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PAXTON HOOD'S 
 
 LIBRARY FOR YOUNG MEN. 
 
 THE AGE AND ITS AKCHITECTS : 
 
 Ten Chapters on the English People, in relation to the 
 
 Times. (Second Edition.) Cloth, 3s. 6d. 
 
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 By the same Author, 
 
 THE LAMPS OF THE TEMPLE : 
 
 Shadows from the Lights of the Modern Pulpit. %$. 6&. 
 
 CONTENTS The Pulpit and the Age; the Revs. Thomas 
 
 Binney ; HexiTy Melville, B. D. ; Dr. Edward Andrews; Dr. 
 Richard Winter Hamilton; James Parsons; Alfred J Morm* 
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 Dawson, M.A. The Welch Pulpit, Concluding Summary* 
 
 LOFDON;— PARTRIDGE AND OAKEY, 
 
LIFE AND WRITINGS 
 
 OF 
 
 ANDREW MA BY ELL. 
 
ANDREW MARVELL : 
 
 THE WIT, STATESMAN, AND POET 
 
 HIS 
 
 LIFE AND WRITINGS. 
 
 EDITED BT 
 
 EDWIN PAXTON HOOD, 
 
 s 
 AUfHOR Off "TEE AGE AND ITS ARCHITECTS," "OLD 
 ENGLAND," " COMMON SENSE," &C. 
 
 LONDON: 
 PUBLISHED BY PARTRIDGE & OAKEY. 
 
 MDCCCLIIX. 
 

 
' > 
 
 yO 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 The Reader will have to thank the Editor of 
 Ihe following pages for little more than the 
 string which holds the various paragraph* 
 together. 
 
 It is nearly one hundred years since the last 
 edition of the works of Marvell was pub- 
 lished, in Three Volumes, for Three Guineas. 
 The major part of our Author's Writings, 
 inserted in this Volume, are extracted from 
 those which have been very carefully collated 
 and looked at by the lamps of contemporaneous 
 history. 
 
 Two small Lives of Marvel have been pub- 
 lished ; the one by Hartley Coleridge, the 
 other by Mr. Dove ; but thes8 two book« are 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 so precisely alike, and appeared so simulta- 
 neously, that it is impossible to say to whom 
 the honour should be awarded. 
 
 The present Editor begs to express his obli- 
 gations to one or the other of those volumes — 
 " honour to whom honour is due" — he cannot 
 
 say. 
 
 This Volume contains, as far as it was pos- 
 sible to give in so brief a space, all there is 
 notable of Andrew Marvell. 
 
 E. P. H. 
 
 Fulfwd, Yorh 
 1853. 
 
CONTENTS, 
 
 Chap. I. — Hull, the Netherlands of England in the 
 
 Old Time 1 
 
 II.— The Life of Marvell . . .15 
 
 III.— The Member for Hull : His Words and 
 
 Deeds . . .3? 
 
 IV.— Marvell as a Poet . . 80 
 
 Extracts. — The Garden . . .86 
 
 A Drop of Dew . , 88 
 
 To his Coy Mistress . . 91 
 
 The Unfortunate Lover . 93 
 
 The Gallery . . .95 
 
 The Fair Singer . . 97 
 
 The Match . . . ib. 
 
 The Mower against Gardens . 99 
 
 Damon, the Mower . .100 
 
 The Mower to the Glow- Worm 103 
 
 The Mower's Song . .104 
 Ametas and Thestylis making Hay 
 
 Ropes . 105 
 Dialogue between Soul and Body 106 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Extracts. — A Dialogue between the Resolved 
 
 Soul and Created Pleasure 107 
 
 The Coronet . . .112 
 
 Remonstrance against Cruelty 11 S 
 
 Character of Holland . .115 
 
 Britannia and Raleigh . 119 
 
 On Colonel Blood's Attempt to steal 
 
 the Crown . . 125 
 
 On Milton's Paradise Lost . 1 26 
 
 Eyes and Tears . . 1 29 
 
 Bermudas . . .131 
 
 The Nymph complaining for the 
 
 Loss of her Fawn . .432 
 
 An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's 
 
 Return from Ireland . 136 
 
 Chap. V.— Marvell, the Polemic and the Wit 143 
 
 Extracts. — The Press . . .152 
 
 Improper Clergymen . 156 
 
 Bishops . . .162 
 
 VI.— The " No Popery" Cry in Marvell's Time 169 
 
 Extracts. — Nero and Caligula . .171 
 
 Church Contentions . 175 
 
 Church Ceremonies . 177 
 
 The Venom of Parker . 178 
 
 Miscellaneous Witticisms . 180 
 
 VII. — Extracts from Marvell's Familiar Epistles 182 
 
 VIII. — Conclusion and Miscellaneous Papers . 196 
 
 Appendix 215 
 
ANDREW MARVELL, 
 
 ETC. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 HULL THE NETHERLANDS OF ENGLAND EN 
 
 THE OLD TIME. 
 
 The place in which a man is born exercises no 
 inconsiderable influence over his mind ; espe- 
 cially if he be of quick and vivid habits of 
 thought. The mind of a man like Andrew 
 Marvell would be likely to be much impressed 
 with the circumstances occurring around him ; 
 and Hull, in the days of Andrew Marvell, and 
 especially in his boyhood, was one of the most 
 noticeable places in the British Empire. 
 
 From the time of Edward the First, from 
 whom the town of Kingston-on-Hull dates its 
 foundation— and whose sagacity saw its impor- 
 tance as a fortification, if not as an important 
 commercial depot — the town had been remark- 
 able for its loyalty and attachment to mo- 
 narchical rule and power. The ancient history 
 
 B 
 
Z ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 of Hull is very rich in interest. As it stands 
 now — wholly shorn of all feudal pretensions — 
 it is difficult to conceive it as the place of resort 
 for monarchs and barons, — surrounded by ab- 
 beys and castles ; but even then its commercial 
 position was of some importance ; and one of 
 its merchants, in the time of Edward, (Sir 
 Michael de la Pole,) was elevated to the earl- 
 dom of Suffolk, became Lord Chancellor of 
 England, and laid the foundation of the illus- 
 trious house which at a subsequent period found 
 royal blood flowing through its veins. 
 
 We are not writing a history of Hull, and 
 therefore we must not dwell upon the many 
 romantic pictures which might be conjured up 
 from the old graphic chronicles of this English 
 Holland. In the time of Andrew Marvell it 
 presents a double history ; and we are amazed 
 by instances of heroic daring and dastardly 
 cowardice ; the streets of the town were fre- 
 quently thronged by excited numbers ; and 
 the town itself becomes the theatre of events 
 of startling servility and undaunted bravery. 
 
 It was not then, indeed, as now, a port 
 crowded with tradesmen and mariners ; its 
 streets did not topple over or tread upon the 
 heels of each other : its castellated gates guarded 
 the four quarters of the tow r n ; # the High Street, 
 now the dirtiest and lowest street of the town, 
 was then the principal resort, and a long and 
 most respectable thoroughfare ; the traders and 
 ships thronged the river Hull ; while beyond 
 the moats and the gates of the city stretched 
 a wide outlying of beautiful and pleasant fields. 
 The old streets of the ancient town are all 
 
ANDREW MARVKLL. 3 
 
 departed, but the places of them are preserved 
 still, and are called by the same names as 
 in the old maps and plans. As to the govern- 
 ment of the city, none in England was more 
 individual and exempt ; the charters were 
 clear, and from king to king regularly con- 
 firmed. We trace in the history of the rise and 
 progress of Hull, its municipalities and immu- 
 nities, a resemblance to the great cities of 
 Holland, and of the Hanseatic League. 
 
 It was during the boyhood of Marvell that 
 the rivers Humber and Hull, and the adjacent 
 coast, were infested by pirates, so that scarce a 
 merchant ship could sail with safety. Ships 
 were therefore ordered to be equipped by govern- 
 ment, and setting sail, they fell in with seve- 
 ral of the privateers. A special commission 
 was appointed for trying these at Hull, by the 
 mayor and aldermen, assisted by the Earl of 
 Huntingdon, Sir Thomas G-argsaon, and Sir 
 Henry Gates. This was accordingly done. 
 A great day would that be for Hull in those 
 days, when six of these marauders were hanged, 
 and their bodies sent to different parts of the 
 coast, to be suspended in chains, as the best 
 warnings that could then be afforded to de- 
 ter others from the commission of similar crimes. 
 We can conceive the hurrying crowds, and 
 the civic gladness, too, for the presence of such 
 men as these on the coast would be a real 
 affliction to the city. 
 
 The reign of Charles the First — in Hull it 
 was a stirring time. The arbitrary proceedings 
 of the king were felt especially here ; for at 
 this time the fortifications of Hull were among 
 
4 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 the most important in the kingdom, and it 
 was therefore likely that the battle between 
 privilege and prerogative would here be very 
 hot. At the time when the first outbreak of 
 the civil war took place in the north, Marvel! 
 w r as in his boyhood and youth, and his native 
 place was full of food for thought to one so 
 swift as he to note the moral bearing of events. 
 Hull presents a curious aspect to the eye. 
 Watching the events of those times, it is ultra 
 for both King, Parliament, Protector, and 
 King again. When the first levies were made 
 by the king, Charles L, for ship-money, Hull 
 very willingly complied with his requests to fit 
 out ships of war, ostensibly raised for the pur- 
 pose of scourging the privateers on the coast. 
 But at the very beginning of the strife, and be- 
 fore the more open hostilities, Hull was, by the 
 royal command, put in a posture of defence. 
 The pretext used on this occasion was the pro- 
 bability of an attack from Spain. Ships of war 
 from Hull were again fitted out, and again men 
 and ships were hastened away upon the unholy 
 and dastardly attack upon Roehelle. Hull, 
 soon after this, would be, from one gate to the 
 other, loudly discussing tonnage and poundage, 
 which, however, this town appears very cheer- 
 fully to have paid, for it did not share as yet 
 generally in the puritanic excitement of the 
 time. We find costly presents of plate and 
 wine presented to the Earl of Strafford, and 
 other presents of equal value to the newly 
 appointed Archbishop of York. Reverence 
 for church usages and episcopal authority in 
 Hull, in this age, was carried to the last ex- 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 treme, for in 1635, when the plague, always a 
 cruel enemy of the town, raged here, and clothed 
 the whole place in mourning on account of it, 
 so that all business was suspended, the inhabi- 
 tants fled to the country. Strict watch was kept 
 at the gates, which were shut night and day, 
 except when provisions were brought in. All 
 assemblies and meetings were forbidden, the 
 schools were entirely discontinued, and the 
 churches wholly unfrequented. The whole 
 town was a scene of horror, silence, and dis- 
 traction, and the country people feared to at- 
 tend the markets, so that, in addition to the 
 great catastrophe, the price of provisions was 
 very dear. Starvation and pestilence held a 
 carnival in Hull. At this time a petition was 
 drawn up, and presented to the Archbishop of 
 York, from the mayor and corporation, and it 
 is worth inserting here, as a rare and curious 
 specimen of the prevalence of popish feeling 
 pervading the town, and sanctioned by the 
 Church of England in that day. The petition 
 ran in the following words :— 
 
 " To the Most Reverend Father in God, 
 Richard. — The Humble Petition of the Mayor 
 and Aldermen of Kingston-upon-Hull, in be- 
 half of all the sick and visited persons of the 
 said town, most humbly sheweth : — 
 
 " That whereas the said visitation of the 
 Plague, that scourge of God for our sins, has, 
 by the Divine pleasure, been amongst us ever 
 since July last, and not yet ceased; and" that 
 whereas there are very many dead amongst us, 
 and many on the recovering hand. We, there- 
 
O ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 fore, beg of your Grace, in behalf of the latter, 
 that your Grace would be pleased to give 
 licence and toleration unto them, that they 
 may dress and eat flesh the ensuing Lent, for 
 their nourishment and more speedy recovery ; 
 and the rather because this town is not, as for- 
 merly, served with fresh fish ; and your peti- 
 tioners shall ever pray," &c. 
 
 His Grace, in answer to their petition, con- 
 doled with them, in their great affliction and 
 loss ; adding, that he did not know what power 
 he had to grant such an indefinite licence, but 
 that in all cases of sickness and other extraor- 
 dinary necessity, the ministers — upon certifi- 
 cate from their physicians — might grant per- 
 mission to particular persons to eat flesh during 
 that holy season. He then affectionately ex- 
 horted them to take that course ; beseeching 
 God Almighty to heal, keep, and strengthen 
 them body and soul. 
 
 The Archbishop's advice was immediately 
 complied with ; and produced, it is said, very 
 salutary effects, especially on some who had 
 passed the crisis of the disease. The infection, 
 however, continued to spread ; and in the 
 month of December, Mr. John Hamsden, al- 
 derman, fell a victim to it. He was the father 
 of " Deer Will," who figures so often in An- 
 drew MarvelPs familiar epistles. He was 
 highly esteemed and spoken of as a man very 
 learned and pious. His body was carried by 
 persons who had been visited of the plague, in- 
 to the Trinity Church ; and there the Eev. 
 Andrew Marvell, the father of the subject of 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. / 
 
 our Life, had the courage, notwithstanding the 
 imminent danger attending it, to give him 
 Christian burial, which had been for some time 
 discontinued. On this occasion also he preached 
 a funeral sermon. 
 
 For three years the town continued to be an 
 infected place, and it was cut off from all direct 
 communication with neighbouring towns ; the 
 king issued his proclamation for the suppression 
 of the markets ; persons under the supervision 
 of the justices of peace supplied the town with 
 provisions at the various gates. There they 
 were bought by a few of the inhabitants chosen 
 for that purpose, and sent in sledges to the 
 town's cross, where they were disposed of: few 
 pestilences afflicting the country, have ever been 
 so terrible as this. It paused in its terrible 
 career about 1638; in that very year Marvell 
 took his degree at Cambridge, as bachelor of 
 arts. It is probable, therefore, that his resi- 
 dence at Hull, at this time, was only occa- 
 sional; but the town was almost ruined : nearly 
 three thousand persons had died of the plague, 
 exclusive of those who fled out of the town, and 
 died elsewhere, and those who died of other 
 disorders, which almost doubled the number ; 
 at length the stream of life rolled back in its 
 old course. But for years the town appeared 
 to lie under a taint ; and still few towns in 
 England are so unhealthy. The trail of miasma 
 appears to be left behind. And in 1849, when 
 the cholera smote through England, Hull was 
 visited again with the traces and indications 
 beyond any other town in England, of the 
 ancient state of plague. 
 
8 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 Was Marvell by when his majesty Charles 
 I. visited Hull? had he influence sufficient 
 to he one of the forty, for whom the lofty plat- 
 form was prepared ? or was he simply one of the 
 hundred burgesses well mounted, who went 
 forth to greet the king upon his entrance ? or 
 was he only one of the crowd who looked on 
 contemptuously, while Mr. Recorder with pro- 
 found utterance addressed his majesty in the ri- 
 diculous strain of fulsome homage which we 
 here present to our readers ? 
 
 " Most gracious sovereign ! 
 
 " If the approaches to the sacred thrones of 
 heaven and earth, had been by the same way of 
 access, we had long since learned by our daily 
 praying to the King of Kings, to speak as might 
 become us to your sacred majesty, whom God 
 has now blessed and honoured us with the pre- 
 sence of. But since these are different, and we 
 are not so much conversant with the latter, as 
 the former, we most heartily crave your sacred 
 pardon and grace for any rudeness, which is or 
 may be committed ; assuring your majesty that 
 it proceeds from nothing but want of knowledge 
 and skill, how to receive and express our- 
 selves upon the happy reception of so much 
 glory, our full hearts make us almost unable 
 to undergo what we most thankfully undertake, 
 and would even stop all passages of speech and 
 make us dumb with the awful majesty, that 
 happily we behold and adore ; could but the 
 greatness of our love, loyalty, and hearty affec- 
 tions to you, be as well seen, understood, and 
 weighed in silence as in words. 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 
 # * % 
 
 This town has always been faithful and true ; 
 and in respect of the zealous and loyal affec- 
 tions of the people of the same to your majes- 
 ty's honour and service, it may be said, as is 
 said of the city of Seville in Spain, not only 
 to be walled but to be garrisoned with fire ; 
 not dead nor sleeping, nor unanimated, like 
 senseless flints, but continually vivacious, 
 waking, apparent, and sensible, in their 
 courageous and boiling heat for your majesty's 
 long life, welfare, and happiness ; so that as 
 the town is not only yours by name, but nature, 
 so it shall ever remain so. 
 
 May your majesty live for ever and ever, and 
 may all the thorns in your travels grow up into 
 crowns ; may your battles be always crowned 
 with laurels, and may good success always at- 
 tend your actions and desires. May years be 
 added unto your days, and length of time till 
 time shall be no more ; and that your continu- 
 ance amongst us may still be an ornament and 
 blessing to the present age, and an eternal 
 admiration, blessing, and glory to all that are 
 to come." 
 
 Fulsome and pompous enough our readers 
 doubtless must think ; but it did not stay here ; 
 the servile phrase was to be appropriately fol- 
 lowed up by the servile deed ; the people at 
 b 2 
 
10 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 Hull in those days did not stop short in their 
 expressions of loyalty to king or parliament. 
 
 But we will only notice one other event of 
 this period, but a most memorable one — namely, 
 the appointment of Sir John Hotham to the 
 Governorship of Hull. Hull, as we have seen, 
 was a place of great importance : the magazine 
 was there ; the government looked upon Hull 
 with great interest, when the war actually 
 broke out between the parliament and king ; 
 the latter again came to Hull, but was by Sir 
 John Hotham refused admittance. He told his 
 majesty that " he durst not open the gates to 
 him, being entrusted by the parliament with 
 the safety of the town." The king told him 
 that he believed he had no orders from the par- 
 liament to shut the gates against him, or to 
 keep him out of the town, to which he replied 
 that his majesty's train was so great that if it 
 were admitted he should not be able to give a 
 good account of his trust to those who had em- 
 ployed him. The king then proposed " to enter 
 with twenty of his attendants only, and that 
 the rest should stay without the gates ; this 
 proposal, however, the governor refused. — 
 Charles then desired him to come out of the 
 gates, that he might confer more particularly 
 with him, and assured him on his royal word of 
 his safety and liberty to return. But this also 
 the governor refused to comply with. His 
 majesty then told him that this act of his was 
 unparalleled, so it would produce some notable 
 effect ; that it was not possible for him to sit 
 down under such an indignity, but that he 
 would immediately proclaim him a traitor, and 
 
AX DREW MAIiVELL. 11 
 
 proceed against him as such : that this diso- 
 bedience of his would probably bring many 
 miseries on the kingdom, and in its consequence 
 might involve much loss of blood : all which 
 might be avoided if he performed the duty of a 
 subject ; and therefore he further advised him 
 to think seriously of it, that the growth of so 
 many calamities might be prevented, which, if 
 they took place, must lie heavy on his con- 
 science." 
 
 Sir John Hotham probably acted on this 
 occasion with decision, because he was sur- 
 rounded by men more decided than himself; 
 but even now, it is said, he was in a state of 
 great confusion. Distraction was in his looks. 
 He fell on his knees, and began to talk of the 
 trust he had received from the parliament ; in 
 the end, wishing that God would bring confu- 
 sion upon him and his if he were not a faithful 
 and loyal subject ; but he plainly denied his 
 majesty admission into the town. Nearly the 
 whole day the king continued before the town. 
 At five o'clock he proceeded to Beverly, after 
 two heralds had, by the king's command, pro- 
 claimed Sir John Hotham a traitor. This act 
 of the governor's led to discussions in the House 
 of Commons, and counter proclamations in de- 
 fiance of the king, by which his declaring the 
 governor a traitor was also declared to be a 
 breach of the privileges of parliament. 
 
 During the whole period of the Civil War 
 no part of the kingdom presents us with so 
 complicated and romantic an instance as this 
 of Sir John Hotham and his son, at Hull. 
 The king sought pertinaciously to obtain pos- 
 
12 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 session of the town ; but the Parliament re- 
 moved the magazine to the Tower of London. 
 Still the king held on the siege to the wonder 
 of many. Then the sluices were pulled up, 
 and the whole of the country about Hull laid 
 under water ; the fortifications were strength- 
 ened, and all around the city and within, was 
 put in nn active state of warfare. The king 
 spent the most of his time at Beverly and 
 York. In the end there transpired a long 
 series of treacheries on the part of Hotham — 
 negociations with Earl Digby, who had entered 
 and continued at Hull, in disguise — negocia- 
 tions with the Earl of Newcastle, the general 
 of the king — negociations with the queen. At 
 last he had determined on giving up the town 
 to the royal party ; but he had all along been 
 carefully watched : he was known : and he and 
 his son, (as great a traitor as himself,) were 
 taken, and after innumerable efforts to save 
 them, were beheaded on Tower Hill. Mr. 
 James, in his " Arran Neil," has very vividly 
 coloured these circumstances with poetry and 
 romance. 
 
 From these particulars, so briefly given, the 
 reader will have some idea of the importance 
 of the town of Hull at this period ; visited, 
 during the early lifetime of Marvel], by the 
 two most terrible scourges of any town — pesti? 
 lence and war. How much must have hap- 
 pened to draw out his thoughts and to give a 
 bias to his opinions ! It is amidst exciting 
 scenes and intensely interesting circumstances 
 that we live longest and most. The chronology 
 of time is brief and small compared with 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 13 • 
 
 the chronology of ideas. In new scenes, in 
 startling events, how the mental action is 
 quickened ; how there is imparted to the whole 
 nature a heat and life unknown to it in calmer 
 moods or serener times. As Marvell beheld 
 for years, all around him, the terrible evidences 
 of death ; all men's hearts failing them for fear, 
 and crowds of his neighbours huddled away 
 promiscuously to the sepulchre, without the 
 time for the due observance of form and cere- 
 mony for the procession — the bell, the prayer — 
 but pushed from their habitations and through 
 the streets, almost unrecked of by the survivors, 
 in the midst of the general fear ; he would be 
 compelled to live through a larger amount of 
 emotions than in the more quiet and ordinary 
 course of nature ; so when the Plague passed 
 away, and the whole of the neighbourhood of 
 the town lay under water, except one or two 
 short and absolutely necessary approaches ; as 
 armed men paced to and fro through the 
 streets, or ranged themselves along the walls, 
 and the rude notes of war ran over the town ; 
 amidst the constant discussions of prerogative 
 and privilege, the notes of defiance, the ru- 
 mours of treachery, his own opinions — already 
 from his father probably highly republican — 
 deepened by the preaching, and perhaps the 
 friendship, of the Rev. William Styles, the 
 minister of Trinity Church, who had the cou- 
 rage and principle to withstand the attempted 
 bribings of the Queen, through Lady Bland, — 
 the very posture of the town, situated so far 
 from any large cities, — so important, — so self- 
 governed and defended — defying to his very 
 
14 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 face the King from its walls ; all this would 
 tend to stimulate the mind and the opinion of 
 Marvell. True, all his time was not spent in 
 Hull during those exciting days, but a large 
 portion of it was ; and wherever his time was 
 spent, he would find innumerable interests with 
 which he was connected to interest him in the 
 town. We still have to learn, and it appears 
 difficult to understand, how he attained so 
 much power there, as to become through so 
 many years the Member for the town. We 
 have, perhaps, said enough to show how alter- 
 nately servile and independent was the town ; 
 and surely it showed its independence in the 
 election of Marvell to serve it in Parliament 
 through so many years — even after it sank into 
 a servile homage to Charles II. ; the day of its 
 independence returned, too, when the succeed- 
 ing king dictated to it its Popish Members — 
 Recorder and Mayor wringing from it, by the 
 hand of the notorious and atrocious Jeffreys, its 
 Charters, and again placing it in the posture of 
 civil war. During the whole of the mighty 
 drama of the Stuart dynasty, no single town of 
 all the provinces awakens so much interest in 
 our mind as Hull. 
 
15 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE LIFE OF MARVELL. 
 
 The name of Andrew Marvell is a name very 
 often pronounced and well known, but of him, 
 for the most part, nothing is known. No edi- 
 tion of his works has been published for nearly 
 a century, and that edition, in three bulky 
 quarto volumes, is seldom to be met with. JNo 
 popular life of him, with a general selection 
 from his writings, has ever been published. It 
 is known that he was a wit, a poet, an incor- 
 ruptible statesman, but his reputation is my- 
 thical. We pronounce his name — we give 
 him credit for his powers — we know nothing 
 generally of them. 
 
 How rich is the literature of England in for- 
 gotten names, or names which, if not forgotten, 
 yet standing as the synonyms of every kind of 
 excellence, have retained to the great masses 
 of people no more than the most general fea- 
 tures, the faint outline or profile. We read 
 the lives of Plutarch, and the anecdotal chroni- 
 cles of the ancients, and we suppose that hero- 
 ism and virtue like that recorded are unusual, 
 and never seen on English ground. We have 
 
16 ANDREW MAKVELL. 
 
 confined our knowledge of popular British bio- 
 graphy to a few names, and we have confined 
 our knowledge of writings to the high head- 
 lands of literature ; but our country contains 
 the tombs and ancient dwelling places of many 
 of her sons, whose worth and moral dignity were 
 of the very highest order, and whose writings 
 contain gems of beauty, if they do not realise 
 all the glory and the magnificence of the more 
 favoured children of genius. 
 
 Andrew Marvell was one of such men. He 
 lived in a time when England perhaps boasted 
 a greater number of the first class minds than 
 any other of our history — The Cromwell Era, 
 that age of men who, in the cabinet, the senate, 
 in the pulpit, in the study, or the field, evinced 
 the highest order of genius. That was the age 
 of genius. The pen and the sword were both 
 wielded by men the most extraordinary of our 
 land. In every department their splendour of 
 genius, and scholarship, and eloquence, and 
 power, shone forth. From every sect and party, 
 from every profession, men appeared to cast a 
 light peculiar all around that time. They were 
 great in all positions, and they bore their great 
 successes and great reverses like no other body 
 of men with whom we have any acquaintance. 
 How much we have derived from them in 
 poetry, in theology, in statesmanship. How 
 the mind lingers along the memory of those 
 men ! What rivalry of eminence in the scenes 
 where Milton, defending the liberty of the 
 people and the soil, and Selden, defending the 
 liberty of the seas, and Taylor, defending the 
 liberty of conscience, where Howe drops his 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 17 
 
 sentences of honey in hives of gold, and Owen 
 builds his wonderful ethical edifices, where 
 Pynrs clear sighted vision sketched the rights 
 and privileges of English citizens, and Sydney 
 invested them with the Roman toga and lictor, 
 where Elliot sublimely discoursed of the mo- 
 narchy of men, where Marvell incorporated the 
 discourse in his life. 
 
 " It is the privilege, 1 ' says Hartley Coleridge^ 
 " of posterity to adjust the characters of illus- 
 trious persons. Andrew Marvell has therefore 
 become a celebrated name, and is now known 
 as one of the most incorruptible Patriots that 
 England, or any other country, ever produced. 
 A character so exalted and pure, astonished a 
 corrupt age, and overawed even majesty itself. 
 His morals and his manners were Roman : — 
 he lived on the turnip of Curtius, and would 
 have bled at Philippi. As a Poet, too, Marvell 
 possessed no vulgar genius ; and as a Satirist, 
 he was of the keenest in the luxuriant age of 
 Charles II. It is to be regretted that our 
 notices of him are less ample and continuous 
 than his personal merit deserves, or his exalted 
 walk of public action would induce us to ex- 
 pect. His name, indeed, is generally known — ■ 
 a few anecdotes of his honesty are daily repeated 
 — and a single copy of verses, no adequate 
 sample of his poetic powers, keeping its station 
 in the vestibule of c Paradise Lost,' records him 
 as the friend and admirer of Milton. But the 
 detail of his daily life — the simple background 
 of the stirring picture — the inestimable transac- 
 tions which should make up the unity and 
 totality of his history — might indeed be easily 
 
18 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 supplied by imagination, but cannot be derived 
 from document or tradition. 
 
 " The mind of Marvell, like the street and 
 the wall of Jerusalem, was built in troublous 
 times. From his youth upwards, he was inured 
 to peril and privation ; and, though he does not 
 appear to have been personally engaged in civil 
 conflict, he could not escape the tyrannous trials 
 of those c evil days' — reproach and wicked soli- 
 citation, and sundering of dearest ties, by violent 
 death, and exile, and crueller alienation. Yet 
 if his heart was often wounded, it was never 
 hardened. He ever retained and cherished his 
 love of the gentle, the beautiful, and the imagi- 
 native. His virtue, firm and uncompromising, 
 was never savage ; nor did his full reliance on 
 his own principles make him blind to perceive, 
 or dumb to acknowledge, whatever goodness 
 appeared in men of other faith and allegiance. 
 He was a wit and a poet, and as these qualities 
 made him no worse a patriot or christian, so 
 they probably made him a more agreeable 
 man." 
 
