SOURCE: Weidhorn, Manfred. “Reputation and Achievement.” In Richard Lovelace, pp. 160-71. New York: Twayne Publishers, Inc., 1970.

In the essay that folllows, Weidhorn discusses Richard Lovelace's critical reputation and considers his body of work as a whole.

I. Reputation

Lovelace's reputation as a poet begins early indeed—in his twenty-first year. Though he had left Oxford two years earlier, his lines on the Princess Katherine were inserted into copies of a volume of elegies by Oxford students. Similarly, when Fletcher's Wild Goose Chase appeared in 1652, Lovelace's prefatory verses were printed in larger type than the others' and given the place of honor among them. He was evidently prominent in his time.

Another interesting sidelight is the recent discovery, amid sober entries for 1643-44 in an ordnance notebook, of doodles of the first stanza of “The Scrutiny.” It is amusing to think of an ordnance officer or clerk passing the...