Date: 1677

"--Hah--Celinda--in my crowd of thoughts / I had forgot I sent"

— Behn, Aphra (1640?-1689)

Date: 1677

"I wou'd ha' rent / With my just hands that Rock, that Marble heart; / I wou'd have div'd through Seas of bloud to find it, / To tear the cruel Quarry from its Center."

— Lee, Nathaniel (1653-1692)

Date: 1677

"And mine / The truest Heart that e're obey'd the Dictates / Of Loves Imperial Power, from that hour / That first obtain'd my Eye the happy Object / Of your Perfections, my poor fetter'd Heart, / Proud of the Chains of such a Conquering Beauty, / Resolv'd to Grace the long wish'd Victory / With a...

— D'Urfey, Thomas (1653?-1723)

Date: 1678

"No more; I'm thine, and here I seal my heart to thee for ever."

— Otway, Thomas (1652-1685)

Date: 1678

"[Y]et even such a soul, may like a Diamond that's set too narrow in the finest Gold, straiten its lustre."

— Howard, Edward (bap. 1624, d. 1712)

Date: 1678

"Into his studious Closet to stuff his Lunatick head, since he can get nothing for his belly."

— Porter, Thomas (1636-1680)

Date: 1678

"Madam, till this moment I ne're was happy, but in your Company lies such Crowds of Joyes, that my soul's too narrow to receive 'em."

— D'Urfey, Thomas (1653?-1723)

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: 1678

"But, like a mole in earth, busy and blind, / [the soul] Works all her folly up, and casts it outward / To the world's open view"

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: 1680

"'Tis an Error as groundless as Vulgar, to think that there goes no more to the furnishing a Poet, than a Wind-mill in the Head, a Stream of Tattle, and convenient Confidence; whereas no Exercise of the Soul requires a more compos'd Thought, more sparingness of Words, more Modesty and Caution in ...

— Tate, Nahum (c. 1652-1715)