 ^\ Marvell was born at Kingston-upon-Hull, 
 /on the 15th of November, 1620; and dis- 
 covering a genius for letters, was sent, at the 
 early age of fifteen, with an exhibition belong- 
 ing to his native place, to Trinity College, 
 Cambridge. He had not been long, however, 
 before (like Chillingworth,) he was enticed 
 from his studies by the Jesuits, who were then 
 seeking converts with industrious proselytism 
 among the young men of distinguished abilities 
 — especially in the Universities ; and they suc- 
 ceeded in inveigling Marvell from college to 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 19 
 
 London, where his father followed and quickly 
 restored him to the University. It appears 
 that, like every mind of ardent and undis- 
 ciplined feeling, he went through the usual 
 course of rapidly succeeding extremes and in- 
 consistent opinions. So powerful and vigorous 
 an intellect, however, soon subsided into ra- 
 tional and wise views of the principles of 
 human conduct, showing that, in proportion 
 to the difficulty of discovering truth, is the 
 usual estimation of its value. On the 13th of 
 April, as appears from his own hand- writing, 
 Marvell was again received at Trinity College, 
 and during the two following years, it seems 
 that he pursued his studies with unremitting 
 application, when his father's lamentable death 
 gave a new turn to his mind. 
 
 The Rev. Andrew Marvell, A.M. father of 
 the patriot, was born at Mildred, in Cam- 
 bridgeshire, in 1586. He was a student of 
 Emanuel College, in that University, where he 
 took his degree of Master of Arts, in 1608. 
 Afterwards, he was elected Master of the 
 Grammar School at Hull, and in 1624, Lec- 
 turer of Trinity Church in that town. " He 
 was a most excellent preacher," says Fuller, 
 " who, like a good husband, never broached 
 what he had new brewed, but preached what 
 he had studied some competent time before : 
 insomuch that he was wont to say, that he 
 would cross the common proverb, which called 
 4 Saturday the working day, and Monday the 
 holiday of preachers.' His excellent comment 
 on St. Peter" Fuller continues, u was then 
 daily desired and expected, if the envy and 
 
20 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 covetousness of private persons, for their own 
 use, deprive not the public of the benefit 
 thereof."* 
 
 Mr. Marvell greatly distinguished himself 
 during the plague in 1637, by a fearless per- 
 formance of his clerical duties, amid all the 
 grim horrors of that devastating period ; and 
 his Funeral Sermons are said to have been 
 most eloquent specimens of pathetic oratory. 
 
 In the year 1640 a melancholy accident put 
 an end to this good man's life, the particulars 
 of which are thus related : — 
 
 Opposite Kingston, lived a lady whose vir- 
 tue and good sense recommended her to the 
 esteem of Mr. Marvell, as his piety and under- 
 standing caused her to take particular notice of 
 him ; from this mutual approbation arose an 
 intimate acquaintance, which was soon im- 
 proved into a strict friendship. This lady had 
 an only daughter, whose duty, devotion, and 
 exemplary behaviour, had endeared her to all 
 who knew her, and rendered her the darling of 
 her mother; whose fondness for her arose to 
 such a height that she could scarcely bear her 
 temporary absence. Mr. Marvell, desiring to 
 perpetuate the friendship between the families, 
 requested the lady to allow her daughter to 
 come over to Kingston, to stand god-mother to 
 a child of his ; to which, out of her great regard 
 to him, she consented, though depriving herself 
 of her daughter's company for a longer space of 
 time than she would have agreed to on any 
 other consideration. The young lady went 
 
 * Fuller's Worthies, p, 159. 
 
ANDREW MAftVfcLt. 21 
 
 over to Kingston accordingly^ and the cere- 
 mony was performed. The next day when she 
 came down to the river side, in order to return 
 home, it being extremely rough, so as to render 
 the passage dangerous, the watermen earnestly 
 dissuaded her from any attempt to cross the 
 river that day. But she, who had never wil- 
 fully given her mother a moments uneasiness, 
 and knew how miserable she would be, insisted 
 on going, notwithstanding all that could be 
 urged by the watermen, or by Mr. Marvell, 
 who earnestly entreated her to return to his 
 house, and wait for better weather. Finding 
 her resolutely bent to venture her life rather 
 than disappoint a fond parent, he told her, as 
 she had brought herself into that perilous situ- 
 ation on his account, he thought himself obliged, 
 both in honour and conscience, to share the 
 danger with her ; and having, with difficulty, 
 persuaded some watermen to attempt the pass- 
 age, they got into the boat. Just as they put 
 off, Mr. Marvell threw his gold-headed cane 
 on shore, to some of his friends, w 7 ho attended 
 at the water-side, telling them, that as he 
 could not suffer the young lady to go alone, 
 and as he apprehended the consequence might 
 be fatal, if he perished, he desired them to give 
 that cane to his son, and bid him remember 
 his father. Thus armed with innocence, and 
 his fair charge with filial duty, they set forward 
 to meet their inevitable fate. The boat was 
 upset, and they were both lost. 
 
 Hartley Coleridge says, " We have seen the 
 circumstances of the elder Marvell's death some- 
 what differently related, and though the narra- 
 
22 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 live may not exactly accord with modern 
 theories, we shall give it for the benefit of those 
 who know — 
 
 " There are more things in heaven and earth, 
 Than are dreamt of in our philosophy." 
 
 According to this tradition, Mr. MarvelFs 
 apprehensions arose, not from the fears of 
 watermen, nor from the minacious murmurs of 
 the wind ; but from that prophetic presenti- 
 ment, that second sight of dissolution, which 
 like the shadow on the sun dial, points darkly 
 at the hour of departure. The morning was 
 clear, the breeze fair, and the company gay ; 
 when stepping into the boat the reverend man 
 exclaimed — " Ho for Heaven," so saying, threw 
 his staff ashore, and left it to Providence to ful- 
 fil its awful warning. Of course we ask nobody 
 to believe this unless he chooses, but we should 
 as readily believe it, upon sufficient evidence, 
 as any event in history. So many are the 
 similar cases on record, that he who would re- 
 ject them all, must be a person of indefatigable 
 incredulity. The prophetic warnings have oc- 
 curred to young and old, kings and rustics, 
 saints and sinners ; to Bentley, the orthodox ; 
 to Oliver Cromwell, the fanatic ; to Littleton, 
 the rake ; to Nelson, the hero ; and to Alex- 
 ander Stephens, the buffoon. 
 
 Thus perished Mr. Marvell, in the 54th 
 year of his age, a man eminent for virtue and 
 learning, universally lamented by his friends, 
 and the people of Hull in general. The son 
 gives this character of his father, in " The 
 Rehearsal Transprosed ;" — " He died before 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 23 
 
 the war broke out, having lived with some re- 
 putation both for piety and learning ; and was, 
 moreover, a conformist to the established rites 
 of the church of England ; though I confess 
 none of the most over running or eager in them." 
 
 It is said that the lady, the mother of the 
 person drowned, Mrs. Skinner, of Thornton 
 College, however, after her sorrow was some- 
 what abated, sent for young Mar veil, who 
 was then at Cambridge, and did what she could 
 towards supplying the loss he had sustained, 
 and at her decease left him all that she pos- 
 sessed. 
 
 Whether Marvell went down to Hull to 
 take possession of the small fortune his father 
 had left him, and by possessing it, grew negli- 
 gent of his studies, is uncertain ; but it appears 
 that he, and four other students had absented 
 themselves from their exercises, and been guilty 
 of other indiscretions ; which made the Masters 
 and Seniors come to a resolution to refuse them 
 the benefits of the College. 
 
 These particulars are made clear by the fol- 
 lowing extract and letter from the learned Dr. 
 Michael Lort, of Cambridge. 
 
 i( In the addition book of scholars of Trinity College, 
 Cambridge, is this entry, p. 266. 13 of April, 163$. An- 
 dreas Marvell juratus et admissus. 
 
 "In the old conclusion book, p. 169. Sept. 24th, 1641. 
 It is agreed by the master and seniors, that Mr. Carter, 
 Dominus Wakefield, Dominus Marvel, Dominus Water- 
 house, and Dominus Maye*, in regard that some of them 
 are reported to be married, and the others look not .after 
 
 * Who afterwards translated Lucan. 
 
24 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 their dayes nor acts, shall receive no more benefit of the 
 college, and shall be out of their places, unless they shew 
 just cause to the college for the contrary in three months.' ' 
 
 Trinity College, Cambridge, Nov. 25, 1765, 
 
 Sir, — " After long search in some of the old books be- 
 longing to the college, I find the above particulars con- 
 cerning Andrew Marvell, and those only. 
 
 " On what authority the writer of his life in the General 
 Dictionary, quotes the college register for the date of his 
 admission into the college in 1633, I know not, since the 
 earliest register I can find of such admission, begins in 1635. 
 
 " Of the admission of fellows and scholars on the foun- 
 dation, we have a register from the beginning ; and from 
 that I have extracted the first quotation above, which is 
 written in Marvell's own hand, and which I have endea- 
 voured to imitate as near as I could. 
 
 "The second will explain the charge brought against 
 him by Parker, and take off any reflection on his character, 
 if such was intended thereby, for I have not seen Parker's 
 charge. From this extract it appears only that Marvell 
 was expelled for non-residence, then much more strictly 
 enjoined than it is now. The days mentioned therein, 
 being the certain number allowed by statute in the year to 
 absentees ; and the acts means the exercises enjoyned also 
 by the statutes to be performed. 
 
 iC It does not appear by any subsequent entry, whether 
 Marvell did, or did not, comply with this order. 
 
 " I wish this account may come time enough for the 
 purpose you wanted it : why it did not sooner, is of no 
 great consequence now to mention. If at any time you, 
 or any of your friends, should have any enquiries to make 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 25 
 
 that I maybe able to satisfy, I beg you will freely com- 
 mand, 
 
 " Sir, 
 " Your most obedient and most faithful servant, 
 
 "MICHAEL LORT."* 
 
 From the circumstance of this collegia! re- 
 cord, we may infer that young Marvell left 
 Cambridge about 1642, as we do not find that 
 he ever attempted to vindicate himself against 
 the charge. After this we presume he com- 
 menced his travels through the most polite 
 parts of Europe. It appears he was at Rome, 
 from his Poem entitled, " Flecnoe, an English 
 Priest," in which, though it be written in a 
 slovenly metre, he describes, with great humour 
 and satire, that wretched Poet, Richard Flec- 
 noe, who, as Dryden expresses it, — 
 
 " In prose and verse was owned without dispute, 
 Through all the realms of nonsense, absolute. 
 Whose brows, thick fogs, instead of glories grace, 
 And lambent dulness plays around his face." 
 
 It is probable that, during this excursion 
 into Italy, Marvell made his first acquaintance 
 with the immortal John Milton, who was at 
 that time abroad. They met in Rome, and 
 associated together, where they publicly argued 
 against the superstitions of the Romish Church, 
 even within the verge of the Vatican. It is 
 thought by many, that Milton's great poem 
 would have remained longer in obscurity, had 
 
 * The above letter is quoted from Captain Thompson'* 
 Edition of Marvell' s Life and Works. 
 
26 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 it not been for Marvell, and Dr. Samuel Bar- 
 row, a Physician, who wrote it into favour, 
 Marvell's poem, first prefixed to the second 
 edition of Paradise Lost, is as reputable to his 
 judgment and poetic talents, as to his friendship. 
 
 Dr. Johnson endeavours to imagine what 
 were the feelings and reflections of Milton 
 during the composition of Paradise Lost. His 
 conceptions and language on this subject we 
 have often admired : — " Fancy, " says he, u can 
 hardly forbear to conjecture with what temper 
 Milton surveyed the silent progress of his work, 
 and marked its reputation stealing its way in 
 a kind of subterraneous current through fear 
 and silence. I cannot but conceive him calm 
 and confident, little disappointed, not at all 
 dejected, relying on his own merit with steady 
 consciousness, and waiting without impatience 
 the vicissitudes of opinion, and the impartiality 
 of a future generation/' 
 
 When Marvell arrived in Paris, on his 
 return to England, he had an opportunity of 
 exercising his wit on one Lancelot Joseph de 
 Maniban, a whimsical Abbe, who pretended 
 to enter into the qualities of those he had 
 never seen, and to foretell their good or bad 
 fortune by their hand-writing * This ridicu- 
 
 * D" Israeli, in his " Curiosities of Literature, Second 
 Series" has two interesting chapters on Autographs and 
 Hand- writing, from which we give the following extract : — 
 
 " The art of judging of the characters of persons by 
 their writing can only have any reality when the pen, 
 acting without constraint, may become an instrument 
 guided by, and indicative of, the natural dispositions. But 
 regulated, as the pen is too often, by a mechanical process, 
 
ANDREW MAEVELL. 27 
 
 lous prognosticates received a severe lashing 
 from Marvell in a Poem written in Latin, and 
 addressed to him. 
 
 After this, we have no information respect- 
 ing Marvel], till the year J 652, a space of 
 eleven years. To fill up this interval, some of 
 his Biographers have sent him to Constantinople, 
 and made him secretary to an ambassy, though 
 during the Commonwealth it does not appear 
 there was any minister in Turkey. It is pro- 
 
 which the present race of writing-masters seem to have 
 contrived for their own convenience, a whole school ex- 
 hibits a similar hand-writing. The pupils are forced, in 
 their automatic motions, as if acted on by the pressure of 
 a steam-engine. A bevy of beauties will now write such 
 fac-similes of each other, that, in a heap of letters 
 presented to the most sharp-sighted lover, to select that 
 of his mistress — though like Bassanio among the caskets, 
 his happiness should be risked on the choice — he w T ould 
 despair of fixing on the right one, all appearing to have 
 come from the same rolling press. Even brothers of dif- 
 ferent tempers have been taught by the same master to 
 give the same form to their letters, the same regularity to 
 their line, and have made our hand-writings as monotonous 
 as are our characters in the present state of society. The 
 true physiognomy of writing will be lost among our rising 
 generation ; it is no longer a face that we are looking on, 
 but a beautiful mask of a single pattern ; and the fashion- 
 able hand- writing of our young ladies is like the former, 
 tight-lacing of their mothers' youthful days, when every 
 one alike had what was supposed to be a fine shape ! 
 
 " Assuredly, Nature would prompt every individual to 
 have a distinct sort of writing, as she has given a counte- 
 nance, a voice, and a manner. The flexibility of the 
 muscles differs with every individual, and the hand will 
 follow the direction of the thoughts, and the emotions, 
 and the habits of the writers. The phlegmatic will por- 
 tray his words, while the playful haste of the volatile will 
 scarcely sketch them ; the slovenly will blot, and efface, 
 and scrawl ; while the neat and orderly minded will view 
 
28 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 bable the mistake has arisen from the fact of 
 Marvell afterwards attending Lord Carlisle 
 in that capacity to Petersburgh. 
 
 When we consider the splendid talents pos- 
 sessed by Marvell, we have reason to lament 
 that we know so little of him during this 
 period, especially when we reflect on his active 
 turn of mind, and the acuteness of his percep- 
 tion. His observations and reflections on men 
 and manners would have been inestimable. 
 
 themselves in the paper before their eyes. The merchant's 
 clerk will not write like the lawyer or the poet. Even 
 nations are distinguished by their writing : the variableness 
 of the Frenchman, and the delicacy and suppleness of the 
 Italian, are perceptibly distinct from the slowness and 
 strength of the pen discoverable in the phlegmatic German, 
 Dane, and Swede. When we are in grief, we do not 
 write as we should in joy. The elegant and correct mind 
 which has acquired the fortunate habit of a fixity of at- 
 tention, will write with scarcely an erasure on the page, 
 as Fenelon, and Gray, and Gibbon; while we find in 
 Pope's manuscripts the perpetual struggles of correction, 
 and the eager and rapid interlineations struck off in heat. 
 Lavater's notion of hand-writing is by no means chimeri- 
 cal : nor was General Paoli fanciful, when he told Mr. 
 Northcote that he had decided on the character and dis- 
 position of a man from his letters and hand-writing. 
 
 " Long before the days of Lavater — Shenstone, in one 
 of his letters, said ' I want to see Mrs. Jago's hand- writing, 
 that I may judge of her temper.' One great truth must, 
 however, be conceded to the opponents of the physiognomy 
 of writing ; general rules can be laid down. Yet the vital 
 principle must be true, that the hand-writing bears an 
 analogy to the character of the writer, as all voluntary 
 actions are characteristic of the individual. But many 
 causes operate to counteract or obstruct this result. 
 
 " Oldys, in one of his curious notes, was struck by the 
 distinctness of character in the hand- writing of several of 
 Our kings." 
 
 Hartley Colericfge also remarks : — " The race of the 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 29 
 
 It appears from the following letter, written 
 at the commencement of the year 1652, by 
 Milton to Bradshaiee, on behalf of Marvell, 
 that he was an unsuccessful candidate for the 
 office of Latin Secretary. By this application 
 of Milton he no doubt owed his subsequent 
 introduction into that office. The letter is 
 endorsed for " The honourable the Lord Brad- 
 shawe :" — 
 
 Manibans is by no means extinct ; and however futile may 
 be the pretence to prognosticate the contingencies of a life, 
 from the curves and angles of an autograph, we do most 
 seriously maintain, that a diagnosis of a character may be 
 derived from the physiognomy of a manuscript. The 
 goodness or badness of the writing has nothing to do with 
 the question ; neither is the expression of a countenance 
 dependent upon its beauty or homeliness. Indeed, Cali- 
 graphy, as practiced by masters, and taught to young 
 ladies, in six lessons, is a species of dissimulation, intended, 
 like the Client erfieldian politeness of a courtier, to conceal 
 the workings of thought and feeling — to substitute the 
 cold, slippery, polished opacity of a frozen pool, for the 
 ripple and transparency of a flowing brook. But into 
 every habitual act, which is performed unconsciously, 
 earnestly, or naturally, something of the mood of the 
 moment, and something of the predominant habit of the 
 mind unavoidably passes : — the play of the features, the 
 motions of the limbs, the paces, the tones, the very folds 
 of the drapery (especially if it have long been worn), are 
 all significant. A mild, considerate man, hangs up his 
 hat in a very different style from a stern and determined 
 one. A Dissenter does not shake hands like a High- 
 churchman. But there is no act into which the character 
 enters more fully, than into that of writing; for it is 
 generally performed alone or unobserved ; seldom is it, in 
 adults, the object of attention ; and takes place while 
 the thoughts, and the natural current of feeling, are in 
 full operation." 
 
SO ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 "My Lord, — 
 
 "'But that it would be an interruption to the public, 
 wherein your studies are perpetually employed, I should 
 now or then venture to supply this my enforced absence 
 with a line or two, though it were onely my business, and 
 that would be noe slight one, to make my due acknow- 
 ledgments of your many favoures ; which I both doe at 
 this time, and ever shall ; and have this farder, which I 
 thought my parte to let you know of that there will be 
 with you to-morrow, upon some occasion of business, a 
 gentleman whose name is Mr. Marvile; a man whom, both 
 by report, and the converse I have had with him, of sin- 
 gular desert for the state to make use of ; who alsoe offers 
 himselfe, if there be any imployment for him. His father 
 was the Minister of Hull ; and he hath spent four years 
 abroad, in Holland, France, Italy, and Spaine, to very good 
 purpose, as I believe, and the gaineing of those four lan- 
 guages ; besides, he is a sch oiler, and well read in the 
 Latin and Greek authors ; and no doubt of an approved 
 conversation, for he comes now lately out of the house of 
 the Lord Fairfax, who was Generall, where he was intrusted 
 to give some instructions in the Languages to the Lady his 
 daughter. If upon the death of Mr. Weckherlyn, the 
 Councell shall think that I shall need any assistance in the 
 performance of my place (though for my part I find no en- 
 cumbrances of that which belongs to me, except it be in 
 point of attendance at Conferences with Ambassadors, 
 which I must confess, in my condition, I am not fit for), it 
 would be hard for them to find a man soe fit every way for 
 that purpose as this gentleman ; one who I believe, in a 
 short time, would be able to doe them as much service as 
 Mr. Ascan. This, nry Lord, I write sincerely, without any 
 other end than to perform my duety to the public, in 
 helping them to an humble servant; laying aside those 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. SI 
 
 jealousies, and that emulation, which mine own condition 
 might suggest to me, by bringing in such a coadjutor; and 
 remaine, 
 
 " My Lord, 
 u Your most obliged, and faithful Servant, 
 
 u John Milton." 
 *< Feb. 21, 1652." 
 
 In 1 653, Marvell was appointed by Crom- 
 well to be tutor to his nephew, a Mr. Dutton, 
 as appears from the following letter : — 
 
 ' * May it please youb Excellence, — 
 *' It might, perhaps, seem fit for me to seek out words 
 to give your Excellence thanks for myself. But, indeed, 
 the only civility which it is proper for me to practice with 
 so eminent a person, is to obey you, and to perform honestly 
 the work that you have set me about. Therefore I shall 
 use the time that your Lordship is pleased to allow me for 
 writing, not onely for that purpose for which you have 
 given me it; that is to render you an account of Mr. Duttoru 
 I have taken care to examine him several times in the pr e 
 sence of Mr. Oxenbridge;* as those who weigh and tell 
 
 * John Oxenbridge, M.A., was born at Daventry, in 
 Northamptonshire, January 30, 1608. He took his degree 
 in 1631, and the following year began publicly to preach 
 the gospel. After two voyages to the Bermudas he 
 returned to England, and settled as pastor to a Church at 
 Beverley, in Yorkshire, in 1664. After his ejectment from 
 Eton College, Dr. Calamy says, u he went to Berwick- 
 upon-Tweed, where he resided till silenced by the Bar- 
 tholomew Act. He then went to Surinam, in South Ame- 
 rica, and from thence, in 1667, to Barbadoes. In 1669, he 
 went to New England, where he succeeded Mr. Davenport, 
 as pastor in the first Church at Boston, and there he died 
 suddenly, December 28, 1674, being seized with apoplexy 
 towards the close of a Sermon, which he was preaching at 
 the Boston Lecture." 
 
82 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 over money before some witness ere they take charge of 
 it ; for I thought that there might be some lightness in the 
 coyn, or errour in the telling, which hereafter I should be 
 bound to make good. Therefore, Mr. Oxenbridge is the 
 best to make your Excellency an impartial relation thereof : 
 I shall only say, that I shall strife according to my best 
 understanding (that is, according to those rules your Lord- 
 ship hath given me,) to increase whatsoever talent he may 
 have already. Truly, he is of gentle and waxen dispo- 
 sition ; and, God be praised, I cannot say he hath brought 
 with him any evil impression; and 1 shall hope to set 
 nothing into his spirit but what may be of a good sculp- 
 ture. He hath in him two things that make youth most 
 easy to be managed, — modesty, which is the bridle to vice; 
 and emulation, which is the spur to virtue. And the care 
 which your Excellence is pleased to take of him, is no 
 small encouragement, and shall be so represented to him ; 
 but, above all, I shall labour to make him sensible of his 
 duty to God ; for then we begin to serve faithfully, when 
 we consider he is our master. And in this, both he and I 
 owe infinitely to your lordship, for having placed us in so 
 godly a family as that of Mr. Oxenbridge, whose doctrine 
 and example are like a book and a map, not only instruct- 
 ng the ear, but demonstrating to the eye, which way we 
 ought to travell; and Mrs. Oxenbridge has looked so well to 
 him, that he hath already much mended his complexion ; 
 and now she is ordering his chamber, that he may delight 
 to be in it as often as his studys require. For the rest, 
 most of this time has been spent in acquainting ourselves 
 with him ; and truly he is chearfull, and I hope thinks us 
 to be good company. I shall, upon occasion, henceforward 
 inform your Excellence of any particularities in our little 
 affairs, for so I esteem it to be my duty. I have no more 
 at present, but to give thanks to God for your lord- 
 
ANDREW MAKVELL. 33 
 
 ship, and to beg grace of him, that I may approve my- 
 self, 
 
 " Your Excellency's 
 " Most humble and faithful Servant, 
 
 " Andrew Marvell," 
 " Windsor, July 2Sth, 1653.' , 
 
 u Mr. Dutton presents his most humble service to 
 your Excellence." 
 
 It appears, that when Milton's " Second De- 
 fence" was published, it was presented to the 
 Protector by Marvel], whose Letter to Milton 
 we here insert : — 
 
 "Honoured Sir, 
 " I did not satisfy myself in the account I gave you of 
 presenting your book to my Lord ; although it seemed to 
 me that I wrote to you all which the messenger's speedy 
 return the same night would permit me : and I perceive 
 that, by reason of that haste, I did not give you satisfac- 
 tion, neither concerning the delivery of your letter at the 
 same time. Be pleased, therefore, to pardon me, and 
 know I tendered them both together. But my Lord read 
 not the letter while I was with him ; which I attributed to 
 our dispatch, and some other business tending thereto, 
 which I therefore wished ill to, so far as it hindered an 
 affair much better, and of greater importance — I mean 
 that of reading your letter. And to tell you truly mine 
 own imagination, I thought that he would not open it 
 while I was there, because he might suspect that I, deli- 
 vering it just upon my departure, might have brought in 
 it some second proposition, like to that which you had 
 before made to him, by your letter, to my advantage. 
 
 c 2 
 
34 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 However, I assure myself that he has since read it with 
 much satisfaction. 
 
 "Mr. Oxenbridge, on his return from London, will, I 
 know, give you thanks for his book, as I do with all 
 acknowledgment and humility, for that you have sent me. 
 I shall now study it, even to getting it by heart. When I 
 consider how equally it turns and rises, with so many 
 figures, it seems to me a Trajan's Column, in whose wind- 
 ing ascent we see embossed the several monuments of 
 your victories ; and Salmasius and Morus make up as 
 great a triumph as that of Decebalus ; whom, too, for 
 ought I know, you shall have forced, as Trajan the other, 
 to make themselves a way, out of a just desperation. 
 
 " I have an affectionate curiosity to know what becomes 
 of Colonel Overton's business, and am exceeding glad to 
 think that Mr. Skinner has got near you : the happiness 
 which I at the same time congratulate to him, and envy, 
 there being none who doth, if I may so say, more jealously 
 honour you than, 
 
 " Honoured Sir, 
 " Your most affectionate humble servant, 
 
 u Eton, June 2, 1654. Andrew Marvell." 
 
 " For my most honoured friend, John Milton, Esq., 
 " Secretary for Foreign Affairs, 
 At his house in Petty France, Westminster." 
 
 In 1657, Marvell was appointed Assistant 
 Latin Secretary to the Protector, with Milton.* 
 
 * Mr. Horace Smith, in his interesting Novel of "Bram- 
 bletye House," alludes to Milton and Marvell's association 
 as Latin Secretaries : — "At the upper end, before a desk, 
 on which were several folio volumes, two gentlemen were 
 seated, one of whom was writing from the dictation of his 
 companion. The latter, who was rather below the middle 
 size, wearing his light brown hair parted at the foretop, 
 
ANDREW MARVELL* 35 
 
 From the death of Cromwell we have no further 
 account of him, till the Parliament .of 1660. — 
 Notwithstanding his punctuality in writing by 
 every post, concerning the business of Parlia- 
 ment, no letters to the Corporation of Hull re- 
 main of an earlier date than November 17th, 
 that year. Perhaps his previous letters might 
 have been given up to him, or destroyed at his 
 request, upon the Restoration, when affairs put 
 on a very different appearance. 
 
 In 1660, Marvell came forward in his patri- 
 otic and parliamentary character. There is 
 not one action of his parliamentary life that 
 deserves censure : the part he took was honour- 
 able to himself, and useful to his country ; and 
 though virtue is often successfully invaded 
 by flattery, he maintained his sincerity unse- 
 duced, when truth and chastity were crimes in 
 the lewd circle of Charles's court. 
 
