The Son begins to rise, the Father's set:
Heav'n took away one light, and pleas'd to let
Another rise. Quarles, thy light's divine,
And it shall teach Darkness it self to shine.
Each word revives thy Father's name, his art
Is well imprinted in thy noble heart.
I've read thy pleasing lines, wherein I find
The rare Endeavors of a modest mind.
Proceed as well as thou hast well begun,
That we may see the Father by the Son.
R. L.
Arms of Lovelace of Bethersden: Gules, on a chief indented argent,
three martlets sable.
<2.1> Pedigree of the family of Richard Lovelace, the poet.
Richard Lovelace, of Queenhithe (temp. Hen. VI.).
!
Lancelot Lovelace.
!
-----------------------------------------------
! ! !
Richard Lovelace, William Lovelace John (ancestor of the
d. s. p. (ob. 1501). Lords Lovelace, of
! Hurley (co. Berks).
!
---------------------------
! !
John William Lovelace.
!
William Lovelace, Serjeant at Law, ob. 1576.
!
------------------------
!
Sir William Lovelace, ob.1629===Elizabeth, daughter of
(according to Berry). ! Edward Aucher, Esq., of
! Bishopsbourne.
!
---------------------
!
Sir William Lovelace===Anne, daughter and heir of
! Sir William Barnes, of Woolwich.
!
-----------------------------------------------------
! ! ! ! ! !
Richard===? Althea. ! William. ! Dudley.===Mary Johanna===Robert
Lovelace,! ! ! ! Lovelace, ! Caesar
born ! Francis. Thomas. ! (? his ! Esq.
1618 ! ! cousin). !
! ! !
! A daughter, !
! b. 1678. !
! !
Margaret===Henry Coke, Esq. 5th -------------------
! son of the Chief ! ! !
! Justice, and ancestor Anne. Juliana. Johanna.
! of the Earls of Leicester.
!
-------------------------------------
! ! ! !
Richard. Ciriac. . . . . . . . .
The above has been partly derived from a communication to the
GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE for Dec. 1791, by Sir Egerton Brydges,
who chiefly compiled it from Hasted, compared with Berry's
KENT GENEALOGIES, 474, where there are a few inaccuracies.
It is, of course, a mere skeleton-tree, and furnishes no
information as to the collateral branches, the connexion between
the houses of Stanley and Lovelace, &c. Sir Egerton Brydges'
series of articles on Lovelace in the GENTLEMAN'S MAGAZINE, with
the exception of that from which the foregoing table is taken,
does not contain much, if anything, that is new. On the 3rd of
May, 1577, Henry Binneman paid "vi<pence> and a copie" to the
Stationers' Company for the right to print "the Briefe Course of
the Accidents of the Deathe of Mr. Serjeant Lovelace;" and on the
30th of August following, Richard Jones obtained a licence to print
"A Short Epitaphe of Serjeant Lovelace." This was the same person
who is described in the pedigree as dying in 1576. His death
happened, no doubt, like that of Sir Robert Bell and others, at the
Oxford Summer assizes for 1576. See Stow's ANNALES, fol. 1154.
In 1563, Barnaby Googe the poet dedicated his EGLOGS, EPITAPHES,
AND SONNETTES, NEWLY WRITTEN, to "the Ryght Worshypfull M. Richard
Lovelace, Esquier, Reader of Grayes Inne."
The following is a list of the members of the Lovelace family
who belonged to the Honourable Society of Gray's Inn from 1541
to 1646:--
Thomas Lovelace, admitted 1541.
William Lovelace, " 1548. Called to the bar in 1551.
Richard Lovelace, " 1557. Reader in 1563. Barnaby Googe's
friend.
Lancelot Lovelace, " 1571.
William Lovelace, " 1580.
Lancelot Lovelace, " 1581. Recorder of Canterbury,
ob. 1640, aet. 78.
Francis Lovelace, " 1609. Perhaps the same who was Recorder
of Canterbury in 1638.
Francis Lovelace " 1640. Probably the poet's younger
(of Canterbury), brother.
