commendatory lines addressed to his "noble friend, Mr. Richard Lovelace,
upon his Poems," which appeared with the poems themselves in that year
of fate, 1649. "After the murder of the King," says Anthony Wood,
"Lovelace was set at liberty, and having by that time consumed all his
estate, grew very melancholy, became very poor in body and purse, was
the object of charity, went in ragged clothes (whereas when he was in
glory he wore cloth of gold and silver), and mostly lodged in obscure
and dirty places, more befitting the worst of beggars and poorest of
servants."

Then it was that _Lucasta_ made its first appearance. When the fortunes
of the gallant poet were at their lowest and never to revive, Marvell
seizes the occasion to deplore the degeneracy of the times, a familiar
theme with poets:--

"Our civil wars have lost the civic crown,
He highest builds who with most art destroys,
And against others' fame his own employs."

He then glances scornfully at the new Presbyterian censorship of the
press:--

"The barbèd censurers begin to look
Like the grim consistory on thy book,
And on each line cast a reforming eye,"

and suggests that _Lucasta_ is in danger because in 1642 its author had
been imprisoned by order of the House of Commons for presenting a
petition from Kent which prayed for the restoration of the Book of
Common Prayer. This danger is, however, overcome by the ladies, who rise