Date: 1600

"And in her bosom I'll unclasp my heart / And take her hearing prisoner with the force / And strong encounter of my amorous tale."

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1600

"I did never know so full a voice issue from so empty a heart. But the saying is true: 'The empty vessel makes the greatest sound.'"

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1600

"But see, thy fault France hath in thee found out: / A nest of hollow bosoms, which he fills / With treacherous crowns."

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1602

"O thou whose breast, I, even this little cantle, / Is counsells capcase, prudences portmantle."

— Anonymous

Date: 1611-12, 1623

"Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased; / Pluck from the memory of a rooted sorrow; / Raze out the written troubles of the brain; / And with some sweet oblivious antidote / Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff / Which weighs upon the heart?"

— Shakespeare, William (1564-1616)

Date: 1678

"Into his studious Closet to stuff his Lunatick head, since he can get nothing for his belly."

— Porter, Thomas (1636-1680)

Date: 1680

"And nothing to the Soul can come, / Till th' ushering Senses make it room."

— Shadwell, Thomas (1642-1692)

Date: 1682

"I fear my breast wants room for the excessive joy; is stuck round with the darts of your Beauty, like an Orange that is stuck with Cloves."

— D'Urfey, Thomas (1653?-1723)

Date: 1696

"Take, take me all: enquire into my heart, / (You know the way to every secret there) / My Heart, the sacred treasury of Love: / And if, in absence, I have mis-employ'd / A Mite from the rich store: if I have spent / A Wish, a Sigh, but what I sent to you: / May I be curst to wish, and sigh in va...

— Southerne, Thomas (1659-1746)