change in me, my heart is link'd so firmly to your Virtues. Magick cannot break the chain."

— Lacy, John (c.1615-1681)