1618-1658
[Sidenote: Anthony Wood’s _Athenæ Oxonienses._]
“Richard Lovelace ... became a gent-commoner of Glo’cester Hall in
the beginning of the year 1634, and in that of his age 16, 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.... Accounted by all those
that well knew him, to have been a person well vers’d in the Greek and
Latin 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.”--1634 and 1658.
[Sidenote: _The Gentleman’s Magazine_, 1884. *]
“The personal attractions of Richard Lovelace have been much extolled
by his contemporaries; nor is this matter for wonder. A picture of the
poet by an unknown painter, preserved in the old college at Dulwich, to
which it was bequeathed by Cartwright the actor, in 1687, represents
him as a very handsome man. The face is oval, the hair, worn Cavalier
fashion, long, is of a dark brown colour and falls down in abundant
masses, while the mustachios are small and thin. The small, well-formed
mouth is perhaps a trifle voluptuous, but is nevertheless suggestive of
firmness of character. The eyes are large and dark, and the well-arched
and delicately pencilled eyebrows are unusually far apart; the general
expression of the face is singularly sweet and winning. The hand is
small, well formed and aristocratic. Lovelace is attired in armour,
with a white collar, and across the breast is thrown a red scarf. The
picture is inscribed ‘Col. Lovelace.’”