Introduction Duke, Sir John Vanbrugh, Nicholas Rowe, Dr. Isaac Watts, William Somerville, Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, Edward Moore, William Shenstone, James Hammond, William Thompson, Edward Lovibond, Mark Akenside, and Nathaniel Cotton. The same reason that has prevented the appearance of these authors has caused the curtailment of others, notably Waller, Suckling, Lovelace, Cowley, Browne, Dryden, Etherege, Sedley, and Prior. Indeed, it would not wrong the truth to say that not without pain I have been compelled to hold my hand at nearly every section of this anthology, but especially in that part of it which lies between Herrick and Cowper. This is urged only as a plea addressed to the bibliographer and the lover of erotic verse, for I can well believe that the sacrifices which have cost me so much will not bring many pangs to the general lover of lovepoetry. There once were days in England when it was an indispensable accomplishment of every man of blood and breeding to write tolerable and reputable love-songs. So numerous are the fugitive pieces, that I have been compelled to leave out altogether those to which no name could be attached. They are the waifs and strays of literature, and, put together, their unknown authors would make a crowded nest of singing-birds. They should not on any account be consigned in a body to oblivion. Many of them are well worthy of preservation. It is interesting to observe the different moods in which the poets have approached the theme of love. They sing their love-songs with energy and persistency, brooking rebuff and even rejection, and still in one sense they come up smiling. Only actual disdain or contempt of love is, in their loyalty to Love their King, a capital and unpardonable offence. Of lovers of every mood and variety, examples will be found in these pages. There is the true lover and the false lover, the constant lover and the jealous lover, the quiet lover and the boisterous lover, the merry lover and the mournful lover, the humble lover and the conceited lover, the admiring lover and the pressing lover. We have the lover before marriage and the lover after marriage. Before marriage he passes through all the stages of passionate feeling. After marriage he Introduction has comparatively little to say. Is the silence of his second state ominous ? Or is it the silence of a contented mind? Thomas Rymer, a learned critic and a poet to boot, wrote (perhaps feelingly)— "'Tis unwise to make it rattle, When we cannot break the chain.' The advice appears to have been thought good, for it has found general acceptance. Poets, nevertheless, there have been who have sung the joys of wedded love. Edward Moore, author of Fables for the Female Sex, and, with Garrick, of the tragedy The Gamester, says 'How blest has my time been! what joys have I known, Since wedlock's soft bondage made Jessy my own; So joyful my heart is, so easy my chain, That freedom is tasteless, and roving a pain.' Bishop King is no less fervent, and Dr. Cotton no less faithful : : 'Dear Chloe, while the busy crowd, Though singularity and pride Be call'd our choice, we'll step aside, From the gay world we'll oft retire Where love our hours employs ; To spoil our heartfelt joys.' But the poets may be left to themselves. If they seem to live alternately in cold and heat, with adulation giving place to backbiting, they are at least always in most deadly earnest. And excessively impatient as the poet-lover is, he never fails to remind the lady who is dilatory in accepting his love, that time is on the wing. As Marvell has it 'The grave's a fine and private place, R. H. C. |