Richard Lovelace, Royalist, soldier, and poet, perhaps more than any of his contemporaries embodies the spirit of the Cavalier. Like his fellow poets Sir John Suckling and Thomas Carew, Lovelace was an accomplished amateur following in the tradition of Baldassare Castiglione's Courtier (1528; translated, 1561), in which writing poetry, like proficiency in arms, love, and music, was one of the accomplishments expected of the gentleman. Lovelace's work, consisting of two volumes of poetry published in 1649 and 1660, is certainly uneven, but it includes singularly beautiful and graceful lyrics that stand as exemplary for the casual grace and elegance of this group of poets.

Richard Lovelace was born in 1618, probably in Woolwich, Kent. He was the eldest son of Sir William Lovelace and his wife Anne Barne Lovelace. Sir William, a member of an old and distinguished military and legal family and owner of a considerable amount of landed property in Kent...