English Cavalier poet Richard Lovelace (ca. 1618-ca. 1657) is famous for a handful of often-anthologized lyrics.

Richard Lovelace began as Fortune's darling but ended as her victim. Born probably in the Netherlands, he belonged to a prosperous Kentish family noted for professional soldiers: Sir William, his father, died fighting for the Dutch; one of his brothers became governor of New York. After Richard left Charterhouse School, his comedy, The Scholar, written at the age of 16, was performed at his college, Gloucester Hall, Oxford, and "with applause" in London. The influence of one of the Queen's ladies is said to have accounted for his receiving an honorary master of arts degree after 2 years in the university. He was "the most amiable and beautiful person that ever eye beheld, a person also of innate modesty, virtue, and courtly deportment, which made him ... much admired and adored by the female sex." He...