Date: 1590

The body is a Castle

— Spenser, Edmund (1552-1599)

Date: 1610

"Man is a lump, where all beasts kneaded be, / Wisdom makes him an ark where all agree; / The fool, in whom these beasts do live at jar, / Is sport to others and a theatre, / Nor 'scapes he so, but is himself their prey; / All which was man in him is eat away, / And now his beasts on one another ...

— Donne, John (1572-1631)

Date: 1633

"within my heart I made / Closets; and in them many a chest; / And like a master in my trade, / In those chests, boxes; in each box, a till: / Yet grief knows all, and enters when he will."

— Herbert, George (1593-1633)

Date: 1661

"These are but objects at a distance, these / Are but refreshments, and to give you ease, / To make thy Way the sweeter, till thou art / Hid in the Closet of Sophia's Heart."

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

Date: 1661

"On this attracting Face our Pilgrim throws / His eyes, his Soul thorow those windows goes"

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

Date: 1678

"Dares afraid his reasons house / (Though he had scarce so much as goose) / About his batter'd ears should tumble"

— Philips, John (1676-1709)

Date: 1678

"He lik't not banging sans defeizance. / While t'other labors all he can / To make a window to his brain."

— Philips, John (1676-1709)

Date: 1681

"O who shall, from this Dungeon, raise / A Soul inslav'd so many wayes?"

— Marvell, Andrew (1621-1678)

Date: 1681

All the "lodgings" of the mind may be "Compos'd into one Gallery."

— Marvell, Andrew (1621-1678)

Date: 1687

"What Humane Passion does with Tears implore, / The Intellect Enjoys, when 'tis in Love / With the Eternal Soul, which here does move / In Mortal Closet, where 'tis kept in Store"

— Ayres, Philip (1638-1712)