Lovelace, Richard (1618–1657)

English poet. Imprisoned in 1642 for petitioning for the restoration of royal rule, he wrote ‘To Althea, from Prison’, and during a second term in jail in 1648 arranged the publication of his collection Lucasta (1649). His poetry is varied in style and content, some in the ‘metaphysical’ style of conceits, some more courtly and graceful.

He was born in Woolwich, Kent, educated at Charterhouse and Oxford, and attached himself readily to the court. He served as an ensign in the Bishops' Wars of 1639–40 and was imprisoned in 1642 for presenting the Royalist Kentish petition to a hostile Parliament. He was released on condition that he engage in no further anti-Parliamentary activities. Consequently he travelled abroad, fighting against the Spanish, and only helping the Royalists indirectly. After the publication of Lucasta, he passed into obscurity. His Posthume Poems were published by his brother in 1659.