William Lovelace, " 1646.
For these names and dates I am indebted to the courtesy
of the Steward of Gray's Inn.
Sir William Lovelace, the poet's grandfather who, according to
Berry, died in 1629, was a correspondent of Sir Dudley Carleton
(see CALENDARS OF STATE PAPERS, DOMESTIC SERIES, 1611-18, pp. 443,
521, 533; Ibid. 1618-23, p. 17). It appears from some Latin lines
before the first portion of LUCASTA, that the poet's father served
with distinction in Holland, and probably it was this circumstance
which led to Lovelace himself turning his attention in a similar
direction: for the latter was on service in the Low Countries,
perhaps under his father (of whose death we do not know the date,
though Hasted intimates that he fell at the Gryll), when his friend
Tatham, afterwards the city poet, addressed to him some verses
printed in a volume entitled OSTELLA (printed in 1650).
<2.2> Mr. A. Keightley, Registrar of the Charterhouse, with his
usual kindness, examined for me the books of the institution,
in the hope of finding the date of Lovelace's admission, &c.,
but without success. Mr. Keightley has suggested to me that
perhaps Lovelace was not on the foundation, which is of course
highly probable, and which, as Mr. Keightley seems to think,
may account for the omission of his name from the registers.
<2.3> "He was matriculated at Gloucester Hall, June 27, 1634, as
"filius Gul. Lovelace de Woolwich in
Com. Kant. arm. au. nat. 16.'"--Dr. Bliss,
in a note on this passage in his edition of the ATHENAE.
<2.4> Bethersden is a parish in the Weald of Kent, eastward
of Smarden, near Surrenden. "The manor of Lovelace," says Hasted
(HISTORY OF KENT, iii. 239), "is situated at a very small distance
SOUTH-WESTWARD from the church [of Bethersden]. It was in early
times the property of a family named Grunsted, or Greenstreet,
as they were sometimes called; the last of whom, HENRY DE GRUNSTED,
a man of eminent repute, as all the records of this county testify,
in the reigns of both King Edward II. and III., passed away this
manor to KINET, in which name it did not remain long; for WILLIAM
KINET, in the 41st year of King Edward III., conveyed it by sale
to JOHN LOVELACE, who erected that mansion here, which from hence
bore his name in addition, being afterwards styled BETHERSDEN-LOVELACE,
from which sprang a race of gentlemen, who, in the
military line, acquired great reputation and honour, and by their
knowledge in the municipal laws, deserved well of the Commonwealth;
from whom descended those of this name seated at BAYFORD in
SITTINGBORNE, and at KINGSDOWN in this county, the Lords Lovelace
of Hurley, and others of the county of Berks." The same writer,
in his HISTORY OF CANTERBURY, has preserved many memorials
of the connexion of the Lovelaces from the earliest times
with Canterbury and its neighbourhood. William Lovelace,
in the reign of Philip and Mary, died possessed of the mansion
belonging to the abbey of St. Lawrence, near Canterbury;
after the death of his son William, it passed to other hands.
In 1621, Lancelot Lovelace, Esq., was Recorder of Canterbury;
in 1638, Richard Lovelace, Esq., held that office; and in the
year of the Restoration, Richard Lovelace, the poet's brother, was
Recorder. In the Public Library at Plymouth, there is a folio MS.
(mentioned in Mr. Halliwell's catalogue, 1853), containing
"Original Papers of the Molineux and LOVELACE Families." I regret
that I have not had an opportunity of inspecting it. Mr. Halliwell
does not seem to have examined the volume; at all events, that
gentleman does not furnish any particulars as to the nature of the
contents, or as to the period to which the papers belong. This
information, in the case of a MS. deposited in a provincial library
in a remote district, would have been peculiarly valuable. It is
possible that the documents refer only to the Lovelaces of Hurley,
co. Berks.
<2.5> "The Humble Petition of the Gentry, Ministers, and
Commonalty, for the county of Kent, agreed upon at the General
Assizes for that county." See JOURNALS OF THE HOUSE OF LORDS, iv.
