Between the acting of a dreadful thing

And the first motion, all the interim is

Like a phantasma, or a hideous dream:

The Genius and the mortal instruments

Are then in council; and the state of man,

Like to a little kingdom, suffers then

The nature of an insurrection.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): Julius Caesar. Act ii. Sc. 1.

And my large kingdom for a little grave,

A little little grave, an obscure grave.

William Shakespeare (1564-1616): King Richard II. Act iii. Sc. 3.

My mind to me a kingdom is;

Such present joys therein I find,

That it excels all other bliss

That earth affords or grows by kind:

Though much I want which most would have,

Yet still my mind forbids to crave.

Edward Dyer (Circa 1540-1607): MS. Rawl. 85, p. 17.

'T was kin' o' kingdom-come to look

On sech a blessed cretur.

James Russell Lowell (1819-1891): The Biglow Papers. Second Series. The Courtin'.