Date: 1681

"Well then, thou shalt go see of what burthen my Lover is, and if he has stoage-room left for a heart, contract for mine; but tell him, what foul weather soever happens he shall preserve mine, though he throw all the rest over-board."

— Ravenscroft, Edward (c.1650- c.1700)

Date: 1690

"O there's the Rock, on which my Reason splits: / Wou'd that were all!"

— Dryden, John (1631-1700); [Plautus, Molière]

Date: 1696

The soul may leave "the reins in the wild hand of nature, who like a Phaeton, drives the fiery chariot, and sets the world on flame"

— Vanbrugh, Sir John (1664-1726)

Date: 1701

"So when against the Tide the Sailor toils / to force his loaded Bark, the Current foils / His Pains, down Stream the master'd Vessel's drove"

— Sherburne, Sir Edward (bap. 1616, d. 1702)

Date: 1706

A woman's "Reason [may be] Shipwrack'd upon her Passion, and the Hulk of her Understanding lies thumping against the Rock of her Fury"

— Vanbrugh, Sir John (1664-1726)

Date: 1722

"Whither does my fancy carry me?"

— Steele, Sir Richard (1672-1729)

Date: February 22, 1723

"For 'tis th' infirmity of noblest minds, / When ruffled with an unexpected woe, / To speak what settled prudence wou'd conceal: / As the vex'd ocean working in a storm, / Oft brings to light the wrecks which long lay calm, / In the dark bosom of the secret deep."

— Fenton, Elijah (1683-1730)

Date: 1745

"But hold, my Soul, / Thy steady Purpose--Tost by various Passions, / To this eternal Anchor keep--There is, / Can be, no Public without Private Virtue."

— Thomson, James (1700-1748)

Date: 1761

"My Soul is tost / Upon a sea of blood, whose stormy channel / My lab'ring bark must pass, e're it can reach / That land of Peace, to which its Hopes are bound."

— Cumberland, Richard (1732-1811)

Date: 1786

"Nay, with every other person 'tis the same thing--If we are stuffed into a coach, with a little chattering pert Miss, "Oh dear, Mr. Anthony Euston, you must not ride backwards, here is room for you on this seat--and Mr. Euston, I know, will like one seat as well as another"--and then am...

— Inchbald [née Simpson], Elizabeth (1753-1821)