675-6-7. The "framers and contrivers" of this petition were Sir
Edward Dering, Bart., of Surrenden-Dering; Sir Roger Twysden, the
well-known scholar; Sir George Strode, and Mr. Richard Spencer. On
the 21st May, 1641, Dering had unsuccessfully attempted to bring in
a bill for the ABOLITION of church government by bishops,
archbishops, &c., whereas one of the articles of the petition of
1642 (usually known as DERING'S PETITION) was a prayer for the
restoration of the Liturgy and the maintenance of the episcopal
bench in its integrity. A numerously signed petition had also
been addressed to both Houses by the county in 1641, in which
the strongest reasons were given for the adoption of Dering's
proposed act. From 1641 to 1648, indeed, the Houses were
overwhelmed by Kentish petitions of various kinds. This portion
of Wood's narrative is confirmed by Marvell's lines prefixed to
LUCASTA, 1649:--
"And one the Book prohibits, because Kent
Their first Petition by the Authour sent."
"Sir William Boteler, of Kent, returning about the beginning of
APRIL 1642, from his attendance (being then Gentleman Pentioner)
on the king at YORKE, then celebrating St. GEORGE'S feast,
was by the earnest solicitation of the Gentry of Kent ingaged
to joyn with them in presenting the most honest and famous Petition
of theirs to the House of Commons, delivered by Captain RICHARD
LOVELACE, for which service the Captain was committed Prisoner to
the GATE HOUSE, and SIR WILLIAM BOTELER to the Fleet, from whence,
after some weeks close imprisonment, no impeachment in all that
time brought in against him [Boteler], many Petitions being
delivered and read in the House for his inlargement, he was at last
upon bail of <pounds>20,000 [<pounds>15,000] remitted to his house
in LONDON, to attend DE DIE IN DIEM the pleasure of the House."--MERCURIUS
RUSTICUS, 1646 (edit. 1685, pp. 7, 8). The fact was
that, although on the 7th of April, 1642, the Kentish petition in
favour of the Liturgy, &c. had been ordered by the House of Commons
to be burned by the common hangman (PARLIAMENTS AND COUNCILS
OF ENGLAND, 1839, p. 384), Boteler and Lovelace had the temerity,
on the 30th of the same month, to come up to London, and present it
again to the House. It was this which occasioned their committal.
In the VERNEY PAPERS (Camd. Soc. 1845, p. 175) there is the
following memorandum:--
"Captaine Lovelace committed to the Gatehouse ! Concerning
Sir William Butler committed to the Fleete ! Deering's
! petition."
<2.6> "Gatehouse, a prison in Westminster, near the west end
of the Abbey, which leads into Dean's Yard, Tothill Street,
and the Almonry"--Cunningham's HANDBOOK OF LONDON, PAST AND
PRESENT. But for a more particular account, see Stow's SURVEY,
ed. 1720, ii. lib. 6.
"The Gatehouse for a Prison was ordain'd,
When in this land the third king EDWARD reign'd:
Good lodging roomes, and diet it affords,
But I had rather lye at home on boords."
Taylor's PRAISE AND VIRTUE OF A JAYLE AND JAYLERS,
(Works, 1630, ii. 130).
<2.7> By an inadvertence, I have spoken of THOMAS, instead of
WILLIAM, Lovelace having perished at Caermarthen, in a note
at p. 125. <i.e. note 52.1>
<2.8> It appears from the following copy of verses, printed
in Tatham's OSTELLA, 1650, 4to., that Lovelace made a stay
in the Netherlands about this time, if indeed he did not serve
there with his regiment.
UPON MY NOBLE FRIEND RICHARD LOVELACE, ESQ., HIS
BEING IN HOLLAND. AN INVITATION.
Come, Adonis, come again;
What distaste could drive thee hence,
Where so much delight did reign,
Sateing ev'n the soul of sense?
And though thou unkind hast prov'd,
Never youth was more belov'd.
Then, lov'd Adonis, come away,
For Venus brooks not thy delay.
Wert thou sated with the spoil
Of so many virgin hearts,
And therefore didst change thy soil,
To seek fresh in other parts?
