"Whan this ſayd monument diſcouered was / Suche a ſuauite and fragrant odoure / Aſcended from the corps by ſingular grace / Paſſyng all worldly ſwetnes and ſauour / That all there present that day and hour / Suppoſed they had ben / in the felicite / Of erthely paradiſe / without ambiguite."
— 1513, Henry Bradshaw, edited by Edward Hawkins, The Holy Lyfe and History of Saynt Werburge: Very Frutefull for All Christen People to Rede (Remains Historical & Literary Connected with the Palatine Counties of Lancaster and Chester Published by The Chetham Society; volume XV), […] The Chetham Society, published 1848:
"[T]he wiſe Man gave his Teſtimony to this, as the juſt Standard of true Felicity, when he prayed to have neither Poverty nor Riches."
— 1719 May 6 (Gregorian calendar), [Daniel Defoe], The Life and Strange Surprizing Adventures of Robinson Crusoe, […], London: […] W[illiam] Taylor […], →OCLC, page 3:
"[…] Mr. and Mrs. Norris began their career of conjugal felicity with very little less than a thousand a year."
— 1814 May 9, [Jane Austen], chapter I, in Mansfield Park: […], volume I, London: […] [George Sidney] for T[homas] Egerton, […], →OCLC, page 2:
"For two reasons then it is right to be content with that which happens to thee; the one, because it was done for thee and prescribed for thee, and in a manner had reference to thee, originally from the most ancient causes spun with thy destiny; and the other, because even that which comes severally to every man is to the power which administers the universe a cause of felicity and perfection, nay even of its very continuance."
— 1862, M[arcus] Aurelius Antoninus [i.e., Marcus Aurelius], “Book V”, in George Long, transl., The Thoughts of the Emperor M. Aurelius Antoninus, London: Bell and Daldy, […], →OCLC, page 66:
"[…] to weare our ſelues & neuer reſt,
Untill we reach the ripeſt fruites of all,
That perfect bliſſe and ſole felicitie,
The ſweet fruition of an earthly crowne."
— c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene vii: