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    Lucasta - Volume II: 'Lucasta frown, and let me die, But smile, and see, I live''
    Lucasta - Volume II: 'Lucasta frown, and let me die, But smile, and see, I live''
    Lucasta - Volume II: 'Lucasta frown, and let me die, But smile, and see, I live''
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    Lucasta - Volume II: 'Lucasta frown, and let me die, But smile, and see, I live''

    By Richard Lovelace

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    About this ebook

    Richard Lovelace was born on 9th December 1617 but where is unknown. Some accounts argue for Woolwich in Kent others for Holland.

    When he was nine, his father died whilst fighting in the war with Spain and the Dutch Republic in the Siege of Groenlo (1627). His mother, Anne Barne Lovelace, remarried on 20th January 1630, to the Very Rev Dr Jonathan Browne.

    In 1629, when Lovelace was eleven, he went to Sutton's Foundation at Charterhouse School. Best accounts suggest he spent five years there, three of which coincided with those of Richard Crashaw, who would also became a poet. On 5th May 1631, Lovelace was sworn in as a Gentleman Wayter Extraordinary to King Charles I, an honorary position for which one paid a fee.

    Lovelace moved to Gloucester Hall, Oxford, in 1634. While there he portrayed himself as a Cavalier poet rather than scholar. His poems were to praise a friend or fellow poet, to advise in grief or love, to define a relationship, to articulate the exact attention a man owes a woman, to celebrate beauty, and to love.

    He was attractive, witty and handsome, the very qualities for a courtier and Cavalier. It was at Oxford that his comedy, ‘The Scholar’, was performed in 1636.

    After Oxford he spent a few months at Cambridge Universcity, where he met Lord Goring, who led him into political trouble. But any adversity brought brought pen to paper and poetry.

    In 1639 Lovelace joined Lord Goring’s regiment, serving first as a senior ensign and then as a captain in the Bishops' Wars. This inspired ‘Sonnet. To Generall Goring’, the poem ‘To Lucasta, Going to the Warres’ and the tragedy ‘The Soldier’.

    On his return home to Kent in 1640, Lovelace settled in as a country gentleman and a justice of the peace. But England was moving quickly to Ciivil War.

    In 1641, Lovelace led a group of men to seize and destroy a 15,000 signature petition for the abolition of Episcopal rule. In 1642 he presented the House of Commons with Dering's pro-Royalist petition which was supposed to have been burned. For these actions Lovelace was imprisoned. He was released on bail, under stipulation that he not communicate with the House of Commons without permission. The experience drew from him ‘To Althea, from Prison’, which includes the famous words: ‘Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage.’

    Following his release, Lovelace lived briefly in London, and then moved to the Low Countries and France until after King Charles' capture at Oxford in 1646.

    During the political chaos of 1648 he was imprisoned in October by Parliament to Peterhouse Prison, Aldersgate, this time for nearly a year. On release in April 1649, the king had been executed and Lovelace's Royalist cause seemed lost. But the experience led to further poems—this time in the cause of spiritual freedom, as reflected in the release of his poetry volume; Lucasta.

    Richard Lovelace was financially ruined by his support of the royalist cause and the end of his life was dependent on charity. He died in poverty at the early age of 40 in 1657 (some accounts say 1658) and was buried in St Bride's Church in Fleet Street in the City of London.

    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherPortable Poetry
    Release dateFeb 1, 2019
    ISBN9781787804203
    Lucasta - Volume II: 'Lucasta frown, and let me die, But smile, and see, I live''

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      Book preview

      Lucasta - Volume II - Richard Lovelace

      Lucasta by Richard Lovelace

      Volume II (of II) – Posthume Poems

      Richard Lovelace was born on 9th December 1617 but where is unknown. Some accounts argue for Woolwich in Kent others for Holland.

      When he was nine, his father died whilst fighting in the war with Spain and the Dutch Republic in the Siege of Groenlo (1627). His mother, Anne Barne Lovelace, remarried on 20th January 1630, to the Very Rev Dr Jonathan Browne.

