was enacted in 1647, directing,
under the heaviest penalties, the total and immediate abolition
of theatricals.

<63.10> i.e. The scenic drama. The original meaning of SCENE
was a wooden stage for the representation of plays, &c.,
and it is here used therefore in its primitive sense.

<63.11> In the old mythology of Greece, Cupid is the pupil
of Mercury or Hermes; or, in other words, LOVE is instructed
by ELOQUENCE and WIT.

LUCASTA.

Posthume
POEMS
0F

RICHARD LOVELACE ESQ;

THOSE HONOURS COME TOO LATE,
THAT ON OUR ASHES WAITE.
Mart. lib. I. Epig. 26.

LONDON.

Printed by WILLIAM GODBID for

CLEMENT DARBY.

1659.

THE DEDICATION.

TO THE RIGHT H0N0RABLE JOHN LOVELACE, ESQUIRE.<64.1>

SIR,

LUCASTA (fair, but hapless maid!)
Once flourisht underneath the shade
Of your illustrious Mother; now,
An orphan grown, she bows to you!
To you, her vertues' noble heir;
Oh may she find protection there!
Nor let her welcome be the less,
'Cause a rough hand makes her address:
One (to whom foes the Muses are)
Born and bred up in rugged war:
For, conscious how unfit I am,
I only have pronounc'd her name
To waken pity in your brest,
And leave her tears to plead the rest.
Sir,
Your most obedient
Servant and kinsman

DUDLEY POSTHUMUS-LOVELACE.

<64.1> This gentleman was the eldest son of John, second Lord
Lovelace of Hurley, co. Berks, by Anne, daughter of Thomas,
Earl of Cleveland. The first part of LUCASTA was inscribed
by the poet himself to Lady Lovelace, his mother.

POEMS.

TO LVCASTA.

HER RESERVED LOOKS.

LUCASTA, frown, and let me die,
But smile, and see, I live;
The sad indifference of your eye
Both kills and doth reprieve.
You hide our fate within its screen;
We feel our judgment, ere we hear.
So in one picture I have seen
An angel here, the devil there.

LUCASTA LAUGHING.

Heark, how she laughs aloud,
Although the world put on its shrowd:
Wept at by the fantastic crowd,
Who cry: one drop, let fall
From h