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.
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.