Date: 1753

"He combats Passion, rooted in the Soul, / Whose Powers at once delight ye and controul; / Whose Magic Bondage each lost Slave enjoys, / Nor wishes Freedom, tho' the Spell destroys."

— Moore, Edward (1712-1757)

Date: 1756

"A lazy languor creeps along my veins; / Dull, and more dull my heavy eyelids grow, / And ev'ry sense accepts the leaden chains."

— Bickerstaff, Isaac (b. 1733, d. after 1808)

Date: 1760

"Attend all ye Fair, and I'll tell ye the Art / To bind every Fancy with ease in your Chains, / To hold in soft Fetters the conjugal Heart, / And banish from Hymen his Doubts and his Pains."

— Murphy, Arthur (1727-1805)

Date: w. 1764, published 1820

"Yet, why repine? What, though by bonds confined, / Should bonds enslave the vigour of the mind?"

— Goldsmith, Oliver (1728?-1774)

Date: December 6, 1765

"Then fly from Shape to Shape, / Yet hope not to escape, / My Chains enclose your Heart."

— Cumberland, Richard (1732-1811)

Date: 1766

"Till now detain'd / In cruel bonds, his thoughts alone were free, / And these have never stray'd from his Constantia."

— Williams, Anna (1708-1783)

Date: 1767

"Beauty, ye fair, may forge the lover's chain; / But the mind's charms your empire must maintain."

— Murphy, Arthur (1727-1805)

Date: 1771

"But, Sir, my passions are my masters; they take me where they will; and oftentimes they leave to reason and to virtue nothing but my wishes and my sighs."

— Cumberland, Richard (1732-1811)

Date: March 5, 1772

"True worth alone can form the charm that binds, / And rivet beauty's chains upon the mind."

— Griffith, Elizabeth (1720-1793)

Date: 1774

"The nymph, who in my bosom reigns, / With such full force my heart enchains, / That nothing ever can impair / The empire she possesses there."

— Dibdin, Charles (bap. 1745, d. 1814)