Lucasta [50]
bosom is love's paradise, There is no heav'n but in her eyes; She's chaster than the turtle-dove, And fairer than the queen of love: Yet all perfections do combine To beautifie my Valentine.
"She's Nature's choicest cabinet, Where honour, beauty, worth and wit Are all united in her breast. The graces claim an interest: All virtues that are most divine Shine clearest in my Valentine."
<53.2> Nights--Editor's MS.
<53.3> Where--Ibid.
<53.4> Do--Ibid.
<53.5> There is here either an interpolation in the printed copy, or an HIATUS in the MS. The latter reads:--
"Yet may I 'mbrace, sigh, kisse, the rest," &c.,
thus leaving out a line and a half or upward of the poem, as it is printed in LUCASTA.
<53.6> MS. reads:--"Youre phansie, madam," omitting "that's to have."
<53.7> Original and MS. have REACH.
<53.8> This must refer, I suppose, to the ballad of Queen Dido, which the woman sings as she works. The signification of LOVE-BANG is not easily determined. BANG, in Suffolk, is a term applied to a particular kind of cheese; but I suspect that "love-bang Kate" merely signifies "noisy Kate" here. As to the old ballad of Dido, see Stafford Smith's MUSICA ANTIQUA, i. 10, ii. 158; and Collier's EXTRACTS FROM THE REGISTERS OF THE STATIONERS' COMPANY, i. 98. I subjoin the first stanza of "Dido" as printed in the MUSICA ANTIQUA:--
"Dido was the Carthage Queene, And lov'd the Troian knight, That wandring many coasts had seene, And many a dreadfull fight. As they a-hunting road, a show'r Drove them in a loving bower, Down to a darksome cave: Where Aenaeas with his charmes Lock't Queene Dido in his armes And had what he would have."
A somewhat different version is given in Durfey's PILLS TO PURGE MELANCHOLY, vi. 192-3.
<53.9> AN UNANOYNTED--MS.
<53.10> This and the three preceding lines are not in MS.
<53.11> Alluding of course to the very familiar legend of Ulysses and the Syrens.
<53.12> A quaver (a well-known musical expression).
<53.13> A--MS.
<53.14> A musical peg.
<53.15> AND--MS.
<53.16> A piece of wire attached to the finger-board of a guitar.
<53.17> Original and MS. read AN.
<53.18> The tablature of Lovelace's time was the application of letters, of the alphabet or otherwise, to the purpose of expressing the sounds or notes of a composition.
VALIANT LOVE.
I. Now fie upon that everlasting life! I dye! She hates! Ah me! It makes me mad; As if love fir'd his torch at a moist eye, Or with his joyes e're crown'd the sad. Oh, let me live and shout, when I fall on; Let me ev'n triumph in the first attempt! Loves duellist from conquest 's not exempt, When his fair murdresse shall not gain one groan, And he expire ev'n in ovation.
II. Let me make my approach, when I lye downe With counter-wrought and travers eyes;<54.1> With peals of confidence batter the towne; Had ever beggar yet the keyes? No, I will vary stormes with sun and winde; Be rough, and offer calme condition; March in and pread,<54.2> or starve the garrison. Let her make sallies hourely: yet I'le find (Though all beat of) shee's to be undermin'd.
III. Then may it please your little excellence Of hearts t' ordaine, by sound of lips, That henceforth none in tears dare love comence (Her thoughts ith' full, his, in th' eclipse); On paine of having 's launce broke on her bed, That he be branded all free beauties' slave, And his own hollow eyes be domb'd his grave: Since in your hoast that coward nere was fed, Who to his prostrate ere was prostrated.
<54.1> This seems to be it phrase borrowed by the poet from his military vocabulary. He wishes to express that he had fortified his eyes to resist the glances of his fair opponent.
<54.2> Original reads most unintelligibly and absurdly MARCH IN (AND PRAY'D) OR, &c. TO PREAD is TO PILLAGE.