Dangers wait on foreign game;
We have deer more sound and tame.
Then, lov'd Adonis, come away,
For Venus brooks not thy delay.
Phillis, fed with thy delights,
In thy absence pines away;
And love, too, hath lost his rites,
Not one lass keeps holiday.
They have changed their mirth for cares,
And do onely sigh thy airs.
Then, lov'd Adonis, come away,
For Venus brooks not thy delay.
Elpine, in whose sager looks
Thou wert wont to take delight,
Hath forsook his drink and books,
'Cause he can't enjoy thy sight:
He hath laid his learning by,
'Cause his wit wants company.
Then, lov'd Adonis, come away,
For friendship brooks not thy delay.
All the swains that once did use
To converse with Love and thee,
In the language of thy Muse,
Have forgot Love's deity:
They deny to write a line,
And do only talk of thine.
Then, lov'd Adonis, come away,
For friendship brooks not thy delay.
By thy sweet Althea's voice,
We conjure thee to return;
Or we'll rob thee of that choice,
In whose flames each heart would burn:
That inspir'd by her and sack,
Such company we will not lack:
That poets in the age to come,
Shall write of our Elisium.
<2.9> Peter, or rather PETRE House, in Aldersgate Street,
belonged at one time to the antient family by whose name it was
known. The third Lord Petre, dying in 1638, left it, with other
possessions in and about the city of London, to his son William.
(Collins's PEERAGE, by Brydges, vii. 10, 11.) When Lovelace was
committed to Peter House, and probably long before (MERCURIUS
RUSTICUS, ed. 1685, pp. 76-79), this mansion was used as a house of
detention for political prisoners; but in Ward's DIARY (ed. Severn,
p. 167), there is the following entry (like almost all Ward's
entries, unluckily without date):--"My Lord Peters is an Essex man;
hee hath a house in Aldersgate Street, wherein lives the Marquis
of Dorchester:" implying that at that period (perhaps about 1660),
the premises still belonged to the Petre family, though temporarily
let to Lord Dorchester. Another celebrated house in the same
street was London House, which continued for some time to be the
town residence of the Bishops of London. When it had ceased to be
an episcopal abode, it was adapted to the purposes of an ordinary
dwelling, and, among the occupants, at a somewhat later period, was
Tom Rawlinson, the great book-collector. See Stow, ed. 1720, ii.
lib. iii. p. 121.
<2.10> How different was the conduct, under similar circumstances,
of the lady whom Charles Gerbier commemorates in his ELOGIUM
HEROINUM, 1651, p. 127. "Democion, the Athenian virgin," he tells
us, "hearing that Leosthenes, to whom she was contracted, was slain
in the wars, she killed herself; but before her death she thus
reasoned with herself: 'Although my body is untoucht, yet should I
fall into the imbraces of another, I should but deceive the second,
since I am still married to the former in my heart.'"
<2.11> Wood's story about LUCASTA having been a Lucy Sacheverell,
"a lady of great beauty and fortune," may reasonably be doubted.
Lucasta, whoever she was, seems to have belonged to Kent;
the SACHEVERELLS were not a Kentish family. Besides, the
corruption of Lucy Sacheverell into Lucasta is not very obvious,
and rather violent; and the probability is that the author of
the ATHENAE was misled by his informant on this occasion.
The plate etched by Lely and engraved by Faithorne, which
is found in the second part of LUCASTA, 1659, can scarcely
be regarded as a portrait; it was, in all likelihood, a mere
fancy sketch, and we are not perhaps far from the truth in our
surmise that the artist was nearly, if not quite, as much
in the dark as to who Lucasta was, as we are ourselves
at the present day.
<2.12> This is a mistake on the part of Wood, which (with many
others) ought to be corrected in a new edition of the ATHENAE.
Lawes did not set to music AMARANTHA, A PASTORAL, nor any portion
of it; but he harmonized two stanzas of a little poem to be found
at p. 29 of the present volume, and called "To Amarantha; that she
would dishevel her Hair."
