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 her, might save the universal ball.
She laughs again
At our ridiculous pain;
And at our merry misery
She laughs, until she cry.
Sages, forbear
That ill-contrived tear,
Although your fear
Doth barricado hope from your soft ear.
That which still makes her mirth to flow,
Is our sinister-handed woe,
Which downwards on its head doth go,
And, ere that it is sown, doth grow.
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