Lucasta
by
Richard Lovelace
Part 1 out of 6
By Richard Lovelace
LUCASTA.
TO
WILLIAM HAZLITT, ESQ., OF THE MIDDLE TEMPLE, A REGISTRAR OF
THE COURT OF BANKRUPTCY IN LONDON,
This Little Volume
IS INSCRIBED AS A SLIGHT TESTIMONY OF THE GREATEST RESPECT,
BY HIS AFFECTIONATE SON, THE EDITOR.
CONTENTS.
PART I.
PAGE
Dedication 3
Verses addressed to the Author 5
I. Poems Addressed or Relating To Lucasta.
Song. To Lucasta. Going beyond the Seas 25
Song. To Lucasta. Going to the Warres 26
A Paradox 27
Song. To Amarantha, that she would Dishevell her Haire 29
Sonnet 31
Ode. To Lucasta. The Rose 31
Love Conquer'd. A Song 33
A Loose Saraband 34
Orpheus to Woods 37
Orpheus to Beasts 37
Dialogue. Lucasta, Alexis 39
Sonnet 41
Lucasta Weeping. Song 42
To Lucasta, from Prison. An Epode 43
Lucasta's Fanne, with a Looking-glasse in it 46
Lucasta, taking the Waters at Tunbridge 48
To Lucasta. Ode Lyrick 50
Lucasta paying her Obsequies to the Chast Memory of my
Dearest Cosin Mrs. Bowes Barne[s] 51
Upon the Curtaine of Lucasta's Picture, it was thus Wrought 53
Lucasta's World. Epode 53
The Apostacy of One, and but One Lady 54
Amyntor from beyond the Sea to Alexis. A Dialogue 56
Calling Lucasta from her Retirement 58
Amarantha, a Pastoral 60
II. Poems Addressed to Ellinda.
To Ellinda, that lately I have not written 74
Ellinda's Glove 75
Being Treated. To Ellinda 76
To Ellinda, upon his late Recovery. A Paradox 79
III. Miscellaneous Poems
To Chloe, courting her for his Friend 81
Gratiana Dauncing and Singing 82
Amyntor's Grove 84
The Scrutinie 89
Princesse Loysa Drawing 90
A Forsaken Lady to her False Servant 92
The Grassehopper. To My Noble Friend,
Mr. Charles Cotton [the elder] 94
An Elegie on the Death of Mrs. Cassandra Cotton 97
The Vintage to the Dungeon. A Song 99
On the Death of Mrs. Elizabeth Filmer. An Elegiacall Epitaph 100
To My Worthy Friend Mr. Peter Lilly 102
The Lady A[nne] L[ovelace]. My Asylum in a Great Extremity 104
A Lady with a Falcon on her Fist. To the Honourable
my Cousin A[nne] L[oveace] 108
A Prologue to the Scholars 110
The Epilogue 111
Against the Love of Great Ones 113
To Althea, from Prison 117
Sonnet. To Generall Goring, after the Pacification at Berwicke 120
Sir Thomas Wortley's Sonnet 122
The Answer 123
A Guiltlesse Lady Imprisoned; after Penanced 124
To His Deare Brother Colonel F[rancis] L[ovelace] 125
To a Lady that desired me I would beare my part with her
in a Song 126
Valiant Love 131
La Bella Bona Roba. To My Lady H. 133
Sonnet. "I Cannot Tell," &c. 134
A la Bourbon 135
The Faire Begger 136
A Dialogue betwixt Cordanus and Amoret 138
.
This footnote has been moved to a position after the poem
'La Bella Bona Roba.'>
IV. Commendatory and Other Verses, prefixed to
Various Publications between 1638 and 1647.
An Elegie. Princesse Katherine Borne, Christened, Buried
in one Day (1638) 140
Clitophon and Lucippe translated. To the Ladies (1638) 143
To My Truely Valiant, Learned Friend; who in his Booke
resolv'd the Art Gladiatory into the Mathematicks (1638) 146
To Fletcher Reviv'd (1647) 148
PART II.
I. Poems Addressed or Relating to Lucasta.
Dedication 155
To Lucasta. Her Reserved Looks 157
Lucasta Laughing 157
Night. To Lucasta 158
Love Inthron'd 159
Her Muffe 160
A Black Patch on Lucasta's Face 162
Another 163
To Lucasta 165
To Lucasta 165
Lucasta at the Bath 166
The Ant 168
II. Miscellaneous Poems.
Song. Strive not, &c. 170
In Allusion to the French Song: "N'entendez vous pas
ce Language" 171
Courante Monsieur 173
A Loose Saraband 174
The Falcon 176
Love made in the First Age. To Chloris 180
To a Lady with Child that ask'd an Old Shirt 183
Song. In mine own Monument I lye, &c. 184
Another. I did believe, &c. 184
Ode. You are deceiv'd, &c. 185
The Duell 187
Cupid far gone 188
A Mock Song 190
A Fly caught in a Cobweb 191
A Fly about a Glasse of Burnt Claret 193
Female Glory 196
A Dialogue. Lute and Voice 197
A Mock Charon. Dialogue 198
The Toad and Spyder. A Duell 199
The Snayl 207
Another 209
The Triumphs of Philamore and Amoret 211
Advice to my best Brother, Coll: Francis Lovelace 218
Paris's Second Judgement 221
Peinture. A Panegyrick to the best Picture of Friendship,
Mr. Pet. Lilly 222
An Anniversary on the Hymeneals of my Noble Kinsman,
Thomas Stanley, Esq. 227
On Sanazar's being honoured with 600 Duckets by the
Clarissimi of Venice 229
III. Commendatory Verses, prefixed to Various
Publications between 1652 and 1657.
To My Dear Friend, Mr. E[ldred] R[evett] on his Poems moral
and divine 241
On the Best, Last, and only Remaining Comedy of Mr. Fletcher,
"The Wild-Goose Chase" (1652) 245
To My Noble Kinsman Thomas Stanley, Esq.; on his Lyrick Poems
composed by Mr. John Gamble (1656) 247
To Dr. F. B[eale]; on his Book of Chesse (1656) 249
To the Genius of Mr. John Hall (1657) 250
Translations 253
Elegies on the Death of the Author 279
INTRODUCTION.
There is scarcely an UN-DRAMATIC writer of the Seventeenth Century,
whose poems exhibit so many and such gross corruptions as those
of the author of LUCASTA. In the present edition, which is the
first attempt to present the productions of a celebrated and
elegant poet to the admirers of this class of literature in a
readable shape, both the text and the pointing have been amended
throughout, the original reading being always given in the foot-
notes; but some passages still remain, which I have not succeeded
in elucidating to my satisfaction, and one or two which have defied
all my attempts at emendation, though, as they stand, they are
unquestionably nonsense. It is proper to mention that several
rather bold corrections have been hazarded in the course of the
volume; but where this has been done, the deviation from the
original has invariably been pointed out in the notes.
On the title-page of the copy of LUCASTA, 1649, preserved among
the King's Pamphlets in the British Museum, the original possessor
has, according to his usual practice, marked the date of purchase,
viz., June 21; perhaps, and indeed probably, that was also
the date of publication. A copy of LUCASTA, 1649, occasionally
appears in catalogues, purporting to have belonged to Anne,
Lady Lovelace; but the autograph which it contains was taken
from a copy of Massinger's BONDMAN (edit. 1638, 4to.), which her
Ladyship once owned. This copy of Lovelace's LUCASTA is bound up
with the copy of the POSTHUME POEMS, once in the possession
of Benjamin Rudyerd, Esq., grandson and heir of the distinguished
Sir Benjamin Rudyerd, as appears also from his autograph
on the title.<1.1>
In the original edition of the two parts of LUCASTA, 1649-59,
the arrangement of the poems appears, like that of the text,
to have been left to chance, and the result has been a total
absence of method. I have therefore felt it part of my duty to
systematise the contents of the volume, and, so far as it lay in my
power, to place the various pieces of which it consisted in their
proper order; all the odes, sonnets, &c. addressed or referring to
the lady who is concealed under the names of LUCASTA and AMARANTHA
have now been, for the first time, brought together; and the copies
of commendatory and gratulatory verses, with one exception prefixed
by Lovelace to various publications by friends during his life-
time, either prior to the appearance of the first part of his own
poems in 1649, or between that date and the issue of his Remains
ten years later, have been placed by themselves, as an act of
justice to the writer, of whose style and genius they are, as is
generally the case with all compositions of the kind, by no means
favourable specimens. The translations from Catullus, Ausonius,
&c. have been left as they stood; they are, for the most part,
destitute of merit; but as they were inserted by the Poet's
brother, when he edited the posthumous volume, I did not think it
right to disturb them, and they have been retained in their full
integrity.
Lovelace's LUCASTA was included by the late S. W. Singer, Esq.,
in his series of "Early English Poets;" but that gentleman,
besides striking out certain passages, which he, somewhat
unaccountably and inconsistently, regarded as indelicate,
omitted a good deal of preliminary matter in the form of
commendatory verses which, though possibly of small worth,
were necessary to render the book complete; it is possible,
that Mr. Singer made use of a copy of LUCASTA which was deficient
at the commencement. It may not be generally known that,
independently of its imperfections in other respects,
Mr. Singer's reprint abounds with the grossest blunders.
The old orthography has been preserved intact in this edition;
but with respect to the employment of capitals, the entirely
arbitrary manner in which they are introduced into the book as
originally published, has made it necessary to reduce them, as well
as the singularly capricious punctuation, to modern rules. At the
same time, in those cases where capitals seemed more characteristic
or appropriate, they have been retained.
It is a singular circumstance, that Mr. Singer (in common with
Wood, Bliss, Ellis, Headley, and all other biographers,) overlooked
the misprint of ARAMANTHA for AMARANTHA, which the old compositor
made, with one or two exceptions, wherever the word occurred. In
giving a correct representation of the original title-page, I have
been obliged to print ARAMANTHA.
