Date: 1760

"Attend all ye Fair, and I'll tell ye the Art / To bind every Fancy with ease in your Chains, / To hold in soft Fetters the conjugal Heart, / And banish from Hymen his Doubts and his Pains."

— Murphy, Arthur (1727-1805)

Date: w. 1764, published 1820

"Yet, why repine? What, though by bonds confined, / Should bonds enslave the vigour of the mind?"

— Goldsmith, Oliver (1728?-1774)

Date: 1766

"Fancy leads the fetter'd senses / Captives to her fond controul; / Merit may have rich pretences, / But 'tis Fancy fires the soul."

— Cunningham, John (1729-1773)

Date: 1766

"Far beyond the bonds of meaning / Fancy flies, a Fairy queen!"

— Cunningham, John (1729-1773)

Date: 1767

"Beauty, ye fair, may forge the lover's chain; / But the mind's charms your empire must maintain."

— Murphy, Arthur (1727-1805)

Date: 1775

"Such was the Wreath, when HYMEN led / Our MONARCH to his nuptial bed; / And such the tender Chain which binds, / In mutual Love, their wedded Minds."

— Nugent, Robert [or Craggs] (1702-1788)

Date: 1775

"Yet--yet--perhaps your high respect alone for this solemn compact has fettered your inclinations, which else had made worthier choice."

— Sheridan, Richard Brinsley (1751-1816)

Date: 1780

"Generous Britain scorns to bind, / In servile chains, the freeborn mind."

— Pilon, Frederick (1750-1788)

Date: February 24, 1777; 1781

"She is the deceitful sorceress who now holds your husband's heart in bondage."

— Sheridan, Richard Brinsley (1751-1816)

Date: February 17, 1786

"The bonds of Hymen o'er my mind, / My constant soul must ever bind."

— O'Keeffe, John (1747-1833)