<2.13> Hasted states that soon after the death of Charles I. the
manor of Lovelace-Bethersden passed by purchase to Richard Hulse,
Esq.
<2.14> On the title-page of this portion of LUCASTA, as well as
on that which had appeared in 1649, the author is expressly styled
RICHARD LOVELACE, ESQ.: yet in Berry's KENT GENEALOGIES, p. 474,
he is, curiously enough, called SIR Richard Lovelace, KNT. It is
scarcely necessary to observe that the error is on Berry's side.
<2.15> The most pleasing likeness of Lovelace, the only one,
indeed, which conveys any just idea to us of the "handsomest man of
his time," is the picture at Dulwich, which has been twice copied,
in both instances with very indifferent success. One of these
copies was made for Harding's BIOGRAPHICAL MIRROR. Bromley
(DICTIONARY OF ENGRAVED BRITISH PORTRAITS, 1793, p. 101) correctly
names F[rancis] Lovelace, the writer's brother, as the designer
of the portrait before the POSTHUME POEMS.
<2.16> Winstanley, perhaps, intended some allusion to these two
lost dramas from the pen of Lovelace, when he thus characterizes
him in his LIVES OF THE POETS, 1687, p. 170:--"I can compare no
man," he says, "so like this Colonel LOVELACE as SIR PHILIP SIDNEY,
of which latter it is said by one in an epitaph made of him:--
'Nor is it fit that more I should acquaint,
Lest men adore in one
A Scholar, SOULDIER, Lover, and a Saint.'"
As to the comparison, Winstanley must be understood to signify
a resemblance between Lovelace and Sydney as men, rather than
as writers. Winstanley's extract is from WITS' RECREATIONS,
but the text, as he gives it, varies from that printed by
the editor of the reprint of that work in 1817.
<2.17> Gunpowder Alley still exists, but it is not the Gunpowder
Alley which Lovelace knew, having been rebuilt more than once
since 1658, It is now a tolerably wide and airy court, without
any conspicuous appearance of squalor. There is no tradition,
I am sorry to say, respecting Lovelace; all such recollections
have long been swept away. When one of the old inhabitants
told me (and there are one or two persons who have lived here
all their life) that a great poet once resided thereabout,
I naturally became eager to catch the name; but it turned out
to be Dr. Johnson, not Lovelace, the latter of whom might have
been contemporary with Homer for aught they knew to the contrary
in Gunpowder Alley. It appears from Decker and Webster's play
of WESTWARD HOE, 1607 (Webster's Works, ed. Hazlitt, i. 67),
that there was another Gunpowder Alley, near Crutched Friars.
<2.18> Hone (EVERY-DAY BOOK, ii. 561, edit. 1827), states,
under date of April 28, that "during this month in 1658
the accomplished Colonel Richard Lovelace died IN THE GATEHOUSE
AT WESTMINSTER, whither he had been committed," &c. No authority,
however, is given for in assertion so wholly at variance with
the received view on the subject, and I am afraid that Hone has
here fallen into a mistake.
<2.19> Aubrey, in what are called his LIVES OF EMINENT MEN,
but which are, in fact, merely rough biographical memoranda,
states under the head of Lovelace:--"Obiit in a cellar in
Long acre, a little before the restauration of his Matie.
Mr. Edm. Wyld,<<AN.1>> &c. had made collections for him,
and given him money.....Geo. Petty, haberdasher, in Fleet street,
carried xx<shillings> to him every Monday morning from Sr....Many
and Charles Cotton, Esq. for....moneths, BUT WAS NEVER REPAYD."
Aubrey was certainly a contemporary of Lovelace, and Wood seems
to have been indebted to him for a good deal of information;
but all who are acquainted with Aubrey are probably aware that
he took, in many instances, very little trouble to examine for
himself, but accepted statements on hearsay. Wood does not,
in the case of Lovelace, adopt Aubrey's account, and it is to
be observed that, IF the poet died as poor as he is represented
by both writers to have died, he would have been buried by the
parish, and, dying in Long Acre, the parochial authorities would
not have carried him to Fleet Street for sepulture.
