The Lucasta Poems | Page 9

247
To Dr. F. B[eale]; 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 lifetime, 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