Date: 1661

"[Y]et is my Will / Free, as the Conquerour's: and Rome shall finde, / I still retain the Empire of my Minde, / That stands above her reach, where I alone / Will rule, and scorn to live, but on a Throne."

— Ross, Thomas (bap. 1620, d. 1675)

Date: 1661

"Him th'unhappy Queen / Views with an earnest Eye, and Entertains / With Smiles: for Love within her Bosom Reigns."

— Ross, Thomas (bap. 1620, d. 1675)

Date: 1661

"To Liberty / A Bowl is crown'd, which all as greedily / Quaff off, as if in it they thought to finde / Their Wish, and Sense of Bondage from the Minde / Expel."

— Ross, Thomas (bap. 1620, d. 1675)

Date: 1664

"But swift Desires, / Transport my passions, to a Throne of Rest"

— Bold, Henry (1627-1683)

Date: 1667

"But yet my self I may subdue; / And that's the nobler Empire of the two"

— Philips [née Fowler], Katherine (1632-1664)

Date: 1667

" (Your Mind b'ing more transcendent than your State, / For while but Knees to this, Hearts bow to that,)"

— Philips [née Fowler], Katherine (1632-1664)

Date: 1667

"He that commands himself is more a Prince / Then he who Nations keeps in awe; / Who yield to all that does their Souls convince, / Shall never need another Law."

— Philips [née Fowler], Katherine (1632-1664)

Date: 1674, 1686

"For Fancy's like a rough, but ready Horse, / Whose mouth is govern'd more by skill than force; / Wherein (my Friend) you do a Maistry own, / If not particular to you alone; /Yet such at least as to all eyes declares /Your Pegasus the best performs his Ayres."

— Cotton, Charles (1630-1687)

Date: November, 1682

"They, who the written rule had never known, / Were to themselves both rule and law alone: / To nature's plain indictment they shall plead; / And, by their conscience, be condemn'd or freed."

— Dryden, John (1631-1700)

Date: 1683

"Falsely they [sense and rhyme] seem each other to oppose; / Rhyme must be made with Reason's laws to close; / And when to conquer her you bend your force, / The mind will triumph in the noble course."

— Dryden, John (1631-1700) [Poem ascribed to]