In the hope of discovering the exact date of Lovelace's birth
and baptism, I communicated with the Rev. A. J. Pearman, incumbent
of Bethersden, near Ashford, and that gentleman obligingly examined
the registers for me, but no traces of Lovelace's name are to be
found.
W. C. H.
Kensington, August 12, 1863.
<1.1> Mr. B. R. was a somewhat diligent collector of books,
both English and foreign. On the fly-leaves of his copy
of Rosse's MYSTAGOGUS POETICUS, 1648, 8vo., he has written
the names of a variety of works, of which he was at the time
seemingly in recent possession.
BIOGRAPHICAL NOTICE.
With the exception of Sir Egerton Brydges, who contributed to the
GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE for 1791-2 a series of articles on the life
and writings of the subject of the present memoir, all the
biographers of Richard Lovelace have contented themselves with
following the account left by Anthony Wood of his short and unhappy
career. I do not think that I can do better than commence, at
least, by giving word for word the narrative of Wood in his own
language, to which I purpose to add such additional particulars in
the form of notes or otherwise, as I may be able to supply. But
the reader must not expect much that is new: for I regret to say
that, after the most careful researches, I have not improved, to
any large extent, the state of knowledge respecting this elegant
poet and unfortunate man.
"Richard Lovelace," writes Wood, "the eldest son of Sir William
Lovelace<2.1> of Woollidge in Kent, knight, was born in that
country [in 1618], educated in grammar learning in
Charterhouse<2.2> School near London, became a gent. commoner of
Gloucester Hall in the beginning of the year 1634,<2.3> and in that
of his age sixteen, being then accounted the most amiable and
beautiful person that ever eye beheld; a person also of innate
modesty, virtue, and courtly deportment, which made him then, but
especially after, when he retired to the great city, much admired
and adored by the female sex. In 1636, when the king and queen
were for some days entertained at Oxon, he was, at the request of a
great lady belonging to the queen, made to the Archbishop of
Canterbury [Laud], then Chancellor of the University, actually
created, among other persons of quality, Master of Arts, though but
of two years' standing; at which time his conversation being made
public, and consequently his ingenuity and generous soul
discovered, he became as much admired by the male, as before by the
female, sex. After he had left the University, he retired in great
splendour to the court, and being taken into the favour of Lord
George Goring, afterwards Earl of Norwich, was by him adopted a
soldier, and sent in the quality of an ensign, in the Scotch
expedition, an. 1639. Afterwards, in the second expedition, he was
commissionated a captain in the same regiment, and in that time
wrote a tragedy called THE SOLDIER, but never acted, because the
stage was soon after suppressed. After the pacification of
Berwick, he retired to his native country, and took possession [of
his estate] at Lovelace Place, in the parish of Bethersden,<2.4> at
Canterbury, Chart, Halden, &c., worth, at least, 500 per
annum. About which time he [being then on the commission of the
peace] was made choice of by the whole body of the county of Kent
at an assize, to deliver the Kentish petition<2.5> to the House of
Commons, for the restoring the king to his rights, and for settling
the government, &c. For which piece of service he was committed
[April 30, 1642] to the Gatehouse at Westminster,<2.6> where he
made that celebrated song called, STONE WALLS DO NOT A PRISON MAKE,
&c. After three or four months' [six or seven weeks'] imprisonment,
he had his liberty upon bail of 40,000 [4000?]
not to stir out of the lines of communication without a pass from
the speaker. During the time of this confinement to London,
he lived beyond the income of his estate, either to keep up
the credit and reputation of the king's cause by furnishing
men with horses and arms, or by relieving ingenious men in want,
whether scholars, musicians, soldiers, &c. Also, by furnishing
his two brothers, Colonel Franc. Lovelace, and Captain William
Lovelace (afterwards slain at Caermarthen)<2.7> with men and
money for the king's cause, and his other brother, called Dudley
Posthumus Lovelace, with moneys for his maintenance in Holland,
to study tactics and fortification in that school of war. After
the rendition of Oxford garrison, in 1646, he formed a regiment
for the service of the French king, was colonel of it, and
wounded at Dunkirk;<2.8> and in 1648, returning into England, he,
with Dudley Posthumus before mentioned, then a captain under him,
were both committed prisoners to Peter House,<2.9> in London, where
he framed his poems for the press, entitled, LUCASTA: EPODES, ODES,
SONNETS, SONGS, &c., Lond. 1649, Oct. The reason why he gave that
title was because, some time before, he had made his amours to a
gentlewoman of great beauty and fortune, named Lucy Sacheverell,
whom he usually called LUX CASTA; but she, upon a stray report that
Lovelace was dead of his wound received at Dunkirk, soon after
married.<2.10> He also wrote ARAMANTHA [Amarantha], A PASTORAL,
printed with LUCASTA.<2.11> Afterwards a musical composition of two
parts was set to part of it by Henry Lawes,<2.12> sometimes servant
to king Charles I., in his public and private music.
"After the murther of king Charles I. Lovelace was set at liberty,
and, having by that time consumed all his estate,<2.13> grew
very melancholy (which brought him at length into a consumption),
became very poor in body and purse, was the object of charity,
went in ragged cloaths (whereas when he was in his glory he wore
cloth of gold and silver), and mostly lodged in obscure and dirty
places, more befitting the worst of beggars and poorest of
servants, &c. After his death his brother Dudley, before
mentioned, made a collection of his poetical papers, fitted them
for the press, and entitled them LUCASTA: POSTHUME POEMS, Lond.
1659,<2.14> Oct., the second part, with his picture before
them.<2.15> These are all the things that he hath extant; those
that were never published were his tragedy, called THE SOLDIER or
SOLDIERS, before mentioned; and his comedy, called THE
SCHOLAR,<2.16> which he composed at sixteen years of age, when he
came first to Gloucester hall, acted with applause afterwards in
Salisbury Court. He died in a very mean lodging in Gunpowder
Alley,<2.17> near Shoe Lane,<2.18> and was buried at the west-end
of the church of S. Bride, alias Bridget, in London, near to the
body of his kinsman Will. Lovelace, of Gray's Inn, Esq., in sixteen
hundred fifty and eight,<2.19> having before been accounted by all
those that well knew him to have been a person well versed in the
Greek<2.20> and Latin<2.21> poets, in music, whether practical or
theoretical, instrumental or vocal, and in other things befitting a
gentleman. Some of the said persons have also added, in my
hearing, that his common discourse was not only significant and
witty, but incomparably graceful, which drew respect from all men
and women. Many other things I could now say of him, relating
either to his most generous mind in his prosperity, or dejected
estate in his worst state of poverty, but for brevity's sake I
shall now pass them by. At the end of his Posthume Poems are
several elegies written on him by eminent poets of that time,
wherein you may see his just character."
Such is Wood's account; it is to be regretted that that writer
did not supply the additional information, which he tantalizes us
by saying that he possessed, and could have published, had he not
been afraid of being tedious. His love of brevity is, in this
case, most provoking.
As might be expected, the Journals of Parliament cast additional
light on the personal connexion of Lovelace with the Kentish
Petition of 1642, which was for the GENERAL redress of existing
grievances, not, as the editor of the VERNEY PAPERS seems to have
considered, merely for the adjustment of certain points relative to
the Militia. Parliamentary literature has not a very strong
fascination for the editors of old authors, and the biographers of
Lovelace have uniformly overlooked the mine of information which
lies in the LORDS' AND COMMONS' JOURNALS. The subject was
apparently introduced, for the first time, into Parliament on the
28th March, 1642, when a conference of both Houses took place,
respecting "a petition from Kent, which, praying for a Restoration
of the Bishops, Liturgy and Common Prayer, and other constitutional
measures, was voted seditious and against privilege and the peace
of the kingdom;" on the same occasion, Lord Bristol and Mr. Justice
Mallett were committed to the Tower for having in their possession
a copy of the document. On the 7th April it was ordered by both
Houses, that the Kentish Petition should be burned by the hands of
the common hangman.
On the 28th April, the Commons acquainted the Upper House,
by Mr. Oliver Cromwell, "that a great meeting was to be held
next day on Blackheath, to back the rejected Kentish
Petition."<2.22>
Two days later, a strange scene occurred at Westminster.
Let the Commons' Journals tell the story in their own language:--
"30 April, 1642. The House being informed that divers gentlemen
of the county of Kent were at the door, that desired to present
a petition to the House;
"They were called in, presented their Petition, and withdrew.
"And their Petition was read, and appeared to be the same
that was formerly burnt, by order of both Houses, by the hands
of the common hangman. Captain LEIGH reports that, being at
the Quarter Sessions held at MAIDSTONE, he observed certain
passages which he delivered in writing.
"Captain Lovelace, who presented the Petition, was called in;
and Mr. Speaker was commanded to ask him, from whose hand
he had this Petition, and who gave him warrant to present it.
"'Mr. GEO. CHUTE delivered him [he replied] the Petition the next
day after the Assizes.'
"'The gentlemen [he continued], that were assembled at BLACKHEATH,
commanded him to deliver it.'
"[The Speaker then inquired] whether he knew that the like was
burnt by the order of this House, and that some were here
questioned for the business.
"'He understood a general rumour, that some gentlemen were
questioned.
"'He had heard a fortnight since, that the like Petition was burned
by the hand of the common hangman.
"'He knew nothing of the bundle of printed petitions.'
"He likewise said, 'that there was a petition at the Quarter
Sessions, disavowed by all the Justices there, which he tore.'
"Sir William Boteler was likewise called in, [and] asked when he
was at Yorke.
"[He] answered, 'On Wednesday last was sevennight, he came from
Yorke, and came to his house in London.
"'He heard of a petition that was never delivered.
"'He never heard of any censure of the Parliament.
"'He heard that a paper was burnt for being irregularly burnt
[?presented].
"'He had heard that the Petition, that went under the name of
the Kentish Petition, was burnt by the hands of the common hangman.
"'He never heard of any order of either, [or] of both, the Houses
concerning [the Petition].
"'He was at Hull on Thursday or Friday was a sevennight: as he
came from Yorke, he took Hull in the way. He had heard, that
Sir Roger Twisden was questioned for the like Petition.
