1651 has, besides the printed
title-page, an engraved title-page by the well-known engraver, who may
or may not have been a kinsman of the poet, Robert Vaughan. It
represents a swan on a river shaded by trees. The _Olor Iscanus_ was
reissued with a fresh title-page in 1679.

P. 52. Ad Posteros.

On the account of Vaughan's life here given, see the _Biographical note_
(vol. ii., p. xxx).

_Herbertus._ Matthew Herbert, Rector of Llangattock. Cf. the poem to him
on p. 158, with its note.

_Castae fidaeque ... parentis_, _i.e._, perhaps, his mother the Church.

_Nec manus atra fuit._ Dr. Grosart omitted the _fuit_, together with the
final _s_ of the preceding line. In this he is naively followed by Mr.
J. R. Tutin, in his selection of Vaughan's _Secular Poems_.

P. 53. To the ... Lord Kildare Digby.

Lord Kildare Digby was the eldest son of Robert, first Baron Digby, in
the peerage of Ireland. He succeeded to the title in 1642. He was about
21 at the time of this dedication, and died in 1661 (Dr. Grosart)

The date of the dedication is 17th of December, 1647. A volume was
therefore probably prepared for publication at that date, and
afterwards, as we learn from the publisher's preface, "condemned to
obscurity," and given surreptitiously to the world. At the same time, as
Miss Morgan points out to me, some of the poems in _Olor Iscanus_ must
be of later date than 1647. The death of Charles I. is apparently
alluded to in the lines _Ad Posteros_, and certainly in the "since
Charles his reign" of the _Invitation to Brecknock_ (p. 74). This event
took place on January 30th, 1648/9. The _Epitaph upon the Lady
Elizabeth_ (p. 102), again, cannot be earlier than her death on
September 8th, 1650.

P. 54. The Publisher to the Reader.

_Augustus vindex._ The lives of Vergil attributed to Donatus and others
relate that the poet, in his will, directed that his unfinished _Aeneid_
should be burnt. Augustus, however, interfered and ordered its
publication.

P. 57. Commendatory Verses.

These are signed by _T. Powell, Oxoniensis_; _I. Rowlandson,
Oxoniensis_; and _Eugenius Philalethes, Oxoniensis_. Thomas Powell, one
of the Powells of Cantreff, in Breconshire, was born in 1608. He
matriculated from Jesus College on January 25th, 1627/8, took his B.A.
in 1629 and his M.A. in 1632, and became a Fellow of the College. He was
Rector of Cantreff and Vicar of Brecknock, but was ejected by the
Commissioners for the Propa