Of all the Cavalier poets who remained loyal royalists even during the darkest of the long Puritan winter in the most troubled times for the British monarchy, Richard Lovelace may quite possibly be the most interesting. Highly influenced in both life and literature by Ben Jonson to the point of also being known as the “Sons of Ben” these poets put a lower premium on many things of the tangible things society holds in high esteem in exchange for literally living up to the lofty standards of more intangible things in life with, perhaps, loyalty be at the top of that list.
Cavalier poetry is marked by an abundance of wit, an obsession with love and beauty, support of the monarch over Parliament, a rejection of just about everything that Puritans hold dear and, as their name suggests, a generally cavalier attitude toward life. They were about seizing the day, enjoying the present and not worrying too much about the long term. This cavalier, devil-may-care, here today and gone tomorrow attitude is also directed toward women as part and parcel of the ties binding the Sons of Ben together. “The Scrutiny” is often considered Lovelace’s most direct expression of this element of the Cavalier poets. The poem takes the form of a monologue by a stereotypical example of this Cavalier sensibility in which the speaker (engaging the wit and lighthearted tone also associated with them) justifies his sleeping around with multiple women through the quite inventive argument that only divesting himself of faithlessness can he truly be the faithful lover a woman deserves. (Go ahead and try that argument yourself if you are in the speaker’s position. See how far you get.)
What makes Lovelace so fascinating is that “The Scrutiny” is a lie. Or, more precisely, it is performance art. This is a case of Lovelace doing an “Andy Kaufman.” He has created this persona of cavalierly promiscuous young rake to keep in line with his genuine adoption of much of the rest of the Cavalier school. On the subject of women, however, Lovelace was distinctly set apart from others in the group, especially that member with whom he is most inextricably linked: Sir John Suckling.
Lovelace and Suckling are, in fact, very often linked together as the ultimate embodiment of the Cavalier poet. They both demonstrate a highly intellectualized wit and a deep and profound loyalty to their king, going so far as to take up arms in support. It is on the essential subject of beauty and love that the two begin to disengage. Suckling’s verse reveals a man fully committed to the being exactly the kind of guy Lovelace has created as his speaker in “The Scrutiny.” Standing in stark contrast, Lovelace’s verse extols femininity rather than using wit to disparage. Scrutiny of the poetry of Lovelace combined with the facts of his life have led some modern scholars to posit that rather than exemplifying the Cavalier, he was really a man out of time who more fully inhabits the concept of Renaissance gentleman. His behavior and his poems like those comprising the “Lucasta” series and arguably his most work, “To Althea, From Prison” reveal who seems to discharge less a cavalier attitude than a old-fashioned chivalry. This is the poem which contains what is beyond argument the most famous lines Lovelace ever wrote, familiar to those who have never even heard of him. “Stone walls do not a prison make, / Nor irons bars a cage” This hardly seems the expression of a man who is only concerned about seizing the day and making the most of it with little regard for the tangible things society holds dear. This is the expression of a true romantic, a mind capable of living the Cavalier ideal through the force of sheer intellectual will.
Althea may or may not be based on an actual woman loved by Lovelace, but her tangibility is beside the point. The speaker of “To Althea, from Prison” is not some fictional construct; it is autobiographical. Lovelace actually was briefly imprisoned for maintaining his loyalty to the king and refused to renounce that loyalty in exchange for tendered promises of immediately release. It is really the difference between two speakers in two poems that ultimately define the character of Richard Lovelace and serve to situate his place not just within Cavalier poetry, but the entirety of British poetry throughout a roughly two-hundred year period of upheaval.