"'He was yesterday at BLACKHEATH.'
"Resolved, upon the question, that Captain Lovelace shall be
presently Committed prisoner to the Gatehouse.
"Resolved, upon the question, that Sir William Boteler shall be
presently committed prisoner to the Fleet.
"Ordered, that the sergeant shall apprehend them, and carry them
in safe custody, and deliver them as prisoners to the several
prisons aforesaid."
On the 4th May, 1642, the House of Commons ordered Mr. Whittlock
and others to prepare a charge against Mr. Lovelace and Sir William
Boteler with all expedition; but nothing further is heard of the
matter till the 17th June, When Lovelace<2.23> and Boteler
petitioned the House separately for their release from custody.
Hereupon Sir William was discharged on finding personal bail to the
extent of 10,000, with a surety for 5000; and in
the case of his companion in misfortune it was ordered, on the
question, that "he be forthwith bailed upon GOOD security." This
"good security," surely, did not reach the sum mentioned by Wood,
namely, 40,000; but it is likely that the author of the
ATHENAE is ONLY wrong by a cypher, and that the amount fixed was
4000, as it has been already suggested. Thus Lovelace's
confinement did not exceed seven weeks in duration, and the
probability, is that the sole inconvenience, which he subsequently
experienced, was the loss of the bail.
The description left by Wood and Aubrey of the end of Lovelace
can only be reconciled with the fact, that his daughter and heiress
conveyed Kingsdown, Hever,<2.24> and a moiety of Chipsted,
to the Cokes by marriage with Mr. Henry Coke, by presuming that
those manors were entailed; while Lovelace Place, as well perhaps
as Bayford and Goodneston, not being similarly secured, were sold
to defray the owner's incumbrances. At any rate it is not,
upon the whole, very probable that he died in a hovel, in a state
of absolute poverty;<2.25> that he received a pound a week
(equal to about 4 of our money) from two friends,
Cotton and another, Aubrey himself admits; and we may rest
satisfied that, however painful the contrast may have been between
the opening and close of that career, the deplorable account given
in the ATHENAE, and in the so-called LIVES OF EMINENT MEN, is much
exaggerated and overdrawn.
It has not hitherto been remarked, that among the Kentish gentry
who, from time to time, elected to change the nature of their
tenure from gavelkind to primogeniture, were the Lovelaces
themselves, in the person of Thomas Lovelace,<2.26> who, by Act of
Parliament 2 and 3 Edw. VI. obtained, concurrently with several
other families, the power of conversion. This Thomas Lovelace was
not improbably the same, who was admitted a student of Gray's Inn
in 1541; and that he was of the Kentish Lovelaces there is not much
reason to doubt; although, at the same time, I am unable to fix the
precise degree of consanguinity between him and Serjeant William
Lovelace of Gray's Inn, who died in 1576, and who was great-
grandfather to the author of LUCASTA. The circumstance that the
real property of Thomas Lovelace aforesaid, situated in Kent, was
released by Act of Parliament, 2 and 3 Edw. VI. from the operations
of gavelkind tenure (assuming, as is most likely to have been the
case, that he was of the same stock as the poet, though not an
immediate ancestor,) seems to explain the following allusion by
Dudley Lovelace in the verses prefixed by him to LUCASTA, 1649:--
"Those by the landed have been writ,
Mine's but a younger-brother wit."
As well as the subjoined lines by Lovelace in the poem entitled,
"To Lucasta, from Prison," (see p. 44 of present edition):--
"Next would I court my LIBERTY,
And then my birthright, PROPERTY."
There is evidence to prove that Lovelace was on intimate terms
with some of the wits of his time, and that he had friendly
relations with many of them--such as Hall, Rawlins, Lenton, and
particularly the Cottons. John Tatham, the City Poet, and author
of THE FANCIES THEATER, 1640, knew him well, and addressed to him
some stanzas, not devoid of merit, during his stay abroad.
In 1643, Henry Glapthorne, a celebrated dramatist and poet
of the same age, dedicated to Lovelace his poem of WHITEHALL,
printed in that year in a quarto pamphlet, with elegies
on the Earls of Bedford and Manchester.<2.27> The pages
of LUCASTA bear testimony to the acquaintance of the author
with Anthony Hodges of New College, Oxford, translator of
CLITOPHON AND LEUCIPPE from the Greek of Achilles Tatius
(or rather probably from a Latin version of the original),
and with other<2.28> members of the University.<2.29>
Although it is stated by Wood that LUCASTA was prepared for the
press by Lovelace himself, on his return from the Continent in
1648, it is impossible to believe that any care was bestowed on the
correction of the text, or on the arrangement of the various pieces
which compose the volume: nor did his brother Dudley Posthumus, who
edited the second part of the book in 1659, perform his task in any
degree better. In both instances, the printer seems to have been
suffered to do the work in his own way, and very infamously he has
done it. To supply all the short-comings of the author and his
literary executor at this distance of time, is, unfortunately, out
of the power of any editor; but in the present republication I have
taken the liberty of rearranging the poems, to a certain extent in
the order in which it may be conjectured that they were written;
and where Lovelace contributed commendatory verses to other works,
either before or after the appearance of the first portion of
LUCASTA, the two texts have been collated, and improved readings
been occasionally obtained.
The few poems, on which the fame of Lovelace may be said to rest,
are emanations not only of the stirring period in which he lived,
but of the peculiar circumstances into which he was thrown
at different epochs of his life. Lovelace had not the melodious
and exquisite taste of Herrick, the wit of Suckling, or the power
of Randolph (so often second only to his master Jonson).
Mr. Singer has praised the exuberant fancy of Lovelace; but,
in my thinking, Lovelace was inferior in fancy, as well as in
grace, both to Carew and the author of HESPERIDES. Yet Lovelace
has left behind him one or two things, which I doubt if any of
those writers could have produced, and which our greatest poets
would not have been ashamed to own. Winstanley was so far right in
instituting a comparison between Lovelace and Sydney, that it is
hard to name any one in the entire circle of early English
literature except Sydney and Wither, who could have attempted, with
any chance of success, the SONG TO ALTHEA FROM PRISON; and how
differently Sydney at least would have handled it! We know what
Herrick would have made of it; it would have furnished the theme
for one more invocation to Julia. From Suckling we should have had
a bantering playfulness, or a fescennine gaiety, equally unsuited
to the subject. Waller had once an opportunity of realizing the
position, which has been described by his contemporary in immortal
stanzas; but Waller, when he was under confinement, was thinking
too much of his neck to write verses with much felicity, and
preferred waiting, till he got back to Beaconsfield (when his
inspiration had evaporated), to pour out his feelings to Lady
Dorothy or Lady Sophia. Wither's song, "Shall I wasting in
Despair," is certainly superior to the SONG TO ALTHEA. Wither was
frequently equal to Lovelace in poetical imagery and sentiment, and
he far excelled him in versification. The versification of
Lovelace is indeed more rugged and unmusical than that of any other
writer of the period, and this blemish is so conspicuous throughout
LUCASTA, and is noticeable in so many cases, where it might have
been avoided with very little trouble, that we are naturally led to
the inference that Lovelace, in writing, accepted from indolence or
haste, the first word which happened to occur to his mind. Daniel,
Drayton, and others were, it is well known, indefatigable revisers
of their poems; they "added and altered many times," mostly
for the better, occasionally for the worse. We can scarcely
picture to ourselves Lovelace blotting a line, though it would
have been well for his reputation, if he had blotted many.
In the poem of the LOOSE SARABAND (p. 34) there is some resemblance
to a piece translated from Meleager in Elton's SPECIMENS OF CLASSIC
POETS, i. 411, and entitled by Elton "Playing at Hearts."
"Love acts the tennis-player's part,
And throws to thee my panting heart;
Heliodora! ere it fall,
Let desire catch swift the ball:
Let her in the ball-court move,
Follow in the game with love.
If thou throw me back again,
I shall of foul play complain."
And an address to the Cicada by the same writer, (IBID. i. 415)
opens with these lines:--
"Oh, shrill-voiced insect that, with dew-drops sweet
Inebriate, dost in desert woodlands sing."
In the poem called "The Grasshopper" (p. 94), the author speaks
of the insect as
"Drunk ev'ry night with a delicious tear,
Dropped thee from heaven."----
The similarity, in each case, I believe to have been entirely
accidental: nor am I disposed to think that Lovelace was under any
considerable or direct obligations to the classics. I have taken
occasion to remark that Lovelace seems to have helped to furnish
a model to Cleveland, who carried to an extraordinary length that
fondness for words and figures derived from the alchymist's
vocabulary; but as regards the author of LUCASTA himself, it may
be asserted that there are few writers whose productions exhibit
less of book-lore than his, and even in those places, where he has
employed phrases or images similar to some found in Peele,
Middleton, Herrick, and others, there is great room to question,
whether the circumstance can be treated as amounting to more than
a curious coincidence.
The Master of Dulwich College has obligingly informed me,
that the picture of ALTHEA, as well as that of Lovelace himself,
bequeathed by Cartwright the actor to Dulwich College in 1687,
bears no clue to date of composition, or to the artist's name,
and that it does not assist in the identification of the lady.
This is the more vexatious, inasmuch as it seems probable that
ALTHEA, whoever she was, became the poet's wife, after LUCASTA'S
marriage to another. The CHLOES, &c. mentioned in the following
pages were merely more or less intimate acquaintances of Lovelace,
like the ELECTRA, PERILLA, CORINNA, &c. of Herrick. But at the
same time an obscurity has hitherto hung over some of the persons
mentioned under fictitious names in the poems of Lovelace,
which a little research and trouble would have easily removed.
For instance, no one who reads "Amarantha, a Pastoral,"
doubts that LUCASTA and AMARANTHA are one and the same person.
