<63.2> VALENTINIAN, A TRAGEDY. First printed in the folio of 1647.
<63.3> THE MAD LOVER. Also first printed in the folio of 1647.
<63.4> An allusion to the HERCULES FURENS of Euripides. Lovelace had, no doubt, some tincture of Greek scholarship (See Wood's ATH. OX. ii. 466); but as to the extent of his acquirements in this direction, it is hard to speak with confidence. Among the books of Mr. Thomas Jolley, dispersed in 1853, was a copy of Clenardus INSTITUTIONES GRAECAE LINGUAE, Lugd. Batav. 1626, 8vo., on the title of which was "Richard Lovelace, 1630, March 5," supposed to be the autograph of the poet when a schoolboy.
<63.5> In the margin of the copy of 1647, against these lines is written—"COMEDIES: THE SPANISH CURATE, THE HUMOROUS LIEUTENANT, THE TAMER TAMED, THE LITTLE FRENCH LAWYER."
<63.6> Sewers.
<63.7> THE CUSTOME OF THE COUNTREY—Marginal note in the copy of 1647.
<63.8> Query, LAUD.
<63.9> These lines refer to the prohibition published by the Parliament against the performance of stage-plays and interludes. The first ordinance appeared in 1642, but that not being found effectual, a more stringent measure was enacted in 1647, directing, under the heaviest penalties, the total and immediate abolition of theatricals.
<63.10> i.e. The scenic drama. The original meaning of SCENE was a wooden stage for the representation of plays, &c., and it is here used therefore in its primitive sense.
<63.11> In the old mythology of Greece, Cupid is the pupil of Mercury or Hermes; or, in other words, LOVE is instructed by ELOQUENCE and WIT.