 << Tempt not, he said, and stood ; 
 
 But Satan, smitten with amazement, fell." 
 
 and hanging down on either side of his singularly comely 
 and majestic countenance, took not the smallest notice of 
 them as they passed, but continued dictating. His ama- 
 nuensis, a strong set figure, with. a round face, cherry 
 cheeks, hazel eyes, and brown hair, bowed to them with a 
 cheerful smile, as they walked through into an inner 
 apartment, but did not speak. These were the immortal 
 John Milton, Latin Secretary to the Protector, and the 
 scarcely less illustrious Andrew Marvell, recently ap- 
 pointed his Assistant ; men w r orthy to sit enthroned in 
 that costly library, and to be surrounded by the great and 
 kindred intellect of the world ; men who have become the 
 heirs of never-dying fame, while with one or two excep- 
 tions, the crowd of nobles and grandees that thronged the 
 adjoining saloon, passed rapidly away into irredeemable 
 oblivion." 
 
86 ANDREW MAliVELL. 
 
 Our design, in this chapter, is to condense 
 into as brief a space as possible, the events in 
 the life of our hero. — like most men whose life 
 although passed in the service of their country, 
 yet has passed in silence. The life of Marvell 
 does not abound in adventure or anecdote — it 
 appears mostly as the life of a recluse — a her- 
 mit, living in senates and in cities. He pro- 
 bably was a cheerful companion ; but we con- 
 ceive him on the whole most quiet and reserved. 
 He would open his heart very freely to his 
 friend Eamsden, and perhaps one or two 
 others : but it was only in the very innermost 
 circle of his friendships that his soul was allow- 
 ed to be seen, His life strikingly reminds us 
 of the Lives of Plutarch. Remembered by 
 one or two anecdotal illustrations of character 
 — of two or three fine and lofty sentiments — it 
 appears as if the whole life was distilled into 
 those two or three illustrations. He has been 
 called the " British Aristides ;" and all that is 
 on record of the Great Worthy of Greece, we 
 could conceive of Marvell. He was in a word 
 religiously just, inexorably incorruptible : he 
 was fitted to perceive excellence in ail the men 
 and the movements of his times. He was not 
 in any thing ultra. He saw the falsehood of 
 extremes : he saw plainly the wants of England 
 — the curses and the miseries of England ; and 
 the whole actions of his life appear to be the 
 result of a large and catholic tone. 
 
37 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE MEMBER FOU HULL. 
 
 It has appeared to us, in reading the History 
 of Hull, somewhat remarkable to find Mar veil 
 continuing tKrough a long course of years a 
 member, .for Hull was a very loyal city ; and 
 when the Restoration took place, the Corpora- 
 tion, with all becoming servility, hastened to 
 redeem themselves from any disgrace attaching 
 to them from their having regarded the reign 
 of Cromwell with too favourable an eye. As 
 the addresses to Cromwell and to Charles II. 
 illustrate the conscience of the period, they 
 may be appropriately quoted here. On the day 
 Cromwell was proclaimed Lord Protector, he 
 was addressed by the mayor and corporation as 
 follows : — 
 
 u The dutiful Address of the Mayor and Bur- 
 gesses of Kingston-upon-Hull, to his Highness 
 the Lord Protector of the Commonwealth of 
 England, Scotland, and Ireland, and of all 
 the Dominions thereunto belonging. 
 
 " The only wise and wonder-working God, 
 
38 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 having wrought in these nations of late, won- 
 ders if not miracles, has kept us in the bush in 
 the midst of the fire from being consumed, 
 carried us through the sea as on dry land ; and 
 through our murmurings and rebellions provoked 
 God, after we thought that we had been deli- 
 vered from Egypt, to bring us into a trouble- 
 some wilderness; yet we hope that God is 
 ~ again giving us a sight of that good land : — as 
 iwe are bound to desire, to tender up ourselves 
 / in all praise, unto this great and good God ; so 
 K I we thankfully acknowledge, that as God made 
 \J use of Moses, Joshua, Zerubabel, and others, 
 in bringing his people out of Egypt and Baby- 
 lon, so God has honoured your highness to be a 
 glorious instrument, not only of wonderful vic- 
 tories and a quiet settlement in a great measure 
 by land, but also now when our waters are 
 turned into blood, we hope you will be equally 
 instrumental in procuring for us a safe, happy, 
 and settled peace by sea. 
 
 " And as this poor town, which God has 
 made a refuge and a Zoar for many of his poor 
 servants and saints, when all the northern parts 
 were in a flame, preserved it wonderfully from 
 treachery within, and dangers without, and 
 made it instrumental in some measure for 
 breaking the enemy, and safety of the public, 
 has infinite cause to be thankful to our God ; so 
 do we bless Him for the abundant favours 
 vouchsafed to your highness, and to those 
 nations and peoples through you. — We do 
 humbly acknowledge our satisfaction in your 
 highness's government over us, and our humble 
 submission thereunto, assuring your highness 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 39 
 
 that it will be our daily prayer to Almighty 
 God, that he will bestow upon your highness a 
 Benjamin's portion of grace and wisdom, for 
 the discharge of that great work which both 
 God and we expect from you ; not doubting 
 but that, upon our seasonable addresses, the 
 beams of your highness's love will so far reflect 
 upon this corporation, as that our ancient char- 
 ters and immunities may not only be continued, 
 but upon due consideration enlarged by your 
 gracious favour, of which we have no cause to 
 doubt or despair, seeing that since your accept- 
 ance of the protection and government of the 
 nations, your highnesses time has been taken up 
 in seeking peace, and causing justice and law to 
 be equally administered. 
 
 " We already begin to experience the benefit 
 of your wise and equable administration, by 
 the near prospect we have of having the ports 
 and havens, which have been long bound, and 
 in a manner shut up, open again to the amity 
 and traffic of and with our neighbours. We, 
 therefore, hold ourselves bound by every tie of 
 gratitude, humbly to acknowledge our thank- 
 fulness to God, in whose guidings are the 
 hearts of princes, that He has made you the 
 ruler over us, and has given you the spirit and 
 wisdom to go in and out before so great a 
 people. In due consideration of all which, it 
 shall be our constant resolution (in all fidelity, 
 humility, and cheerfulness,) to submit our- 
 selves to the government of your highness, as a 
 person whom God has set over us, and do pro- 
 mise always to answer your protection with 
 loyalty and subjection. " 
 
40 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 When Cromwell was dead, and Charles II. 
 restored, the Mayor and Corporation prepared 
 " a dutiful address," and presented it to the 
 king. In this curious composition they said — 
 
 " With what repugnancy and unspeakable 
 sorrow they saw, (as the prologue to the late 
 calamities of this nation) that sad and shame- 
 ful spectacle, when his Majesty's royal father, 
 of most glorious memory, and your royal self 
 stood under their walls, and could not obtain 
 admission ; and that it was with no less ex- 
 treme of joy they did now run out with the 
 rest of his Majesty's people, to congratulate his 
 Majesty's happy return to his kingdoms, and 
 to the full and peaceable exercise of his govern- 
 ment. — That their former rudeness and inhu- 
 manity, so fatal in its consequences, could never 
 have happened in a town so loyal and obliged 
 to its princes, had the inhabitants been their 
 own garrison ; or had they not by an armed 
 power been forced about, from that point of 
 obedience to which their affections naturally 
 tended. 
 
 tc They would not, however," they added, 
 "further revive those things which his majesty 
 had, out of his abundant goodness, graciously 
 pleased to forget, he having, by the example 
 and last advice of his blessed father, drunk so 
 deep of the river Lethe that he had thereby 
 become invulnerable in every limb of his blessed 
 person and authority." They blessed God, too, 
 " that after so many afflictions, he had restored 
 him to his people with such a mind, and, in 
 his majesty's clemency, had given them an 
 earnest of his own mercy, and that nothing 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 41 
 
 now could be expected but that this mutual 
 love and confidence between his majesty and 
 his people would be perpetual, seeing that they 
 had suffered so much, one for the other, for so 
 many years before they could come together, 
 and close the unhappy breaches which had so 
 long divided them. The happy effects of the 
 change," they said, " were already diffused 
 through the whole nation. That traffic, trade, 
 love, honesty, humanity, and civility grew up 
 and increased every day more and more amongst 
 .them. Justice was promoted, vice and profane- 
 ness discountenanced, magistracy and ministry 
 encouraged, and those various insects procreated 
 out of the corruption of religion kicked down 
 into the nastiness from which they sprung ; 
 that this was a work of so great importance, 
 that God reserved it for himself, and would not 
 communicate the honour of restoring his ma- 
 jesty to any means less than his own, who had 
 led, fed, and preserved him for twelve years." 
 
 These two compositions stand in very re- 
 markable contrast to each other. In addition 
 to this dutiful address, the effigy of Cromwell 
 was hung on a gallows, and then taken down, 
 thrown into a tar-barrel, and burnt ; but it is 
 especially singular that a town, so remarkable 
 in the display of its loyalty, should elect for its 
 member one of the secretaries of this very Crom- 
 well, and that he should retain a place in their 
 confidence for so many years. 
 
 Probably the secret springs of his election 
 are not known to us ; perhaps the burgesses of 
 Hull were more independent than its alder- 
 men. Certain it is, that the disgrace of having 
 
42 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 been an inmate of the palace of the Protector 
 was not sufficient to exclude him from the 
 House of Commons, as the representative of 
 Hull. This post has become now a remark- 
 able one. It is probable that he was the last 
 member who received pay from his constituents. 
 Zealously he guarded their interests through 
 the lengthy period of his membership. He 
 maintained a constant correspondence with the 
 leading persons, assuring them of his devotion 
 to their interests, and sedulous attention to all 
 the matters of state policy. At that time this i 
 was most necessary, for newspapers were scarce, 
 and not to be trusted. This chapter will be 
 mostly composed of extracts from those letters 
 to the corporation of Hull. They are worthy 
 of being studied by modern members, as speci- 
 mens of rigid watchfulness, and parliamentary 
 courtesy. They also curiously illustrate the 
 history of the time. 
 
 The character of Marvell as a statesman is 
 worthy of study. The house in which he sat 
 was the most corrupt ever assembled to guide 
 the destinies of England ; but he was quite 
 uncontaminated — the highest principles ruled 
 and shone forth in his whole career. 
 
 The first Parliament before the Restoration 
 met upon the 25th of April, 1660, in which 
 Marvell gave an early attendance, though the 
 first letter that appears to his constituents is in 
 November following, wherein he laments the 
 absence of his partner, Mr. John Ramsden, and 
 tells them he " writes with but half a pen, 
 which makes his account of public affairs so 
 imperfect ; and yet he had rather expose his 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 43 
 
 own defects to their good interpretation, than 
 excuse thereby a total neglect of his duty." — 
 In the same letter he takes an opportunity to 
 pay a pleasing compliment to the ladies of Hull, 
 upon their conjugal virtue. 
 
 Confiding in the organised valour of the 
 English nation, and in the capacity of discip- 
 line which exists in every people, he once and 
 for ever opposed a standing army, a species of 
 force which, had Charles the First possessed, 
 he might have been as despotic as he would ; 
 which Cromwell possessing, kept the realm at 
 nurse for a Prince, who, with similar powers, 
 would do and undo more than the worst of his 
 legitimate or illegitimate predecessors. The 
 purpose of the Puritans was to turn the whole 
 blessed island into a Presbyterian Paradise, in 
 which there was to be nothing but churches, 
 and church-yards ; — one to be filled with the 
 living bodies of the saints, and the other with 
 the hanged carcases of their adversaries. The 
 apostate Royalists of the Restoration would 
 have made England a bear-garden, in which all 
 vices w T ere free, and from which nothing but 
 piety was exiled. Marvell had seen a standing 
 army, composed of more respectable materials 
 than could easily be replaced, the instrument 
 of one tyranny ; and most wisely he opposed 
 its continuance, when the same mass, compacted 
 of baser atoms, might perpetuate a tyranny far 
 worse than that which it succeeded. He con- 
 ceived an army to be a giant body without a 
 directing soul, — a house to let, in which the 
 long-houseless demon of despotism might live 
 at a nominal rent. — But hear what Marvell 
 
44 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 said, nigh two hundred years ago : — " I doubt 
 not, ere we rise, to see the whole army disbanded; 
 and, according to the act, hope to see your town 
 once more ungarrisoned, in which I should be 
 glad and happy to be instrumental to the utter- 
 most ; for I cannot but remember, though then 
 a child, those blessed days, when the youth of 
 our own town were trained for the militia, and 
 did, methought, become their arms much better 
 than any soldiers that I have seen since." He 
 saw with a clear and discerning eye, the mis- 
 chief of that many-headed monster, the Excise; 
 for when the proposition was started for a 
 longer continuance of that bill, he prophetically 
 added, u I wish it prove not too long.'" 
 
 In glancing over the position of Marvell in 
 the Commons, we cannot fail to notice the 
 striking contrast of his character to that of 
 most men who have legislated in England. It 
 has been the curse of England to be governed 
 by corrupt statesmen ; indeed corrupt citizens 
 are only capable of producing corrupt states- 
 men ; far back into the most hoary and distant 
 ages we find corrupt ministers the ruling powers, 
 — Laussane under William the Conqueror ; 
 Becket under Henry II., Suffolk under Ed- 
 ward I., De Spencers under Edward II., and 
 Warwick under or over all the princes of his 
 time. Wolsey attained his lofty chair of 
 power by corruption ; corruption was the great 
 blot upon the Somersets, the Northumberlands, 
 and the Suffolks of the time of Edward VI. ; 
 and the throne of Elizabeth was girt by men 
 uncompromising only in their tergiversation. 
 Walsingham was steeped in it ; Cecil was not 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 45 
 
 unstained by it. But shall it be said of the 
 whole line of the Stuarts, — if ever corruption 
 reached its height, it was beneath their rule ; 
 every monarch revelled in it ; the taste and 
 moral character of that ill-fated race led them 
 to choose the corrupt in preference to the can- 
 did ; all the kings of that line loved a dark 
 and hidden policy ; they preferred the tortuous 
 line of bribery ; not one of the kings could love 
 or accept an immaculate or pure-minded ad- 
 viser, — until at last in the age of Charles II. 
 we find the throne and the cabinet surrounded 
 and filled by men, specimens certainly of hu- 
 manity in the last extreme of its degradation. 
 In the age of Marvell it was pre-eminently 
 the fashion to believe that every man had his 
 price. — A curious study is furnished by the 
 portraits of those statesmen — those handsome 
 sinners — those fashionable hypocrites — those 
 men with the smooth brow and the false heart, 
 — plotting and counter-plotting against each 
 other; it is a melancholy picture wherever we 
 turn the eye ; Chesterfields and Churchills, 
 Clarendons and Hali faxes, — these and the men 
 of a later period all belonged to the same great 
 age of poltroonery, cowardice, trickery, char- 
 latanism, — and, in a w T ord, corruption, from the 
 king on the throne down through the cabinet 
 and privy councils, the upper and lower House. 
 The kingdom was governed by pimps and ad- 
 venturers — licentious men, who believed that 
 honour and virtue never had existence, and in 
 their own persons ignored their existence alto- 
 gether — who gave themselves wholly over to 
 the most disgusting and degrading vices, and 
 
46 ANDREW MA11VELL, 
 
 used their power only as so many means to the 
 pandering to their vices ; if ever the shadow of 
 virtue crossed their path, they were prepared to 
 pay a large sum to make it theirs — to buy it 
 over to the purposes of vice. Sometimes, in- 
 deed, they found themselves defeated, and were 
 compelled to admit that virtue had some real 
 existence, and such as we shall see in the 
 instance of the noble subject of our memoir. 
 
 We cannot find, however, by any writings, 
 that he ever spoke in Parliament : the journals 
 of that time make no mention of such speeches ; 
 but by his own account, he always took notes of 
 what passed ; and by his indefatigable conduct 
 otherwise, he obtained a great ascendancy over 
 the minds of the members. He preserved the 
 respect of the Court, even when he was most 
 determined in his hostility to its measures. The 
 good sense of Prince Rupert was conspicuous 
 in making him his friend ; for when Marvell's 
 name became the hatred of the Court party, and 
 it was dangerous for him to appear abroad. 
 Prince Rupert would go privately to his lodg- 
 ings ; so that, whenever his Royal Highness 
 voted on the side of Marvell, which he often 
 did, it was the observation of the adverse fac- 
 tion, u that he had been with his tutor" 
 
 The severe tracts which he was frequently 
 publishing against the profligate Court, and the 
 inflammatory literary fight which he had with 
 Parker and others, often made his life in dan- 
 ger ; but no bribes, no offers of situation, could 
 make him swerve from the virtuous path in which 
 he continued to walk invariably to the last.— 
 A man of such excellent parts, and facetious 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 47 
 
 converse, as Marvell, could not be unknown to 
 Charles II., who loved the company of wits so 
 much, that he would suffer the severest jokes, 
 even upon himself, rather than not enjoy them. 
 Marvell having been once honoured with an 
 evenings entertainment by his majesty, the 
 latter was so charmed with the ease of his man- 
 ners, the soundness of his judgment, and the 
 keenness of his wit, that the following morning, 
 to show him his regard, he sent the Lord 
 Treasurer Danby to wait upon him with a par- 
 ticular message. His lordship, with some diffi- 
 culty, found Marvell's elevated retreat, on the 
 second floor, in a court near the Strand. Lord 
 Danby, from the darkness of the staircase, 
 and its narrowness, abruptly burst open the 
 door, and suddenly entered the room, in which 
 he found Marvell writing. Astonished at the 
 sight of so noble and unexpected a visitor, 
 Marvell asked his lordship, with a smile, if he 
 had not mistaken his way. " No/' he replied, 
 with a bow, "not since I have found Mr. 
 Marvell ;" continuing, that he came with a 
 message from the king, who wished to do him 
 some signal service, on account of the high opi- 
 nion his majesty had of his merits. Marvell 
 replied, with his usual pleasantry, that his 
 majesty had it not in his power to serve him. 
 But becoming more serious, he told the lord 
 treasurer, that he knew the nature of courts 
 well ; he had been in many ; that whoever is 
 distinguished by a prince's favours is expected 
 to vote in his interest. The Lord Danby told 
 him his majesty only desired to know 
 whether there was any place at court he 
 
48 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 would accept, He told the lord treasurer he 
 could not accept anything with honour, for he 
 must be either ungrateful to the king in voting 
 against him, or false to his country in giving in 
 to the measures of the court ; therefore the only 
 favour he begged of his majesty was, that he 
 would esteem him as dutiful a subject as any 
 he had, and more in his proper interest, in re- 
 fusing his offers, than if he had accepted them. 
 The Lord Danby, finding that no arguments 
 could prevail, told Marvell that the king re- 
 quested his acceptance of i?l,000, till he could 
 think what further he could do for him. 
 
 This anecdote has been somewhat differently 
 related in a pamphlet printed in Ireland about 
 the year 1754, from whence we shall extract 
 it : — " The borough of Hull, in the reign of 
 Charles II., chose Andrew Marvell, a young 
 gentleman of little or no fortune, and main- 
 tained him in London for the service of the 
 public. His understanding, integrity, and 
 spirit were dreadful to the then infamous ad- 
 ministration. Persuaded that he would be 
 theirs for properly asking, they sent his old 
 school-fellow, the Lord Treasurer Danby, to 
 renew acquaintance with him in his garret. 
 At parting, the Lord Treasurer, out of pure 
 affection, slipped into his hand an order upon 
 the treasury for i?1000, and then went to his 
 chariot. Marvell, looking at the paper, calls 
 after the treasurer, ; My lord, I request another 
 moment/ They went up again to the garret, 
 and Jack, the servant boy, was called. ' Jack, 
 child, what had I for dinner yesterday ? c Don't 
 you remember, sir? you had the little shoulder 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 49 
 
 of mutton that you ordered me to bring from a 
 woman in the market.' c Very right child. 
 What have I for dinner to-day V /Don't you 
 know, sir, that you bade me lay by the blade- 
 bone to broil V ' 'Tis so ; very right, child, go 
 away. My lord, do you hear that ? Andrew 
 Marvell's dinner is provided ; there's your piece 
 of paper. I want it not. • I knew the sort of 
 kindness you intended. I live here to serve 
 my constituents. The ministry may seek men 
 for their purpose ; 1" am not one? " 
 
 No Roman virtue ever surpassed this ; nor 
 can gold bribe a mind that is not debauched 
 with luxury ; and with Dr. Samuel Johnson, 
 we repeat, " No man, whose appetites are his 
 masters, can perform the duties of his nature 
 with strictness and regularity. He that would 
 be superior to external influences, must first 
 become superior to his own passions. When 
 the Roman general, sitting at supper with a 
 plate of turnips before him, was solicited by 
 large promises to betray his trust, he asked the 
 messengers whether he, that could sup on tur- 
 nips, was a man likely to sell his country ? 
 Upon him who has reduced his senses to obe- 
 dience, temptation has lost its power ; he is able 
 to attend impartially to virtue, and execute her 
 commands without hesitation.^ 
 
 And yet we would fain hope that although 
 this anecdote may be recorded with so much 
 applause, that it is not so rare and uncommon 
 a thing to be incorruptible. Dark as human 
 nature is, it is better than many have supposed. 
 Those who have regarded it with most abhor- 
 rence have perhaps usually sketched it from 
 
50 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 themselves. In humblest life we would hope 
 it is no unusual thing to find men braving all 
 from a love and reverence of principle. There 
 is nothing in this above human nature ; and 
 England expects every man to be a Marvell at 
 least. And are there not many such labourers, 
 lowly artizans and mechanics, who, in their de- 
 gree, have achieved as much as the pure-minded 
 member for Hull — have put by the bribe as a 
 most horrible thing — have shrunk from the 
 stain upon their ci.vic and social integrity ? And 
 this, in the affairs of legislation, is what is pre- 
 eminently needed— high-minded citizenship — 
 a soul above purchase money. We say we be- 
 lieve that England has many such men as Mar- 
 vell, but that it is mournful that there are 
 thousands, perhaps hundreds of thousands, of 
 men in the country who are willing by any 
 means to enrich themselves, to gratify their 
 passions, to obtain their whims, and to sell 
 their country and their birthright. Certainly, 
 in the life of Marvell there is no more than we 
 might expect would be the conduct of every 
 citizen ; and doubtless many a noble instance 
 lies unrecorded, blotted altogether out of the 
 memory or the knowledge of man. But the 
 very fact that we preserve such instances, and 
 think of them at all, is a deplorable proof 
 that they are strange and unusual things to us. 
 In a purer state of society we should not chro- 
 nicle it as extraordinary that such a man was 
 really and indisputably honest. 
 
 Yes, we really think that it is one of the 
 most melancholy proofs of our degradation that 
 human virtue should be so memorable to us, 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 51 
 
 that we should have to rear monuments to the 
 memory of honest men ; that we should need 
 to recollect virtue, even of an humble order, 
 Our scale of magnanimity is very low — our 
 •ideal standard of greatness is by no means out 
 of sight, when such attainable virtues rivet our 
 attention and our homage. No wonder that 
 martyrs have been counted madmen, and heroes 
 fools. If virtue and goodness were more natural 
 to us, it would not be so. We should seo 
 nothing extraordinary in the doing justly ; to 
 fulfil its conditions would be as natural as to 
 eat, or to go about the daily ordinances of life. 
 The great missionary pierces the deserts of 
 burning sand, or the thick jungle of tropical 
 wildernesses, or scales the depths of polar ices 
 and snows, armed only with the desire to 
 brighten the condition of humanity ; but these 
 are not the things which are admired here ; 
 only the ordinary doings of a good man's life ; 
 they should come to him without an effort, 
 they should excite no surprise ; they should 
 no more be bought, chaffered, and paid for 
 than the kisses of a child ; there should be a 
 spirit of holy innocence above all those vile 
 means by which the ungodly rise to their 
 coveted power. Truly, a good man is ever 
 innocent, and his ideas will never know evil 
 i&itil it is presented to him, and certainly will 
 not step out of his way to encounter and suc- 
 cour it. 
 
 To any person desirous of becoming ac- 
 quainted with those times, and especially with 
 the Parliamentary and National History, Mar- 
 veil's correspondence with his constituents of 
 
52 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 Hull is most important, especially if we Lave 
 looked at all at the outline of the history as 
 more popularly communicated ; we have in 
 these letters the notes and observations of a 
 man who was observing upon the very platform.* 
 That Parliament in which Marvell sat is in 
 some degree known to the reader ; he may 
 study it in the clear pages of Mackintosh, or in 
 the graphic descriptions of Macaulay. Never 
 was a House so corrupt, so servile to the will 
 of the monarch. The letters of Marvell do 
 not contain his opinions, they are merely the 
 record of events; occasionally we note the faint 
 reflection of a covert sneer, — now and then, an 
 indignant burst of feeling, but very seldom ; he 
 simply wrote to apprise the town he repre- 
 sented, and in whose interests he was so evi- 
 dently interested, of the state of affairs ; he is 
 particular to inform his correspondent of all 
 matters touching proposed taxation, — of all 
 affairs in which the conscience of the subject 
 was likely to be invaded. He gives hints and 
 sketches of the king, most life-like, and yet the 
 wisest cavalier could not convict him of libel, 
 or treason, or sectarianism, or republicanism. 
 His design appears simply to be to do his duty 
 to his town and his constituents. We do not 
 indeed even gather how he voted on matters of 
 so much interest. We can only surmise from 
 his own account, that his vote was ever on the 
 side of justice and freedom of conscience and 
 trade. 
 
 Marvell might be well styled the Model 
 Member : he lived entirely for his duties in 
 the House ; his profession was evidently a 
 
ANDREW M All V ELL. 53 
 
 Member of the Senate, and every other duty of 
 a public or official character yielded to it ; he 
 was indeed elected to serve, as we shall see, as 
 Secretary on two embassies, but he did not 
 •leave without tbe especial permission of the 
 borough and the burgesses. " Gentlemen,'' he 
 says, alluding to some misunderstanding be- 
 tween himself and fellow member, Colonel 
 Gilby, " though perhaps we may differ in our 
 advice concerning the way of proceeding, yet 
 we have the same good ends in general ; and 
 by this unlucky falling out, we shall be pro- 
 voked to a greater emulation of serving you. I 
 must beg you to pardon me for writing singly 
 to you, for if I wanted my right hand, yet I 
 would scribble to you with my left, rather than 
 neglect your business. In the meantime, I 
 beseech you to pardon my weakness ; for there 
 are some things which men ought not, others 
 that they cannot patiently suffer/' This cir- 
 cumstance, with others, seems deeply to have 
 afflicted him, for he says in another letter, " I 
 am something bound up, that I cannot write 
 about your affairs as I used to do ; but I assure 
 you they break my sleep." 
 
 In our ignorance we will confess, that it has 
 sometimes appeared strange to us, that there 
 should be so earnest a desire on the part of cer- 
 tain gentlemen to sit in Parliament; to us it 
 has appeared as the most thankless and grace- 
 less of offices. The honour is as empty and 
 insignificant as any honour can ever be — the 
 place of power and importance in the House is 
 reserved for a few members ; the personality of 
 the individual is surrendered up to the groans, 
 
54 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 or perhaps, the still more odious and disgusting, 
 cheers of a drunken, bigotted,and unenlightened 
 mob ; few even of the most intelligent and 
 respectable of the constituents believe in the 
 conscientiousness of the member. Of all* 
 offices this is the most unremunerated ; if 
 duties are attended to, a tax is levied on the 
 most important portions of time — the long 
 afternoon, morning, and night are most fre- 
 quently wasted in listening to discussions which 
 would disgrace often an assembly of school- 
 boys ; even in the height of the most important 
 debates, the tedium is seldom relieved by ora* 
 tory, and in few parliaments can anything new 
 be gleaned either in fact, or illustration, or argu- 
 ment : if the member is himself a man of re- 
 fined and courteous habits, he will frequently 
 reflect that he has the honour of sitting in the 
 company of the worst bred men in the empire, 
 — Hudsons, Sibthorps, Ferrands ; the life of a 
 member, if a gentleman, may be described as 
 an immensely wasted life ; in no profession 
 could he spend so much time to so little pur- 
 pose ; thanks are seldom awarded him for all 
 his labours or study for the weal of his borough, 
 county, or country ; or should such tKanks be 
 awarded him. The thought must press upon 
 him, that he might have served city, county, or 
 country better by an attendance upon a more 
 humble round of duties; his influence has been 
 mostly unfelt and uncared for. The necessity 
 for exacting from members a rigid attendance 
 upon their duties has never, or but seldom, 
 been felt. A member of the House has been 
 regarded as one of the most idle of all pro- 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 55 
 
 fessions, and it has mostly, in all ages of our 
 country's history, excepting the brief period of 
 the Revolution, been so regarded ; and yet 
 who can doubt that if the country can boast of 
 ' important offices, the office of Legislator and 
 Statesman is surely important. It is astonish- 
 ing, when we consider the character of the men 
 who have, from time to time, sat as members, 
 that the country has so long held its place 
 among the nations; had there been more sense, 
 honour, justice, or religion, than has been found 
 there the country must infallibly have been lost. 
 But the mind outside has ever been superior to 
 the mind inside of the House ; yet what more 
 natural than that a man, deliberately chosen to 
 make and unmake the national laws, should 
 give sedulous attention to every affair of state, 
 — should consult constantly his constituents' 
 wishes, with reference to every affair of im- 
 portance, and should, in all things, rather 
 represent their opinion than his own ; should 
 not absent himself weeks or months from the 
 chambers of legislation, without special per- 
 mission, and on all occasions should seek to pro- 
 mote that kindly feeling and good will among 
 the various parties of his borough, which would 
 surely be best promoted by a vigilant watch 
 maintained over all their interests. — This is 
 the department of Marvell. 
 
