members of the House, frankly confessed that he was familiar with the fate of the preceding paper, and was immediately imprisoned, 30 April 1642. It was during this confinement that he wrote the immortal lines, "Stone Walls do not a Prison Make," and thus Lovelace belongs to that illustrious company who in all countries and times have produced literature inside prison gates. Literature would lose much if we subtracted the poetry and prose written by jail-birds. He was released on bail, and became increasingly active in the King's cause. In the intervals of fighting, he lived showily in London, and seems to have known most of the literary men of his time. After the fall of Oxford in 1646, he left England, fought for the King of France against Spain, became a Colonel, and was wounded at Dunkirk. In 1648 he was in England again, and once more in prison, where he prepared a volume of poems for publication; this is the famous Lucasta, which appeared in 1649. He was set free in December, but his entire estate had been spent in the service of the King. Wood says: "he 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 1 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." He died in poverty and neglect, in a wretched room in London, and was buried in St. Bride's Church, 1658. This was the church where the great novelist Richardson worshipped in the next century; and by a curious irony, the fact that the famous cavalier had been buried there suggested to him the name for his dashing and romantic libertine, the lover of Clarissa, by merit raised to a bad eminence. Thus the author of Lucasta-known for his modesty and virtue-became a thousand times more famous in the eighteenth century as the paragon of vice. In common parlance, "a Lovelace" did not mean a noble knight; it meant the same as Don Juan. Fortunately for the reputation of our poet, the odious significance attached to this name finally disappeared in England, and the glory and romance returned. The title Lucasta means Lux Casta, the Light of Virtue. Lovelace was a conservative Englishman, and his love poems adhered to the old standard, in which the suffering Knight endured all things for the lady of his heart, his ideal being Constancy. But al ready some of his contemporaries were beginning to write verses of cynical disillusion, expressing contempt both for women and for virtue, which reached an apex in the poems of Rochester and Sedley. So far as we can discover, Suckling and Lovelace were good friends; but, as I once heard Professor Briggs remark, there is all the difference in the world between and I could not love thee, Dear, so much, The devil take her! These two schools of love-poetry flourished side by side in the seventeenth century, even as their inarticulate adherents may be found together in all countries and in all ages. The two lines quoted above from Lovelace were cited in a thousand newspaper leading articles during the years 1914-18. Perhaps to the normal mind Honour is a greater virtue than Love; but for the possibility of a different view, the intelligent and discriminating student may be referred to that paradoxical poem Which? by Robert Browning. Although Richard Lovelace is known to the "general reader” by only four lines, a pair from each of two poems, his Works are by no means uninteresting. Those who expect to find pages on a par with the two perfect lyrics will be not only disappointed, but perplexed; whilst those who love originality in thought and expression will find much to admire. Lovelace was not only a Cavalier poet, he was a "metaphysical" poet, a true son of Donne, inspired by the great Master. From this point of view, he belongs to the group represented by Herbert, Crashaw, Vaughan, Suckling, Cleveland, Cowley--divergent as these men are in other respects. Herrick and Milton both wrote poems in the metaphysical manner, for Donne was one of the most powerful influences in English literature, and in the twentieth century his effect may be seen on all sides. Lovelace resembles Donne more in ingenuity than in passion; but occasionally he produced a masterpiece in the true manner, like The Grasshopper. Dr. Johnson, who wrote unsympathetically concerning this School in his famous Life of Cowley, said with his accustomed penetration, "Yet great labour, directed by great abilities, is never wholly lost; if they frequently threw away their wit upon false conceits, they likewise sometimes struck out unexpected truth; if their conceits were far-fetched, they were often worth the carriage. To write on their plan it was at least necessary to read and think.” It was a happy inspiration that led the "onlie begetters" of these two volumes to issue for the delectation of book-lovers the works of Lovelace; and it is a pious tribute to a brave, honest, and noble character, who will represent for all time the qualities of loyalty and sincerity; and who loved Beauty. WM. LYON PHELPS Yale University, 19 August, 1920 |