Date: 1660

"A silent night inhabits my sad breast, / And now no chearful thought will be my guest."

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

Date: 1682

"A Crowd of Vertues fill your Princely Breast."

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

Date: 1687

"The wing'd Battalions from her lovely face / Flew to the Breach, and, rushing in apace, / Did quickly make her Mistress of the place [the heart]."

— Cutts, John, Baron Cutts of Gowran (1660/1-1707)

Date: 1695

"The busie Crowd fills all the labouring Brain, / Bright Fancy's Work-house, where close Cells contain / Of Forms and Images an endless Train, / Which thither thro' the waking Senses glide, / And in fair Mem'ry's Magazine abide."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1695

"Compos'd of these, light Scenes and Shows appear, / Which still employ the restless Theater. / Divinely mov'd, the Airy Figures take / Their several Ranks, and this bright Vision make."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1696

"Pitty would not now at least /Have been a stranger to her Breast"

— Oldmixon, John (1672/3-1742)

Date: 1697

"It reach'd the inmost Marrow of the Brain / Where we perceive our Pleasures, and our Pain. / There where the Soul upon her Throne abides, / And from our Sight conceal'd her Empire guides: / Do's various Orders various Tasks dispence, / To all th'inferiour Ministers of Sence."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1697

"Our Senses to the Mind while lodg'd in Clay, / Do all their various Images convey. / Things that we tast, and feel, and see, afford / The Seeds of Thought with which our Minds are stor'd."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1700

"He oft reflected on the sacred Guest, / Which had her fixt abode within his Breast, / And in his Works her God-like Form exprest."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1703, 1718

Light may fly back to Heaven and leave one's breast bereft of its "Celestial Guest"

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)