<<AN.1>> P. xxiv. MR. EDM[UND] WYLD.
This gentleman, the friend of Aubrey, Author of the MISCELLANIES,
&c., and (?) the son of Sir Edmund Wyld, seems to have furnished
the former with a variety of information on matters of current
interest. See Thoms' ANECDOTES AND TRADITIONS, 1839, p. 99.
He is, no doubt, the E. W. Esq., whom Aubrey cites as his
authority on one or two occasions, in his REMAINS OF GENTILISM
AND JUDAISM. He was evidently a person of the most benevolent
character, and Aubrey (LIVES OF EMINENT MEN, ii. 483) pays him
a handsome tribute, where he describes him as "a great fautor
of ingenious and good men, for meer merit's sake."
<2.20> See p. 149, NOTE 3.<i.e. note 63.4> His acquaintance
with Hellenic literature possibly extended very little beyond
the pages of the ANTHOLOGIA.
<2.21> His favourites appear to have been Ausonius and Catullus.
<2.22> On the 5th May, 1642, a counter-petition was presented
by some Kentish gentlemen to the House of Commons, disclaiming
and condemning the former one.--JOURNALS OF THE H. OF C. ii. 558.
<2.23> "The humble petition of Richard Lovelace, Esquire,
a prisoner in the Gate-house, by a former order of this
House."--JOURNALS, ii. 629.
<2.24> This property, which was of considerable extent and value,
was purchased of the Cheney family, toward the latter part
of the reign of Henry VI, by Richard Lovelace, of Queenhithe.
<2.25> I do not think that there is any proof, that Gunpowder-alley
was, at the time when Lovelace resided there, a particularly poor
or mean locality.
<2.26> See Lambarde (PERAMBULATION OF KENT, 1570, ed. 1826,
p. 533).
<2.27> As so little is known of the personal history of Lovelace,
the reader may not be displeased to see this Dedication, and it is
therefore subjoined:--
"To my Noble Friend And Gossip, CAPTAIN RICHARD LOVELACE.
"Sir,
"I have so long beene in your debt that I am almost desperate
in my selfe of making you paiment, till this fancy by
ravishing from you a new curtesie in its patronage, promised
me it would satisfie part of my former engagements to you.
Wonder not to see it invade you thus on the sudden; gratitude
is aeriall, and, like that element, nimble in its motion and
performance; though I would not have this of mine of a French
disposition, to charge hotly and retreat unfortunately: there
may appeare something in this that may maintaine the field
courageously against Envy, nay come off with honour; if you,
Sir, please to rest satisfied that it marches under your
ensignes, which are the desires of
"Your true honourer,
"Hen. Glapthorne."
<2.28> It has never, so far as I am aware, been suggested that
the friend to whom Sir John Suckling addressed his capital ballad:--
"I tell thee, Dick, where I have been,"
may have been Lovelace. It was a very usual practice (then even
more so than now) among familiar acquaintances to use the
abbreviated Christian name in addressing each other; thus Suckling
was JACK; Davenant, WILL; Carew, TOM, &c.; in the preceding
generation Marlowe had been KIT; Jonson, BEN; Greene, ROBIN, and so
forth; and although there is no positive proof that Lovelace and
Suckling were intimate, it is extremely probable that such was the
case, more especially as they were not only brother poets, but both
country gentlemen belonging to neighbouring counties. Suckling
had, besides, some taste and aptitude for military affairs, and
could discourse about strategics in a city tavern over a bowl of
canary with the author of LUCASTA, notwithstanding that he was a
little troubled by nervousness (according to report), when the
enemy was too near.
<2.29> From Andrew Marvell's lines prefixed to LUCASTA, 1649,
it seems that Lovelace and himself were on tolerably good terms,
and that when the former presented the Kentish petition, and was
imprisoned for so doing, his friends, who exerted themselves to
procure his release, suspected Marvell of a share in his disgrace,
which Marvell, according to his own account, earnestly disclaimed.
See the lines commencing:--
"But when the beauteous ladies came to know," &c.