Lucasta

PART I.. Page

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 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 L[ovelace]. My Asylum in a Great Extremity 104 A Lady with a Falcon on her Fist. To the Honourable my Cousin A 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<TOC.1> 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 is approximately the original location of footnote <TOC.1>. 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.

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; 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 footnotes; 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.

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