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: 1670

"Thus, like a captive in an isle confined, / Man walks at large, a prisoner of the mind."

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: 1675

"But though my Person, nor my Wealth, should find / A room unfurnish'd in your well-built mind: / I'll rather be for plain defects despis'd, / Than for low cheats and false Perfections, priz'd"

— Fane, Sir Francis (d. 1691)

Date: 1678

"And yet the soul, shut up in her dark room, / Viewing so clear abroad, at home sees nothing"

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: 1680

"And nothing to the Soul can come, / Till th' ushering Senses make it room."

— Shadwell, Thomas (1642-1692)

Date: 1682

"I freely give it: so is my heart the dearest faithfull Closet of your Merit."

— D'Urfey, Thomas (1653?-1723)

Date: 1682

"Love, that like a rich and potent Lord possesses, each close Apartment of this Charming Body, retains thy Vertue for some fitter season, and therefore shuts it up in some dark Closet, till the Riotous Soul has done its Revelling."

— D'Urfey, Thomas (1653?-1723)

Date: 1683

"I have Imbezell'd all the Furniture of my Soul and body in vice, though Heaven gave me an excellent House-keeper to look to it all, a careful wakeful Creature, call'd a Conscience, which never slept, never let me sleep in ill, but I abus'd her, sought to turn her out of doors, nay, Murder her, b...

— Crowne, John (bap. 1641, d. 1712)

Date: 1685

"Well never fear, thou shalt be so no more, I'll make thee hereafter, the Secretary of all my Thoughts, and Cabinet of all my Secrets."

— Anonymous; Corneille (1606-1684)

Date: 1686

"My Guts are grumbling a kind of Tune, Like the Base Pipes of an Organ: I am starv'd into a Substance so thin, that my Body is transparent; you may see my heart, and the appurtenances, hang up here in its mortal Closet, as easily as a Candle in a Lanthorn."

— D'Urfey, Thomas (1653?-1723)