 From June, 1661, we have a long vacancy 
 in Marvell's correspondence. It appears that 
 he was at this time in Holland, and did not show 
 any intention of returning, till Lord Bellasis* 
 
 * Lord Bellasis was then High Steward of Hull, and 
 Deputy-Governor under the Duke of Monmouth. 
 
56 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 requested the town of Hull to proceed to 
 the election of a new member, in case of their 
 burgess not appearing in his seat in the House 
 of Commons. The corporation thanked his 
 lordship, and informed him that they had had 
 two letters from Marvel], who was not far off, 
 and would be ready at their call. They there- 
 fore wrote to him, stating if he did not return, 
 they would be compelled to embrace the ex- 
 pedient proposed by his lordship. This sum- 
 mons brought Marvell to England, as we find 
 by his letter, dated 
 
 "Frankfort, March 12, 1663. 
 u Gentlemen, 
 " Had mine own thoughts not been strong enough to 
 persuade me to slight concernments of mine, in respect to 
 the public, and your service, your prudent and courteous 
 letter of the 3d of February would have brought me over, 
 though I had been at a greater distance. This is only to 
 assure you that I am making all the speed possible back, 
 and that, with God's assistance, in a very short time you 
 may expect to hear of me at the Parliament House \ in the 
 mean time, 
 
 " I remain, 
 
 " Gentlemen, 
 " Your most affectionate friend to serve you, 
 
 " Andrew Marvell." 
 
 It appears that Marvell soon after arrived in 
 England to attend his duty in Parliament. In 
 his letter he alludes to the request of Lord Bel- 
 lasis to the town of Hull, that they should pro- 
 ceed to elect another burgess, on account of his 
 absence. 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 57 
 
 "Westminster, April, 2, 1663. 
 " Gentlemen, 
 
 " Being newly arrived in town, and full of business, yet 
 I could not neglect to give you notice that this day 1 have 
 been in the House, and found ray place empty, though it 
 seems that some persons would have been so courteous as 
 to have filled it for me. You may be assured that as my 
 obligation and affection to your service hath been strong 
 enough to draw me over, without any consideration of 
 mine own private concernments, so I shall now maintain 
 my station with the same vigour and alacrity in your 
 business which I have always testify'd formerly, and which 
 is no more than is due to that kindnesse which I have con- 
 stantly experienced from you. So at present, though in 
 much haste, saluting you with all my most hearty respects, 
 " I remain, 
 
 " Gentlemen, 
 " Your most affectionate friend to serve, 
 
 " Andrew Marvell/' 
 
 Marvell does not seem settled this session, 
 and reasons with his friends, that the vigilance 
 and sufficiency of his partner might have ex- 
 cused his absence. Three months were scarcely 
 elapsed before we find him stating his intention 
 to his constituents of going beyond sea with 
 Lord Carlisle, who was appointed Ambassador 
 Extraordinary to Russia, Sweden, and Den- 
 mark. By accepting this appointment, Mar- 
 vell did not then appear to be much at variance 
 with government, though, by the manner of 
 expressing himself, he seems, in a great mea- 
 sure, to have been influenced by a friendship 
 for Lord Carlisle. 
 d 2 
 
58 ANJjEEW MARTELL. 
 
 "London, June, 16, 1663. 
 " Gentlemen, 
 The relation I have to your affairs, and the intimacy of 
 that affection I owe you, do both incline and oblige me to 
 communicate to you, that there is a probability I may very 
 shortly have occasion to go beyond sea ; for my Lord Car- 
 lisle being chosen by his Majesty Ambassador Extraor- 
 dinary to Muscovy, Sweden, and Denmark, hath used his 
 power, which ought to be very great with me, to make me 
 goe along with him, as Secretary in these embassages. It 
 is no new thing for members of the House to be dispensed 
 with, for the service of the King and the nation, in foreign 
 parts. And you may be sure I will not stirre without 
 speciall leave of the House, so that you may be freed from 
 any possibility of being importuned, or tempted, to make 
 any other choice in my absence. However, I cannot but 
 advise with you, desiring also to take your assent along 
 with me, so much esteeme I have both of your prudence 
 and friendship. The time allotted for the embassy is not 
 much above a year, probably may not be much lesse than 
 betwixt our adjournment and next meeting; however, you 
 have Col. Gilby, to whom my presence can make little ad- 
 dition, so that I cannot decline this voyage. I shall have 
 the comfort to believe that, all things considered, you can- 
 not thereby receive any disservice. I shall hope herein to 
 receive your speedy answer. 
 
 " I remain, Gentlemen, &c, 
 " Your most affectionate friend to serve you, 
 
 - •' Andrew Marvell." 
 
 Before leaving England he again writes — 
 
 " London, July 20, 1663. 
 " Gentlemen, 
 " Being this day taking barge for Gravesend, there to 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 59 
 
 embark for Archangel, thence to Sweden, and last of all to 
 Denmark, all of which I hope, by God's blessing, to finish 
 within twelve months time, I do hereby, with my last and 
 most serious thoughts, salute you, rendering you all hearty 
 thanks for your great kindness and friendship to me upon 
 all occasions, and ardently beseeching God to keep you all 
 in his gracious protection, to your own honour, and the 
 welfare and flourishing of your Corporation, to which I 
 am, and shall ever continue, a most affectionate and de- 
 voted servant. I undertake this voyage with the order 
 and good liking of his Majesty, and by leave given me from 
 the House, and entered in the journal; and having received, 
 moreover, your approbation, I go, therefore, with more 
 ease and satisfaction of mind, and augurate to myself the 
 happier success in all my proceedings. Your known pru- 
 dence makes it unnecessary for me to leave my advice or 
 counsell with you at parting ; yet can I not forbear, out of 
 the superabundance of my care and affection for you, to 
 recommend to you a correspondence with the garrison, so 
 long as his Majesty shall think fit to continue it ; unto 
 which, and all your other concerns, as Col. Gilbt hath 
 been, and will be, always mainly instrumental, and do you 
 all the right imaginable, so could I wish, as I do not doubt 
 that you would, upon any past or future occasion, confide 
 much in his discretion, which he will never deny you the 
 use of. This I say to you with a very good intent, and I 
 know will be no otherwise understood by you. And so 
 renewing and redoubling my most cordial thanks, my most 
 earnest prayers, and my most true love and service, to and 
 for you all, I remain, as long as I live, 
 " Gentlemen, 
 w Your most affectionate friend to serve you, 
 
 " Andrew Marvell." 
 
 This embassy continued nearly two years. 
 
60 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 after which we find Marvell attending the par- 
 liament, at Oxford, in 1665. He then began 
 to correspond with his constituents almost every 
 post, which is said to be last instance of that 
 valuable relation between representatives and 
 electors. 
 
 October 22, 1665 : — " Our bill against the importation 
 of Irish, cattle was not passed by his Majesty, as being too 
 destructive to the Irish interest." 
 
 But it appears the bill did afterwards pass, 
 for he writes : — 
 
 " Our House has returned the bill about Irish cattle 
 to the Lords, adhering to the word nuisance, which the 
 Lords changed to detriment and mischief ; but at a con- 
 ference, we delivered the reasons of our adhering to the 
 word nuisance, which was agreed to." 
 
 ^November 2 : — " The bill for preventing the increase of 
 the Plague could not pass, because the Lords would not 
 agree with us, that their houses, if infected, should be 
 shut up." 
 
 In November, 1666 :— " Since my last we have, in a 
 manner, being wholly taken up with instructions for the 
 Poll Bill. The chief of which the House voted were, be- 
 sides that of twelve pence on every head, and double on 
 aliens, and nonconformists, twenty shillings in the £100 
 for personal estates, three shillings in the pound for all 
 offices and public employments, except military ; lawyers 
 and physicians, proportionable to their practice. There is 
 one bill ordered to be brought in of a new nature ; — that 
 all persons shall be buried in woollen for the next six or 
 geyen years, The reason propounded is ; because a matter 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 61 
 
 of £100,000 a year of our own manufacture vail be em- 
 ployed, and so much money kept at home from buying 
 foreign linen, till our trade of flax, &c. be grown up." 
 
 January 12, 1667 : — "We have not advanced much this 
 week ; the alterations of the Lords upon the Poll Bill 
 have kept us busy. We have disagreed in most : Aliens, 
 we adhere to pay double ; Nonconformists, we agree with 
 the Lords, shall not pay double : carried by 126 to 91." 
 
 " To-day his Majesty writ to us, to quicken us, and that 
 we should conclude his business without any recesses. 
 Thereupon our House called all the defaulters, and the 
 Sergeant at Arms to send for them, and they not to sit till 
 they have paid their fees." 
 
 A few days afterwards he thus writes : — 
 
 " To-day the Duke of Buckingham and the Marquesse of 
 Dorchester were, upon their petitions, freed from the 
 Tower, haviug been committed for quarrelling, and scuffling 
 the other day, when we were at the Canary conference." 
 
 Janury 26 : — " At eleven o'clock we went up to the 
 Lords, to manage the impeachment against Lord Mordant. 
 Our managers observed that he sat in the House, and that 
 he had counsell, whereas he ought to stand at the bar as 
 s, criminal, and to have no counsell to plead or manage 
 his cause." 
 
 Marvell's, attention to the business of Parlia- 
 ment, and in writing to his constituents, appears 
 to have been excessive, for we find from a letter, 
 dated November 14, 1667, in which he says : — 
 
 " Really the business of the House hath been of late so 
 earnest, daily, and so long, that I have not had the time, 
 and scarce the vigour, left me by night to write to you ; 
 
62 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 and today, because I would not omit any longer, / lose my 
 dinner to make sure of this letter. The Earl of Clarendon 
 hath taken up much of our time, till within these three 
 days : but since his impeachment hath been carried up to 
 the House of Lords, we have some leisure from that 
 business.'* 
 
 December 3rd : — " Since my last to you we have had a 
 free conference with the Lords, for not committing the 
 Earl of Clarendon upon our general charge. The Lords 
 yesterday sent s, message by Judge Archer, and Judge 
 Morton, that they were not satisfyed to commit him, with- 
 out particular cause specifyed ; whereupon our House 
 voted that the Lords, not complying with the desire of the 
 House of Commons, upon the impeachment carried up 
 against him, is an obstruction to public justice in the pro- 
 ceedings of both Houses of Parliament, and is the precedent 
 of evill and dangerous consequences. To-day the Lords 
 sent down by Judge Twisden, and Judge Brown, another 
 message to us, that they had received a large petition from 
 the Earl of Clarendon, intimating that he was withdrawn. 
 Hereupon our House forthwith ordered addresses to his 
 Majesty, that care might be taken for securing all the Sea- 
 ports lest he should pas3 there. I suppose he will not 
 trouble you at Hull,'* 
 
 January 15, 1666-7 :— u To-day was spent in a debate, by 
 reason of the dearness of coals, to address the king for 
 convenient convoy, and to desire that 4, 6, and 8 men 
 might in coal ships, of 1, 2, and 300 tons be protected 
 still from pressing, from 1st September to 1st of April : 
 resolved in the affirmative upon division of 69 against 47» 
 
 March 17, 1668 :— "To-day the House, before a Com- 
 mittee of the whole House, sat and voted that towards the 
 king's supply of £300,000, they will raise at least £100,000 
 upon wines and strong waters" 
 
ANDREW MARVELL* 63 
 
 Respecting the king sitting in person during 
 debates in the House of Lords, Marvell thus 
 writes, March 26, J 670:— 
 
 44 His majesty hath for this whole week come every day in 
 person to the House of Lords, and sat there during their 
 debates and resolutions. And yesterday the Lords went 
 in a body to Whitehall, to give him thanks for the honour 
 he did them." 
 
 To William Eamsden, Esq., a few days 
 after, he states the particulars of the king's 
 visit more fully. 
 
 " The king about ten o'clock took boat with Lauderdale 
 only, and two ordinary attendants, and rowed awhile as 
 towards the bridge, but soon turned back to the Parliament 
 stairs, and so went up into the House of Lords, and took 
 his sea*-. All of them were amazed, but the Duke 
 of York especially. After the king was seated, his 
 majesty told them it was a privilege he claimed from his 
 ancestors, to be present at their deliberations. After three 
 or four days' continuance, the lords were well used to 
 the king's presence, and sent the lord steward, and lord 
 chamberlain, to enquire when they might render him their 
 humble thanks for the honour he did them. The hour 
 was appointed, and they thanked his majesty, who took it 
 well. The king has ever since continued his session among 
 them, and says, ' it is better than going to a play' " 
 
 And in the same letter Marvell adds, — 
 
 H There is some talk of a French queen to be invented 
 for our king. Some say a sister of the King of Denmark ; 
 others, a good virtuous Protestant here at home. The 
 king disavows it, yet he has sayed in public, he knew not 
 
64 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 why a woman may not be divorced for barrenness, as a 
 man for impotency." 
 
 April 9 : — Sir John Pritiman, who serves for Leicester, 
 was yesterday suspended from sitting in the House, and 
 from all privilege, till he find out one Hume, (a most noto- 
 rious fellow) whom he suggested to be his menial servant ; 
 whereas he was a prisoner for debt, and thus, by Sir John's 
 procurement, has escaped his creditors* The sergeant was 
 sent into the speaker's chamber with the mace, to bring 
 Sir John, to receive the sentence upon his hiees, at the 
 barre. Hereupon the House was disappointed ; for in the 
 mean while he was escaped by the bach doore ; it was then 
 ordered that that doore be nailed up for the future." 
 
 Also of a similar escape lie thus writes :— 
 
 " Sir James Norfolk, Sergeant of the House of Com- 
 mons, was by them voted to be sent to the Tower ; and 
 that his majesty be desired to cause a new sergeant to 
 attend, he having betrayed his trust, &c, but Sir James 
 forthwith escaped from the House while they were penning 
 the order." 
 
 Makch 10, 1689-70 :— "The House divided; whether 
 first they should not read the bill of Conventicle ingrost, 
 and 'twas agreed to read it first by 118 against 101. The 
 Bill was read importing, That the Act of 35 of Eliz. is still 
 in force, and for further remedy, because seditious sectuarys, 
 under pretence of tender consciences, do contrive instruc- 
 tions at their meetings, that from the 3d of April next if 
 any person of 16 years, or upward, shall be present at any 
 meeting, under pretence of religion, in other manner than 
 allowed by Liturgy and practice of the Church of England, 
 at which meeting there shall be five persons, or more than 
 those of the household, or if in an house, field or place 
 where no family inhabits, then where any five persons, o? 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 65 
 
 more are assembled, any one, or more justices of the county, 
 liberty or division, or the chief magistrate of the place are 
 enjoyned either by confession of the party, or oath of 
 witnesses, or by notorious evidence, or circumstance, or in 
 default of evidence, unlesse the offender can by two wit- 
 nesses upon oath prove that he came upon other lawfull 
 businesse, to make a record of such offence under his or 
 their hands and seals, and this record shall be in law a full 
 and perfect conviction, and thereupon he or they shall fine 
 the person five shillings, which conviction to be certifyed 
 at next quarter sessions : the next offence as before, but the 
 fine ten shillings, or (as I remember at the justices discre- 
 tion a months imprisonment) and so oft as he offends ; 
 fines to be levyed by distresse and sale, or in case of his 
 poverty, then upon the goods and chattells of any other 
 person convicted of the same conventicle : constables, 
 headboroughs, tithingmen, churchwardens, overseers of 
 the pdore required to levy the fines by warrant, under 
 justice's hand or chief magistrates, one moity to the justice 
 for the poore of the parish, other moity to such persons or, 
 person as the justice, &c. shall appoint, having regard to 
 the persons industry in discovering, dispersing and punish- 
 ing of the said Conventiclers : every one that preaches 
 there, being convicted in the way before, to be fined for 
 the first 501. but if a stranger, or fled, or poore, it shall be 
 leveyed on the goods of any one or more persons that 
 were there, and distributed as before ; and upon second 
 preaching 1001. and leveyed in same manner, &c. upon one 
 or more, if he be a stranger, or, &c, whoever wittingly 
 and willingly suffers such meeting in his house, barn, 
 woods, or grounds, 501. and if he be poore, then one or 
 more as before : justice or chief magistrate, and also con- 
 stables, &c. by their warrant may and shall enter, break 
 open any house or place where they are informed such 
 Conventicle is, and may take into custody j lieutenant & 
 
66 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 or any commissioned officers of the militia, or other of 
 his majesty forces, with troops or company es ; also sherifFe 
 and other magistrates or ministers of justice, under certi- 
 ficate of any justice required to repaire to the place, and 
 disperse the Conventicle, and take into custody constable, 
 &c. who knowing shall not informe a justice, fined five 
 pounds ; justice that wittingly omits his duty in this Act 
 fined 1001., one moity to his Majesty, the other to the in- 
 former. If any one be sued for executing this Act, he may 
 plead generall issue, and give the speciall matter in evi- 
 dence ; and if the plaintiffe be nonsuited, or verdict passe 
 for the defendant, the defendant shall have treble costs ; 
 this Act, and all its clauses, to be construed most largely 
 and beneficially for the justification of all that executes it, 
 and no record, warrant, or mittimus made by virtue of 
 this Act, nor any proceedings thereupon, shall be reversed 
 or avoyded by reason of any default in forme, or other 
 defect whatsoever. If any offender inhabit in, or fly to 
 another country, the justice of peace where the offence, 
 was'may certify to a justice there, and this last may levy 
 the fines ; none punisht unlesse prosecuted within three 
 months after the offence ; none punisht by this Act shall 
 be punisht for the same offence by any other Act ; husbands 
 pay the five and ten shillings for their wives ; all aldermen 
 of London qualified to execute this Act as if justices, and 
 finable 1001. if failing ; jaylor that gives liberty fined 101. 
 This Act passed, upon division 138 against 78, and is sent 
 up to the Lords. I have bin more particular to you herein 
 that inconveniences might better, and in time be prevented 
 and because this and the Mony Bill will be the principal! 
 products of this session." 
 
 December 8th : — " The bill for Conventicles hath been 
 twice read, and committed ; it makes them henceforth 
 BIOTS ; and orders that those who cannot pay five shil- 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. [67 
 
 lings, or who refuse to tell their names, or abode, shall 
 work it out in the House of Correction." 
 
 December 20th : — {l The House, before rising to-day, 
 ordered that the Sheriffs of countyes give notice that all 
 members not present in the House on Monday come a fort 
 night, should be rated double in the bill of Subsidy, so that 
 it will concern them in the country to be up by that time, 
 and if sooner, the better. One moved, that a frigate 
 should be built out of the money, and she might be named 
 the l sinner s frigate? " 
 
 July 25th: — " The king sent us a message, that concerning 
 the house, might be that he would have us to adjourn till 
 Monday next, when his Majesty intends to come to signify 
 his pleasure. The House, therefore, ordered that the 
 members of the Privy Council of our House should go to 
 the king to desire that, if there be a Peace his Majesty 
 would be pleased to disband all new raised land forces. 
 This past nemini contradicente, and then we adjourned till 
 Monday. The Dutch has been fighting with us in the 
 river, but I think with more damage to themselves, than 
 to us. The Peace truly I think, is concluded. His 
 Majesty will best tell us that news, as the best author. 
 Yesternight a very dangerous fire happened at one o'clock, 
 in Southwark, but blowing up the next house in good time, 
 there were but twelve consumed, or ruined, besides the 
 lives of some few persons. I cannot but advise you to 
 have especial care in your town, of any such accidents, or 
 what you may call it, for I am sorry we can see no clearer 
 by so many lights." 
 
 April 13, 1671 : — " The Lords and we have agreed on an 
 addresse to his Majesty, that he wear no forain manufac- 
 tures, and discountenance, whether man or woman, who 
 shall wear them." 
 
 By some accident we are unfortunately de- 
 
68 ANDREW MAKVELL. 
 
 prived of Marvell's correspondence with his 
 constituents for above three years. The Duke 
 or Monmouth was at that time Governor of 
 Hull, and the corporation appears to have de- 
 sired Marvell to wait upon him, with a con- 
 gratulatory letter, and a present of gold, both 
 as a testimony of their duty and respect, and 
 also as a honorary fee of his office. After exe- 
 cuting this commission, he thus writes : 
 
 "Westminster, October 20, 1674. 
 " Gentlemen, 
 
 " The Duke of Monmouth returned on Saturday from 
 Newmarket. To-day I waited on him, and first presented 
 him with your letter, which he read over very attentively, 
 and then prayed me to assure you that he would, upon all 
 occasions, be most ready to give you the marks of his affec- 
 tion, and assist you in any affairs that you should recom- 
 mend to him ; with other words of civility to the same 
 purpose. I then delivered him the six broad pieces, telling 
 him I was deputed to blush on your behalf e for the meanness 
 of the present, &c. ; but he took me off, and said he thanked 
 you for it, and accepted it as a token of your kindness. 
 He had, before I came in, as I was told, considered what to 
 do with the gold ; but that I by all means prevented the 
 offer, or I had been in danger of being reimbursed with it. 
 I received the bill which was sent me on Mr. Nelehorpe ; 
 but the surplus of it exceeding much the expense I have 
 been at on this occasion, I desire you to make use of it, 
 and of me, upon any other opportunity, remaining, 
 "Gentlemen, &c, 
 " Your most affectionate and humble Servant, 
 
 "Andrew Marvell." 
 
 April IT, 1675 : — "The Commons have these two days 
 been in a Committee concerning Religion* The occasion 
 
ANDREW MAltVELL. 69 
 
 of which rose from the motion of a Member of the House 
 concerning the growth of Popery, for giving ease to Pro- 
 testant Dissenters, and other good things of the same 
 tendency." 
 
 Apeil 22 : — "A bill was read the first time, that any 
 Member of Parliament, who shall hereafter accept any office 
 after his election, there shall be a new writ issued to elect 
 in his place; but if his Borough shall then, the second 
 time, elect him,, it shall be lawful : upon the question, 
 whether it should have a second reading, 88 carried it 
 against 74." 
 
 April 24 : — " The House of Commons having received 
 a report from the Committee for drawing up the addresse 
 concerning the Duke of Lauderdale; Dr. Burnett being ex- 
 amined, whether he knew anything of bringing over an 
 army into his Majesty's dominions, told them, that dis" 
 coursing of the danger of rigorous proceedings against the 
 Presbyterians in Scotland, while his Majesty was engaged in 
 a war with Holland, the Duke said to him, he wished they 
 would rebell ; and in pursuit of that discourse, said, he 
 would then hire the Irish Papists to come over, and cut 
 their throats ; but the Doctor replying, that sure he spoke 
 in jest, the Duke answered, no ; he said he was in earnest, 
 and therefore repeated the same words again. Further, 
 that being asked, whether he knew anything of bringing 
 the Scotch army into England ; the Doctor answered the 
 Committee, he had acquainted them w T ith that of Ireland, 
 because no secret, for the Duke also said the same to 
 several others, and particularly to the Dutchesse of Hamilton; 
 but if the Duke had said anything to him in confidence, he 
 assured them he should not reveal it, but upon the utmost 
 extremity." 
 
 May 15 : — " The unhappy misunderstanding betwixt 
 the two Houses increaseth. An ill accident hath come 
 in : lor a servant of the Commons' House, having the 
 
70 ANDREW MAIiVELL. 
 
 Speaker's warrant to seize Dr. Shirley, and finding him 
 in the Lords' lobby, showed the warrant to the Lord 
 Mohun, who carried it into the other House, where they 
 Tcept it : the Commons sent to demand justice against the 
 Lord, and the Lords answered, he had done his duty # : 
 upon hearing this, our House voted this message of the 
 Lords ud parliamentary. I dare write no more, lest the 
 post leave me behind." 
 
 May 27 : — " The House of Commons was taken up for 
 the most part yesterday in calling over their House, and 
 have ordered a letter to be drawn up from the Speaker, 
 to every place for which there is a defaulter, to signify 
 the absence of their member, and a solemn letter is accord- 
 ingly preparing to be signed by the Speaker ; this is 
 thought a sufficient punishment for any modest man, 
 nevertheless, if they shall not come up hereupon, there is 
 a further severity reserved." 
 
 Oct. 21 : — " I crave leave to advertise you, that Mr. 
 Cressett this afternoon discoursing with me, said he had 
 received a letter from the Mayor and seven or eight of the 
 Aldermen, giving him notice that you had received a 
 letter from me of three sides, partly concerning Parlia- 
 ment business, which makes me presume to advertise you, 
 and though I object nothing to Mr. Cressett's fidelity and 
 discretion, neither do I write any thing deliberately that I 
 fear to have divulged ; yet seeing it possible in writing to 
 assured friends, a man may give his pen some liberty, for 
 the times are somewhat criticall ; beside that, I am natur- 
 ally, and now more so by my age, inclined to keep my 
 thoughts private, I desire that what I write down to you 
 may not easily, or unnecessarily, return to a third hand 
 at London; if in saying this I have used more freedom 
 than the occasion requires, I beg your pardon." 
 
 After he had received an answer to the above 
 letter, he again writes : — 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 71 
 
 Nov. 4th : — e< And now, as to yours of the 26th, occa- 
 sioned by my complaint of intelligence given hither of my 
 letter, I must profess that whosoever did it hath very 
 much obliged me, though I believe beyond his intention, 
 seeing it hath thence happened that I have received so 
 courteous and civil a letter from you, that it warms my 
 very heart, and I shall keep it, as a mark of your honour 
 always by me, amongst whatsoever thing3 I account most 
 precious and estimable ; for it would be very hard for me 
 to tell you at how high a rate I value all expressions of 
 your kindness to me, or how sensibly I should regret the 
 loss of it by any mistake that might chance on either side. 
 I am very well satisfied by your letter, that it was none of 
 you, but it seems there is some sentinell set upon both you 
 and me, and to know it therefore is a sufficient caution ; 
 the best of it is, that none of us, I believe, either do, say, 
 or write, any thing but what we care not if it be made 
 public, although we do not desire it." 
 
 About this time, in a letter to a friend, 
 Marvell observes, that 
 
 " The Earl of Clare made a very bold and rational 
 harangue, the king being present, against his Majesty's sit- 
 ting among the Lords, contrary to former precedents 
 during their debates, but he was not seconded."* 
 
 * It is presumed that such a hearer, in the House of 
 Lords, would not now have a vote of thanks tendered to 
 him " for the honour he had done them." With respect to 
 courts of justice, it is almost certain, that in early times 
 our Kings, in person, often heard and determined civil 
 causes. Edward I. frequently sat in the King's Bench : 
 and in later years, James I. is said to have sat there, but 
 was informed by his Judges that he could not deliver an 
 opinion. Dr. Henry, in his excellent " History of Great 
 Britain," informs us, that he found no instance of any of 
 our Kings sitting in a court of justice, before Edward IV, 
 
72 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 In the same letter we find the following pas- 
 sage, from whence it appears to what a height 
 corruption had arrived in the reign of Charles 
 IL:— 
 
 " The King having, upon pretence of the great prepara- 
 tions of his neighbours, demanded £300,000 for his navy, 
 (though in conclusion he hath not sent out any) and that 
 the Parliament should pay his debts, which the ministers 
 would never particularize to the House of Commons, our 
 House gave several bills. You see how far things were 
 stretched beyond reason, there being no satisfaction how 
 these debts were contracted, and all men foreseeing that 
 what was given would not be applied to discharge the 
 debts, which I hear are at this day risen to four millions. 
 Nevertheless, such was the number of the constant 
 courtiers, increased by the apostate patriots, who were 
 bought off for that turn, some at six, others at ten, one at 
 fifteen thousand pounds, in money ; besides what offices, 
 lands, and reversions, to others, that it is a mercy they 
 gave not away the whole land and liberty of England. 
 The Duke of Buckingham is again £140,000 in debt, and, 
 
 who, in the second year of his reign, sat three days toge- 
 ther in the Court of King's Bench ; but, as he was then a 
 very young man, it is probable he was there merely for 
 instruction. In' criminal cases, however, it would be a 
 great absiirdity if the King personally sat in judgment ; 
 because, in regard to these, he appears in another eapa* 
 city, that of prosecutor. All offences are either against the 
 ''King's peace," or "his crown and dignity," though, in 
 the eye of the law, his Majesty is always present in all his 
 courts, he cannot personally distribute justice. It is the 
 regal office, and not the royal person, that is always pre- 
 sent in court ; and from this ubiquity it follows, that the 
 King can never be nonsuit. For the same reason also, in 
 legal proceedings, the King is said, not to appear by his 
 attorney, as other men. 
 
