by none
But Cupid had Diana's linnen on;
And all his naked parts so vail'd, th' expresse
The shape with clowding the uncomlinesse;
That if this Reformation, which we
Receiv'd, had not been buried with thee,
The stage (as this worke) might have liv'd and lov'd
Her lines, the austere Skarlet<63.8> had approv'd;
And th' actors wisely been from that offence
As cleare, as they are now from audience.<63.9>

Thus with thy Genius did the scaene expire,<63.10>
Wanting thy active and correcting fire,
That now (to spread a darknesse over all)
Nothing remaines but Poesie to fall:
And though from these thy Embers we receive
Some warmth, so much as may be said, we live;
That we dare praise thee blushlesse, in the head
Of the best piece Hermes to Love<63.11> e're read;
That we rejoyce and glory in thy wit,
And feast each other with remembring it;
That we dare speak thy thought, thy acts recite:
Yet all men henceforth be afraid to write.

<63.1> Fletcher the dramatist fell a victim to the plague of 1625.
See Aubrey's LIVES, vol. 2, part i. p. 352. The verses here
republished were originally prefixed to the first collected edition
of Beaumont and Fletcher's TRAGEDIES AND COMEDIES, 1647, folio.
It is scarcely necessary to remind the reader that Lovelace was
only a child when Fletcher died.

<63.2> VALENTINIAN, A TRAGEDY. First printed in the folio of 1647.

<63.3> THE MAD LOVER. Also first printed in the folio of 1647.

<63.4> An allusion to the HERCULES FURENS of Euripides. Lovelace
had, no doubt, some tincture of Greek scholarship (See Wood's ATH.
OX. ii. 466); but as to the extent of his acquirements in this
direction, it is hard to speak with confidence. Among the books
of Mr. Thomas Jolley, dispersed in 1853, was a copy of Clenardus
INSTITUTIONES GRAECAE LINGUAE, Lugd. Batav. 1626, 8vo., on the
title of which was "Richard Lovelace, 1630, March 5," supposed
to be the autograph of the poet when a schoolboy.

<63.5> In the margin of the copy of 1647, against these lines
is written--"COMEDIES: THE SPANISH CURATE, THE HUMOROUS
LIEUTENANT, THE TAMER TAMED, THE LITTLE FRENCH LAWYER."

<63.6> Sewers.

<63.7> THE CUSTOME OF THE COUNTREY--Marginal note in the copy
of 1647.

<63.8> Query, LAUD.

<63.9> These lines refer to the prohibition published by the
Parliament against the performance of stage-plays and interludes.
The first ordinance appeared in 1642, but that not being found
effectual, a more stringent measure