      In 1629, when Lovelace was eleven, he went to Sutton's Foundation at Charterhouse School. Best accounts suggest he spent five years there, three of which coincided with those of Richard Crashaw, who would also became a poet. On 5th May 1631, Lovelace was sworn in as a Gentleman Wayter Extraordinary to King Charles I, an honorary position for which one paid a fee.

      Lovelace moved to Gloucester Hall, Oxford, in 1634. While there he portrayed himself as a Cavalier poet rather than scholar. His poems were to praise a friend or fellow poet, to advise in grief or love, to define a relationship, to articulate the exact attention a man owes a woman, to celebrate beauty, and to love.

      He was attractive, witty and handsome, the very qualities for a courtier and Cavalier. It was at Oxford that his comedy, ‘The Scholar’, was performed in 1636.

      After Oxford he spent a few months at Cambridge Universcity, where he met Lord Goring, who led him into political trouble.  But any adversity brought brought pen to paper and poetry.

      In 1639 Lovelace joined Lord Goring’s regiment, serving first as a senior ensign and then as a captain in the Bishops' Wars. This inspired ‘Sonnet. To Generall Goring’, the poem ‘To Lucasta, Going to the Warres’ and the tragedy ‘The Soldier’.

      On his return home to Kent in 1640, Lovelace settled in as a country gentleman and a justice of the peace.  But England was moving quickly to Ciivil War.

      In 1641, Lovelace led a group of men to seize and destroy a 15,000 signature petition for the abolition of Episcopal rule. In 1642 he presented the House of Commons with Dering's pro-Royalist petition which was supposed to have been burned. For these actions Lovelace was imprisoned. He was released on bail, under stipulation that he not communicate with the House of Commons without permission. The experience drew from him ‘To Althea, from Prison’, which includes the famous words: ‘Stone walls do not a prison make, nor iron bars a cage.’

      Following his release, Lovelace lived briefly in London, and then moved to the Low Countries and France until after King Charles' capture at Oxford in 1646.

      During the political chaos of 1648 he was imprisoned in October by Parliament to Peterhouse Prison, Aldersgate, this time for nearly a year. On release in April 1649, the king had been executed and Lovelace's Royalist cause seemed lost. But the experience led to further poems—this time in the cause of spiritual freedom, as reflected in the release of his poetry volume; Lucasta.

      Richard Lovelace was financially ruined by his support of the royalist cause and the end of his life was dependent on charity.  He died in poverty at the early age of 40 in 1657 (some accounts say 1658) and was buried in St Bride's Church in Fleet Street in the City of London.

      Index of Contents

      I.  Poems Addressed or Relating to Lucasta

      Dedication                                                     

      To Lucasta. Her Reserved Looks               

      Lucasta Laughing                                          

      Night.  To Lucasta                                         

      Love Inthron'd                                               

      Her Muffe                                                      

      A Black Patch on Lucasta's Face                

      Another                                                        

      To Lucasta                                                    

      To Lucasta                                                    

      Lucasta at the Bath                                     

      The Ant                                                        

      II.  Miscellaneous Poems

      Song.  Strive not, &c.                                 

      In Allusion to the French Song: N'entendez vous pas ce Language 

      Courante Monsieur                                   

      A Loose Saraband                                      

      The Falcon                                                   

      Love made in the First Age. To Chloris

      To a Lady with Child that ask'd an Old Shirt

      Song. In mine own Monument I lye, &c.    

      Another. I did believe, &c.                            

      Ode. You are deceiv'd, &c.                       

      The Duell                                                      

      Cupid far gone                                                 

      A Mock Song                                                    

      A Fly caught in a Cobweb                              

      A Fly about a Glasse of Burnt Claret            

      Female Glory                                                   

      A Dialogue.  Lute and Voice                           

      A Mock Charon.  Dialogue                         

      The Toad and Spyder. A Duell                  

      The Snayl                                                      

      Another                                                        

      The Triumphs of Philamore and Amoret

      Advice to my best Brother, Coll: Francis Lovelace         

      Paris's Second Judgement                         

      Peinture.  A Panegyrick to the best Picture of Friendship, Mr. Pet. Lilly

      An Anniversary on the Hymeneals of my Noble Kinsman, Thomas Stanley, Esq.