ANDREW MAXELL. 73 
 
 by this prorogation, his creditors have time to tear all his 
 lands in pieces. The House of Commons has run almost 
 to the end of their time, and are grown extremely charge- 
 able to the King, and odious to the people. They have 
 signed and sealed £10,000 a year more to the Duchess of 
 Cleveland, who has likewise near £10,000 out of the excise 
 of beer and ale; £5,000 a year out of the post-office ; and, 
 they say, the reversion of all places in the customs : and, 
 indeed, what not ? All promotions, spiritual and tempo- 
 ral, pass under her cognizance." 
 
 In November, 1675, Marvell again com- 
 mences his correspondence with the Mayor and 
 Corporation of Hull : he says : — 
 
 " I am here in good health and vigour, ready to take 
 that station in the House which I obtain by your favour, 
 and have so many years continued ; and therefore desire 
 that you will consider whether there be any thing that 
 relates to the state of your town. I shall strive to pro- 
 mote it to the best of my duty ; and in the more general 
 affairs of the nation, shall maintain the same uncorrupt 
 mind, and clear conscience, free from faction, or any self 
 ends, which, by the grace of God, I have hitherto pre- 
 served." 
 
 ^There are not many men at the present day 
 who would obtain credit with their constitu- 
 ents, were they to speak thus of themselves; 
 but Marvell had for many years given such 
 convincing proofs of the purity of his mind, 
 that his words were an oracle to all who kn 
 him. 
 
 Upon the assembling of Parliament on Feb- 
 ruary 15, 1677, he writes — 
 
 " I think it befits me to acquaint you that this day the 
 Parliament assembled, in obedience to his majesty, he 
 E 
 
74 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 being pleased, in a most gracious manner, to proffer, oti 
 his part, all things that might tend to the libertyes of the 
 subject, and the safety of the nation ; mentioning also his 
 debts ; but most of all he recommended a good agreement 
 between the two Houses, calling heaven and earth to wit- 
 ness that nothing on his part should be wanting to make 
 this a happy session." 
 
 February, 17. — J{ Yesterday the House of Lords ordered 
 the Earl of Salisbury and Lord Wharton to the Tower, 
 during his Majesty's and their Houses pleasure. The Duke 
 of Buckingham had retired before his sentence, but, ap- 
 pearing the day afterwards, was also sent to the Tower. 
 The warrant bears for their high contempt of the House, 
 for they refused to ask pardon, as ordered. To-day I hear 
 they are made close prisoners." 
 
 March 3. — " Sir Harbottle Grimston, Master of the Rolls, 
 moved for a bill to be brought in, to indemnify all countyes, 
 cityes, and burrows, for the wages due to their members for 
 the time past, which was introduced by him upon very 
 good reason, both because of the poverty of many people 
 not being able to supply so long an arreare, especially new 
 taxes now coming upon them ; and also, because Sir John 
 Shaw, the Recorder of Colchester, had sued the town for his 
 ivages ; several other members also having, it seems, threa- 
 tened their burrows to do the same, unless they shqyj^l 
 chuse them upon another election to Parliament.* This? 
 
 * It is said that Marvell was the last person in the coun- 
 try that received wages from his constituents ; two shillings 
 a-day being allowed for a burgess, and four shillings for a 
 knight of the shire. This was thought so considerable a 
 sum in ancient times, that there are many instances where 
 boroughs petitioned to be excused from sending members 
 to Parliament, representing that they were engaged in build- 
 ing bridges, or other public works, and therefore unable 
 to bear such an extraordinary expense. — Blackstone's Com- 
 fnentarieSf vol. 1. 
 
ANDREW MAEVELL. 75 
 
 day had been appointed for grievances ; but, being 
 grown near two o'clock, and the day being, indeed, extra- 
 ordinary cold, to which the breaking of one of the House win- 
 dows contributed, it was put off till next Tuesday." - 
 
 March 13, 167V. — "To-day was read the bill against 
 transporting wool out of England or Scotland, into forain 
 parts, and ordered a second reading. Then the bill for 
 indemnifying countyes, cityes, and burrows from the Par- 
 liament wages now due, until the first day of this session, 
 was read the first time, and endured a long argument, in- 
 somuch, that when the question was put for a second read- 
 ing, a gentleman, who had disapproved of the bill, de- 
 ceiving himself by the noise of the negative vote, required 
 the division of the House ; but so considerable a number 
 of the affirmatives went out for it, that all the rest in a 
 manner followed after them, notwithstanding their own 
 votes ; and there were scarce either tellers, or men to be 
 told left behind, so that it will have a second reading/' 
 
 March 17. — " I must beg your pardon for paper, pens, 
 writing, and every thing ; for really I have, by ill chance, 
 neither eat nor drank from yesterday at noon till six o'clock 
 to-night, when the House rose ; and by good chance I have 
 now met with Mr. Skyner, so that betwixt both, you may 
 easily guesse I have but little time, and write but at ad- 
 venture." 
 
 April 12. — "We sit again to-morrow, being Good Friday, 
 at two o'clock, and hope may rise by Saturday night." 
 
 January, 29, 1678. — " It was ordered, that the House 
 will, to-morrow in the afternoone, turn itself into a Com- 
 mittee of the whole House, to consider of the interring of 
 his late martyred Majesty." 
 
 January 31. — " The House met yesterday at two o'clock . 
 after sermon, sate in Committee of the whole House, and 
 ordered that a bill be brought in for £70,000, for the 
 
76 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 more decent interring of his late martyred Majesty, and 
 raising a mowment for him." 
 
 We have now followed Marvell through his 
 regular correspondence with the Corporation of 
 Hull for upwards of twenty years, and have 
 selected a few passages for the purpose of eluci- 
 dating his history, yet a very insufficient part 
 to give an idea of the excellent matter contained 
 in his letters, which possess considerable strength 
 and clearness of style, though the expressions 
 occasionally appear quaint. The orthography 
 also of that period was overcharged with letters, 
 as the present is, perhaps, too much divested of 
 them. They, however, throw considerable 
 light on the character of Marvel], and are of 
 importance in showing the sense which so able 
 a man, and so illustrious a patriot, entertained of 
 the duty he owed his constituents, and of the 
 relation he bore to them in Parliament. He 
 expresses himself upon the several matters on 
 which he writes, with that spirit and freedom 
 which distinguished his character, and which 
 drew upon him the notice of persons in power. 
 Not content with discharging the duty his sta- 
 tion required, he appears to have been an active 
 friend to the town of Hull, in all affairs that 
 concerned its interest. By this attention Mar- 
 vell gained the affections of his constituents. 
 He had no private views to gratify ; the wel- 
 fare of Hull, and the love of his country, were 
 all his study and pursuit. 
 
 But it is impossible to give a full series of 
 citations from MarvelFs very interesting journal, 
 its pages are frequently most important in th§ 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 77 
 
 notices of the events of the times, and they 
 were most interesting times, and have left their 
 very visible imprint upon our own days. We 
 have seen how constantly every thing in com- 
 mon use was passing beneath the supervision of 
 the customs ; the excise man was not then, so 
 important a person as he has since become — 
 it was a question whether the whole of the 
 articles in use by the people, should be subject 
 to the rule — the guaging rod of the revenue 
 officer — standing armies too, we have seen were 
 not then a settled imposition upon the realm — 
 the course of public Justice was more obstructed 
 and obscure— the term Religious liberty, was a 
 misnomer — the thing was unknown. We have 
 seen how terribly the law pressed upon dissen- 
 ters and conventicles ; the following enlightens 
 us, if we need it, in reference to the Catholics : — 
 
 " The House of Commons hath this two days been in a 
 Committee of the whole House concerning Religion ; the 
 occasion of which rose from the motion of a member of 
 the House concerning the growth of Popery ; for giving 
 ease to Protestant Dissenters, and other good things of the 
 game tendency. The Committee first, and then, upon their 
 report, the House have voted, that a Bill be prepared for 
 a test upon the members of both Houses, that none may 
 be capable of sitting there without taking it ; that another 
 Bill be prepared for the speedyer conviction of Papists ; 
 that the penaltyes be placed not in the crowne, but either 
 in the Church, or the justices of peace, for buying in im- 
 propriations or other publick uses ; that there be therein 
 a clause to distinguish between Papists and Protestant Dis- 
 senters ; that a very considerable reward be therein allotted 
 to whosoever shall discover a Romish Priest, who shall be 
 
78 ANDREW MARYELL. 
 
 proved to have said masse, or officiated as a Eomish Priest, 
 or to have taken Eomish orders beyond sea or here ; that 
 those who shall be found to have bin present during such 
 officiating, shall incurre such penaltyes as shall be men- 
 tioned ; that this law shall derogate from any former laws 
 against Papist Priests : and the House resolved to enter 
 Tuesday next upon further consideration of the same 
 subject." 
 
 In one place we are told, that " the Lords 
 and we have agreed on an address to his Ma- 
 jesty, that he wear no foreign manufacture, and 
 discountenance, whether man or woman, at 
 court, that shall wear them/' In another, we 
 find i?70,000 voted for cc the more decent inter- 
 ment of his martyred Majesty," and for raising 
 a monument to him.'' On the whole, the busi- 
 ness recorded in this journal, is of a most 
 curious character ; the opinions of Marvell are 
 not to be sought for in these notes, they are 
 merely documentary, but they will be found in 
 his familiar epistles. The way along which he 
 had to walk, was very crooked : he was sur- 
 rounded by scheming and corrupt men, but he 
 fulfilled his part well ; his dealings with Parlia- 
 ment, and with the court placed him above all 
 suspicion. Prudence probably reined his tongue, 
 but his votes were not only given on the side of 
 freedom ; but he influenced by his counsel and 
 advice, the votes of others. In the course of 
 his correspondence, Hull is frequently men- 
 tioned, and thus we find that he was constantly 
 watchful over the interests of his constituents, 
 as well as the wider, and more general interests 
 of his country. In fine, he performed his duty, 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. iV 
 
 in such a manner that, through all time, since, 
 he has been remembered and honoured — his pay 
 was small indeed, but he was the last M. P. 
 professing to be paid, and proud of his pay ; and 
 perhaps, the last who was returned without that 
 qualification, demanded by the possession of a 
 certain amount of property. 
 
80 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 MARVELL AS A POET. 
 
 Perhaps few of the persons who have heard 
 of the name of Marvell at all, have heard his 
 name mentioned as a poet ; — but a poet he was 
 — and a very sweet one — although the fame of 
 the wit and the patriot has quite eclipsed the 
 fame of the lover and follower of the Muses ; 
 nor, indeed, can he be mentioned in the first 
 class of writers in this department. As a wit 
 his fame and his worth are of the highest order 
 To this, his great and mightier fellow-secretary 
 and companion made but few pretensions ; for 
 it is very rare that loftier imaginations are 
 accompanied by wit — it is rather the twin and 
 comrade of fancy. Now, in the realms of fancy, 
 both in the kind which is dictated by smooth 
 and pleasing resemblances, as well as that 
 which originates in the grotesque and striking, 
 Marvell was quite a master. His poems are of 
 two kinds : those abounding in reflection and 
 contemplation, and others suggested fry the 
 vices and characteristics of his times. But as 
 a poet, Marvell did not appear as a teacher ; 
 his verses mostly originate in the spontaneous 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 81 
 
 flow of gentle thought and sweet indulgence, 
 and dallying with nature. It may easily be 
 seen how precious to such a mind would be the 
 reveries of rural moments, — how delightful the 
 quiet contemplation of nature in her wild out- 
 lay of delights. It is quite difficult now to 
 moor the boat against the happy islands then 
 everywhere to be seen ; let a man of the most 
 contemplative character muse as he will in our 
 day, he must be disturbed by newspapers, by 
 advertisements of new books, by the discord- 
 ances of contending polemics, by the wild 
 hubbub of cities, the shrill cries of commerce 
 and trade ; there are few places now where he 
 may be safe with himself — alone and outside of 
 the bustle of the world ; nor, indeed, did 
 Marvell know much of this in the after days of 
 his life; but in his early manhood his writings 
 are tin gpd n with the capacities for metaphysical 
 abstraction, for the indulgence of long hours of 
 reverie. But this is, perhaps, the history of 
 the mind. Thus the dreaming youth goes on 
 making realities out of the shadows around 
 him, and from the forms disporting themselves 
 on the waters of the fountain, and from the 
 rainbows hanging over the waterfall, shaping a 
 countless crowd of attendant spectres, the voice 
 of Pan — eternal to youth — sounds from every 
 grot and grove ; at last, the melancholy dirge 
 floats forth from tRe same woods and waters — 
 Pan is dead ; — the world and its occupants, 
 and its draperies become less ideal, and more 
 real ; the trumpet calls to the real shock and 
 strife of life, and the illusions are dispelled. 
 Through such a series of experiences every 
 e 2 
 
82 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 thoughtful mind passes. Marvell was no ex- 
 ception. We shall be prolific in our extracts 
 from his Poems, as they have seldom been 
 reprinted, and indeed popularly are quite un- 
 known. Few writers have left to us so dis- 
 cernible and clearly marked traces of their 
 progress in life and character. His lines form 
 a kind of mental biography. 
 
 There are two poems of Marvell, which we 
 have never seen quoted or referred to, both ad 
 dressed to Lord Fairfax ; one upon the hill and 
 grove at Belborow, the other upon his lordship's 
 seat, called Appleton House. We have always 
 oeen disposed, ourselves, to mention them as 
 containing some of the most beautiful couplets 
 of our poet ; they are trulv rural, and truly 
 English — abounding indeed, in the poet's pecu- 
 liar lines of quaintness ; but Mating also, the 
 exquisite perception of the beauti^j?f.jp^ure, 
 which is only iounu with warm and glowing 
 love of her. All the poems of Marvell, in which 
 he describes scenery, tend to prove how much his 
 heart was at home, in the midst of the shades ; 
 his verses were not the production of a world- 
 wearied man, but appear to have been penned 
 in the first warmth of his youth ; and although 
 his satires stand so high, we are grieved for 
 that knowledge of the world which compelled 
 him to forsake the woods and waters, the quiet 
 gardens and groves to jest *at the absurdities 
 q£ human nature ; or to wing shafts at its follies, 
 and its vices. These impressions of nature, are 
 unsophisticated — the simplest heart — the most 
 generous imagination, where it has seen, and 
 been tutored in the world, learns to contrast the 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 83 
 
 ways of cities with the wa) T s of fields, and the 
 tenderness of nature awakens the sensibilities to 
 regret the ruthlessness of man. But the lines on 
 ^Lppleton House, areas simple as verses penned 
 in the gukuii, or mythic age ; and rural sounds 
 fall upon our ear, and rural sights move be- 
 fore our eye, awakening only the impression 
 they are disposed to give. What a fine descrip- 
 tion have we here, of mowing and mowers : — 
 
 " And now to the abyss I pass 
 Of that unfathomable grass, 
 Where men like grasshoppers appear, 
 But grasshoppers are giants there ; 
 They in their squeaking laugh contemn 
 Us as we walk more low than them, 
 And from the precipices tall, 
 Of the green spires to us do call 
 To see men thro' their meadows dive, 
 AVe wonder how they rise alive. 
 As under water none does know, 
 Whether he falls thro' it ; or go, 
 But as the mariners who sound, 
 And show upon the lead their ground, 
 They bring up flowers so to be seen ; 
 And prove they've at the bottom been. 
 No scene that turns with engines strange 
 Does oftenerthan these meadows change, 
 For when the sun the grass hath vexed 
 The tawny mowers enter next, 
 "Who seem like Israelites to be — 
 Walking on foot thro' a green sea ; 
 To them the grassy deeps divide — 
 And crowd a lane to either side, 
 
84 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 With whistling scythe, and elbow strong, 
 These massacre the grass along/' 
 
 The following passage referring to the state 
 of England in the time of Marvell is very 
 admirably put : — 
 
 " Oh thou, that dear and happy isle, 
 The garden of the world erewhile, — 
 Thou Paradise of four seas, — 
 Which Heaven planted us to please ; 
 But to exclude the world, did guard 
 With watery if not naming sword ; 
 What luckless apple did we taste 
 To make us mortal, and thee waste ? 
 Unhappy — shall we never more 
 That sweet militia restore, 
 When gardens only had their towers, 
 And all the garrisons were flowers ; 
 When roses only arms might bear, 
 And men did rosy garlands wear ? 
 Tulips in several colours barred, 
 Were then the Switzers of our guard ; 
 The gardener had the soldier's place, 
 And his more gentle forts did trace ; 
 The nursery of all things green, 
 Was then the only magazine ; 
 The winter quarters were the stoves 
 Where he the tender plant removes ; 
 But war all this doth overthrow — 
 We ordnance plant and powder sow." 
 
 There can be no doubt that it is during the 
 period ^f. Marvel Ts residence in the house of 
 Lord Fairfax, some time the lord-general of the 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 85 
 
 Parliamentary armies, that we are to look for 
 the most poetical efforts of his pen. They are 
 steeped in the love of nature, — rich, luxuriant, 
 contemplative ; there is no token of the politi- 
 cian,— no acerbity, no bitterness; scarce an 
 allusion to the discords then shaking, from end 
 to end, the land ; they are sjaffu$ed4»~peasee,— - 
 they breathe the .tranquillity..' of prove and field ; 
 he "had already travelled, and had seen enough 
 of the world to make retirement delightful and 
 Ioveable; not enough to colour it witu unhappy 
 thoughts and sensations. How is it that we 
 give the first emotions of our life to nature; 
 that friends and fiowem^appear less lovely as we 
 grow older ; that, as we become world wearied, 
 the charms of nature cease to entertain and 
 attract us ? — We too depart from the golden 
 age, — from the beautiful garden-world, — from 
 the shadowy grot and the cool fountain ; these 
 do not suffice for us ; we have so excited and 
 unnaturally overwrought our blood and brain, 
 that we must move in a world as exciting as 
 ourselves ; thus we become diseased, — thus we 
 contract our mental fevers and unhallowed 
 desires ; we sigh for the Hesperides we have 
 left behind us, we mourn over the Eden of our 
 yputh; we did not know how beautiful those 
 colours were, until they had faded from us; we 
 had no idea of the loveliness of those hills, tin 
 freshness of those flowers, until the thick wall 
 of cities shut out the prospect of the one an< 
 the fragrance of the other. Thoughts^ lik 
 these must arise on comparing MarvelTs earlie 
 with his later poems. 
 
 Marvell's genius, however, as a poet, was 
 

 86 ANDREW MAltVELlW 
 
 coloured by the age in which he lived : very 
 much of his writings has upon it impressions 
 of that same school, which in a few years latei% 
 produced Oowky. It is very remarkable that 
 such neglect has buried his verses, for they are 
 equally worthy of a post in our literature with 
 many of his age who are frequently quoted ; 
 to be sure, tbe love of nature is that kind of 
 Jove which accompanies garden rambles, rather 
 ^than wild wood walks. Here are lines called 
 
 THE GARDEN. 
 
 How vainly men themselves amaze,, 
 To win the palm, the ©ak, the bays " Y 
 And their incessant labours see y 
 Crowned from some single herb or tree ; 
 Whose short and narrow verged shades 
 Does prudently their toils upbraid ; 
 While all the flowers and trees do close,. 
 To weave the garlands of repose. 
 
 Fair Quiet have I found thee here,. 
 And Innocence,, thy sister dear ? 
 Mistaken long, I sought you then,. 
 In busy companies of men. 
 Your sacred plants, if here below, 
 Only among the plants will grow ; 
 Society is all but rude,. 
 With this delicious solitude. 
 
 No white, no red was ever seen, 
 So amorous as this lovely green ; 
 Fond lovers, cruel as their flame, 
 Cut in these trees their mistress* name. 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 8? 
 
 Little, alas ! they know or heed, 
 How far these beauties her exceed ! 
 Fair trees, where'er your barks I wound, 
 No name shall but your own be found. 
 
 When we have seen our passions heat, 
 
 Love hither makes his best retreat ; V 
 
 The gods who mortal beauty chase, 
 
 Still in a tree did end their race. 
 
 Apollo hunted Daphne so, 
 
 Only that she might laurel grow ; 
 
 And Pan did after Syrinx speed, 
 
 Not as a nymph, but as a seed. 
 
 But let the reader note especially, the full 
 sweetness of the following verses, — if, indeed, 
 they have not been already endeared to him, 
 Jn the essays of that most beloved of English 
 critics and humourists, Charles Lamb. 
 
 What wondrous life is this I lead ? 
 Ripe apples drop about my head ; 
 The luscious clusters of the vine, 
 Upon my mouth do erush their wine. 
 The nectarine and curious peach, 
 Into my hands themselves do reach ; 
 Stumbling on melons, as I pass 
 Insnared with flowers, I fell on grass. 
 
 Meanwhile the mind from pleasure less, 
 
 Withdraws into Its happiness : 
 
 The mind, the ocean where each kind, 
 
 Does straight its own resemblance find ; 
 
 Yet it creates, transcending these 
 
 Far other worlds, and other seas ; 
 
 Annihilating all that's made, 
 
 To a green thought in a green shade. 
 
88 ANDREW MARVELI*. 
 
 Here at the fountain's sliding foot, 
 Or at some fruit tree's mossy root;— 
 Casting the body's rest aside, 
 My soul into the boughs does glide : 
 There like a bird it sits and sings, 
 There whets and claps its silver wings : 
 And till prepared for longer flight, 
 Waves in its plumes the various light. 
 
 Such was that happy garden state, 
 While man there walked without a mate : 
 After a place so pure and sweet, 
 What other help could yet be meet. 
 But 'twas beyond a mortal's share, 
 To wander solitary there ; 
 Two Paradises are in one, 
 To live in Paradise alone. 
 
 How well the skilful gardener drew, 
 
 Of flowers and herbs, this dial new f 
 
 Where from above the milder sun 
 
 Doe3 thro' a fragrant zodiac run. 
 
 And as it works, the industrious bee 
 
 Computes its time as well as we ; 
 
 How coul d such sweet and wholesome hours,. 
 
 Be reckoned but by herbs and flowers. 
 
 The following also has been much admired : — 
 
 A DROP OF DEW. 
 
 See how the orient dew, 
 Shed from the bosom of the morn, 
 Into the blowing roses, 
 Yet careless of its mansion new, 
 For the clear region where 'twas born, 
 Round in itself incloses ; 
 
ANDREW MAKVELL. 89 
 
 And in its little globes' extent, 
 Frames, as it can, its native element. 
 How it the purple flow'r does slight, 
 Scarce touching where it lys, 
 But gazing back upon the skys, 
 Shines with a mournful light ; 
 Like its own tear, 
 Because so long divided from the sphere ; 
 Restless it rolls, and unsecure, 
 Trembling, lest it grows impure ; 
 Till the warm sun pitys its pain, 
 And to the skys exhales it back again, 
 So the soul, that drop, that raj 7 ", 
 Of the clear fountain of eternal day ; 
 Could it within the human flow'r be seen, 
 
 Remembering still its former height, 
 Shuns the sweet leaves and blossoms green ; 
 
 And, recollecting its own light, 
 Does, in its pure and circling thoughts, express 
 The greater heaven in an heaven less. 
 In how coy a figure wound, 
 Every way it turns away ; 
 So the world excluding round, 
 
 Yet receiving in the day. 
 Dark beneath, but bright above ; 
 Here disdaining, there in love. 
 How loose and easy hence to go ; 
 How girt and ready to ascend ; 
 Moving but on a point below, 
 It all about does upward bend. 
 Such did the manna's sacred dew distil, 
 White and entire, although congealed and chill ; 
 Congeal'd on earth ; but does, dissolving, run 
 Into the glorys of th' almighty sun. 
 
90 ANDREW MAUVELL. 
 
 But then there was another source of in- 
 spiration in those days — Marvel I was in love ; 
 but the lady did not, it appears, return ins 
 affection. Love never flames indeed, until it 
 is reciprocated, — it depends for its intensity 
 upon mutual sympathy : the most precious 
 portion of love is in the sympathy of heart and 
 heart, and the winding of the bondage of 
 mutual hopes, and duties, and fears round the 
 pair ; — the absence of this is deplored in all 
 the amorous lyrics of our noet, and it must be 
 admitted, that they are among the sweetest 
 love poems in the language. There is no trace 
 to guide us to the knowledge of the lady — she 
 is an Incognito. Was it his pupil, the daugh- 
 ter of Lord Fairfax? The following lines 
 might colour this supposition : — 
 
 My love is of a birth as rare, 
 As 'tis for object strange and high ; 
 
 It was begotten by despair, 
 Upon Impossibility. 
 
 Magnanimous despair alone, 
 
 Could show me so divine a thing ; 
 
 When feeble Hope could ne'er have flown, 
 But vainly flapp'd its tinsel wing. 
 
 And yet I quickly might arrive — 
 Where my extended soul is fixed ; 
 
 But fate does iron wedges drive, 
 And always crowds itself bewixt. 
 
 As lines so loves oblique may well 
 Themselves in every angle great 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 91 
 
 But ours so truly parallel — 
 The infinite can never meet ! 
 
 Therefore the love which us doth bind, 
 
 But fate so enviously debars, — 
 Is the conjunction of the mind, 
 
 But opposition of the stars. 
 
 Or was it some humbler person? whoever she 
 was, it would seem, she was not ignorant of 
 MarvelTs attachment ; the verses we quoted 
 imply as much. From of old, it is no fable 
 that the poets have been unfortunate in their 
 loves. Sir Philip Sydney, the finest gentle- 
 man, in the truest sense, of his age ; poet, 
 soldier, scholar, and — more important than all 
 these — most pre-eminently handsome, was un- 
 successful ; — Milton, mournfully so, — Shak 
 spere, not much better, — Tasso, — Dante, — 
 Petrarch : to be a poet has been almost neces- 
 sarily doomed to disappointment ; yet Marvell 
 was a fine man, a wit, a scholar, — a gentleman 
 endowed with sensibility ; — the mystery is not 
 likely to be solved. Some of the verses are 
 extremely beautiful ; and many of the lines 
 in the following to his coy Mistress — almost 
 sublime, — 
 
 TO HIS COY MISTRESS. 
 
 Had we but world enough, and time, 
 This coyness, lady, were no crime. 
 We would sit down and think which way 
 To walk, and pass our long love's day. 
 Thou by the Indian Ganges' side 
 Should' st rubies find : I by the tide 
 
92 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 Of Humber would complain : I would 
 Love you ten year3 before the flood : 
 And you should, if you please, refuse 
 Till the conversion of the Jews. 
 My vegetable love should grow 
 Vaster than empires, and more slow. 
 An hundred years should go to praise 
 Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze ; 
 Two hundred to adore each breast ; 
 But thirty thousand to the rest. 
 An age at least to every part, 
 And the last age should shew your heart. 
 For, lady, you deserve this state ; 
 Nor would I love at lower rate. 
 
 But at my back I always hear 
 Time's winged chariot hurrying near ; 
 And yonder all before us lie 
 Deserts of vast eternity. 
 Thy beauty shall no more be found ; 
 Nor, m thy marble vault, shall sound 
 3fy echoing song : then worms shall try 
 That long-preserv'd virginity : 
 And your quaint honour turn to dust ; 
 And into ashes all my lust. 
 The grave's a fine and private place, 
 But none, I think, do there embrace. 
 
 Now, therefore, while the youthful hue 
 Sits on thy skin like morning dew, 
 And while thy willing soul transpires 
 At every pore with instant fires, 
 Now let us sport us as we may ; 
 And now, like am'rous birds of prey, 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 93 
 
 Rather at once our time devour, 
 
 Than languish in his slow chap'd power. 
 
