Date: 1691

"But again I won't forestall ye, tho' really the matter presses, and my pregnant Brain labours with so many painful pangs to be obstetricated, that I verily fear I shall burst before I come to disgorge it thro' my fruitful Quill, to avoid which I'll Ramble on as fast as I can scamper thro' this P...

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1691

"Let it suffice, that my Soul for ought I know, has been Rambling the best part of this 6000 Years, if those are in the right on't who hold the Præexistence, and that all Souls were made at once.

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1691

"But while I was admiring their Skill and Harmony, I was so ravish'd with their Charming Musick; that cou'd you believe it, That I fell stark asleep under the Tree, and my Mind being full of the Idea's which were in my Head, e're I fell asleep, they seem'd still to continue their Discourse, which...

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1691

"'Tis uncertain whether the Fellow I'm about telling you a merry Story of, had been Dancing at a May-pole or no, but sure enough he was got finely Fox'd some where or other i'the Strand, and staid at it till the Watch was set--and then homeward he Rambled as his brutish Carcase cou'd direct him, ...

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1691

"Were there any Metempsychosis, my Soul would want a Lodging, no single Beast could fit me; for I shou'd out of pure love to novelty change more Lodgings than ever Pythagoras's Soul did."

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1691

"So that, Reader, you see my Soul is a proper Tenant for the House it lives in; both which were naturally ill Match'd, to shew, that a generous Spirit may be lodg'd under any shape."

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1691

"This Cobler having been drinking till his Brains were shipwrackt in a deluge of Canary, yet unable with all that Liquor to quench his Nose, which appeared so flaming, that when he was smoaking, it could not be discerned by the most critical Eye, at which end his Pipe burned with the more red-hot...

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1691

"In the Chimney lies one whistling, another gaping, another swearing and cursing, and all of them in such a Tempest of Imagination, that had not the Master of the House interpos'd his Authority, and seasonably assum'd the Office of Master of the supposed Pinnace, commanding all hands down in the ...

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: 1691

"So that here by a dear-bought Experience, I found, that the wandering Fancy of Man (nay, that even Life it self) is a it were but a meer Ramble or Fegary after the drag of something that doth itchifie our Senses, which when we have hunted home, we find nothing but a meer delusion."

— Dunton, John (1659–1732)

Date: Licens'd Decemb. 22. 1691

"For still I did preserve your Image in my Heart, and you were ever present to my dearest Thoughts."

— Congreve, William (1670-1729)