Joseph Beaumont is remembered primarily for the composition of one of the longest poems in English, Psyche: or, Loves Mysterie (1648), and for his association with the poet Richard Crashaw. Like Crashaw, Beaumont was a fellow of Peterhouse, a college of Cambridge University and the center of High Church or Laudian beliefs and practices during the 1630s and 1640s. Loyal supporters of King Charles I, Beaumont and Crashaw were officially banished by the Puritans in 1644 from their sinecures at Peterhouse. Crashaw fled to the Continent, became a Roman Catholic, and died before the Restoration. Beaumont, however, remained in England, retiring to his country home for the duration of the Commonwealth. He remained faithful to the High Church and, after the ascension of King Charles II in 1660, was honored with titles and positions.

Although Beaumont's poetry is of limited merit, his verse continues to be read because its subject matter...