"Content, to my dearest Lucasia"
By Katherine Philips

Transcription, correction, editorial commentary, and markup by Students and Staff at The University of Virginia, John O'Brien, Sara Brunstetter, Sara Kathleen Doyle, Rachel Retica

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London : Printed by J.M. for H. Herringman, 1667This text is based on transcriptions created by the Early English Books Online Texts Creation Partnership, a library-based project directed by the University of Michigan and Oxford University. Their digital text was produced from the 1667 edition, published by Henry Herringman in London in 1667, three years after Philips's death, and with the collaboration of her late husband. We have also consulted The Collected Works of Katherine Philips, edited by Patrick Thomas (Essex: Stump Cross Books, 1990), which takes Philips's manuscript versions of her poems as its copytext. Annotations have been provided by faculty and students at the University of Virginia. For a full description of this object, see its ESTC entry.

Editorial Statements

Research informing these annotations draws on publicly-accessible resources, with links provided where possible. Annotations have also included common knowledge, defined as information that can be found in multiple reliable sources. If you notice an error in these annotations, please contact lic.open.anthology@gmail.com.

Original spelling and capitalization is retained, though the long s has been silently modernized and ligatured forms are not encoded.

Hyphenation has not been retained, except where necessary for the sense of the word.

Page breaks have been retained. Catchwords, signatures, and running headers have not. Where pages break in the middle of a word, the complete word has been indicated prior to the page beginning.

Materials have been transcribed from and checked against first editions, where possible. See the Sources section.

Citation

Philips, Katherine. "Content, To my dearest Lucasia". Poems by the most deservedly admired Mrs. Katherine Philips, the matchless Orinda; to which is added Monsieur Corneille's Pompey & Horace, tragedies; with several other translations out of French, Printed by J.M. for H. Herringman, 1667 . Literature in Context: An Open Anthology. http://anthologydev.lib.virginia.edu/work/Philips/philips-dearest-lucasia. Accessed: 2025-01-29T03:04:51.283Z

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Lucasia "Lucasia" refers to Ann Owen, Philips's closest friend and the person to whom many of her poems are addressed. The poem is a meditation on where and how they might find true "contentment."abstruseDifficult to understand; obscure, recondite. (Oxford English Dictionary)Red-CrossThe Red Cross Knight is the protagonist of Book I of Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, published in the 1590s. Philips is referring to a passage where the Red Cross Knight mistakes "treacherous falsehood" in the form of a character named Duessa for the "clear Truth" of Fidessa. The Red Cross Knight is a symbol for purity and the Anglican church, and Duessa can be read as a symbol of the false or duplicitous Roman Catholic church.MineThat is, Philips views contentment as being more valuable than any jewel that can be mined from the earth.LaurelThe foliage of the laurel tree is an emblem of victory or of distinction in poetry, as well as military conquest. (Oxford English Dictionary)Cypress-bowCypress is a common material for archery bows, but also associated with mourning.EcclesiastesEcclesiastes 1:18.Hermite Alternative spelling for hermit: one who from religious motives has retired into solitary life (Oxford English Dictionary).CellRefers to the religious hermits who slept in a cell and used one dish for meals.retiredRetired in the sense of having retired to the countryside, where Philips and Owen were living, having left London during the Civil War.Then"Then" as in "Than":"Than that which privacy and friendship bring."

22 Content, To my dearest Lucasia^LucasiaLucasia "Lucasia" refers to Ann Owen, Philips's closest friend and the person to whom many of her poems are addressed. The poem is a meditation on where and how they might find true "contentment." Content, the false World's best disguise, The search and faction of the Wise Is so abstruse^abstruse abstruseDifficult to understand; obscure, recondite. (Oxford English Dictionary) and hid in night, That, like that Fairy Red-cross Knight^Red-CrossRed-CrossThe Red Cross Knight is the protagonist of Book I of Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, published in the 1590s. Philips is referring to a passage where the Red Cross Knight mistakes "treacherous falsehood" in the form of a character named Duessa for the "clear Truth" of Fidessa. The Red Cross Knight is a symbol for purity and the Anglican church, and Duessa can be read as a symbol of the false or duplicitous Roman Catholic church., Who treacherous Falshood for clear Truth had got, Men think they have it when they have it not. For Courts Content would gladly own, But she ne'er dwelt about a Throne: