Note 413 — BOOK II[407]
Alexander Teixeira de Mattos translation
Richard Lovelace (1618-1658), the Cavalier poet, was imprisoned by the Commons in 1642, subsequently released on £20,000 bail, was abroad from 1646 to 1648 in the French service, taking part in the Siege of Dunkirk, and was again incarcerated on his return to England. He was released once more towards the close of 1649 and spent the remainder of his life in want. His best-known prison poems include his To Althea from Prison and the lines commencing:
Stone walls do not a prison make Nor iron bars a cage.—T.