ALEXIS is Lovelace himself. ELLINDA is a female friend of
the poet, who occasionally stayed at her house, and on one
occasion (p. 79) had a serious illness there. ELLINDA marries
AMYNTOR, under which disguise, I suspect, lurks the well known
Maecenas of his time, Endymion Porter. If Porter be AMYNTOR, of
course ELLINDA must be the Lady Olivia Porter, his wife. ARIGO
(see the poem of AMYNTOR'S GROVE) signifies Porter's friend,
Henry Jermyn. It may be as well to add that the LETTICE mentioned
at p. 121, was the Lady Lettice Goring, wife of Lovelace's friend,
and third daughter of Richard Boyle, first Earl of Cork. This lady
died before her husband, to whom she brought no issue.
The following lines are prefixed to FONS LACHRYMARUM, &c.
by John Quarles, 1648, 8vo., and are subscribed, as will be seen,
R. L.; they may be from the pen of Lovelace; but, if so,
it is strange that they were not admitted, with other productions
of a similar character, into the volume published by the poet
himself in 1649, or into that edited by his brother in 1659.
TO MY DEAR FRIEND THE AUTHOR.
The Son begins to rise, the Father's set:
Heav'n took away one light, and pleas'd to let
Another rise. Quarles, thy light's divine,
And it shall teach Darkness it self to shine.
Each word revives thy Father's name, his art
Is well imprinted in thy noble heart.
I've read thy pleasing lines, wherein I find
The rare Endeavors of a modest mind.
Proceed as well as thou hast well begun,
That we may see the Father by the Son.
R. L.
Arms of Lovelace of Bethersden: Gules, on a chief indented argent,
three martlets sable.
<2.1> Pedigree of the family of Richard Lovelace, the poet.
Richard Lovelace, of Queenhithe (temp. Hen. VI.).
!
Lancelot Lovelace.
!
-----------------------------------------------
! ! !
Richard Lovelace, William Lovelace John (ancestor of the
d. s. p. (ob. 1501). Lords Lovelace, of
! Hurley (co. Berks).
!
---------------------------
! !
John William Lovelace.
!
William Lovelace, Serjeant at Law, ob. 1576.
!
------------------------
!
Sir William Lovelace, ob.1629===Elizabeth, daughter of
(according to Berry). ! Edward Aucher, Esq., of
! Bishopsbourne.
!
---------------------
!
Sir William Lovelace===Anne, daughter and heir of
! Sir William Barnes, of Woolwich.
!
-----------------------------------------------------
! ! ! ! ! !
Richard===? Althea. ! William. ! Dudley.===Mary Johanna===Robert
Lovelace,! ! ! ! Lovelace, ! Caesar
born ! Francis. Thomas. ! (? his ! Esq.
1618 ! ! cousin). !
! ! !
! A daughter, !
! b. 1678. !
! !
Margaret===Henry Coke, Esq. 5th -------------------
! son of the Chief ! ! !
! Justice, and ancestor Anne. Juliana. Johanna.
! of the Earls of Leicester.
!
-------------------------------------
! ! ! !
Richard. Ciriac. . . . . . . . .
The above has been partly derived from a communication to the
GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE for Dec. 1791, by Sir Egerton Brydges,
who chiefly compiled it from Hasted, compared with Berry's
KENT GENEALOGIES, 474, where there are a few inaccuracies.
It is, of course, a mere skeleton-tree, and furnishes no
information as to the collateral branches, the connexion between
the houses of Stanley and Lovelace, &c. Sir Egerton Brydges'
series of articles on Lovelace in the GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE, with
the exception of that from which the foregoing table is taken,
does not contain much, if anything, that is new. On the 3rd of
May, 1577, Henry Binneman paid "vi and a copie" to the
Stationers' Company for the right to print "the Briefe Course of
the Accidents of the Deathe of Mr. Serjeant Lovelace;" and on the
30th of August following, Richard Jones obtained a licence to print
"A Short Epitaphe of Serjeant Lovelace." This was the same person
who is described in the pedigree as dying in 1576. His death
happened, no doubt, like that of Sir Robert Bell and others, at the
Oxford Summer assizes for 1576. See Stow's ANNALES, fol. 1154.
In 1563, Barnaby Googe the poet dedicated his EGLOGS, EPITAPHES,
AND SONNETTES, NEWLY WRITTEN, to "the Ryght Worshypfull M. Richard
Lovelace, Esquier, Reader of Grayes Inne."
The following is a list of the members of the Lovelace family
who belonged to the Honourable Society of Gray's Inn from 1541
to 1646:--
Thomas Lovelace, admitted 1541.
William Lovelace, " 1548. Called to the bar in 1551.
Richard Lovelace, " 1557. Reader in 1563. Barnaby Googe's
friend.
Lancelot Lovelace, " 1571.
William Lovelace, " 1580.
Laneelot Lovelace, " 1581. Recorder of Canterbury,
ob. 1640, aet. 78.
Francis Lovelace, " 1609. Perhaps the same who was Recorder
of Canterbury in 1638.
Francis Lovelace " 1640. Probably the poet's younger
(of Canterbury), brother.
William Lovelace, " 1646.
For these names and dates I am indebted to the courtesy
of the Steward of Gray's Inn.
Sir William Lovelace, the poet's grandfather who, according to
Berry, died in 1629, was a correspondent of Sir Dudley Carleton
(see CALENDARS OF STATE PAPERS, DOMESTIC SERIES, 1611-18, pp. 443,
521, 533; Ibid. 1618-23, p. 17). It appears from some Latin lines
before the first portion of LUCASTA, that the poet's father served
with distinction in Holland, and probably it was this circumstance
which led to Lovelace himself turning his attention in a similar
direction: for the latter was on service in the Low Countries,
perhaps under his father (of whose death we do not know the date,
though Hasted intimates that he fell at the Gryll), when his friend
Tatham, afterwards the city poet, addressed to him some verses
printed in a volume entitled OSTELLA (printed in 1650).
<2.2> Mr. A. Keightley, Registrar of the Charterhouse, with his
usual kindness, examined for me the books of the institution,
in the hope of finding the date of Lovelace's admission, &c.,
but without success. Mr. Keightley has suggested to me that
perhaps Lovelace was not on the foundation, which is of course
highly probable, and which, as Mr. Keightley seems to think,
may account for the omission of his name from the registers.
<2.3> "He was matriculated at Gloucester Hall, June 27, 1634, as
"filius Gul. Lovelace de Woolwich in Com. Kant. arm. au. nat. 16.'"
--Dr. Bliss, in a note on this passage in his edition of the
ATHENAE.
<2.4> Bethersden is a parish in the Weald of Kent, eastward
of Smarden, near Surrenden. "The manor of Lovelace," says Hasted
(HISTORY OF KENT, iii. 239), "is situated at a very small distance
SOUTH-WESTWARD from the church [of Bethersden]. It was in early
times the property of a family named Grunsted, or Greenstreet,
as they were sometimes called; the last of whom, HENRY DE GRUNSTED,
a man of eminent repute, as all the records of this county testify,
in the reigns of both King Edward II. and III., passed away this
manor to KINET, in which name it did not remain long; for WILLIAM
KINET, in the 41st year of King Edward III., conveyed it by sale
to JOHN LOVELACE, who erected that mansion here, which from hence
bore his name in addition, being afterwards styled BETHERSDEN-
LOVELACE, from which sprang a race of gentlemen, who, in the
military line, acquired great reputation and honour, and by their
knowledge in the municipal laws, deserved well of the Commonwealth;
from whom descended those of this name seated at BAYFORD in
SITTINGBORNE, and at KINGSDOWN in this county, the Lords Lovelace
of Hurley, and others of the county of Berks." The same writer,
in his HISTORY OF CANTERBURY, has preserved many memorials
of the connexion of the Lovelaces from the earliest times
with Canterbury and its neighbourhood. William Lovelace,
in the reign of Philip and Mary, died possessed of the mansion
belonging to the abbey of St. Lawrence, near Canterbury;
after the death of his son William, it passed to other hands.
In 1621, Lancelot Lovelace, Esq., was Recorder of Canterbury;
in 1638, Richard Lovelace, Esq., held that office; and in the
year of the Restoration, Richard Lovelace, the poet's brother, was
Recorder. In the Public Library at Plymouth, there is a folio MS.
(mentioned in Mr. Halliwell's catalogue, 1853), containing
"Original Papers of the Molineux and LOVELACE Families." I regret
that I have not had an opportunity of inspecting it. Mr. Halliwell
does not seem to have examined the volume; at all events, that
gentleman does not furnish any particulars as to the nature of the
contents, or as to the period to which the papers belong. This
information, in the case of a MS. deposited in a provincial library
in a remote district, would have been peculiarly valuable. It is
possible that the documents refer only to the Lovelaces of Hurley,
co. Berks.
<2.5> "The Humble Petition of the Gentry, Ministers, and
Commonalty, for the county of Kent, agreed upon at the General
Assizes for that county." See JOURNALS OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS, iv.
675-6-7. The "framers and contrivers" of this petition were Sir
Edward Dering, Bart., of Surrenden-Dering; Sir Roger Twysden, the
well-known scholar; Sir George Strode, and Mr. Richard Spencer. On
the 21st May, 1641, Dering had unsuccessfully attempted to bring in
a bill for the ABOLITION of church government by bishops,
archbishops, &c., whereas one of the articles of the petition of
1642 (usually known as DERING'S PETITION) was a prayer for the
restoration of the Liturgy and the maintenance of the episcopal
bench in its integrity. A numerously signed petition had also
been addressed to both Houses by the county in 1641, in which
the strongest reasons were given for the adoption of Dering's
proposed act. From 1641 to 1648, indeed, the Houses were
overwhelmed by Kentish petitions of various kinds. This portion
of Wood's narrative is confirmed by Marvell's lines prefixed to
LUCASTA, 1649:--
"And one the Book prohibits, because Kent
Their first Petition by the Authour sent."
"Sir William Boteler, of Kent, returning about the beginning of
APRIL 1642, from his attendance (being then Gentleman Pentioner)
on the king at YORKE, then celebrating St. GEORGE'S feast,
was by the earnest solicitation of the Gentry of Kent ingaged
to joyn with them in presenting the most honest and famous Petition
of theirs to the House of Commons, delivered by Captain RICHARD
LOVELACE, for which service the Captain was committed Prisoner to
the GATE HOUSE, and SIR WILLIAM BOTELER to the Fleet, from whence,
after some weeks close imprisonment, no impeachment in all that
time brought in against him [Boteler], many Petitions being
delivered and read in the House for his inlargement, he was at last
upon bail of 20,000 [15,000] remitted to his house
in LONDON, to attend DE DIE IN DIEM the pleasure of the House."
