"'I could not love thee, love, so much'?" (April 20, 1814)

I really must mend my ways – here's another unattributed (and imprecise) quotation! Even in 1814 it must have been so well worn that it would hardly count as a quotation, though, or would it? It's from a poem by Richard Lovelace, one of the seventeenth-century Cavalier poets.

To Lucasta, Going to the Wars

Tell me not (Sweet) I am unkind,

         That from the nunnery

Of thy chaste breast and quiet mind

         To war and arms I fly.

True, a new mistress now I chase,

         The first foe in the field;

And with a stronger faith embrace

         A sword, a horse, a shield.

Yet this inconstancy is such

         As you too shall adore;

I could not love thee (Dear) so much,

         Lov’d I not Honour more.

quoted after The Poetry Foundation

 

This painting from ca. 1645/6, attributed to William Dobson, probably depicts Richard Lovelace.
It’s in the Dulwich Picture Gallery, South London.

 

Well. This is all very fine, but I'm with Jacques Prévert on this one: "Quelle connerie la guerre!"