 Let us roll all our strength, and all 
 
 Our sweetness up into one ball : 
 
 And tear our pleasures with rough strife, 
 
 Through the iron gates of life. 
 
 Thus, though we cannot make our sun 
 
 Stand still, yet we will make him run. 
 
 THE UNFORTUNATE LOYER. 
 
 I 
 
 Alas ! how pleasant are their days, 
 With whom the infant love yet plays ! 
 Sorted by pairs, they still are seen, 
 By fountains cool, and shadows green ; 
 But soon these flames do lose their light, 
 Like meteors of a summer's night ; 
 Nor can they to that region climb, 
 To make impression upon time. 
 'Twas in a shipwreck, when the seas 
 RuTd, and the winds did what they please 
 That my poor lover floating lay, 
 And, ere brought forth, was cast away 
 'Till at the last the master wave 
 Upon the rock his mother drave ; 
 And there she split against the stone, 
 In a Csesarian section. 
 The sea him lent these bitter tears, 
 "Which at his eyes he always bears 
 And from the winds the sighs he bore, 
 Which thro' his surging breast do roar. 
 No day he saw but that which breaks, 
 Thro' frighted clouds, in forked streaks 
 
94 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 While found the rattling thunder hurl'd, 
 As at the fun'ral of the world. 
 While nature to his birth presents 
 This masque of quarrelling elements, 
 A num'rous fleet of corm' rants black, 
 That sail'd insulting o'er the wreck, 
 Receiv'd into their cruel care, 
 Th' unfortunate and abject heir ; 
 Guardians most fit to entertain 
 The orphan of the hurricane. 
 They fed him up with hopes and air, 
 Which soon digested to despair, 
 And as one corm'rant fed him, still 
 Another on his heart did bill. 
 Thus, when they famish him, and feast, 
 He both consumed, and increas'd : 
 And languished with doubtful breath, 
 The amphibium of life and death. 
 And now, when angry heaven would 
 Behold a spectacle of blood, 
 Fortune and he are call'd to play 
 At sharp before it all the day ; 
 And tyrant Love his breast does ply 
 With all his wing'd artillery ; 
 Whilst he, betwixt the flames and waves, 
 Like Ajax, the mad tempest braves. 
 See how he nak'd and fierce does stand, 
 Cuffing the thunder with one hand ; 
 While with the other he does lock, 
 And grapple, with the stubborn rock ; 
 From which he with each wave rebounds, 
 Torn into flames, and ragg'd with wounds : 
 And all he says, a lover drest 
 In his own blood does relish best. 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 95 
 
 This is the only banneret, 
 That ever love created yet ; 
 Who, tho' by the malignant stars, 
 Forced to live in storms and wars ; 
 Yet dying, leaves a perfume here, 
 And music within every ear : 
 And he in story only rules, 
 In a field sable, a lover gules, 
 
 THE GALLEKY. 
 
 Chlora, come view my soul, and tell 
 Whether I have contriv'd it well. 
 How all its several lodgings lye, 
 Compos' d into one gallery ; 
 And the great arras-hangings, made 
 Of various faces, by are laid ; 
 That, for all furniture, you'll find 
 Only your picture in my mind. 
 Here thou art painted in the dress 
 Of an inhuman murtheress ; 
 Examining upon our hearts, 
 Thy fertile shop of cruel arts ; 
 Engines more keen than ever yet 
 Adorn'd a tyrant's cabinet ; 
 Of which the most tormenting are, 
 Black eyes, red lips, and curled hair. 
 But, on the other side, th* art drawn, 
 Like to Aurora in the dawn ; 
 When in the east she slumb'ring lyes, 
 And stretches out her milky thighs ; 
 While all the morning quire does sing, 
 And Manna falls and roses spring ; 
 
86 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 And, st thy feet, the wooing doves 
 
 Sit perfecting their harmless loves. 
 
 Like an enchantress here thou show'st, 
 
 Vexing thy restless lover's ghost ; 
 
 And, by a light obscure, dost rave 
 
 Over his entrails, in the cave ; 
 
 Divining thence, with horrid care, 
 
 How long thou shalt continue fair ; 
 
 And (when inform' d) them throw' st away, 
 
 To be the greedy vulture's prey. 
 
 But, against that, thou sitt'st afloat, 
 
 Like Venus in her pearly boat ; 
 
 The halcyons, calming all that's nigh, 
 
 Betwixt the air and water fly. 
 
 Or, if some rowling wave appears, 
 
 A mass of ambergrease it bears. 
 
 Nor blows more wind than what may well 
 
 Convoy the perfume to the smell. 
 
 These pictures, and a thousand more, 
 
 Of thee, my gallery do store, 
 
 In all the forms thou can'st invent, 
 
 Either to please me, or torment ; 
 
 For thou alone, to people me, 
 
 Art grown a num'rous colony ; 
 
 And a collection choicer far 
 
 Than or Whitehall's, or Mantua's were. 
 
 But of these pictures, and the rest, 
 
 That at the entrance likes me best, 
 
 Where the same posture, and the look 
 
 Remains, with which I first was took 
 
 A tender shepherdess, whose hair 
 
 Hangs loosely playing in the air, . 
 
 Transplanting flow'rs from the green hill, 
 
 To crown her head, and bosom fill. 
 
ANDREW MARVRLL. 97 
 
 THE FAIR SINGER. 
 
 To make a final conquest of all me, 
 
 Love did compose so sweet an enemy, 
 
 In whom both beauties to my death agree, 
 
 Joining themselves in fatal harmony ; 
 
 That, while she with her eyes my heart does bind, 
 
 She with her voice might captivate my mind. 
 
 I could have fled from one but singly fair ; 
 My disintangled soul itself might save, 
 BreakiDg the curled trammels of her hair ; 
 But how should I avoid to be her slave, 
 Whose subtle art invisibly can wreathe 
 My fetters of the very air I breathe ? 
 
 It had been easy fighting on some plain, 
 Where victory might hang in equal choice ; 
 But all resistance against her is vain, 
 Who has the advantage both of eyes and voice 
 And all my forces needs must be undone, 
 She having gained both wind and sun, 
 
 THE MATCH. 
 
 Nature had long a treasure made, 
 
 Of all her choicest store : 
 Fearing when she should be decay 'd, 
 
 To beg in vain for more. 
 
 Her oriental colours there, 
 
 And essences most pure, 
 With sweetest perfumes hoarded were, 
 
 All, as she thought, secure. 
 F 
 
98 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 She seldom them unlocked or us'd, 
 But with the nicest care, 
 
 For, with one grain of them diffus'd, 
 She could the world repair. 
 
 But likeness soon together drew, 
 What she did separate lay ; 
 
 Of which one perfect beauty grew, 
 And that was Celia. 
 
 Love wisely had of long foreseen, 
 That he must once grow old ; 
 
 And therefore stor'd a magazine, 
 To save him from the cold. 
 
 He kept the several cells complete 
 
 With nitre thrice refin'd ; 
 The naptha's and the sulphur's heat, 
 
 And all that burns the mind. 
 
 He fortified the double gate, 
 
 And rarely thither came ; 
 For, with one spark of these, he straight 
 
 All nature could inflame. 
 
 Till, by vicinity so long, 
 
 A nearer way they sought ; 
 And, grown magnetically strong, 
 
 Into each other wrought. 
 
 Thus all his fewel did unite 
 
 To make one fire high : 
 None ever burn'd so hot, so bright : 
 
 And, Celia, that am I. 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 99 
 
 So we alone the happy rest, 
 
 Whilst all the world is poor, • 
 And have within ourselves possess'd 
 
 All love's and nature's store. 
 
 THE MOWER AGAINST GARDENS. 
 
 Luxurious man, to bring his vice in use, 
 
 Did after him the world seduce ; 
 And from the fields the flowers and plants allure, 
 
 Where nature was most plain and pure. 
 He first enclos'd within the gardens square 
 
 A dead and standing pool of air ; 
 And a more luscious earth from them did knead, 
 
 Which stupify'd them while it fed. 
 The pink grew then as double a3 his mind ; 
 
 The nutriment did change the kind. 
 With strange perfumes he did the roses taint ; 
 
 And flowers themselves were taught to paint. 
 The tulip white did for complexion seek ; 
 
 And learn' d to interline its cheek : 
 Its union root they then so high did hold, 
 
 That one was for a meadow sold. 
 Another world was search' d through oceans new, 
 
 To find the marble of Peru. 
 And yet these rarity s might be allow' d, 
 
 To man, that sov'reign thing and proud ; 
 Had he not dealt between the bark and tree, 
 
 Forbidden mixtures there to see. 
 No plant now knew the stock from which it came 
 
 He grafts upon the wild the tame ; 
 That the uncertain and adult' rate fruit 
 
 Might put the palate in dispute. 
 
100 ANDREW MARVELL, 
 
 His green seraglio has it eunuchs too ; 
 
 Lest any tyrant him out-do. 
 And in the cherry he does nature vex, 
 
 To procreate without a sex. 
 'Tis all enforc'd; the fountain, and the grot ; 
 
 While the sweet fields do lye forgot : 
 Where willing nature does to all dispense 
 
 A wild and fragrant innocence ; 
 And Fauns and fairies do the meadows till, 
 
 More by their presence than their skill. 
 Their statues, polish' d by some ancient hand, 
 
 May to adorn the gardens stand : 
 But howsoe'er the figures do excel, 
 
 The Gods themselves with us do dwell. 
 
 DAMON THE MOWEK. 
 
 Hark how the Mower Damon sung, 
 With love of Juliana stung ! 
 While ev'ry thing did seem to paint 
 The scene more fit for his complaint. 
 Like her fair eyes the day was fair ; 
 But scorching like his am'rous care. 
 Sharp, like his scythe, his sorrow was, 
 And wither'd, like his hopes, the grass. 
 
 Oh what unusual heats are here, 
 Which thus our sun-burn' d meadows fear ! 
 The grass-hopper its pipe gives o'er ; 
 And hamstring' d frogs can dance no more ; 
 But in the brook the green frog wades ; 
 And grass-hoppers seek out the shades. 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 101 
 
 Only the snake, that kept within, 
 Now glitters in its second skin. 
 
 This heat the sun could never raise, 
 Nor dog-star inflame the days ; 
 It from an higher beauty grow'th, 
 Which burns the fields and mower both 
 Which makes the dog, and makes the sun 
 Hotter than his own Phoeton. 
 Not July causeth these extremes, 
 But Juliana's scorching beams. 
 
 Tell me where I may pass the fires 
 Of the hot day, or hot desires. 
 To what cool cave shall I descend, 
 Or to what gelid fountain bend ? 
 Alas ! I look for ease in vain, 
 WTien remedys themselves complain, 
 No moisture but my tears do rest, 
 Nor cold but in her icy breast. 
 
 How long wilt thou, fair shepherdess, 
 Esteem me and my presents less ? 
 To thee the harmless snake I bring, 
 Disarmed of its teeth and sting. 
 To thee chameleons, changing-hue, 
 And oak leaves tip with honey dew. 
 Yet thou ungrateful hast not sought 
 What they are, nor who them brought. 
 
 I am the mower .Damon, knowji_ 
 Through all the meadows I have mown. 
 On me the morn her dew distils 
 Before her darling daffodils. 
 And, if at noon my toil me heat, 
 The sun himself licks off my sweat ; 
 
]02 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 While going home the evening sweet 
 
 In cowslip -water baths my feet. 
 
 What though the piping shepherd stock 
 
 The plains with an unnumberd flock, 
 
 This scythe of mine discovers wide 
 
 More ground than all his sheep do hide. 
 
 With this the golden fleece I shear 
 
 Of all these closes ev'ry year, 
 
 And though in wool more poor than they, 
 
 Yet am I richer far in hay. 
 
 Nor am I so deform' d to fight, 
 If in ray scythe I looked right ; 
 In which I see my picture done, 
 As in a crescent moon the sun. 
 The deathless fairys take me oft 
 To lead them in their dances soft : 
 And when I tune myself to sing, 
 About me they contract their ring. 
 
 How happy might I still have mow'd, 
 Had not Love here his thistle sow'd ! 
 But now I all the day complain, 
 Joining my labour to my pain ; 
 And with my scythe cut down the grass, 
 Yet still my grief is where it was ; 
 But when the iron blunter grows, 
 Sighing I whet my scythe and woes. 
 
 While thus he drew his elbow round, 
 Depopulating all the ground, 
 And, with his whistling scythe, does cut 
 Each stroke between the earth and root, 
 The edged steel, by careless chance, 
 Did into his own ankle glance ; 
 And there among the grass fell down, 
 By his own ecythe the mower mown 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 103 
 
 Alas ! said he, these hurts are slight 
 To those that dye by love's despight. 
 With shepherd' s-purse, and clowns-all-heal, 
 The blood I stanch and wound I seaL 
 Only for him no cure is found, 
 Whom Juliana's eyes do wound. 
 9 Tis death alone that this must do ; 
 For Death thou art a Mower too. 
 
 THE MOWER TO THE GLOW WORMS. 
 
 Ye living lamps, by whose dear light 
 The nightingale does sit so late, 
 And studying all the summer night, 
 Her matchless songs meditate : 
 
 Ye country comets, that porfcend 
 No war, nor prince's funeral, 
 Shining unto no other end 
 Than to presage the grass's fall. 
 
 Ye Glow-worms, whose officious flame 
 To wandering mowers shows the way, 
 That in the night have lost their aim, 
 And after foolish fires do stray ; 
 
 Your courteous lights in vain you waste, 
 Since Juliana here is come, 
 For she my mind hath so displac'd, 
 That I shall never find my home. 
 
104 ANDREW MARVELL, 
 
 THE MOWER'S SONG. 
 
 My mind was once the true survey 
 
 Of all these meadows fresh and gay • 
 And in the greenness of the grass 
 
 Did see its hopes as in a glass ; 
 When Juliana came, and she, 
 
 What I do to the grass, does to my thoughts and me. 
 
 But these, while I with sorrow pine, 
 
 Grew more luxuriant still and fine : 
 That not one blade of grass you spy'd, 
 
 But had a flower on either side ; 
 When Juliana came, and she, 
 
 What I do to the grass, does to my thoughts and me. 
 
 Unthankful meadows, could y:m so 
 
 A fellowship so true forego, 
 And in your gaudy May -games meet, 
 
 While I lay trodden under feet ? 
 When Juliana came, and she, 
 
 What I do to the grass, does to my thoughts and me. 
 
 But what you in compassion ought, 
 
 Shall now By my revenge be wrought ; 
 And flow'rs, and grass, And I, and all, 
 
 Will "in one common ruin fall • 
 For Juliana comes, and she, 
 
 What I do to the grass, does ta my thoughts and me, 
 
 And thus, ye meadows, which have been 
 Companions of my thoughts more green, 
 
 Shall now the heraldry become 
 
 With which I shall adorn my tomb ; 
 
 For Juliana comes, and she, 
 
 What I do to the grass, does to my thoughts and me. 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 105 
 
 AM ETAS AND THESTYLIS MAKING HAY-ROPES, 
 
 Think'st though that this love can stand, 
 Whilst thou still dost say me nay ? 
 
 Love unpaid does soon disband : 
 Love binds love, as hay binds hay. 
 
 THESTYLIS. 
 
 Think'st thou that this rope would twine, 
 If we both should turn one way ? 
 
 Where both party s so combine, 
 Neither love will twist, nor hay. 
 
 Thus you vain excuses find, 
 Which yourself and us delay : 
 
 And love tyes a woman's mind, 
 Looser than with ropes of hay. 
 
 THESTYLIS. 
 
 What you cannot constant hope 
 Must be taken as you may. 
 
 AMETAS. 
 
 Then let's both lay by our rope, 
 
 And go kiss within the hay. 
 F 2 
 
106 ANDREW MAE V ELL. 
 
 The following fanciful and ingenious " Dia- 
 logue between Soul and Body? is well known 
 as the original of several quaint and witty 
 imitations : — 
 
 who shall from this dungeon raise 
 A soul enslav'd so many ways ? 
 With bolts and bones, that fetter' d stands 
 In feet, and manacled in hands. 
 Here blinded with an eye, and there 
 Deaf with the drumming of an ear, 
 A soul hung up, as 'twere, in chains 
 Of nerves, and arteries, and veins. 
 Tortur'd, besides each other part, 
 In a vain head, and double heart. 
 
 BODY. 
 
 who shall me deliver whole, 
 From bonds of this tyrannic soul ? 
 Which stretch'd upright, impales me so, 
 That mine own precipice I go ; 
 And warms and moves this needless frame ; 
 (A fever could but do the same.) 
 And, wanting where its spite to try, 
 Has made me live to let me die. 
 A body that could never rest, 
 Since this ill spirit it possess' d. 
 
 SOUL. 
 
 What magic could me thu3 confine 
 Within another's grief to pine ? 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 107 
 
 Where, whatsoever it complain, 
 I feel, that cannot feel, the pain. 
 And all my care itself employs, 
 That to preserve which me destroys 
 Constraint not only to endure 
 Diseases, but what's worse, the cure 
 And ready oft the port to gain, 
 And shipwreck'd into health again, 
 
 But physic yet could never reach 
 The maladies thou dost me teach ; 
 Whom first the cramp of hope does tear 
 And then the palsy shakes of fear. 
 The pestilence of love doth heat, 
 Or hatred's hidden ulcer eat. 
 Joy's cheerful madness does perplex ; 
 Or sorrow's other madness vex. 
 Which knowledge forces me to know ; 
 And memory will not forego. 
 What but a soul could have the wit 
 To build me up for sin so fit ? 
 So architects do square and hew 
 Green trees that in the forest grew. 
 
 A DIALOGUE BETWEEN THE RESOLVED SOUL, 
 AND CREATED PLEASURE. 
 
 Coubage, my soul, now learn to wield 
 The weight of thine immortal shield. 
 Close on thy head thy helmet bright ; 
 Balance thy sword against the fight. 
 See where an army, strong as fair, 
 With silken banners spread the air, 
 
108 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 Now, if thou be'st that thing divine, 
 In this day's combat let it shine 
 And shew that nature wants an art 
 To conquer one resolved heart. 
 
 PLEASURE. 
 
 Welcome the creation's suesij 
 Lord of earth, and heaven's heir ; 
 
 Lay aside that warlike crest, 
 And of nature's banquet share 
 
 Where the souls of fruits and flowers 
 
 Stand prepar'd to heighten yours. 
 
 I sup above, and cannot stay, 
 To bait so long upon the way. 
 
 PLEASURE. 
 
 On these downy pillows lie, 
 Whose soft plumes will thither fly 
 On these roses, strew'd so plain, 
 Lest one leaf thy side should strain. 
 
 My gentle rest is on a thought, 
 Conscious of doing what I ought. 
 
 PLEASURE. 
 
 If thou be'st with perfumes pleas' d, 
 Such as oft the gods appeas'd, 
 Thou in fragrant clouds shall show, 
 Like another god below. 
 
ANDREW MAHVELL. 109 
 
 SOUL. 
 
 A soul that knows not to presume. 
 Is heaven's, and its own, perfume. 
 
 PLEASURE. 
 
 Every thing does seem to vie 
 Which should first attract thine eye : 
 But, since none deserves that grace, 
 In this crystal view thy face. 
 
 SOUL. 
 
 When the Creator's skill is priz'd, 
 The rest is all but earth disguis'd. 
 
 PLEASURE. 
 
 Hark ! how music then prepares, 
 For thy stay, these charming airs ; 
 Which the posting winds recall, 
 And suspend the river's fall. 
 
 Had I but any time to lose, 
 
 On this I would it all dispose. 
 
 Cease, tempter. None can chain a mind, 
 
 Whom this sweet cordage cannot bind. 
 
 -CHORUS. 
 
 Earth cannot shew so brave a sight, 
 As when a single soul does fence 
 The batt'ry of alluring sense ; 
 
 And heaven views it with delight. 
 
110 ANDREW MARVELX. 
 
 Then persevere ; for still new charges sound; 
 And, if thou overcom'st, thou shalt be crown- d, 
 
 PLEASURE. 
 
 All that's costly, fair, and sweet, 
 Which scatteringly doth shine,, 
 
 Shall within one beauty meet, 
 And she be only thine* 
 
 SOUL. 
 
 If things of sight such heavens be, 
 What heavens are those we cannot see 
 
 PLEASURE. 
 
 Whereso'er thy foot shall go 
 
 The minted gold shall lie ; 
 Till thou purchase all below, 
 
 And want new worlds to buy. 
 
 Wer't not for price, who'd value gold ? 
 And that's worth nought that can be sold. 
 
 PLEASURE. 
 
 Wilt thou all glory have 
 
 That war or peace commend ? 
 
 Half the world shall be thy slave* 
 The other half thy friend. 
 
 SOUL. 
 
 What friends, if to myself untrue 
 What slaves, unless I captive you f 
 
ANDREW MAEVELL. Ill 
 
 PLEASUEE. 
 
 Thou shalt know each hidden cause ; 
 
 And see the future time : 
 Try what depth the centre draws ; 
 
 And then to heaven climb. 
 
 SOUL. 
 
 None thither mounts by the degree 
 Of knowledge, but humility. 
 
 CHORUS. 
 
 Triumph, triumph, victorious soul ! 
 
 The world has not one pleasure more : 
 The rest does lie beyond the pole, 
 
 And is thine everlasting store. 
 
 Our readers will, perhaps, think they have 
 been too long detained with these extracts ; 
 but most of them are not only truly beautiful, 
 but nearly a hundred years have elapsed since 
 they have been printed in any shape. They 
 exhibit only, however, one side of our author's 
 sensibility. There were far more serious 
 objects presented to his thought ; not merely 
 the light forms of beauty — the inspiration 
 of the garden — and the affections of sympathy 
 and love. Perhaps these conducted him 
 into a loftier region of thought — the struggles 
 of our inner, with our outer, nature, — these 
 were the subjects of his verse — the region of the 
 passions. The war of the spirit — against the 
 flesh ; — the contest of ignoble and servile prin- 
 ciples with lofty hopes and anticipations. We 
 
112 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 are pleased, too, to perceive his writings not 
 wanting in those thoughts which wear more 
 definitely the stamp of religious experience as 
 in the following, called : — 
 
 THE CORONET. 
 
 When with the thorns with which I long, too long, 
 With many a piercing wound, 
 My Saviour's head have crown' d, 
 I seek with garlands to redress that wrong ; 
 Through every garden, every mead, 
 I gather flow'rs (my fruits are only flow'rs) 
 Dismantling all the fragrant towers 
 That once adorn' d my shepherdess's head. 
 And now, when I have summ'd up all my store, 
 Thinking (so I myself deceive) 
 So rich a chaplet thence to weave 
 As never yet the King of Glory wore ; 
 Alas ! I find the Serpent old, 
 Twining in his speckled breast, 
 About the flow'rs disguis'd does fold, 
 With wreaths of fame and interest. 
 Ah, foolish man, that would' st debase with them, 
 And mortal glory, Heaven's diadem ! 
 But thou who only could'st the Serpent tame, 
 Either his slipp'ry knots at once untie, 
 And disintangle all his winding snare ; 
 Or shatter too with him my curious frame ; 
 And let these wither so that he may die, 
 Though set with skill, and chosen out with care. 
 That they, while thou on both their spoils dost tread, 
 May crown thy feet, that could not crown thy head. 
 
AN'DREW MARVELL. US 
 
 REMONSTRANCE AGAINST CRUELTY. 
 
 Why should man's high aspiring mind 
 
 Burn in him with so proud a breath, 
 When all his haughty views can find 
 
 In this world, yields to Death ? 
 The fair, the brave, the vain, the wise, 
 
 The rich, the poor, and great, and small,. 
 Are each but worms' anatomys, 
 
 To strew his quiet halL 
 
 Power may make many earthly gods, 
 
 Where gold and bribery's guilt prevails, 
 But Death's unwelcome honest odds 
 
 Kicks o'er the unequal scales. 
 The flatter' d great may clamours raise 
 
 Of power, and their own weakness hide, 
 But Death shall find unlooked-for ways 
 
 To end the farce of pride. 
 
 An arrow, hurtel'd ere so high 
 
 From e'en a giant's sinewy strength, 
 In Time's un traced eternity, 
 
 Goes but a pigmy length. 
 Nay, whirring from the tortured stringy 
 
 With all its pomp of hurried flight, 
 'Tis by the skylark's little wing 
 
 Outmeasured in its height. 
 
 Just so man's boasted strength and power 
 Shall fade, before Death's lightest stroke ; 
 
 Laid lower than the meanest flower 
 Whose pride o'ertopt the oak. 
 
114 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 And he who, like a blighting blast, 
 Dispeopled worlds with war's alarms, 
 
 Shall be himself destroyed at last 
 By poor despised worms. 
 
 Tyrants in vain their powers secure, 
 
 And awe slaves' murmurs with a frown ; 
 But unawed Death at last is sure 
 
 To sap the Babels down. 
 A stone thrown upward to the skye 
 
 Will quickly meet the ground agen ; 
 So men-gods of earth's vanity 
 
 Shall drop at last to men ; 
 
 And power and pomp their all resign, 
 
 Blood-purchased thrones and banquet halls. 
 Fate waits to seek Ambition's shrine 
 
 As bare as prison walls, 
 Where the poor suffering wretch bows down 
 
 To laws a lawless power hath past ; 
 And pride, and power, and king, and clown, 
 
 Shall be Death's slaves at last. 
 
 Time, the prime minister of I^e„ath, \ 
 
 There's nought can bribe his will ; 
 He stops the richest tyrant's breath, 
 
 And lays his mischief still : 
 Each wicked scheme for power all stops, 
 
 With grandeurs false and mock display, 
 As eve's shades from high mountain tops, 
 
 Fade with the rest away. 
 
 Death levels all things in his march, 
 Nought can resist his mighty strength ; 
 
 The palace proud, triumphal arch, 
 Shall mete their shadows' length ; 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 135 
 
 The rich, the poor, one common bed 
 
 Shall find in the unhonour'd grave, 
 "Where weeds shall crown alike the head 
 
 Of tyrant and of slave. 
 
 One of the pleasantest of MarvelPs poems, is 
 his character of Holland. It is pregnant 
 vritb wit, and though long, we shall quolo Uie 
 greater part of it : — 
 
 THE CHARACTER OF HOLLAND. 
 
 Holland, that scarce deserves the name of land, 
 As but th' the off-scouring of the British sand ; 
 And so much earth as was contributed 
 By English pilots when they heav'd the lead ; 
 Or what by th' ocean's slow alluvion fell, 
 Of shipwreck' d cockle and the muscle shell ; 
 This indigested vomit of the sea 
 Fell to the Dutch by just propriety. 
 
 Glad, then, as miners who have found the ore, 
 They, with mad labour, fish'd the land to shore ; 
 And div'd as desperately for each piece 
 Of earth, as if't had been of ambergris ; 
 Collecting anxiously small loads of clay, 
 Less than what building swallows bear away, 
 Or than those pills which sordid beetles roll, 
 Transfusing into them their dunghill soul. 
 
 How did they rivet with gigantic piles, 
 Through the centre their new-catched miles ! 
 
116 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 And to the stake a struggling country bound, 
 Where barking waves still bait the forced ground ; 
 Building their watery Babel far more high 
 To reach the sea, than those to scale the sky. 
 
 Yet still his claim the injur'd ocean lay'd, 
 And oft at leap-frog o'er their steeples play'd ; 
 As if on purpose it on land had come 
 To shew them what's their mare liberum. 
 A daily deluge over them does boil ; 
 The earth and water play at level coil. 
 The fish oft times the burgher dispossess' d, 
 And sat, not as a meat, but as a guest ; 
 And oft the Tritons, and the sea-nymphs, saw 
 Whole shoals of Dutch serv'd up for Cabillau ; 
 Or, as they over the new level rang'd 
 For pickled herring, pickled herring chang'd. 
 Mature, it seem'd, asham'd of her mistake, 
 Would throw their land away at duck and drake, 
 Therefore necessity that first made kings, 
 Something like government among them brings. 
 For, as with pigmies, who best kills the crane, 
 Among the hungry he that treasures grain, 
 Among the blind the one-ey'd blinkard reigns, 
 So rules among the drowned he that drains. 
 Not who first see the rising sun commands : 
 But who could first discern the rising lands. 
 Who best could know to pump an earth so leak, 
 Him they their Lord, and Country s father, speak. 
 To make a bank, was a great plot of state ; 
 Invent a shov'l, and be a magistrate. 
 Hence some small dike grave, unperceiv'd, invades 
 The pow'r, and grows, as 'twere, a king of spades ; 
 But, for less envy some join'd states endures, 
 Who look like a commission of the sewers : 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 117 
 
 For these Halfanders, half wet, and half dry, 
 Nor bear strict service, nor pure liberty. 
 
 Tis probable religion, after this, 
 Came next in order ; which they could not miss. 
 How could the Dutch but be converted, when 
 Th' Apostles were so many fishermen ; I » 
 
 Besides, the waters of themselves did rise, 
 And, as their land, so them did re -baptise ; 
 Tho' herring for their God few voices miss'd, 
 And Poor-John to have been th' Evangelist. 
 Faith, that could never twins conceive before, 
 Never so fertile, spawn' d upon this shore 
 More pregnant than their Marg'ret, that lay'd down 
 For Hans-in-Kelder of a whole Hans-Town. 
 
 Sure when Religion did itself embark, 
 And from the east would westward steer its ark, 
 It struck, and splitting on this unkn own ground, 
 Each one thence pillag'd the first piece he found : 
 Hence Amsterdam, Turk- Christian-Pagan- Jew, 
 Staple of sects, and mint of schism grew ; 
 That bank of conscience, where not one so strange 
 Opinion but finds credit, and exchange. 
 In vain for Catholics ourselves we bear ; 
 The universal church is only there. 
 Nor can civility there want for tillage, 
 Where wisely for their court they chose a village. 
 How fit a title cloaths their governors, 
 Themselves the hogs, as all their subjects boars ! 
 
 Let it suffice to give their country fame, 
 That it had one Civilis call'd by name, 
 Some fifteen hundred and more years ago ; 
 But surely never any that was so. 
 
118 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 See but their mermaids, with their tails of fish, 
 
 Reeking at church over the chasing-dish. 
 
 A vestal turf, enshrin'd in earthenware, 
 
 Fumes thro' the loop-holes of a wooden square. 
 
 Each to the temple with these altars tend, 
 
 But still does place it at her western end ; 
 
 While the fat steam of female sacrifice 
 
 Fills the priest s nostrils, and puts out his eyes. 
 ***** 
 
 And now again our armed Bucentore 
 Doth yearly their sea nuptials restore ; 
 And now the Hydra of seven provinces 
 Is strangled by our infant Hercules. 
 Their tortoise wants its vainly stretched neck ; 
 Their navy, all our conquest, or our wreck ; 
 Or, what is left, their Carthage overcome, 
 Would render fain unto our better Home ; 
 Unless our senate, lest their youth disuse 
 The war, (but who would) peace, if beg'd, refuse. 
 For now of nothing may our state despair, 
 Darling of heaven, and of men the care ; 
 Provided that they be what they have been, 
 Watchful abroad, and honest still within ! 
 For while our Neptune doth a trident shake, 
 Steel' d with those piercing heads, Dean, Monck, and 
 
 Blake, 
 And while Jove governs in the highest sphere, 
 Vainly in hell let Pluto domineer. 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 119 
 
 BRITANNIA AND RALEIGH. 
 
 BRITANNIA. 
 
 Ah ! Raleigh, when thou didst thy breath resign 
 To trembling James, would I had quitted mine ! 
 "Cubs," didst thou call them? Had'st thou seen this 
 
 brood 
 Of Earls and Dukes, and Princes of the blood ; 
 No more of Scottish race thou would'st complain, 
 Those would be blessings in this spurious reign. 
 Awake, arise, from thy long bless' d repose, 
 Once more with me partake of mortal woes. 
 
 BALEIGH. 
 
 What mighty power has forced me from my rest ? 
 Oh ! mighty queen, why so untimely dress'd ? 
 
 BRITANNIA. 
 
 Favour'd by night, conceal' d in this disguise, 
 Whilst the lewd court in drunken slumber lies, 
 I stole away, and never will return, 
 Till England knows who did her city burn ; 
 Till Cavaliers shall favourites be deem'd, 
 And loyal sufferers by the court esteem'd ; 
 Till Leigh and Galloway* shall bribes reject ; 
 Thus Osborne's golden cheat I shall detect : 
 
 * Leigh and Galloway were suspected to be bribed by 
 the Earl of Danby, to vote with the Court. 
 
120 ANDREW MAKVELL. 
 
 Till atheist Laudeedale shall leave this land, 
 
 And Commons' votes shall cut-nose guards disband ; 
 
 Till Kate a happy mother shall become 
 
 Till Chaeles loves Parliaments, and James hates Rome. 
 
 What fatal crimes make you for ever fly 
 Your once loved court, and Martyr's progeny ? 
 
 BEITANNIA. 
 
 A colony of French possess' d the court ; 
 
 Pimps, priests, buffoons, in privy-chamber sport. 
 
 Such slimy monsters ne'er approach'd a throne 
 
 Since Pharoah's days, nor so defiled a crown. 
 
 In sacred ear tyrannic arts they croak, 
 
 Pervert his mind, and good intentions choak ; 
 
 Tell him of golden India's fairy lands, 
 
 Leviathan, and absolute commands. 
 
 Thus, fairy-like, they steal the King away, 
 
 And in his room a changeling Louis lay. 
 
 How oft have I him to himself restored, 
 
 In's left the scale, in's right hand placed the sword ! 
 
 Taught him their use, what dangers would ensue 
 
 To them who strive to separate these two ; 
 
 The bloody Scottish chronicle read o'er, 
 
 Show'd him how many Kings in purple gore 
 
 Were hurl'd to hell by cruel tyrant Lore ? 
 
 The other day famed Spensee I did bring, 
 In lofty notes Tudor s bless'd race to sing ; 
 How Spain's proud powers her virgin arms controll'd, 
 And golden days in peaceful order roll'd ; 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 121 
 
 How like ripe fruit she dropp'd from off her throne, 
 Full of grey hairs, good deeds, and great renown. 
 As the Jessean hero did appease 
 Saul's stormy rage, and stopp'd his black disease, 
 So the learn' d bard, with artful song, suppress'd 
 The swelling passion of his canker' d breast, 
 And in his heart kind influences shed 
 Of country's love, by truth and justice bred. 
 Then to perform the cure so well begun, 
 To him I show'd this glorious setting sun ; 
 How, by her people's looks pursued from far, 
 She mounted on a bright celestial ear, 
 Outshining Virgo or the Julian star. 
 Whilst in Truth s mirror this good scene he spied, 
 Enter' d a dame bedeck'd with spotted pride : 
 Fair flower-de-luce within an azure field 
 Her left hand bears the ancient Gallic shield 
 By her usurp'd ; her right a bloody sword, 
 Inscribed "Leviathan our Sovereign Lord;" 
 Her towery front a fiery meteor bears, 
 An exhalation bred of blood and tears. 
 Around her Jove's lewd ravenous curs eomplain, 
 Pale Death, lust, tortures fill her pompous train ; 
 She from the easy King Truth's mirror took, 
 And on the ground in spiteful fall it broke ; 
 Then frowning thus, with proud disdain she spoke : 
 "Are thread-bare virtues ornaments for Kings ? 
 Such poor pedantic toys teach underlings. 
 Do monarchs rise by virtue, or by sword ? 
 Who e'er grew great by keeping of his word ? 
 Virtue's a faint green-sickness to brave souls, 
 Dastards their hearts, their active heat controls. 
 The rival gods, monarchs of t' other world, 
 This mortal poison among princes hurl'd ; 
 Fearing the mighty projects of the great 
 G 
 
122 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 Should drive them from their proud celestial seat, 
 
 If not o'erawed by this new holy cheat. 
 
 These pious frauds, too slight t' ensnare the brave, 
 
 Are proper arts the long-ear' d rout t' enslave. 
 
 Bribe hungry priests to deify your might, 
 
 To teach your will's your only rule to right, 
 
 And sound damnation to all dare deny't. 
 
 Thus heaven's designs against heaven you shall turn, 
 
 And make them feel those powers they once did scorn. 
 
 When all the gobbling interest of mankind, 
 
 By hirelings sold, to you shall be resign'd : 
 
 And by impostures God and man betray' d, 
 
 The church and state you safely may invade ; 
 
 So boundless Louis in fully glory shines, 
 
 Whilst your starved power in legal fetters pines. 
 
 Shake off those baby-bands from your strong arms, 
 
 Henceforth be deaf to that old witch's charms. 
 
 'Taste the delicious sweets of sovereign power, 
 
 Tis royal game whole kingdoms to deflower. 
 
 Three spotless virgins to your bed I'll bring, 
 
 A sacrifice to you, their God, and King. 
 
 As these grow stale, we'll harass human kind, 
 
 Rack nature, till new pleasures you shall find, 
 
 Strong as your reign, and beauteous as your mind." 
 
 When she had spoke, a confused murmur rose, 
 Of French, Scotch, Irish, all my mortal foes ; 
 Some English too ! shame ! disguised I spied 
 Led all by the wise son-in-law of Hyde. 
 With fury drunk, like Bacchanals they roar, 
 a Down with that common Magna-Charta whore !" 
 With joint consent on helpless me they flew, 
 And from my Charles to a base gaol me drew ; 
 My reverend age, exposed to scorn and shame, 
 To prigs, bawds, whores, was made the public game. 
 
ANDREW MATtVELL. 123 
 
 Frequent addresses to my Charles I send, 
 
 And my sad state did to his care commend ; 
 
 But his fair soul, transform'd by that French dame, 
 
 Had lost all sense of honour, justice, fame. 
 
 He in's seraglio like a spinster sits, 
 
 Besieged by w — — s, buffoons, and bastard chits ; 
 
 Lull'd in security, rolling in lust, 
 
 Resigns his crown to angel CarwelVs trust ; 
 
 Her creature, Obsorne, the revenue steak ; 
 
 False, French knave, Anglesey misguides the seals, 
 
 Mac-James the Irish bigots do adore, 
 
 His French and Teague command on sea and shore. 
 
 The Scotch-scalado of our court's two isles, 
 
 False Lauderdale, with ordure all denies. 
 
 Thus the state's night-mared by this hellish rout, 
 
 And no one left these furies to cast out. 
 
 Ah ! Vindex, come and purge the poison' d state ; 
 
 Descend, descend, e'er the cure's desperate. 
 
 Once more, great Queen, thy darling strive to save, 
 Snatch him again from scandal and the grave ; 
 Present to's thoughts his long-scorn'd Parliament, 
 The basis of his throne and government. 
 In his deaf ears sound his dead father's name ; 
 Perhaps that spell may's erring soul reclaim ; 
 Who knows what good effects from thence may spring ? 
 'Tis god-like good to save a falling King. 
 
 BRITANNIA. 
 
 Raleigh, no more, for long in vain I've tried 
 The Stuart from the tyrant to divide; 
 As easily learned virtuosos may 
 With the dog's blood his gentle kind convey 
 
124 ANDREW MATIVELL. 
 
 Into the wolf, and make him guardian turn 
 To th* bleating flock, by him so lately torn. 
 If this imperial juice once taint his blood, 
 'Tis by no potent antidote withstood. 
 Tyrants, like leprous Kings, for public weal 
 Should be immured, lest the contagion steal 
 Over the whole. Th' elect of th' Jessean line 
 To this firm law their sceptre did resign : 
 And shall this base tyrannic brood invade 
 Eternal laws, by God for mankind made ? 
 To the serene Venetian state I'll go, 
 From her sage mouth famed principles to know, 
 With her the prudence of the ancients read, 
 To teach my people in their steps to tread ; 
 By their great pattern such a state I'll frame, 
 Shall eternize a glorious lasting name. 
 
 Till then, my Raleigh, teach our noble youth 
 To love sobriety^ and holy truths 
 Watch and preside over their tender age, 
 Lest court-corruption should their souls engage. 
 Teach them how arts and arms, in thy young days, 
 Employ' d our youth — not taverns, stews, and plays. 
 Tell them the generous scorn their rise does owe 
 To flattery, pimping, and a gaudy show. 
 Teach them to scorn the Carwells, Portsmouths, Nells, 
 The Clevelands, Osbornes, Berties, Lauderdales : 
 Poppaea, Tegoline, and Arteria's name, 
 All yield to these in lewdness, lust, and fame. 
 Make them admire the Talbots, Sydneys, Veres, 
 Drake, Cavendish, Blake, men void of slavish feara; 
 True sons of glory — pillars of the state, 
 On whose fam'd deeds all tongues and writers wait. 
 When with fierce ardour their bright souls do burn, 
 Back to my dearest country I'll return. 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 125 
 
 Tarquin's just judge, and Ccesar's equal peers, 
 
 With them 111 bring to dry my people's tears : 
 
 Publicola with healing hands shall pour 
 
 Balm in their wounds, and shall their life restore 
 
 Greek arts and Koman arms, in her conjoin'd, 
 
 Shall England raise, relieve oppress' d mankind. 
 
 As Jove's great son th' infested globe did free 
 
 From noxious monsters, hell-born tyranny, 
 
 So shall my England, in a holy war, 
 
 In triumph lead chain'd tyrants from afar ; 
 
 Her true Crusado shall at last pull down 
 
 The Turkish crescent, and the Persian sun. 
 
 Freed by thy labours, fortunate, bless' d isle, 
 
 The earth shall rest, the heaven shall on thee smile ; 
 
 And this kind secret for reward shall give, 
 
 No POISON' D TYRANTS ON THY EARTH SHALL LIVE. 
 
 ON COLONEL BLOOD'S ATTEMPT TO STEAL 
 THE CROWN.* 
 
 When daring Blood, his rent to have regain'd 
 Upon the English diadem distrained ; 
 He chose the cassock, circingle, and gown, 
 The fittest mask for one that robs the crown ; 
 
 * This daring ruffian was notorious for seizing the person 
 of the Duke of Ormond, with an intention to hang him 
 at Tyburn, and for stealing the Crown out of the Tower. 
 He was nearly successful in both these enterprises. The 
 cunning of this fellow was equal to his intrepidity. He 
 told the King, by whom he was examined, that he had 
 undertaken to kill him ; and that he went for that pur- 
 pose to a place in the river where he bathed ; but was 
 struck with so profound an awe upon the sight of his 
 (naked) Majesty, that his resolution failed him, and he 
 entirely laid aside his design : that he belonged to a band 
 
126 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 But his lay-pity underneath prevail'd, 
 And whilst he sav'd the keeper's life, he fail'd. 
 With the priest's vestment had he but put on 
 The prelates' cruelty, the crown had gone. 
 
 ON MILTON'S PARADISE LOST. 
 
 When I beheld the poet blind, yet bold, 
 In slender book his vast design unfold, 
 Messiah crown'd, God's reconcil'd decree, 
 Rebelling angels, the forbidden tree, 
 Heav'n, hell, earth, chaos, all ; the argument 
 Held me a while misdoubting his intent, 
 That he would ruin (for I saw him strong) 
 The sacred truths to fable and old song ; 
 So Sampson groap'd the temple's posts in spite, 
 The world o'erwhelming to revenge his sight. 
 
 of ruffians equally desperate with himself, who had bound 
 themselves by the strongest oaths, to revenge the death of 
 any of their associates. Upon which he received the royal 
 pardon, and a handsome pension. He was no longer 
 considered as an impudent criminal, but as a Court fa- 
 vourite ; and application was made to the throne, through 
 the mediation of Mr. Blood. He died the 24th August, 
 1680. Rochester, in his "History of Insipids," notices 
 the villain in the following lines : — 
 
 " Blood, that wears treason in his face, 
 Villain complete in parson's gown, 
 
 How much is he at court in grace, 
 For stealing Ormond and the Crown ! 
 
 Since loyalty does no man good, 
 
 Let's steal the King and outdo Blood." 
 
ANDREW MAR SHELL. J 27 
 
 Yet, as I read, soon growing less severe, 
 I lik'd his project, the success did fear ; 
 Thro' that wide field how he his way should find, 
 O'er which lame faith leads understanding blind ; 
 Lest he'd perplex the things he would explain, 
 And what was easy he should render vain. 
 
 Or, if a work so infinite he spanned, 
 Jealous I was that some less skilful hand 
 (Such as disquiet always what is well, 
 And by ill imitating would excel) 
 Might hence presume the whole creation's day 
 To change in scenes, and show it in a play. 
 
 Pardon me, mighty poet, nor despise 
 My causeless, yet not impious, surmise ; 
 But I am now convinc'd, and none will dare 
 Within thy labours to pretend a share. 
 Thou hast not miss'd one thought that could be fit, 
 And all that was improper dost omit ; 
 So that no room is here for writers left, 
 But to detect their ignorance or theft. 
 
 That majesty which thro' thy work doth reign, 
 Draws the devout, deterring the profane. 
 And things divine thou treat' st of in such state, 
 As them preserves, and thee, inviolate. 
 At once delight and horror on us seize, 
 Thou sing'st with so much gravity and ease : 
 And above human flight dost soar aloft, 
 With plume so strong, so equal, and so soft : 
 The bird nam'd from that paradise you sing 
 So never flags, but always keeps on wing. 
 
128 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 Where couldst thou words of such a compass find ? 
 Whence furnish such a vast expanse of mind ? 
 Just heav'n thee, like Tiresias, to requite,. 
 Rewards with prophecy thy loss of sight* 
 
 Well might'st thou scorn thy readers to allure 
 With tinkling rhyme, of thy own sense secure ; 
 While the Town-Bayes writes all the while and spells, 
 And like a pack-horse, tires without his bells* 
 Their fancier like our bushy points appear r. 
 The poets tag them ; we for fashion wear. 
 I too,, transported by the mode> commend, 
 And while I meant to praise thee, must offend* 
 Thy verse created like thy theme sublime, 
 In number, weight, and measure, needs not rhyme. 
 
 In our selections from the poems, we have 
 reserved what are perhaps the four most beau- 
 tiful; for thelast Eyes and tears, andThe Nymph 
 lamenting for the death of the Faun, are^ecjp-- 
 perfect r in these, as in the others quoted, the 
 reader will perceive a vein of thought now 
 almost obsolete, the metaphysical beauty of the 
 first; its shadowy abstractions remind us of 
 Cowley, while in the other we have that tinge 
 of classical light very peculiar to that age, but 
 which is now seldom attempted by our poets. 
 The noblest remain behind ; the Bermudas was 
 worthy of its subject ; the soul seems to 
 sing to the tune and strain, of the creaking 
 cordage, and the thundering waves. There is 
 a loud and brave chaunt, as of spirits deter- 
 mined to defy the elements, and very significant 
 of the men it is intended to honour^ — the brave 
 pilgrim fathers ; while the Horatian ode on 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 129 
 
 Cromwell is one of the finest compositions in 
 our language ; and while it is nobly laudatory 
 to Cromwell, it is still finer from its generous 
 and magnanimous tribute to King Charles. On 
 the whole, these poems serve abundantly to 
 show, that had Marvell dedicated his powers to 
 poetry, he must have stood very high in his 
 country^ literature ; as it is, there many 
 couplets and verses — many images and thoughts 
 which are most worthy of being enshrined 
 among the best productions of our language — 
 for nervous expression, for beauty, and for 
 power. 
 
 EYES AND TEARS. 
 
 How wisely Nature did decree, 
 With the same eyes to weep and see ! 
 That, having view'd the object vain, 
 They might be ready to complain. 
 And, shice the self-deluding fight, 
 In a false angle takes each height, 
 These tears which better measure all, 
 Like wat'ry lines and plummets fall. 
 Two tears, which sorrow long did weigh, 
 Within the scales of either eye, 
 And then paid out in equal poise, 
 Are the true price of all my joys. 
 What in the world most fair appears, 
 Yea, even laughter, turns to tears ; 
 And all the jewels which we prize, 
 Melt in these pendants of the eyes. 
 e 2 
 
130 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 I havethrougli e very garden_be en T 
 "^Tmongst the red, the white, the green ; 
 And yet from all those flow'rs I saw, 
 No honey, but these tears could draw. 
 So the all-seeing sun each day, 
 Distils the world with chymic ray ; 
 But finds the essence only showers, 
 Which straight in pity back he pours. 
 Yet happy they whom grief doth bless, 
 That weep the more, and see the less ; 
 And, to preserve their sight more true, 
 Bathe still their eyes in their own dew. 
 So Magdalen in tears more wise 
 Dissolv'd those captivating eyes, 
 Whose liquid chains could flowing meet, 
 To fetter her Redeemer's feet. 
 Not full sails hasting loaden home, 
 Nor the chaste lady's pregnant womb, 
 Nor Cynthia teeming shews so fair, 
 As two eyes, swoln with weeping, are. 
 The sparkling glance that shoots desire, 
 Drench'd in these waves, does lose its fire. 
 Yea oft the Thund'rer pity takes, 
 And here the hissing lightning slakes. 
 The incense was to heaven dear, 
 Not as a perfume, but a tear 1 
 And stars show lovely in the night, 
 But as they seem the tears of light. 
 Ope then, mine eyes, your double sluice, 
 And practice so your noblest use ; 
 For others too can see, or sleep ; 
 But only human eyes can weep. 
 Now, like two clouds dissolving, drop, 
 And at each tear, in distance stop ; 
 
ANDREW MARVELL* 131 
 
 Now, like two fountains, trickle down : 
 Now like two floods o'er-run and drown : 
 Thus let your streams o'erflow your springs, 
 Till eyes and tears be the same things ; 
 And each the other's difference bears ; 
 These weeping eyes, those seeing tears, 
 
 BERMUDAS. 
 
 Where the remote Bermudas ride, 
 In th' ocean's bosom unespy'd ; 
 From a small boat, that row'd along, 
 The list'ning winds received this song. 
 
 " What should we do but sing His praise, 
 That led us through the wat'ry maze, 
 Unto an isle so long unknown, 
 And yet far kinder than our own ? 
 Where He the huge sea-monsters wracks, 
 That lift the deep upon their backs. 
 He lands us on a grassy stage, 
 Safe from the storms, and prelate's rage, 
 He gave us this eternal spring, 
 Which here enamels every thing" : 
 And sends the fowls to us in care, 
 On daily visits thro' the air. 
 He hangs in shades the orange bright, 
 Like golden lamps in a green night. 
 And does in the pomegranates close, 
 Jewels more rich than Ormus shows. 
 He makes the figs our mouths to meet ; 
 And throws the melons at our feet» 
 
132 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 But apples plants of such a price, 
 No tree could ever bear them twice. 
 With cedars chosen by His hand, 
 From Lebanon, He stores the land. 
 And makes the hollow seas that roar 
 Pro claim the ambergris on shore. 
 He cast (of which we rather boast) 
 The Gospels pearl upon our coast, 
 And in these rocks for us did frame 
 A temple, where to sound His name. 
 Oh ! let our voice His praise exalt, 
 'Till it arrive at heaven's vault ; 
 Which thence, perhaps, rebounding, may 
 Echo beyond the Mexique bay." 
 
 Thus sung they in the English boat, 
 An holy and a cheerful note ; 
 And all the way, to guide their chime, 
 With falling oars they kept the time. 
 
 THE NYMPH COMPLAINING FOE THE DEATH 
 OF HER FAWN. 
 
 The wanton troopers riding by, 
 Have shot my fawn, and it will die. 
 Ungentle-men ! They cannot thrive 
 Who kill'd thee. Thou ne'er didst, alive, 
 Them any harm : alas ! nor could 
 Thy death yet do them any good. 
 I'm sure I never wish'd them ill ; 
 Nor do I for all this ; nor will : 
 But, if my simple prayers may yet 
 Prevail with heaven to forget 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 133 
 
 Thy murder, I will join my tears, 
 Rather than fail. But, my fears ! 
 It cannot die so. Heaven's king 
 Keeps register of every thing ; 
 And nothing must we use in vain, 
 Ev'n beasts should be with justice slain ; 
 Else men are made their deodands. 
 Though they should wash their guilty hands 
 In this warm life-blood, which doth part 
 From thine, and wound me to the heart, 
 Yet could they not be clean : their stain 
 Is dy'd in such a purple grain. 
 There is not such another in 
 The world* to offer for their sin. 
 
 Inconstant Stlvio, when yet 
 I had not found him counterfeit, 
 One morning, (I remember well,) 
 Ty'd in this silver chain and bell, 
 Gave it to me : nay, and I know 
 What he said then ; I'm sure I do. 
 Said he, " Look how your huntsman here 
 Hath taught a fawn to hunt his dear. 1 * 
 But Sylvio soon had me beguil'd : 
 This waxed tame, while he grew wild ; 
 And quite regardless of the smart, 
 Left me his fawn, but took his heart 
 
 Thenceforth I set myself to play 
 My solitary time away, 
 With this : and, very well content, 
 Could so mine idle life have spent. 
 For it was full of sport ; and light 
 Of foot, and heart ; and did invite 
 
J 34 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 Me to its game ; it seem'd to bless 
 Itself in me. How could I less 
 Than love it ? 0, I cannot be 
 Unkind t' a beast that loveth me. 
 
 Had it Iiv'd long, I do not know 
 Whether it too might have done so 
 As Sylvio did : his gifts might be 
 Perhaps as false, or more, than he. 
 But I am sure, for ought that I 
 Could in so short a time espy, 
 Thy love was far more better than 
 The love of false and cruel man. 
 
 With sweetest milk and sugar, first 
 I it at mine own fingers nurs'd ; 
 And as it grew, so every day 
 It wax'd more white and sweet than they. 
 It had so sweet a breath ! and offc 
 I blush/d to see its foot more soft, 
 And white, shall I say than my hand I 
 Nay, any lady's of the land. 
 
 It is a wond'rous thing, how fleet 
 'Twas on those little silver feet. 
 With what a pretty skipping grace 
 It oft would challenge me the race ; 
 And when't had left me far away, 
 Twould stay, and run again, and stay. 
 For it was nimbler much than hinds ; 
 And trod, as if on the Four Winds. 
 
 I_haye a gardenjrf my own, 
 But so with roses overgrown, 
 And lilies, that you would it guess 
 To be a little wilderness ; 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 135 
 
 And all the spring-time of the year 
 
 It only loved to be there. 
 
 Among the beds of lilies I 
 
 Have sought it oft, where it should lie ; 
 
 Yet could not, till itself would rise, 
 
 Find it, although before mine eyes. 
 
 Upon the roses it would feed, 
 
 Until its lips ev'n seem'd to bleed ; 
 
 And then to me 'twould boldly trip, 
 
 And print those roses on my lip. 
 
 But all its chief delight was still 
 
 On roses thus itself to fill ; 
 
 And its pure virgin limbs to fold 
 
 In whitest sheets of lilies cold. 
 
 Had it liv'd long, it would have been 
 
 Lilies without — roses within. 
 
 help ! help ! I see it faint, 
 And die as calmly as a saint. 
 See how it weeps ! The tears do come 
 Sad, slowly, dropping like a gum. 
 So weeps the wounded balsam, so 
 The holy frankincense doth flow. 
 The brotherless Heliades 
 Melt in such amber tears as these. 
 
 I in a golden phial will 
 Keep these two crystal tears, and fill 
 It, till it doth overflow with mine — 
 Then place it in Diana's shrine. 
 
 Now my sweet fawn is vanish' d to 
 Whither the swans and turtles go ; 
 
136 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 In fair Elysium to endure, 
 
 With milk-white lambs, and ermines pure. 
 
 do not run so fast ; for I 
 
 Will but bespeak thy grave, and die. 
 
 First, my unhappy statue shall 
 Be cut in marble ; and withal, 
 Let it be weeping too ; but there 
 Th' engraver sure his art may spare ; 
 For I so truly thee bemoan, 
 That I shall weep though I be stone, 
 Until my tears, still dropping, wear 
 My breast, themselves engraving there. 
 There at my feet shalt thou be laid, 
 Of purest alabaster made ; 
 For I would have thine image be 
 White as I can, though not as thee. 
 
 AN HORATIAN ODE UPON CROMWELL'S RETURN 
 FROM IRELAND. 
 
 The forward youth that would appear, 
 Must now forsake his muses dear, — 
 Nor in the shadows sing, 
 His numbers languishing. 
 
 'Tis time to leave the books in dust, 
 And oil the unused armour's rust ; 
 
 Removing from the wall, 
 
 The corslet of the hall. 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 137 
 
 So restless, Cromwell could not cease, 
 In the inglorious arts of peace, — 
 
 But through adventurous war, 
 
 Urged on his active star. 
 
 And like the three forked lightning, first 
 Breaking the clouds where it was nurst ; 
 
 Did through his own side 
 
 His fiery way divide. 
 
