Date: January 16, 1719

"No, Madam, I say, not that I mean to use my Power, I tell you only what it is, my Heart has broke your Chain, I claim no Right over you."

— Johnson, Charles (1679?-1748)

Date: 1719

"Pensive and pale desponding / Albion sate, / And hourly waited her impending Fate; / 'Till George arose, in every Grace design'd, / To stop the Ruin, and defend Mankind, / To break the Fetters which our selves had wrought, / And free from Bondage the aspiring Thought."

— Amhurst, Nicholas (1697-1742)

Date: 1719-1720, 1725

"You see, my Lord, said he with a Sigh, that I have put it out of her Power to triumph over my Weakness, for I confess my Heart still wears her Chains; but e'er my Eyes or Tongue betray to her the shameful Bondage, these Hands should tear them out."

— Haywood [née Fowler], Eliza (1693?-1756)

Date: 1722, 1739

"Rather discard this baneful Love, throw off the weighty Chains, banish the fair one from your Breast, return to your Country, be a Blessing to you Parents, and take this glorious Opportunity to free you from the Bondage of your Mind as well as Body."

— Aubin, Penelope (1679?-1731?)

Date: 1723

"Thou [God] only can'st the wond'rous Links descry / That Minds unbody'd to a Body tye."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1723

"Thou know'st the downy Chains that softly bind / Our slumb'ring Sense, when waiting Objects find / No Avenue left open to the Mind."

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1723

"Can Pains and Prisons Errour's Force controul, / And the chain'd Body loose the fetter'd Soul?"

— Blackmore, Sir Richard (1654-1729)

Date: 1724

"These were my Baits, these the Chains by which the Devil held me bound; and by which I was indeed, too fast held for any Reasoning that I was then Mistress of, to deliver me from."

— Defoe, Daniel (1660?-1731)

Date: 1725

"Fair tho' she be, if she my Love disdains, / My Heart shall break the Bondage of her Chains."

— Baker, Henry (1698-1774)

Date: 1726

"[H]e promis'd me a thousand Fineries, gave me an handful of Gold, told me I should have a fine House of my own, a Coach and Servants, with all manner of Imbellishments to grace and adorn my Beauty; which Beauty (continu'd he) has chain'd my Heart, ever since the moment I beheld it in the Milline...

— Barker, Jane (1675-1743)