--MERCURIUS RUSTICUS, 1646 (edit. 1685, pp. 7, 8). The fact was
that, although on the 7th of April, 1642, the Kentish petition in
favour of the Liturgy, &c. had been ordered by the House of Commons
to be burned by the common hangman (PARLIAMENTS AND COUNCILS
OF ENGLAND, 1839, p. 384), Boteler and Lovelace had the temerity,
on the 30th of the same month, to come up to London, and present it
again to the House. It was this which occasioned their committal.
In the VERNEY PAPERS (Camd. Soc. 1845, p. 175) there is the
following memorandum:--
"Captaine Lovelace committed to the Gatehouse ! Concerning
Sir William Butler committed to the Fleete ! Deering's
! petition."
<2.6> "Gatehouse, a prison in Westminster, near the west end
of the Abbey, which leads into Dean's Yard, Tothill Street,
and the Almonry"--Cunningham's HANDBOOK OF LONDON, PAST AND
PRESENT. But for a more particular account, see Stow's SURVEY,
ed. 1720, ii. lib. 6.
"The Gatehouse for a Prison was ordain'd,
When in this land the third king EDWARD reign'd:
Good lodging roomes, and diet it affords,
But I had rather lye at home on boords."
Taylor's PRAISE AND VIRTUE OF A JAYLE AND JAYLERS,
(Works, 1630, ii. 130).
<2.7> By an inadvertence, I have spoken of THOMAS, instead of
WILLIAM, Lovelace having perished at Caermarthen, in a note
at p. 125.
<2.8> It appears from the following copy of verses, printed
in Tatham's OSTELLA, 1650, 4to., that Lovelace made a stay
in the Netherlands about this time, if indeed he did not serve
there with his regiment.
UPON MY NOBLE FRIEND RICHARD LOVELACE, ESQ., HIS
BEING IN HOLLAND. AN INVITATION.
Come, Adonis, come again;
What distaste could drive thee hence,
Where so much delight did reign,
Sateing ev'n the soul of sense?
And though thou unkind hast prov'd,
Never youth was more belov'd.
Then, lov'd Adonis, come away,
For Venus brooks not thy delay.
Wert thou sated with the spoil
Of so many virgin hearts,
And therefore didst change thy soil,
To seek fresh in other parts?
Dangers wait on foreign game;
We have deer more sound and tame.
Then, lov'd Adonis, come away,
For Venus brooks not thy delay.
Phillis, fed with thy delights,
In thy absence pines away;
And love, too, hath lost his rites,
Not one lass keeps holiday.
They have changed their mirth for cares,
And do onely sigh thy airs.
Then, lov'd Adonis, come away,
For Venus brooks not thy delay.
Elpine, in whose sager looks
Thou wert wont to take delight,
Hath forsook his drink and books,
'Cause he can't enjoy thy sight:
He hath laid his learning by,
'Cause his wit wants company.
Then, lov'd Adonis, come away,
For friendship brooks not thy delay.
All the swains that once did use
To converse with Love and thee,
In the language of thy Muse,
Have forgot Love's deity:
They deny to write a line,
And do only talk of thine.
Then, lov'd Adonis, come away,
For friendship brooks not thy delay.
By thy sweet Althea's voice,
We conjure thee to return;
Or we'll rob thee of that choice,
In whose flames each heart would burn:
That inspir'd by her and sack,
Such company we will not lack:
That poets in the age to come,
Shall write of our Elisium.
<2.9> Peter, or rather PETRE House, in Aldersgate Street,
belonged at one time to the antient family by whose name it was
known. The third Lord Petre, dying in 1638, left it, with other
possessions in and about the city of London, to his son William.
(Collins's PEERAGE, by Brydges, vii. 10, 11.) When Lovelace was
committed to Peter House, and probably long before (MERCURIUS
RUSTICUS, ed. 1685, pp. 76-79), this mansion was used as a house of
detention for political prisoners; but in Ward's DIARY (ed. Severn,
p. 167), there is the following entry (like almost all Ward's
entries, unluckily without date):--"My Lord Peters is an Essex man;
hee hath a house in Aldersgate Street, wherein lives the Marquis
of Dorchester:" implying that at that period (perhaps about 1660),
the premises still belonged to the Petre family, though temporarily
let to Lord Dorchester. Another celebrated house in the same
street was London House, which continued for some time to be the
town residence of the Bishops of London. When it had ceased to be
an episcopal abode, it was adapted to the purposes of an ordinary
dwelling, and, among the occupants, at a somewhat later period, was
Tom Rawlinson, the great book-collector. See Stow, ed. 1720, ii.
lib. iii. p. 121.
<2.10> How different was the conduct, under similar circumstances,
of the lady whom Charles Gerbier commemorates in his ELOGIUM
HEROINUM, 1651, p. 127. "Democion, the Athenian virgin," he tells
us, "hearing that Leosthenes, to whom she was contracted, was slain
in the wars, she killed herself; but before her death she thus
reasoned with herself: 'Although my body is untoucht, yet should I
fall into the imbraces of another, I should but deceive the second,
since I am still married to the former in my heart.'"
<2.11> Wood's story about LUCASTA having been a Lucy Sacheverell,
"a lady of great beauty and fortune," may reasonably be doubted.
Lucasta, whoever she was, seems to have belonged to Kent;
the SACHEVERELLS were not a Kentish family. Besides, the
corruption of Lucy Sacheverell into Lucasta is not very obvious,
and rather violent; and the probability is that the author of
the ATHENAE was misled by his informant on this occasion.
The plate etched by Lely and engraved by Faithorne, which
is found in the second part of LUCASTA, 1659, can scarcely
be regarded as a portrait; it was, in all likelihood, a mere
fancy sketch, and we are not perhaps far from the truth in our
surmise that the artist was nearly, if not quite, as much
in the dark as to who Lucasta was, as we are ourselves
at the present day.
<2.12> This is a mistake on the part of Wood, which (with many
others) ought to be corrected in a new edition of the ATHENAE.
Lawes did not set to music AMARANTHA, A PASTORAL, nor any portion
of it; but he harmonized two stanzas of a little poem to be found
at p. 29 of the present volume, and called "To Amarantha; that she
would dishevel her Hair."
<2.13> Hasted states that soon after the death of Charles I. the
manor of Lovelace-Bethersden passed by purchase to Richard Hulse,
Esq.
<2.14> On the title-page of this portion of LUCASTA, as well as
on that which had appeared in 1649, the author is expressly styled
RICHARD LOVELACE, ESQ.: yet in Berry's KENT GENEALOGIES, p. 474,
he is, curiously enough, called SIR Richard Lovelace, KNT. It is
scarcely necessary to observe that the error is on Berry's side.
<2.15> The most pleasing likeness of Lovelace, the only one,
indeed, which conveys any just idea to us of the "handsomest man of
his time," is the picture at Dulwich, which has been twice copied,
in both instances with very indifferent success. One of these
copies was made for Harding's BIOGRAPHICAL MIRROR. Bromley
(DICTIONARY OF ENGRAVED BRITISH PORTRAITS, 1793, p. 101) correctly
names F[rancis] Lovelace, the writer's brother, as the designer
of the portrait before the POSTHUME POEMS.
<2.16> Winstanley, perhaps, intended some allusion to these two
lost dramas from the pen of Lovelace, when he thus characterizes
him in his LIVES OF THE POETS, 1687, p. 170:--"I can compare no
man," he says, "so like this Colonel LOVELACE as SIR PHILIP SIDNEY,
of which latter it is said by one in an epitaph made of him:--
'Nor is it fit that more I should acquaint,
Lest men adore in one
A Scholar, SOULDIER, Lover, and a Saint.'"
As to the comparison, Winstanley must be understood to signify
a resemblance between Lovelace and Sydney as men, rather than
as writers. Winstanley's extract is from WITS' RECREATIONS,
but the text, as he gives it, varies from that printed by
the editor of the reprint of that work in 1817.
<2.17> Gunpowder Alley still exists, but it is not the Gunpowder
Alley which Lovelace knew, having been rebuilt more than once
since 1658, It is now a tolerably wide and airy court, without
any conspicuous appearance of squalor. There is no tradition,
I am sorry to say, respecting Lovelace; all such recollections
have long been swept away. When one of the old inhabitants
told me (and there are one or two persons who have lived here
all their life) that a great poet once resided thereabout,
I naturally became eager to catch the name; but it turned out
to be Dr. Johnson, not Lovelace, the latter of whom might have
been contemporary with Homer for aught they knew to the contrary
in Gunpowder Alley. It appears from Decker and Webster's play
of WESTWARD HOE, 1607 (Webster's Works, ed. Hazlitt, i. 67),
that there was another Gunpowder Alley, near Crutched Friars.
<2.18> Hone (EVERY-DAY BOOK, ii. 561, edit. 1827), states,
under date of April 28, that "during this month in 1658
the accomplished Colonel Richard Lovelace died IN THE GATEHOUSE
AT WESTMINSTER, whither he had been committed," &c. No authority,
however, is given for in assertion so wholly at variance with
the received view on the subject, and I am afraid that Hone has
here fallen into a mistake.
<2.19> Aubrey, in what are called his LIVES OF EMINENT MEN,
but which are, in fact, merely rough biographical memoranda,
states under the head of Lovelace:--"Obiit in a cellar in
Long acre, a little before the restauration of his Matie.
Mr. Edm. Wyld,<> &c. had made collections for him,
and given him money.....Geo. Petty, haberdasher, in Fleet street,
carried xx to him every Monday morning from Sr....Many
and Charles Cotton, Esq. for....moneths, BUT WAS NEVER REPAYD."
