Date: 1661

"Such were Love's Ardors, he could scarce forbear / His fettering flesh, his free Soul's chaines, to tear."

— Pordage, Samuel (bap. 1633, d. c. 1691)

Date: May 25, 1676

"I'th' worst of Prisons I'll my Body bind, / Rather than Chain my free-born mind, / For such a foolish Toy."

— Shadwell, Thomas (1642-1692)

Date: 1690, 1694, 1695, 1700, 1706

"He that has his chains knocked off, and the prison doors set open to him, is perfectly at liberty, because he may either go or stay, as he best likes; though his preference be determined to stay, by the darkness of the night, or illness of the weather, or want of other lodging."

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: 1690, 1694, 1695, 1700, 1706

"[N]othing is so unfit to assist the mind in that, as syllogism; which running away with one assumed probability, or one topical argument, pursues that till it has led the mind quite out of sight of the thing under consideration; and forcing it upon some remote difficulty, holds it fast there, in...

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: 1690, 1694, 1695, 1700, 1706

"Tell a country gentlewoman that the wind is south-west, and the weather lowering, and like to rain, and she will easily understand it is not safe for her to go abroad thin clad, in such a day, after a fever: She clearly sees the probable connexion of all these, viz. south-west wind, and clouds, ...

— Locke, John (1632-1704)

Date: 1691

"Why then shou'd I not pull up the stake, or get my Lock and Chain off, and scamper away in the interminable Fields of the invisible World."

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1691

"Towards the end of which Chapter Evander confesses his Wit has a little run away with him; so ungovernable a thing is towring Fancy, when not hand-cufft by powerful Reason, flying out against Learning, beloved Learning, at so Satyrical a rate as almost makes his heart bleed to read it, when he t...

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: Licens'd Decemb. 22. 1691

"Madam, it is no small demonstration of the entire Resignation which I have made of my Heart to your Chains, since the secrets of it are no longer in my power."

— Congreve, William (1670-1729)

Date: 1692

"Nor would a man be willing always to be breaking his Brains to chain up the free will of his Wife, which, as some Opinions hold has a free dispensation from above."

— Gildon, Charles (1665-1724)

Date: 1696

"I told you, Sir, I shou'd appear a Riddle to you: But if my Heart will give me leave, I'le now unloose your fetter'd Apprehension."

— Cibber, Colley (1671-1757)