SOURCE: “Thomas Carew: The Cavalier World,” in The Wit of Love, University of Notre Dame Press, 1969, pp. 60-110.

In the following essay, Martz surveys Carew's poetry, noting its “Cavalier elegance, its Mannerist styling.” Martz continues by observing Carew's wit, influences, critical capacity, and relationship to his age.

In the cold spring of 1639, Thomas Carew, the favorite poet of the Court of Charles I, joined his King's army in an ill-conceived and ill-prepared expedition against the Scots. It was the same expedition for which Carew's friend and fellow poet, Sir John Suckling, had beggared himself in order to provide a beautifully clothed and plumed troop of cavalrymen—but whether they could fight was another matter. The King's hope was to quell the rebellious Scots, who had refused to abide by the rules of the Church of England; but he found the Scottish army much too strong for his own...