Date: 1604, 1622

A thought may, "like a poisonous mineral," gnaw one's inwards

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1609

"My mind is troubled, like a fountain stirr'd;/ And I myself see not the bottom of it."

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: w. 1610-11, 1623

"A solemn air, and the best comforter / To an unsettled fancy, cure thy brains, / Now useless, boiled within thy skull."

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: w. 1610-11, 1623

"The charm dissolves apace, / And as the morning steals upon the night, / Melting the darkness, so their rising senses / Begin to chase the ignorant fumes that mantle / Their clearer reason."

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: w. 1610-11, 1623

"Their understanding / Begins to swell, and the approaching tide / Will shortly fill the reasonable shores / That now lie foul and muddy."

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: w. 1610-11, 1623

"You cram these words into mine ears against / The stomach of my sense."

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1611-12, 1623

"Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased; / Pluck from the memory of a rooted sorrow; / Raze out the written troubles of the brain; / And with some sweet oblivious antidote / Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff / Which weighs upon the heart?"

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1612-3, 1623

"The hearts of princes kiss obedience,
So much they love it; but to stubborn spirits
They swell, and grow as terrible as storms."

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1612-3, 1623

"I know you have a gentle, noble temper,/ A soul as even as a calm."

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1622

"In darkness you may see him, that's in absence, / Which is the greatest darkness falls on love; / Yet is he best discernèd then / With intellectual eyesight."

— Middleton, Thomas ( 1580-1627); Rowley, William (1585-1626)