LA BELLA BONA ROBA.<55.1><>
"She's Nature's choicest cabinet, Where honour, beauty, worth and wit Are all united in her breast. The graces claim an interest: All virtues that are most divine Shine clearest in my Valentine."
<53.2> Nights--Editor's MS.
<53.3> Where--Ibid.
<53.4> Do--Ibid.
<53.5> There is here either an interpolation in the printed copy, or an HIATUS in the MS. The latter reads:--
"Yet may I 'mbrace, sigh, kisse, the rest," &c.,
thus leaving out a line and a half or upward of the poem, as it is printed in LUCASTA.
<53.6> MS. reads:--"Youre phansie, madam," omitting "that's to have."
<53.7> Original and MS. have REACH.
<53.8> This must refer, I suppose, to the ballad of Queen Dido, which the woman sings as she works. The signification of LOVE-BANG is not easily determined. BANG, in Suffolk, is a term applied to a particular kind of cheese; but I suspect that "love-bang Kate" merely signifies "noisy Kate" here. As to the old ballad of Dido, see Stafford Smith's MUSICA ANTIQUA, i. 10, ii. 158; and Collier's EXTRACTS FROM THE REGISTERS OF THE STATIONERS' COMPANY, i. 98. I subjoin the first stanza of "Dido" as printed in the MUSICA ANTIQUA:--
"Dido was the Carthage Queene, And lov'd the Troian knight, That wandring many coasts had seene, And many a dreadfull fight. As they a-hunting road, a show'r Drove them in a loving bower, Down to a darksome cave: Where Aenaeas with his charmes Lock't Queene Dido in his armes And had what he would have."
A somewhat different version is given in Durfey's PILLS TO PURGE MELANCHOLY, vi. 192-3.
<53.9> AN UNANOYNTED--MS.
<53.10> This and the three preceding lines are not in MS.
<53.11> Alluding of course to the very familiar legend of Ulysses and the Syrens.
<53.12> A quaver (a well-known musical expression).
<53.13> A--MS.
<53.14> A musical peg.
<53.15> AND--MS.
<53.16> A piece of wire attached to the finger-board of a guitar.
<53.17> Original and MS. read AN.
<53.18> The tablature of Lovelace's time was the application of letters, of the alphabet or otherwise, to the purpose of expressing the sounds or notes of a composition.
VALIANT LOVE.
I. Now fie upon that everlasting life! I dye! She hates! Ah me! It makes me mad; As if love fir'd his torch at a moist eye, Or with his joyes e're crown'd the sad. Oh, let me live and shout, when I fall on; Let me ev'n triumph in the first attempt! Loves duellist from conquest 's not exempt, When his fair murdresse shall not gain one groan, And he expire ev'n in ovation.
II. Let me make my approach, when I lye downe With counter-wrought and travers eyes;<54.1> With peals of confidence batter the towne; Had ever beggar yet the keyes? No, I will vary stormes with sun and winde; Be rough, and offer calme condition; March in and pread,<54.2> or starve the garrison. Let her make sallies hourely: yet I'le find (Though all beat of) shee's to be undermin'd.
III. Then may it please your little excellence Of hearts t' ordaine, by sound of lips, That henceforth none in tears dare love comence (Her thoughts ith' full, his, in th' eclipse); On paine of having 's launce broke on her bed, That he be branded all free beauties' slave, And his own hollow eyes be domb'd his grave: Since in your hoast that coward nere was fed, Who to his prostrate ere was prostrated.
<54.1> This seems to be it phrase borrowed by the poet from his military vocabulary. He wishes to express that he had fortified his eyes to resist the glances of his fair opponent.
<54.2> Original reads most unintelligibly and absurdly MARCH IN (AND PRAY'D) OR, &c. TO PREAD is TO PILLAGE.
LA BELLA BONA ROBA.<55.1><