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: November 10, 1730

"The pleasing Pain, / The gentle Chain, / That constant Hearts unite, / Such Joy bestows, / That Freedom knows / No such sincere Delight."

— Lillo, George (1691/3-1739)

Date: 1739

"How delightful a thing it is to love, when there is no Obstacle to those aimiable Chains with which two Hearts are united together!"

— Baker, Henry (1698-1774); Miller, James (1706-1744)

Date: 1739

"Marriage is a chain shou'd never be impos'd by Force upon a Heart, and if the Gentleman is a Man of Honour, he should never accept a Person, who must be his by Constraint."

— Baker, Henry (1698-1774); Miller, James (1706-1744)

Date: 1739

"[S]he suffers me to believe every thing, and glories in every thing; and at the same Time, my Heart is still cowardly enough, not to break the Chain that binds it, not to arm it self with a generous Disdain against the ungrateful Object it is but too much smitten with!"

— Baker, Henry (1698-1774); Miller, James (1706-1744)

Date: 1753

"He combats Passion, rooted in the Soul, / Whose Powers at once delight ye and controul; / Whose Magic Bondage each lost Slave enjoys, / Nor wishes Freedom, tho' the Spell destroys."

— Moore, Edward (1712-1757)

Date: 1756

"A lazy languor creeps along my veins; / Dull, and more dull my heavy eyelids grow, / And ev'ry sense accepts the leaden chains."

— Bickerstaff, Isaac (b. 1733, d. after 1808)

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: December 6, 1765

"Then fly from Shape to Shape, / Yet hope not to escape, / My Chains enclose your Heart."

— Cumberland, Richard (1732-1811)