Aubrey was certainly a contemporary of Lovelace, and Wood seems
to have been indebted to him for a good deal of information;
but all who are acquainted with Aubrey are probably aware that
he took, in many instances, very little trouble to examine for
himself, but accepted statements on hearsay. Wood does not,
in the case of Lovelace, adopt Aubrey's account, and it is to
be observed that, IF the poet died as poor as he is represented
by both writers to have died, he would have been buried by the
parish, and, dying in Long Acre, the parochial authorities would
not have carried him to Fleet Street for sepulture.
<> P. xxiv. MR. EDM[UND] WYLD.
This gentleman, the friend of Aubrey, Author of the MISCELLANIES,
&c., and (?) the son of Sir Edmund Wyld, seems to have furnished
the former with a variety of information on matters of current
interest. See Thoms' ANECDOTES AND TRADITIONS, 1839, p. 99.
He is, no doubt, the E. W. Esq., whom Aubrey cites as his
authority on one or two occasions, in his REMAINS OF GENTILISM
AND JUDAISM. He was evidently a person of the most benevolent
character, and Aubrey (LIVES OF EMINENT MEN, ii. 483) pays him
a handsome tribute, where he describes him as "a great fautor
of ingenious and good men, for meer merit's sake."
<2.20> See p. 149, NOTE 3. His acquaintance
with Hellenic literature possibly extended very little beyond
the pages of the ANTHOLOGIA.
<2.21> His favourites appear to have been Ausonius and Catullus.
<2.22> On the 5th May, 1642, a counter-petition was presented
by some Kentish gentlemen to the House of Commons, disclaiming
and condemning the former one.--JOURNALS OF THE H. OF C. ii. 558.
<2.23> "The humble petition of Richard Lovelace, Esquire,
a prisoner in the Gate-house, by a former order of this House."
--JOURNALS, ii. 629.
<2.24> This property, which was of considerable extent and value,
was purchased of the Cheney family, toward the latter part
of the reign of Henry VI, by Richard Lovelace, of Queenhithe.
<2.25> I do not think that there is any proof, that Gunpowder-alley
was, at the time when Lovelace resided there, a particularly poor
or mean locality.
<2.26> See Lambarde (PERAMBULATION OF KENT, 1570, ed. 1826,
p. 533).
<2.27> As so little is known of the personal history of Lovelace,
the reader may not be displeased to see this Dedication, and it is
therefore subjoined:--
"To my Noble Friend And Gossip, CAPTAIN RICHARD LOVELACE.
"Sir,
"I have so long beene in your debt that I am almost desperate
in my selfe of making you paiment, till this fancy by
ravishing from you a new curtesie in its patronage, promised
me it would satisfie part of my former engagements to you.
Wonder not to see it invade you thus on the sudden; gratitude
is aeriall, and, like that element, nimble in its motion and
performance; though I would not have this of mine of a French
disposition, to charge hotly and retreat unfortunately: there
may appeare something in this that may maintaine the field
courageously against Envy, nay come off with honour; if you,
Sir, please to rest satisfied that it marches under your
ensignes, which are the desires of
"Your true honourer,
"Hen. Glapthorne."
<2.28> It has never, so far as I am aware, been suggested that
the friend to whom Sir John Suckling addressed his capital ballad:--
"I tell thee, Dick, where I have been,"
may have been Lovelace. It was a very usual practice (then even
more so than now) among familiar acquaintances to use the
abbreviated Christian name in addressing each other; thus Suckling
was JACK; Davenant, WILL; Carew, TOM, &c.; in the preceding
generation Marlowe had been KIT; Jonson, BEN; Greene, ROBIN, and so
forth; and although there is no positive proof that Lovelace and
Suckling were intimate, it is extremely probable that such was the
case, more especially as they were not only brother poets, but both
country gentlemen belonging to neighbouring counties. Suckling
had, besides, some taste and aptitude for military affairs, and
could discourse about strategics in a city tavern over a bowl of
canary with the author of LUCASTA, notwithstanding that he was a
little troubled by nervousness (according to report), when the
enemy was too near.
<2.29> From Andrew Marvell's lines prefixed to LUCASTA, 1649,
it seems that Lovelace and himself were on tolerably good terms,
and that when the former presented the Kentish petition, and was
imprisoned for so doing, his friends, who exerted themselves to
procure his release, suspected Marvell of a share in his disgrace,
which Marvell, according to his own account, earnestly disclaimed.
See the lines commencing:--
"But when the beauteous ladies came to know," &c.
ADDITIONAL NOTES.
and AN.5. These notes have been moved to appropriate locations
in the text.>
LUCASTA:
Epodes, Odes, Sonnets,
Songs, &c.
TO WHICH IS ADDED
Aramantha,
a
PASTORALL.
BY
RICHARD LOVELACE,
Esq.
LONDON,
Printed by Tho. Harper, and are to be sold
by Tho. Evvster, at the Gun, in
Ivie Lane. 1649.
THE DEDICATION.
TO THE RIGHT HON. MY LADY ANNE LOVELACE.<3.1>
To the richest Treasury
That e'er fill'd ambitious eye;
To the faire bright Magazin
Hath impoverisht Love's Queen;
To th' Exchequer of all honour
(All take pensions but from her);
To the taper of the thore
Which the god himselfe but bore;
To the Sea of Chaste Delight;
Let me cast the Drop I write.
And as at Loretto's shrine
Caesar shovels in his mine,
Th' Empres spreads her carkanets,
The lords submit their coronets,
Knights their chased armes hang by,
Maids diamond-ruby fancies tye;
Whilst from the pilgrim she wears
One poore false pearl, but ten true tears:
So among the Orient prize,
(Saphyr-onyx eulogies)
Offer'd up unto your fame,
Take my GARNET-DUBLET name,
And vouchsafe 'midst those rich joyes
(With devotion) these TOYES.
Richard Lovelace.
<3.1> This lady was the wife of the unfortunate John, second Lord
Lovelace, who suffered so severely for his attachment to the King's
cause, and daughter to the equally unfortunate Thomas, Earl of
Cleveland, who was equally devoted to his sovereign, and whose
estates were ordered by the Parliament to be sold, July 26, 1650.
See PARLIAMENTS AND COUNCILS OF ENGLAND, 1839, p. 507.
VERSES ADDRESSED TO THE AUTHOR.
TO MY BEST BROTHER ON HIS POEMS CALLED "LUCASTA."
Now y' have oblieg'd the age, thy wel known worth
Is to our joy auspiciously brought forth.
Good morrow to thy son, thy first borne flame
Which, as thou gav'st it birth, stamps it a name,
That Fate and a discerning age shall set
The chiefest jewell in her coronet.
Why then needs all this paines, those season'd pens,
That standing lifeguard to a booke (kinde friends),
That with officious care thus guard thy gate,
As if thy Child were illigitimate?
Forgive their freedome, since unto their praise
They write to give, not to dispute thy bayes.
As when some glorious queen, whose pregnant wombe
Brings forth a kingdome with her first-borne Sonne,
Marke but the subjects joyfull hearts and eyes:
Some offer gold, and others sacrifice;
This slayes a lambe, that, not so rich as hee,
Brings but a dove, this but a bended knee;
And though their giftes be various, yet their sence
Speaks only this one thought, Long live the prince.
So, my best brother, if unto your name
I offer up a thin blew-burning flame,
Pardon my love, since none can make thee shine,
Vnlesse they kindle first their torch at thine.
Then as inspir'd, they boldly write, nay that,
Which their amazed lights but twinkl'd at,
And their illustrate thoughts doe voice this right,
Lucasta held their torch; thou gav'st it light.
Francis Lovelace, Col.
AD EUNDEM.
En puer Idalius tremulis circumvolat alis,
Quem prope sedentem<4.1> castior<4.2> uret amor.
Lampada sic videas circumvolitare Pyrausta,<4.3>
Cui contingenti est flamma futura rogus.
Ergo procul fugias, Lector, cui nulla placebunt
Carmina, ni fuerint turpia, spurca, nigra.
Sacrificus Romae lustralem venditat undam:
Castior est illa Castalis unda mihi:
Limpida, et <>, nulla putredine spissa,
Scilicet ex puro defluit illa jugo.
Ex pura veniunt tam dia poemata mente,
Cui scelus est Veneris vel tetigisse fores.
Thomas Hamersley, Eques Auratus.
<4.1> Old ed. SIDENTEM.
<4.2> Old ed. CARTIOR.
<4.3> See Scheller's LEX. TOT. LAT. voce PYRAUSTA and PYRALIS
ON THE POEMS.
How humble is thy muse (Deare) that can daign
Such servants as my pen to entertaine!
When all the sonnes of wit glory to be
Clad in thy muses gallant livery.
I shall disgrace my master, prove a staine,
And no addition to his honour'd traine;
Though all that read me will presume to swear
I neer read thee: yet if it may appear,
I love the writer and admire the writ,
I my owne want betray, not wrong thy wit.
Did thy worke want a prayse, my barren brain
Could not afford it: my attempt were vaine.
It needs no foyle: All that ere writ before,
Are foyles to thy faire Poems, and no more.
Then to be lodg'd in the same sheets with thine,
May prove disgrace to yours, but grace to mine.
Norris Jephson, Col.
TO MY MUCH LOVED FRIEND, RICHARD LOVELACE Esq.
CARMEN EROTICUM.
Deare Lovelace, I am now about to prove
I cannot write a verse, but can write love.
On such a subject as thy booke I coo'd
Write books much greater, but not half so good.
But as the humble tenant, that does bring
A chicke or egges for's offering,
Is tane into the buttry, and does fox<5.1>
Equall with him that gave a stalled oxe:
So (since the heart of ev'ry cheerfull giver
Makes pounds no more accepted than a stiver),<5.2>
Though som thy prayse in rich stiles sing, I may
In stiver-stile write love as well as they.
I write so well that I no criticks feare;
For who'le read mine, when as thy booke's so neer,
Vnlesse thy selfe? then you shall secure mine
From those, and Ile engage my selfe for thine.
They'l do't themselves; this allay you'l take,
I love thy book, and yet not for thy sake.
