<53.1> "Madam A. L." is not in MS. copy. "The Lady A. L." and "Madam A. L." may very probably be two different persons: for Carew in his Poems (edit. 1651, 8vo. p. 2) has a piece "To A. L.; Persuasions to Love," and it is possible that the A. L. of Carew, and the A. L. mentioned above, are identical. The following poem is printed in Durfey's PILLS TO PURGE MELANCHOLY, v. 120, but whether it was written by Lovelace, and addressed to the same lady, whom he represents above as requesting him to join her in a song, or whether it was the production of another pen, I cannot at all decide. It is not particularly unlike the style of the author of LUCASTA. At all events, I am not aware that it has been appropriated by anybody else, and as I am reluctant to omit any piece which Lovelace is at all likely to have composed, I give these lines just as I find them in Durfey, where they are set to music:-- "TO HIS FAIREST VALENTINE MRS. A. L. "Come, pretty birds, present your lays, And learn to chaunt a goddess praise; Ye wood-nymphs, let your voices be Employ'd to serve her deity: And warble forth, ye virgins nine, Some music to my Valentine. "Her bosom is love's paradise, There is no heav'n but in her eyes; She's chaster than the turtle-dove, And fairer than the queen of love: Yet all perfections do combine To beautifie my Valentine. "She's Nature's choicest cabinet, Where honour, beauty, worth and wit Are all united in her breast. The graces claim an interest: All virtues that are most divine Shine clearest in my Valentine." <53.2> Nights--Editor's MS. <53.3> Where--Ibid. <53.4> Do--Ibid. <53.5> There is here either an interpolation in the printed copy, or an HIATUS in the MS. The latter reads:-- "Yet may I 'mbrace, sigh, kisse, the rest," &c., thus leaving out a line and a half or upward of the poem, as it is printed in LUCASTA. <53.6> MS. reads:--"Youre phansie, madam," omitting "that's to have." <53.7> Original and MS. have REACH. <53.8> This must refer, I suppose, to the ballad of Queen Dido, which the woman sings as she works. The signification of LOVE-BANG is not easily determined. BANG, in Suffolk, is a term applied to a particular kind of cheese; but I suspect that "love-bang Kate" merely signifies "noisy Kate" here. As to the old ballad of Dido, see Stafford Smith's MUSICA ANTIQUA, i. 10, ii. 158; and Collier's EXTRACTS FROM THE REGISTERS OF THE STATIONERS' COMPANY, i. 98. I subjoin the first stanza of "Dido" as printed in the MUSICA ANTIQUA:-- "Dido was the Carthage Queene, And lov'd the Troian knight, That wandring many coasts had seene, And many a dreadfull fight. As they a-hunting road, a show'r Drove them in a loving bower, Down to a darksome cave: Where Aenaeas with his charmes Lock't Queene Dido in his armes And had what he would have."