Date: 1600

"Such harmony is in immortal souls, /But whilst this muddy vesture of decay / Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it."

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1603

"Now see that noble and most sovereign reason / Like sweet bells jangled out of tune and harsh."

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1676

"Music so softens and disarms the mind."

— Etherege, Sir George (1636-1691/2)

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)