John Jephson, Col.<5.3>
<5.1> TO FOX usually means to intoxicate. To fox oneself
is TO GET DRUNK, and to fox a person is TO MAKE HIM DRUNK.
The word in this sense belongs to the cant vocabulary.
But in the present case, fox merely signifies TO FARE or TO FEAST.
<5.2> A Dutch penny. It is very likely that this individual
had served with the poet in Holland.
<5.3> Three members of this family, or at least three persons
of this name, probably related, figure in the history of the
present period, viz., Colonel John Jephson, apparently a military
associate of Lovelace; Norris Jephson, who contributed a copy
of verses to LUCASTA, and to the first folio edition of Beaumont
and Fletcher's plays, 1647; and William Jephson, whose name occurs
among the subscribers to the SOLEMN LEAGUE AND COVENANT, 1643.
TO MY NOBLE AND MOST INGENIOUS FRIEND,
COLONEL RICHARD LOVELACE, UPON HIS "LUCASTA."
So from the pregnant braine of Jove did rise
Pallas, the queene of wit and beautious eyes,
As faire Lucasta from thy temples flowes,
Temples no lesse ingenious then Joves.
Alike in birth, so shall she be in fame,
And be immortall to preserve thy Name.
ANOTHER, UPON THE POEMS.
Now, when the wars augment our woes and fears,
And the shrill noise of drums oppresse our ears;
Now peace and safety from our shores are fled
To holes and cavernes to secure their head;
Now all the graces from the land are sent,
And the nine Muses suffer banishment;
Whence spring these raptures? whence this heavenly rime,
So calme and even in so harsh a time?
Well might that charmer his faire Caelia<6.1> crowne,
And that more polish't Tyterus<6.2> renowne
His Sacarissa, when in groves and bowres
They could repose their limbs on beds of flowrs:
When wit had prayse, and merit had reward,
And every noble spirit did accord
To love the Muses, and their priests to raise,
And interpale their browes with flourishing bayes;
But in a time distracted so to sing,
When peace is hurried hence on rages wing,
When the fresh bayes are<6.3> from the Temple torne,
And every art and science made a scorne;
Then to raise up, by musicke of thy art,
Our drooping spirits and our grieved hearts;
Then to delight our souls, and to inspire
Our breast with pleasure from thy charming lyre;
Then to divert our sorrowes by thy straines,
Making us quite forget our seven yeers paines
In the past wars, unlesse that Orpheus be
A sharer in thy glory: for when he
Descended downe for his Euridice,
He stroke his lute with like admired art,
And made the damned to forget their smart.
John Pinchbacke, Col<>
<6.1> Many poets have celebrated the charms of a CAELIA;
but I apprehend that the writer here intends Carew.
<6.2> Waller.
<6.3> Original has IS.
<> P. 10. JOHN PINCHBACK, COL[ONEL].
Pinchback neither is nor was, I believe, a name of common
occurrence; and it is just possible that the Colonel may be the
very "old Jack Pinchbacke" mentioned by Sir Nicholas L'Estrange,
in his MERRY PASSAGES AND JESTS, of which a selection was given
by Mr. Thoms in his ANECDOTES AND TRADITIONS, 1839. L'Estrange,
it is true, describes the Colonel as a "gamester and rufler,
daubed with gold lace;" but this is not incompatible with the
identity between the PINCHBACKE, who figures in LUCASTA, and
OLD JACK, who had perhaps not always been "a gamester and ruffler,"
and whose gold lace had, no doubt, once been in better company than
that which he seems to have frequented, when L'Estrange knew him.
The "daubed gold lace," after all, only corresponds with the
picture, which Lovelace himself may have presented in GUNPOWDER
ALLEY days.
<
Pseudetai hostis ephe-dolichos chronos oiden ameiben
Ounoma, kai panton mnemosynen olesai.
Oden gar poiein agathen ponos aphthonos esti,
Hon medeis aion oiden odousi phagein.
Oden soi, phile, doke men aphthiton, ogathe, mousa,
Hos eis aionas ounoma ee teon.>>
Villiers Harington, L.C.
TO HIS MUCH HONOURED FRIEND, MR. RICHARD LOVELACE, ON HIS POEMS.
He that doth paint the beauties of your verse,
Must use your pensil, be polite, soft, terse;
Forgive that man whose best of art is love,
If he no equall master to you prove.
My heart is all my eloquence, and that
Speaks sharp affection, when my words fall flat;
I reade you like my mistresse, and discry
In every line the quicknesse of her eye:
Her smoothnesse in each syllable, her grace
To marshall ev'ry word in the right place.
It is the excellence and soule of wit,
When ev'ry thing is free as well as fit:
For metaphors packt up and crowded close
Swath minds sweetnes, and display the throws,
And, like those chickens hatcht in furnaces,
Produce or one limbe more, or one limbe lesse
Then nature bids. Survey such when they write,
No clause but's justl'd with an epithite.
So powerfully you draw when you perswade,
Passions in you in us are vertues made;
Such is the magick of that lawfull shell
That where it doth but talke, it doth compell:
For no Apelles 'till this time e're drew
A Venus to the waste so well as you.
W. Rudyerd.<7.1>
<7.1> Only son of Sir Benjamin Rudyerd, Kt., known as a poet
and a friend of poets, and as a warm advocate of Episcopacy.
See MEMOIRS OF SIR B. R., edited by Manning, 1841, 8vo, p. 257.
The world shall now no longer mourne nor vex
For th' obliquity of a cross-grain'd sex;
Nor beauty swell above her bankes, (and made
For ornament) the universe invade
So fiercely, that 'tis question'd in our bookes,
Whether kils most the Amazon's sword or lookes.
Lucasta in loves game discreetly makes
Women and men joyntly to share the stakes,
And lets us know, when women scorne, it is
Mens hot love makes the antiparisthesis;
And a lay lover here such comfort finds
As Holy Writ gives to affected minds.
The wilder nymphs, lov's power could not comand,
Are by thy almighty numbers brought to hand,
And flying Daphnes, caught, amazed vow
They never heard Apollo court till now.
'Tis not by force of armes this feat is done,
For that would puzzle even the Knight o' th' Sun;<8.1>
But 'tis by pow'r of art, and such a way
As Orpheus us'd, when he made fiends obay.
J. Needler, Hosp. Grayensis.
<8.1> A celebrated romance, very frequently referred to by our
old writers. Sir Thomas Overbury, in his CHARACTERS, represents
a chambermaid as carried away by the perusal of it into the realms
of romance, insomuch that she can barely refrain from forsaking
her occupation, and turning lady-errant. The book is better known
under the title of THE MIRROR OF PRINCELY DEEDES AND KNIGHTHOOD,
wherein is shewed the worthinesse of the Knight of the Sunne, &c.
It consists of nine parts, which appear to have been published
at intervals between 1585 and 1601.
TO HIS NOBLE FRIEND, MR. RICHARD LOVELACE, UPON HIS POEMS.
SIR,
Ovr times are much degenerate from those,
Which your sweet Muse, which your fair fortune chose;
And as complexions alter with the climes,
Our wits have drawne th' infection of our times.
That candid age no other way could tell
To be ingenious, but by speaking well.
Who best could prayse, had then the greatest prayse;
'Twas more esteemd to give then wear the bayes.
Modest ambition studi'd only then
To honour not her selfe, but worthy men.
These vertues now are banisht out of towne,
Our Civill Wars have lost the civicke crowne.
He highest builds, who with most art destroys,
And against others fame his owne employs.
I see the envious caterpillar sit
On the faire blossome of each growing wit.
The ayre's already tainted with the swarms
Of insects, which against you rise in arms.
Word-peckers, paper-rats, book-scorpions,
Of wit corrupted the unfashion'd sons.
The barbed censurers begin to looke
Like the grim Consistory on thy booke;
And on each line cast a reforming eye
Severer then the yong presbytery.
Till, when in vaine they have thee all perus'd,
You shall for being faultlesse be accus'd.
Some reading your LUCASTA will alledge
You wrong'd in her the Houses priviledge;
Some that you under sequestration are,
Because you write when going to the Warre;
And one the book prohibits, because Kent
Their first Petition by the Authour sent.
But when the beauteous ladies came to know,
That their deare Lovelace was endanger'd so:
Lovelace, that thaw'd the most congealed brest,
He who lov'd best, and them defended best,
Whose hand so rudely grasps the steely brand,
Whose hand so gently melts the ladies hand,
They all in mutiny, though yet undrest,
Sally'd, and would in his defence contest.
And one, the loveliest that was yet e're seen,
Thinking that I too of the rout had been,
Mine eyes invaded with a female spight
(She knew what pain 't would be to lose that sight).
O no, mistake not, I reply'd: for I
In your defence, or in his cause, would dy.
But he, secure of glory and of time,
Above their envy or mine aid doth clime.
Him valianst men and fairest nymphs approve,
His booke in them finds judgement, with you, love.
Andr. Marvell
TO COLONEL RICHARD LOVELACE,
ON THE PUBLISHING OF HIS INGENIOUS POEMS.
If the desire of glory speak a mind
More nobly operative and more refin'd,
What vast soule moves thee, or what hero's spirit
(Kept in'ts traduction pure) dost thou inherit,
That, not contented with one single fame,
Dost to a double glory spread thy name,
And on thy happy temples safely set
Both th' Delphick wreath and civic coronet?
Was't not enough for us to know how far
Thou couldst in season suffer, act and dare
But we must also witnesse, with what height
And what Ionick sweetnesse thou canst write,
And melt those eager passions, that are
Stubborn enough t' enrage the god of war
Into a noble love, which may expire<9.1>
In an illustrious pyramid of fire;
Which, having gained his due station, may
Fix there, and everlasting flames display.
This is the braver path: time soone can smother
The dear-bought spoils and tropheis of the other.
How many fiery heroes have there been,
Whose triumphs were as soone forgot as seen?
Because they wanted some diviner one
To rescue from night, and make known.
