at the
commencement" target="_blank" title="n.开始;毕业典礼(日)">
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
diligentcollector 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
regimentfor 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
musicalcomposition 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