      On Sanazar's being honoured with 600 Duckets by the Clarissimi of Venice

      III.  Commendatory Verses, prefixed to Various

      Publications between 1652 and 1657.

      To My Dear Friend, Mr. Eldred Revett on his Poems moral and divine                                               

      On the Best, Last, and only Remaining Comedy of Mr. Fletcher, The Wild-Goose Chase (1652)                             

      To My Noble Kinsman Thomas Stanley, Esq.; on his Lyrick Poems composed by Mr. John Gamble (1656)                To Dr. F. Beale; on his Book of Chesse (1656)                

      To the Genius of Mr. John Hall (1657)      

      Translations                                                   

      Elegies on the Death of the Author                            

      Biographical Notice

      LUCASTA

      THE DEDICATION

      TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE JOHN LOVELACE, ESQUIRE

      SIR,

      Lucasta (fair, but hapless maid!)

      Once flourisht underneath the shade

      Of your illustrious Mother; now,

      An orphan grown, she bows to you!

      To you, her vertues' noble heir;

      Oh may she find protection there!

      Nor let her welcome be the less,

      'Cause a rough hand makes her address:

      One (to whom foes the Muses are)

      Born and bred up in rugged war:

      For, conscious how unfit I am,

      I only have pronounc'd her name

      To waken pity in your brest,

      And leave her tears to plead the rest.

      Sir,

      Your most obedient

      Servant and kinsman

      DUDLEY POSTHUMUS-LOVELACE.

      This gentleman was the eldest son of John, second Lord Lovelace of Hurley, co. Berks, by Anne, daughter of Thomas, Earl of Cleveland.  The first part of LUCASTA was inscribed by the poet himself to Lady Lovelace, his mother.

      POEMS

      TO LUCASTA

      HER RESERVED LOOKS

      Lucasta, frown, and let me die,

      But smile, and see, I live;

      The sad indifference of your eye

      Both kills and doth reprieve.

      You hide our fate within its screen;

      We feel our judgment, ere we hear.

      So in one picture I have seen

      An angel here, the devil there.

      LUCASTA LAUGHING

      Heark, how she laughs aloud,

      Although the world put on its shrowd:

      Wept at by the fantastic crowd,

      Who cry: one drop, let fall

      From her, might save the universal ball.

      She laughs again

      At our ridiculous pain;

      And at our merry misery

      She laughs, until she cry.

      Sages, forbear

      That ill-contrived tear,

      Although your fear

      Doth barricado hope from your soft ear.

      That which still makes her mirth to flow,

      Is our sinister-handed woe,

      Which downwards on its head doth go,

      And, ere that it is sown, doth grow.

      This makes her spleen contract,

      And her just pleasure feast:

      For the unjustest act

      Is still the pleasant'st jest.

      NIGHT

      TO LUCASTA

      Night! loathed jaylor of the lock'd up sun,

      And tyrant-turnkey on committed day,

      Bright eyes lye fettered in thy dungeon,

      And Heaven it self doth thy dark wards obey.

      Thou dost arise our living hell;

      With thee grones, terrors, furies dwell;

      Until LUCASTA doth awake,

      And with her beams these heavy chaines off shake.

      Behold! with opening her almighty lid,

      Bright eyes break rowling, and with lustre spread,

      And captive day his chariot mounted is;

      Night to her proper hell is beat,

      And screwed to her ebon seat;

      Till th' Earth with play oppressed lies,

      And drawes again the curtains of her eyes.

      But, bondslave, I know neither day nor night;

      Whether she murth'ring sleep, or saving wake;

      Now broyl'd ith' zone of her reflected light,

      Then frose, my isicles, not sinews shake.

      Smile then, new Nature,

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