Richard Lovelace
Richard Lovelace (* 1618 in Woolwich or Holland, † 1657 in London ) was an English poet who is counted among the Cavalier poets .
His father, Sir William Lovelace, was from a family with estates in Kent , was a member of the Virginia Company and a soldier who died in the siege of Groenlo in 1627 . Lovelace came from a wealthy family and attended the Charterhouse School in London and the University of Oxford ( Gloucester Hall ), with an MA in 1636, and briefly the University of Cambridge . As a student he wrote the comedy The Scholars , of which only the preface and epilogue have survived. It has been performed at his college and in London. His first poem appeared around 1638 and he moved in court circles after he had already become Gentleman Wayter Extraordinary with Charles II in 1631 . From 1639 he served as a captain under Lord Goring in the Episcopal Wars . This inspired him to write the poem To Lucasta, Going to the Warres and the tragedy The Soldier (not preserved). After his release in 1640 he was initially on his properties in Kent, then was briefly imprisoned in 1642 for pro-royalist and anti-parliamentary activities. In prison he wrote one of his most famous poems To Althea, from Prison (with the famous lines Stone walls do not a prison make / Nor iron bars a cage ). During the civil war he was under General Goring in Holland and France. In 1646 he was wounded in Dunkirk while fighting the Spaniards under the Great Condé . In 1648/49 he was again imprisoned for a long time in England during the civil war and prepared his book of poems Lucasta for publication, which took place in 1649. In 1660 another volume of poetry by Lucasta, Postume Poems , was published posthumously by his brother Dudley. He died impoverished according to the historian Anthony à Wood, but this is not confirmed by the elegies published on his death. However, he sold a large part of his property.
He also wrote some poems about animals such as The Grasse-hopper .
literature
- The Poems of Richard Lovelace, edited by Cyril Hackett Wilkinson, 1925
- Robert Guy Howarth: Minor Poets of the Seventeenth Century: Suckling, Lovelace, Carew and Herbert, 1931, 2nd edition 1953
- Cyril Hughes Hartmann: The Cavalier Spirit and Its Influence on the Life and Work of Richard Lovelace, 1925, Norwood 1976
- Manfred Weidhorn: Richard Lovelace, 1970
Web links
| personal data | |
|---|---|
| SURNAME | Lovelace, Richard |
| BRIEF DESCRIPTION | English poet |
| DATE OF BIRTH | 1618 |
| PLACE OF BIRTH | Woolwich or Holland |
| DATE OF DEATH | 1657 |
| Place of death | London |