Such art thou to thy selfe. While others dream
Strong flatt'ries on a fain'd or borrow'd theam,
Thou shalt remaine in thine owne lustre bright,
And adde unto 't LUCASTA'S chaster light.
For none so fit to sing great things as he,
That can act o're all lights of poetry.
Thus had Achilles his owne gests design'd,
He had his genius Homer far outshin'd.
Jo. Hall.<<9.2>>
<9.1> Original has ASPIRE.
<9.2> The precocious author of HORAE VACIVAE, 1646, and
of a volume of poems which was printed in the same year.
In the LUCASTA are some complimentary lines by Lovelace
on Hall's translation of the commentary of Hierocles on
the Golden Verses of Pythagoras, 1657.
TO THE HONORABLE, VALIANT, AND INGENIOUS COLONEL RICHARD LOVELACE,
ON HIS EXQUISITE POEMS.
Poets and painters have some near relation,
Compar'd with fancy and imagination;
The one paints shadowed persons (in pure kind),
The other paints the pictures of the mind
In purer verse. And as rare Zeuxes fame
Shin'd, till Apelles art eclips'd the same
By a more exquisite and curious line
In Zeuxeses (with pensill far more fine),
So have our modern poets late done well,
Till thine appear'd (which scarce have paralel).
They like to Zeuxes grapes beguile the sense,
But thine do ravish the intelligence,
Like the rare banquet of Apelles, drawn,
And covered over with most curious lawn.
Thus if thy careles draughts are cal'd the best,
What would thy lines have beene, had'st thou profest
That faculty (infus'd) of poetry,
Which adds such honour unto thy chivalry?
Doubtles thy verse had all as far transcended
As Sydneyes Prose, who Poets once defended.
For when I read thy much renowned pen,
My fancy there finds out another Ben
In thy brave language, judgement, wit, and art,
Of every piece of thine, in every part:
Where thy seraphique Sydneyan fire is raised high
In valour, vertue, love, and loyalty.
Virgil was styl'd the loftiest of all,
Ovid the smoothest and most naturall;
Martiall concise and witty, quaint and pure,
Iuvenall grave and learned, though obscure.
But all these rare ones which I heere reherse,
Do live againe in Thee, and in thy Verse:
Although not in the language of their time,
Yet in a speech as copious and sublime.
The rare Apelles in thy picture wee
Perceive, and in thy soule Apollo see.
Wel may each Grace and Muse then crown thy praise
With Mars his banner and Minerva's bayes.
Fra. Lenton.<10.1>
<10.1> The author of the YOUNG GALLANT'S WHIRLIGIGG, 1629,
and other poetical works. Singer does not give these lines.
In the WHIRLIGIG there is a curious picture of a young gallant
of the time of Charles I., to which Lovelace might have sat,
had he been old enough at the time. But Lenton had no want
of sitters for his portrait.
TO HIS HONOURED AND INGENIOUS FRIEND, COLONEL RICHARD LOVELACE,
ON HIS "LUCASTA."
Chast as Creation meant us, and more bright
Then the first day in 's uneclipsed light,
Is thy LUCASTA; and thou offerest heere
Lines to her name as undefil'd and cleere;
Such as the first indeed more happy dayes
(When vertue, wit, and learning wore the bayes
Now vice assumes) would to her memory give:
A Vestall flame that should for ever live,
Plac't in a christal temple, rear'd to be
The Embleme of her thoughts integrity;
And on the porch thy name insculpt, my friend,
Whose love, like to the flame, can know no end.
The marble step that to the alter brings
The hallowed priests with their clean offerings,
Shall hold their names that humbly crave to be
Votaries to th' shrine, and grateful friends to thee.
So shal we live (although our offrings prove
Meane to the world) for ever by thy love.
Tho. Rawlins.<11.1>
<11.1> A well known dramatist and poet. These lines are not
in Singer's reprint.
TO MY DEAR BROTHER, COLONEL RICHARD LOVELACE.
Ile doe my nothing too, and try
To dabble to thy memory.
Not that I offer to thy name
Encomiums of thy lasting fame.
Those by the landed have been writ:
Mine's but a yonger-brother wit;
A wit that's hudled up in scarres,
Borne like my rough selfe in the warres;
And as a Squire in the fight
Serves only to attend the Knight,
So 'tis my glory in this field,
Where others act, to beare thy shield.
Dudley Lovelace, Capt.<12.1>
<12.1> The youngest brother of the poet. Besides the present
lines, and some to be found in the posthumous volume, of which
he was the editor, this gentleman contributed the following
commendatory poem to AYRES AND DIALOGUES [by Thomas Stanley Esq.]
set by John Gamble, 1656. The verses themselves have little merit;
and the only object which I had in introducing them, was to add
to the completeness of the present edition:--
TO MY MUCH HONORED COZEN, MR. STANLEY,
UPON HIS POEMS SET BY MR. JOHN GAMBLE.
I.
Enough, enough of orbs and spheres,
Reach me a trumpet or a drum,
To sound sharp synnets in your ears,
And beat a deep encomium.
II.
I know not th' Eight Intelligence:
Those that do understand it, pray
Let them step hither, and from thence
Speak what they all do sing or say:
III.
Nor what your diapasons are,
Your sympathies and symphonies;
To me they seem as distant farre
As whence they take their infant rise.
IV.
But I've a grateful heart can ring
A peale of ordnance to your praise,
And volleys of small plaudits bring
To clowd a crown about your baies.
V.
Though laurel is thought thunder free,
That storms and lightning disallows,
Yet Caesar thorough fire and sea
Snatches her to twist his conquering brows.
VI.
And now me thinks like him you stand
I' th' head of all the Poets' hoast,
Whilest with your words you do command,
They silent do their duty boast.
VII.
Which done, the army ecchoes o're,
Like Gamble Ios one and all,
And in their various notes implore,
Long live our noble Generall.
Dudley Posthumus Lovelace.
DE DOMINO RICHARDO LOVELACIO,
ARMIGERO ET CHILIARCHA,<13.1> VIRO INCOMPARABILI.
Ecce tibi, heroi claris natalibus orto;<13.2>
Cujus honoratos Cantia vidit avos.
Cujus adhuc memorat rediviva Batavia patrem,
Inter et Herculeos enumerare solet.
Qui tua Grollaferox, laceratus vulnere multo,
Fulmineis vidit moenia Pacta globis.
Et cum saeva tuas fudisset Iberia turmas,
Afflatu pyrii pulveris ictus obit.
Haec sint magna: tamen major majoribus hic est,
Nititur et pennis altius ire novis.
Sermonem patrium callentem et murmura Celtae,
Non piguit linguas edidicisse duas.
Quicquid Roma vetus, vel quicquid Graecia jactat,
Musarum nutrix alma Calena dedit.
Gnaviter Hesperios compressit Marte cachinnos,
Devictasque dedit Cantaber ipse manus.
Non evitavit validos Dunkerka lacertos,
Non intercludens alta Lacuna vias,
Et scribenda gerens vivaci marmore digna,
Scribere Caesareo more vel ipse potest.
Cui gladium Bellona dedit, calamumque Minerva,
Et geminae Laurus circuit umbra comam.
Cujus si faciem spectes vultusque decorem,
Vix puer Idalius gratior ore fuit.
<13.1> Strictly speaking, the officer in command of a thousand men,
from the Greek <>, or <>, but in the
present instance meaning nothing more than Colonel.
<13.2> I have amended the text of these lines, which in the
original is very corrupt. I suppose that the compositor was
left to himself, as usual.
AD EUNDEM.
Herrico succede meo: dedit ille priora
Carmina, carminibus non meliora tuis.<14.1>
<14.1> Herrick's HESPERIDES had appeared in 1648.
<
Aoulakios pollaplasios philos estin emeio.
Tounoma esti philos, kai to noema philos.
Kai phylon antiphylo megaloisin agaklyton ergois:
Tes aretes cheiros kai phrenos anchinoos.
Hos neos en tytthais pinytos selidessin etheke
Poieton ekaston chromat epagromenos.
Phrouron Mousaon, pokinon essena Melisson,
En Charitessi charin, kai Meleessi meli.>>
Scripsit Jo. Harmarus,
Oxoniensis, C. W. M.<15.1>
<15.1> A celebrated scholar and philologist. An account of him
will be found in Bliss's edition of Wood's ATHENAE. He published
an Elegy on St. Alban the Protomartyr and an Apology for Archbishop
Williams, and edited Scapula. These lines are omitted by Singer.
POEMS.
SONG.
SET BY MR. HENRY LAWES.<16.1>
TO LUCASTA. GOING BEYOND THE SEAS.
I.
If to be absent were to be
Away from thee;
Or that when I am gone,
You or I were alone;
Then my LUCASTA might I crave
Pity from blustring winde or swallowing wave.
II.
But I'le not sigh one blast or gale
To swell my saile,
Or pay a teare to swage
The foaming blew-gods rage;
For whether he will let me passe
Or no, I'm still as happy as I was.
III.
Though seas and land betwixt us both,
Our faith and troth,
Like separated soules,
All time and space controules:
Above the highest sphere wee meet,
Unseene, unknowne, and greet as angels greet
IV.
So then we doe anticipate
Our after-fate,
And are alive i'th' skies,
If thus our lips and eyes
Can speake like spirits unconfin'd
In Heav'n, their earthy bodies left behind.
<16.1> Of Henry and William Lawes an account may be found in Burney
and Hawkins. Although the former (H. Lawes) set many of Lovelace's
pieces to music, only two occur in the AYRES AND DIALOGUES FOR ONE,
TWO, AND THREE VOYCES, 1653-55-8, folio.
SONG.
SET BY MR. JOHN LANIERE.
TO LUCASTA. GOING TO THE WARRES.
I.
Tell me not, (sweet,) I am unkinde,
That from the nunnerie
Of thy chaste breast and quiet minde
To warre and armes I flie.
II.
True: a new Mistresse now I chase,
The first foe in the field;
And with a stronger faith imbrace
A sword, a horse, a shield.
III.
Yet this inconstancy is such,
As you too shall adore;
I could not love thee, dear, so much,
Lov'd I not Honour more.
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