Richard Lovelace
born 1618
died 1657, London
English poet, soldier, and Royalist whose
graceful lyrics and dashing career made him the
prototype of the perfect Cavalier.
Lovelace was probably born in the Netherlands,
where his father was in military service. He was
educated at Charterhouse and Oxford, and at age
16 or possibly a little later he wrote The
Scholars, a comedy acted at Whitefriars, of
which the prologue and epilogue survive. He took
part in the expeditions to Scotland (1639–40) at
the time of the rebellions against Charles I.
During this period he is said to have written a
tragedy, The Soldier, but there is no certain
evidence of this.
Returning to his estates in Kent, Lovelace
was chosen to present (1642) a Royalist petition
to a hostile House of Commons. For this he was
imprisoned in the Gatehouse, London, where he
wrote “To Althea, from Prison,” which contains
the well-known lines: “Stone walls do not a
prison make/Nor iron bars a cage.” He passed
much of the next four years abroad and was
wounded fighting for the French against the
Spaniards at Dunkerque in 1646. In 1648 he was
again imprisoned. During his imprisonment,
Lovelace prepared Lucasta (1649) for the press.
The antiquarian and historian Anthony à Wood
says he died in misery and poverty in 1658, but
an elegy on him was printed in 1657. He had
certainly sold much of his estates, but none of
the elegies supports the story of his unhappy
death.
The only other publication of his work was
Lucasta; Posthume Poems of Richard Lovelace,
Esq. (1659), edited by his brother Dudley,
including Elegies, and dated 1660.
