Date: 1594, 1623

"My brain, more busy than the labouring spider, / Weaves tedious snares to trap mine enemies."

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1594, 1623

"I fear me you but warm the starvèd snake, / Who, cherished in your breasts, will sting your hearts."

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1594, 1623

"The splitting rocks cow'red in the sinking sands, / And would not dash me with their ragged sides, / Because thy flinty heart, more hard than they, / Might in thy palace perish Margaret."

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1594, 1623

"I took a costly jewel from my neck -- / A heart it was, bound in with diamonds -- / And threw it towards thy land. The sea received it, / And so I wished thy body might my heart."

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1594, 1623

"What stronger breastplate than a heart untainted?"

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1594, 1623

"Then, York, unloose thy long imprisoned thoughts, / And let thy tongue be equal with thy heart."

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1594, 1623

"Here could I breathe my soul into the air [...] So shouldst thou either turn my flying soul / Or I should breathe it, so, into thy body"

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1594, 1623

"Comb down his hair -- look, look: it stands upright, / Like lime twigs set to catch my wingèd soul."

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1594, 1623

"O, beat away the busy meddling fiend / That lays strong siege unto this wretch's soul."

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1704

"Erect your schemes with as much method and skill as you please; yet, if the materials be nothing but dirt, spun out of your own entrails (the guts of modern brains), the edifice will conclude at last in a cobweb; the duration of which, like that of other spiders’ webs, may be imputed to their be...

— Swift, Jonathan (1667-1745)