Date: 1590?, 1623

"I do desire thee, even from a heart / As full of sorrows as the sea of sands / To bear me company and go with me."

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: w. 1592-3 or 1595?, 1623

"Look on the boy; / And let his manly face, which promiseth / Successful fortune, steel thy melting heart / To hold thine own and leave thine own with him."

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1702

"Love, Sorrow, and the Sting of vile Reproach, / Succeeding one another in their Course, / Like Drops of Eating Water on the Marble, / At length have worn my boasted Courage down."

— Rowe, Nicholas (1674-1718)

Date: 1708

"Passions are too hurrying to last; Vapours that start from a Mercurial Brain, whose wild Chimera's flush the lighter Faculties, which tir'd i'th' vain pursuit of fancy'd Pleasures."

— Baker, Thomas (b. 1680-1)

Date: 1723

"Look on the Boy, / And let his manly Face, which promiseth / Successful Fortune, steel thy melting Heart / To hold thy own, and leave thine own with him."

— Cibber, Theophilus (1703-1758)

Date: 1775

"But, O, my brother! if thou hast a heart / That is not steel'd with stoic apathy / Against the magic of all-conqu'ring love, / Beware of beauty's pow'r; for she has charms / Wou'd melt the frozen breast of hoary age, / Or draw the lonely hermit from his cell / To gaze upon her."

— Francklin, Thomas (1721-1784)