 For 'tis all one to courage high, 
 The emulous or enemy : 
 
 And w T ith such to enclose, 
 
 Is more than to oppose. 
 
 Then burning thro' the air he went. 
 And palaces and temples rent ; 
 
 And Caesar's head at last,. 
 
 Did thro' his laurels blast- 
 
 *Tis madness to resist or blame> 
 The face of angry heaven's flame ; 
 
 And if we must speak true, 
 
 Much to the man is due : 
 
 Who from his private gardens, where 
 He lived reserved and austere,. 
 
 As if his highest plot, 
 
 To plant the bergamot. 
 
 Could by industrious valour climb, 
 To ruin the great work of time ^ 
 
 And cast the kingdom old, 
 
 Into another mould., 
 
138 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 Though, justice against fate complain, 
 
 And plead the ancient rights in vain ; 
 
 But those do hold or break, 
 
 As men are strong or weak. 
 
 What field of all the civil war, 
 Where his were not the deepest scar ; 
 
 And Hampton shows what part, 
 
 He had of wiser art : 
 
 Where twining subtle fears with hope, 
 He wove a net of such a scope, 
 
 That Charles himself might chase, 
 To Care's brooks narrow case. 
 
 That thence the royal actor borne, 
 The tragic scaffold might adorn ; 
 While round the armed bands, 
 Did clap their bloody hands. 
 
 He nothing common did, or mean, 
 Upon that memorable scene ; 
 But with his keener eye, 
 The axe's edge did try. 
 
 Nor call'd the gods with vulgar spight, 
 To vindicate his helpless right ; 
 
 But bow'd his comely head, 
 
 Down as upon a bed. 
 
 This was that memorable hour, 
 Which first assured the forced power : 
 
 So when they did design, 
 
 The capitol's first line. 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 139 
 
 A bleeding head when they begun, 
 Did fright the architects to run ; 
 
 And yet in that, the state 
 
 Foresaw its happy fate. 
 
 And now, the Irish are ashamed, 
 
 To see themselves in one year tamed : 
 
 So much one man can do, 
 
 That does both act and know. 
 
 They can confirm his praises best, 
 And have, though overcome, confest, 
 
 How good he is, how just, 
 
 And fit for highest trust. 
 
 Nor yet grown stiffer with command, 
 But still in the republic's hand, 
 
 How fit he is to sway — 
 
 That can so well obey. 
 
 He to the Commons' feet presents, 
 A kingdom for his first year's rents ; 
 
 And what he may, forbears 
 
 His fame to make it theirs. 
 
 And his sword and spoils ungirt, 
 To lay them at the public skirt ; 
 
 So when the falcon high, 
 
 Falls heavy from the sky. 
 
 She having kill'd, no more does search, 
 But on the next green bough to perch ; 
 
 Where when he first does lure, 
 
 The faulkner has her sure. 
 
140 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 What may not then our isle presume, 
 When Victory his crest does plume ? 
 
 What may not others fear, 
 
 If thus he crowns each year ? 
 
 As Caesar, he ere long to Gaul, 
 To Italy and Hannibal, — 
 
 And to all states not free, 
 
 Shall climacteric be. 
 
 The Pict no shelter now shall find, 
 Within his party-coloured mind ; 
 
 But from this valour sad, 
 
 Shrink underneath his plaid. 
 
 Happy in the tufted brake, 
 
 The English hunter him mistake ; 
 
 Nor lay his hounds in near, 
 
 The Caledonian deer. 
 
 But thou, the war's and Fortune's son, 
 March indefatigably on ; 
 
 And for the last effect, 
 
 Still keep the sword erect. 
 
 Beside the force it has to fright, 
 The spirits of the shady night ; 
 
 The same arts that did gain, 
 
 A powei*must it maintain. 
 
 We must not close our review of Marvell, 
 as a poet, without referring to the dispute still 
 unsettled, and which indeed never will be 
 settled,— in reference to several of the sweetest 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 141 
 
 compositions in our language. The discussion 
 has been mooted by Captain Thompson, in his 
 edition of MarvelFs works, in the Trinity 
 House Archives, of Hull ; he found, among 
 the letters of Marvell to the Corporation, many 
 of MarvelFs poems ; among others 
 
 " When all thy mercies, oh, my God, 
 My rising soul surveys !" 
 
 And, 
 
 " The spacious firmament on high." 
 
 Both of these have long been attributed to 
 Addison ; also, William and Margaret, so 
 long claimed by Mallet ; all that we can do 
 is, to allude to the fact and the opinion. It 
 certainly appears probable that Addison and 
 Mallet must yield the honour, since they 
 appear to have been written anterior to his 
 birth. But how did he become acquainted 
 with them ? and how came they to be deposited 
 in the archives of the Hull Trinity House, 
 there is nothing to show us. There is a kind 
 of evidence about them, more favourable to 
 Marvell than Addison ; but in the doubt in 
 which the matter lies, it must rest. It is 
 noticeable, however, that the writer of the 
 Spectator does not claim these poems, but 
 rather introduces them as hints and suggestions. 
 
142 
 
 CHAPTER V, 
 
 MARVELL, THE POLEMIC AND THE WIT. 
 
 We come now to another view of our author's 
 character. The age in which he lived was 
 most famous for disputations, and for the 
 quarrels of authors. All Europe rung with 
 the famous controversy of Milton and Sal- 
 masius, and every reader remembers the con- 
 test of Sir Robert Filmer, and Algernon 
 Sydney. We must give some account of the 
 war of pens and of principles maintained by 
 Andrew Marvell and Samuel, afterwards Bishop 
 Parker. Milton has shown of what our lan- 
 guage is capable in ponderous and most stormy 
 eloquence and invective. Sydney has argued 
 the question of the rights of the people, 
 with learning, and dignity, and grace all his 
 own. Marvell plays and glances over his 
 adversary light, lively, and sharp as polished 
 steel, overwhelming him with language in 
 which it is hard to say, whether the argument 
 is more convincing, or the wit more outrage- 
 ously ludicrous. His figures and images fly 
 over his pages with the same ease with which 
 his language moves, while their unusualness 
 
ANDREW MA11VELL. 143 
 
 and quaintness, frequently check laughter by 
 the startling surprise to find such things in 
 such connection and combination. Of this, 
 many illustrations shall be given in the follow- 
 ing pages. But it may not be amiss to give 
 here an outline of the history of Parker, his 
 antagonist. The following facts appear both 
 in Dod's and Coleridge's history. We know 
 not whom to credit for the compilation in a 
 life of Marvell. 
 
 Samuel Parker was born at Northampton, 
 in the year 1 640. He was the son of John 
 Parker, Esq.,* afterwards Serjeant at Law, 
 and one of the Barons of the Exchequer, in 
 1659. Young Parker was educated among 
 the Puritans, at Northampton, from whence 
 he was sent to Wadhain College, Oxford, and 
 admitted in 1659. Here it is said he led a 
 strict and religious life, and entered into a 
 weekly society, which met at a house in Haly- 
 well, where they fed on thin broth, made of 
 oatmeal and water only, for which they were 
 commonly called Gruellers. Among these, 
 says Marvell, wC it was observed he was wont 
 to put more grates than all the rest into his 
 
 * Parker's father was a lawyer, and one of Oliver's most 
 submissive committee-men. He wrote a very remarkable 
 book in defence of " The Government of the People of 
 England.'' It had " a most bieroglyphical title" of several 
 emblems; two hands joined, and beneath a sheaf of arrows, 
 stuffed about with half a dozen mottoes, " enough," says 
 Marvell, "to have supplied the mantlings, and achieve- 
 ment of this (godly) family." Au anecdote in the secret 
 history of Parker is probably true : "He shortly after- 
 wards did inveigh his father s memory, and in his mother's 
 presence, before witnesses, for a couple of whining fanatics." 
 
144 ANDREW MARVELL, 
 
 porridge," and was deemed " one of the pre- 
 ciousest young men in the University." These 
 mortified saints, it seems, held their chief 
 meetings at the House of " Bess Hampton, an 
 old and crooked maid, that drove the trade of 
 laundry, who being from her youth very much 
 given to the godly party, as they called them- 
 selves, had frequent meetings, especially for 
 those that were her customers/' Such is the 
 dry humour of honest Anthony Wood, who 
 paints like the Ostade of literary history. 
 
 But the age of sectarism, and thin gruel, 
 was losing all its coldness in the sunshine of 
 the Restoration ; and this u preciousest young 
 man, 1 ' from praying, and caballing against 
 Episcopacy, suddenly acquainted the world, 
 in one of his dedications, that Dr. Ralph 
 Bathurst had rescued him from the chains 
 and fetters of an unhappy education, and with- 
 out any intermediate apology, from a sullen 
 sectarist, turned a flaming highflyer for the 
 " supreme dominion" of the church. Parker 
 removed to Trinity College, Oxford, where in 
 1663, he took the degree of Master of Arts, 
 and soon after entering into orders, he resorted 
 frequently to London, and became chaplain to 
 a nobleman; and displayed his wit in drolleries, 
 and reflections on his old friends, the Puritans. 
 
 Marvell admirably describes Parkers jour- 
 neys to the Metropolis at the restoration, where 
 V he spent a considerable time in creeping into 
 all corners, and companies, horoscoping up and 
 down concerning the duration of the govern- 
 ment " This term, so expressive of his poli- 
 tical doubts, is from Judicial Astrology, then 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 145 
 
 a prevalent study. " Not considering any 
 thing as best, but as most lasting, and most 
 profitable ; and after having many times cast a 
 figure, he at last satisfied himself that the 
 Episcopal government would endure as long as 
 this King lived, and from thenceforwards cast 
 about to find the highway to preferment. To 
 do this, he daily enlarged not only his conver- 
 sation, but his conscience ; and was made free 
 of some of the town vices ; imagining, like 
 Muleasses, King of Tunis, (for I take witness 
 that on all occasions I treat him rather above 
 his quality than otherwise,) that by hiding 
 himself among the onions, he should escape 
 being traced by his perfumes/' The narrative 
 proceeds with a curious detail of all his syco- 
 phantic attempts at seducing useful patrons, 
 among whom was the Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury. Then began " those pernicious books," 
 says Marvel), " in which he first makes all 
 that he will, to be law, and then whatsoever is 
 law, to be divinity." 
 
 It is the after-conduct of Parker that throws 
 light on this rapid change. On speculative 
 points any man may be suddenly converted ; 
 for these may depend on facts or arguments, 
 which might never have occurred to him be- 
 fore. But when we observe this " preciousest 
 Grueller" clothed in purple ; when we watch 
 the weathercock chopping with the wind, so 
 pliant to move, and so stiff when fixed, and 
 equally hardy in the most opposite measures, 
 become a favourite with James II., and a 
 furious advocate for arbitrary government : 
 when we see him railing at, and menacing, 
 
 H 
 
146 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 those among whom he had committed as many 
 extravagances as any of them ; can we hesitate 
 to decide, that this bold, haughty, and ambitious 
 man, was one of those : who having neither 
 religion, nor morality for casting a weight, can 
 easily fly off to opposite extremes ; and whe- 
 ther a Puritan, or a Bishop, we must place his 
 zeal to the same side of his religious ledger, 
 that of the profits of barter. 
 
 In 1665, he was elected Fellow of the Koyal 
 Society, and published, about that time, some 
 Physico-Theologieal Essays, which he dedi- 
 cated to Dr. Sheldon, Archbishop of Canter- 
 bury, who became his patron, and in 1667, 
 made him his Chaplain. Being thus put into 
 the road to preferment, he left Oxford, and 
 resided at Lambeth, under the eye of his 
 patron, who, in 1670, collated him to the 
 Archdeaconry of Canterbury, and, in the same 
 year, he had the degree of Doctor of Divinity 
 conferred upon him, at Cambridge. In 1672, 
 he was installed into one of the prebends of 
 Canterbury ; and collated also by the Arch- 
 bishop, about the same time, to the rectories of 
 Ickham and Ohartham, in Kent. 
 
 As Dr. Parker distinguished himself by his 
 zeal in support of every exorbitant claim, both 
 of the Church and the Crown, he maintained 
 an unreserved obsequiousness to the Court, 
 during the reign of Charles II. : and upon the 
 accession of his brother to the throne, he con- 
 tinued in the same servile compliance, and it 
 was not long before he reaped the fruits of it in 
 the Bishopric of Oxford, to which he was nomi- 
 nated by King James II., in 1686. He was 
 
ANBHEW MARVELL. i47 
 
 also made a Privy Counsellor, and constituted, 
 in an illegal manner, by a royal mandamus, 
 President of Magdalen College, in Oxford, 
 which was justly and severely censured. 
 
 Parker's design to obtain court-favour was so 
 strong, that he appeared willing to sacrifice his 
 religion to it ; for when King James was endea- 
 vouring to establish Popery in England, he wrote 
 in favour of Transubstantiation, and the worship 
 of saints and images. The Papists, it is cer- 
 tain, made sure of him as a proselyte. In a 
 letter from a Jesuit of Liege to a Jesuit of 
 Fribourg, dated Feb. 2, 1688, is this pas- 
 sage : — " The Bishop of Oxford seems to be a 
 great favourer of the Catholic faith : he proposed 
 in council, whether it was not expedient that 
 one college at least, in Oxford, should be al- 
 lowed the Catholics, that they might not be 
 forced to be at so much charge, in going be- 
 yond sea to study. But it is not yet known 
 what answer was made. The same Bishop 
 having invited two of our Noblemen (*. e, 
 Roman Catholics,) with others of the Nobility, 
 to a feast, drank the King's health to a certain 
 heretical Lord there, wishing his Majesty good 
 success in all his undertakings ; adding, also, 
 that the religion of the Protestants in England 
 did not seem to him a better condition than 
 Buda was before it was taken, and that they 
 were next to atheists that defended that faith."" 
 
 In another letter, from Father Edward Petre, 
 a Jesuit, and Privy Counsellor to King James, 
 directed to Father La Chaise, and dated 
 February 9, the same year, are these words : — 
 " The Bishop of Oxford has not yet declared 
 
148 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 himself openly : the great obstacle is his wife, 
 whom he cannot rid himself of; his design 
 being to continue Bishop, and only change 
 communion ; as it is not doubted but the King 
 will permit, and our holy Father confirm; 
 though I do not see how he can be further use- 
 ful to us in the religion he is in, because he is 
 suspected, and of no esteem among the heretics of 
 the English church ; nor do I see that the ex- 
 ample of his conversion is like to draw many 
 others after him, because he declared himself so 
 suddenly. If he had believed my counsel, which 
 was to temporize for some longer time, he 
 would have done better, but it is his zeal that 
 hurried him on/' These two letters were first 
 
 f>rinted in a collection of tracts, in 4to., pub- 
 ished in 1689. 
 
 Parker observed so little decency in his com- 
 pliance with every measure of the Court, how- 
 ever unjustifiable, and his servility was so gross 
 and open, that he became quite contemptible, 
 and his influence, and authority in his diocese, 
 were so insignificant, that when he assembled 
 his clergy, and desired them to subscribe an ad- 
 dress of thanks to the King, for his declaration 
 of liberty of conscience (which was issued 
 .merely to favour the Catholics,) they rejected it 
 with such unanimity, that he got but one single 
 clergyman to concur with him in it. The last 
 effort he made to serve the court, was his pub- 
 lishing " Reasons for abrogating the Test.'* 
 This Book, Bishop Burnett observes, raised 
 such a disgust against Parker, "even in those 
 that had been formerly but too much influenced 
 by him, which, when he perceived, he sunk 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 149 
 
 under it. ' At length, finding himself despised 
 by all good men, the trouble of mind occasioned 
 thereby, threw him into a distemper, of which 
 he died unlamented, at the President's lodgings, 
 in Magdalen College, on the 20th March, 
 1687. He was the author of several books 
 both in English and Latin ; and, among 
 others, a " History of his own Times." He 
 left a son, who was a man of learning, and pub- 
 lished several works, but he would never take 
 the oaths after the Revolution." 
 
 This gentleman has been called a clergyman, 
 but he was never in orders. Mr. Parker ap- 
 pears to have been a very different character to 
 Iris father, and was highly esteemed by all who 
 knew him. He died July 14, 1730. One of 
 his sons, a bookseller, at Oxford, died at an ad- 
 vanced age, not many years ago. Dr. Johnson 
 mentions him by the familiar name of Sack 
 Parker, with great kindness.* Kennett, Bishop 
 of Peterborough, once had a female asking 
 charity of him, as the daughter of a Bishop. 
 He thought her an impostor, but on enquiry, 
 he ascertained, that she was really the daughter 
 of Parker, Bishop of Oxford. 
 
 In our days, the production of Parker may 
 be regarded as a real curiosity ; most of ouf 
 readers cannot be aware of the flagitious impu- 
 dence, — the atrocious, and outrageous attacks 
 upon all justice — all virtue of life, or senti- 
 ment, which he dared to print. It is curious, as 
 illustrating the character of a party in England, 
 and that party the most powerful, — it is dread- 
 
 * See Boswell's Life of Johiason. 
 
150 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 ful to think that a dignitary, in a Christian 
 church ever in seriousness of spirit — if such a 
 phrase, — wrote thefollowing horrid sentences: — 
 
 " When men's consciences are so squeamish, or so 
 humoursome, as that they will rise against the customs and 
 injunctions of the church they live in, she must scourge 
 them into order, and chastise them, not so much for their 
 fond persuasion, as for their troublesome peevishness.'* 
 
 '■' Tender consciences, instead of being complyed with, 
 must be restrained with more peremptory and unyielding 
 rigour, than naked and unsanctified villany." Hence, 
 "if governors would consider seriously into what exorbi- 
 tances, peevish, and untoward principles about religion, 
 naturally improve themselves, they could not but perceive 
 it to be as much their concernment to punish them with 
 the severest inflictions, as any, whatseover principles of re- 
 bellion in the state." 
 
 "Oh," saith he, "we shall have to be accounted with, 
 at the day of judgment ! Ah, sweet day ! when these 
 people of God shall once for all, to their unspeakable com- 
 fort and support, wreak their eternal vengeance upon their 
 reprobate enemies !" 
 
 " Tenderness and indulgence to such men (dissenters) 
 were to nourish vipers in our own bowels, and the most 
 sottish neglect of our own quiet, and security, — 'and we 
 should deserve to perish with the dishonour of Sarda- 
 napalus." 
 
 " *Tis better to err with authority, than to be in the 
 right against it, in all doubtful, disputable cases, because 
 the great duty of obedience outweighs the danger of a 
 little error, (and little it is, if it be disputable.) My obe- 
 dience will hallow, or at least, excuse my action." 
 
 " Princes have power to bind their subjects to that re- 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 15J 
 
 ligion they apprehend most advantageous to public peace, 
 and tranquillity. 
 
 u So easy is it, for men to deserve to be punished for 
 their consciences, — that there is no nation in the world, in 
 which, were government rightly understood, and duly 
 managed, mistakes and abuses of religion would not supply 
 the galiie3 with vastly greater numbers than villainy." 
 
 "Of all villains, the well meaning zealot is the most 
 danger ous." 
 
 " The fanatic party in country towns, ariaeth not (to 
 speak within compass,) above the proportion of one to 
 twenty. Whilst the public peace and settlement is so un- 
 luckily defeated by quarrels and mutinies of religion, — 
 to erect and create new trading combinations, is only to 
 build so many nests of faction and sedition ; for it is no - 
 torious that there is not any sort of people so inclinable to 
 seditious practices, as the trading part of a nation." 
 
 " Princes may, with less hazard,give liberty to men's vices 
 and debaucheries, than their consciences." 
 
 "'Tis absolutely necessary to the peace and nappines3 
 of kingdoms, that there be set up a more severe govern- 
 ment over men's consciences and religious persuasions, 
 than over their vices and immoralities." 
 
 Well might Marvell say : — 
 
 " To write against him (Parker) is the most odious task 
 I ever undertook, for he has looked to me all the while 
 like the cruelty of a living dissection ; which, however it 
 may tend to public instruction, and though I have picked 
 out the most noxious creature to be anatomized, yet doth 
 this scarce exeuse the offensiveness of the scent, and 
 fouling of my fingers ; therefore I will here break off 
 abruptly, leaving many a vein not laid open, and many a 
 passage not searched into. But if I have undergone the 
 
152 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 drudgery of the most loathsome part already, which is 
 his personal character, I will not defraud myself of what 
 is more truly pleasant, the conflict with (if it may be so 
 called) his reason" 
 
 Mr. Henry Rogers, in his very able essay 
 upon Marvell, reprinted from the " Edinburgh 
 Review," says, — " Happily, the state of things 
 which generated such men, (as Parker,) has 
 long since passed away." True, we see but 
 few such men now, we say few, because we 
 fancy that there are still some of the Parker 
 school remaining among us. Nay, in the 
 second volume of the "Essays," of Mr. Rogers, 
 the occasion of the review on the right of 
 private judgment, exhibits to us a journal of 
 our own day, pleading for the laying a tax 
 upon Opinion, and subjecting Error to the 
 drilling and supervision of eertain ecclesiastical 
 magistrates. Men, like Parker, show to us 
 the capacities of fallen humanity. Renegades, 
 without a conscience, will usually be just such 
 men ; they will generally be characterised by 
 severity to the opinions of other men, in pro- 
 portion to the lightness with which matters of 
 opinion affect themselves, and the ease with 
 which they, for worldly considerations, can 
 throw them aside. 
 
 We have seen the origin of Marvell's work, 
 as a polemic. It was in the publication, by 
 Parker, of a book called " Ecclesiastical Polity," 
 a very different book, indeed, to that of the 
 judicious Hooker. We have seen his style and 
 spirit — his attacks upon men of all persuasions 
 and sects. 
 
ANDREW MARVJlLL. 153 
 
 To meet this attack was imperiously neces- 
 sary. Dr. Owen applied to Baxter to under- 
 take the defence of Nonconformity; but he 
 declined the task. The Doctor therefore re- 
 plied to Parker, and acquitted himself with 
 great credit in his " Truth and Innocepce 
 Vindicated." Parker was an ambitious priest, 
 and looked for advancement. He cared not 
 at what expense he wrote himself into a 
 Bishopriek. The substance of his polity was 
 preached at Lambeth, and printed by order of 
 Sheldon, a man in every respect of similar 
 sentiments and spirit. 
 
 Next year Parker published " A Defence 
 and Continuation of the Ecclesiastical Polity 
 against Dr. Owen ;'' and in the following year 
 a still further attack on him, in a preface which 
 he wrote to a posthumous work of Bishop 
 Bramhall. These works abounded in the 
 lowest abuse of Owen. He calls him the 
 " Great Bell-weather of disturbance and sedi- 
 tion. " u The viper," he says, " is so swelled 
 with venom, that it must either burst or spit 
 its poison/'* Although Owen appeared no 
 
 * Parker's want of probity appears in nothing more 
 clear than in his slanders upon that "Prince of Divines," 
 Dr. Owen. In the " History of his Own Times," pages 
 852, 353, Parker thus writes of that great and good man. 
 "John Owen published a work bearing this title, 'An 
 Apology for Liberty of Conscience/ In this book, 
 undertaking the patronage of his party, he is not ashamed 
 to praise the great loyalty of the Independents to the 
 King, though he himself was dipped in the blood of King 
 Charles I. He scribbles with rough and disagreeable 
 language, with no weight of reason, and with an unheard 
 of licentiousness in lying. He was from his youth a most 
 indefatigable author and advocate of Rebellion. Among 
 
 2h 
 
154 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 more in this controversy, it by no means ter- 
 minated here. The vain-glorious clergyman 
 was doomed to receive a severe scourging from 
 a Layman, which must have made him writhe 
 in every nerve. Charles and his court were 
 passionately devoted to wit and raillery. They 
 gloried in a Butler, whose burlesque poetry ex- 
 posed the Puritans to contempt, and broke the 
 edge of public censure against themselves. 
 The other party, however, could boast of Mar- 
 vell ; both a wit and a poet, whose ironical 
 muse often lashed the follies and vices of the 
 court. Marvell answered the conceited clergy- 
 man ; and in his " Rehearsal Transprosed," (a 
 title facetiously adopted from Bayes in " The 
 Rehearsal Transposed" of the Duke of Buck- 
 ingham) turned all the laughers against him. 
 There are times and subjects which require the 
 use of ridicule ; and it will sometimes succeed, 
 if judiciously managed, when graver arguments 
 fail. 
 
 One of the legitimate ends of Satire, and 
 one of the proud triumphs of Genius, is to un- 
 maskihe false zealot, to beat the haughty spirit 
 that is treading down all, and if it cannot teach 
 
 the Regicides themselves, lie was the bitterest enemy of 
 the Royal Blood, who vehemently exhorted to the com- 
 mission of that most execrable wickedness ; and in a ser- 
 mon before the regicides, praised and celebrated it when it 
 was done ; and as a prophet of God, he admonished and 
 commanded them, to perfect on the posterity, what (under 
 the Divine influence) they had begun in the father ; for it 
 was pleasing to God, not only that the government of the 
 whole of family the Stuarts should be utterly destroyed, but 
 that no one should hereafter be suffered to reignin England. 
 But I need say no more of this famous rebel now, since 
 I may perhaps write the whole history of this wicked man." 
 
ANDREW MAItVliLL. 155 
 
 modesty, and raise a blush, at least to inflict 
 terror and silence. It is then the Satirist gives 
 honour to the place of the executioner. 
 
 "As one whose whip of steel can, with a lash, 
 Imprint the characters of shame so deep, 
 Even in the brazen forehead of proud sin, 
 That not eternity shall wear it out." 
 
 The controversy between Marvell and 
 Parker is a striking example of the efficient 
 powers of genius, in first humbling, and then 
 annihilating, an unprincipled bravo, who has 
 placed himself at the head of a faction. Mar- 
 vell was a master in all the arts of ridicule; 
 and his inexhaustible spirit only required some 
 permanent subject, to rival the causticity of 
 Swift, whose style, in neatness and vivacity, 
 seems to have been modelled from it ; for, in 
 his " Tale of a Tub*'' be says, " we still read 
 Marvell's answer to Parker with pleasure^ 
 though the book it answers be sunk long ago/' 
 But Marvell placed the oblation of genius on a 
 temporary altar, and the sacrifice sunk with it ; 
 he wrote to the times, and with the times his 
 writings have, in some measure, passed away. 
 He left behind him no poem of permanent in- 
 terest ; and although his satirical poetry is 
 fraught with sparkling and poignant wit, yet 
 the subjects were chiefly personal and temporary, 
 and not like the more elaborate work of Butler, 
 identified with the national history, manners, 
 and opinions. 
 
 Such are the vigour and fertility of Marvell's 
 writings, that our old chronicler of literary his- 
 
156 ANDREW MARVKLL. 
 
 tory, Anthony Wood, considers him as the 
 founder, " in the then newly refined art (though 
 much in fashion almost ever since) of sporting 
 and geering buffoonery," ) * and the crabbed 
 humourist describes "this pen combat as briskly 
 managed on both sides ; a jerking, flirting way 
 of writing; entertaining the reader, by seeing 
 two such right cocks of the game so keenly en- 
 gaged with sharp and dangerous weapons/' 
 Bishop Burnett calls Marvell " the liveliest 
 droll of the age; who writ in a burlesque strain, 
 but with so peculiar and entertaining a conduct, 
 that, from the king to the tradesmen, his books 
 were read with great pleasure." Charles II. 
 was a more polished judge than either of those 
 uncouth critics, and to the credit of his impar- 
 tiality (for that witty Monarch and his disso- 
 lute Court were never spared by Marvell,) he 
 deemed him the best prose Satirist of the age. 
 But Marvell had other qualities than the freest 
 humour, and the finest wit, in this " newly re- 
 fined art," which seems to have escaped these 
 
 * Wit and raillery had been such strangers during the 
 period of the Commonwealth, that honest Anthony, whose 
 prejudices did not run in favour of Marvell, not only con- 
 siders him as the " restorer of this newly -refined art," but 
 as one " hugely" versed in it ; and acknowledges all its 
 efficacy in the complete discomfiture of his haughty rival. 
 Besides this, a small booh of controversy, like Marvell's, 
 was another novelty — " the aureoli libelli" as one fondly 
 calls his precious books, were in the wretched taste of the 
 times, rhapsodies in folio. The reader has doubtless heard 
 of Carlyl's "Commentary on Job," consisting of 2400 
 folio pages ! in small type. One just remark has been 
 made on the utility of this work, — " that it is a very 
 sufficient exercise for the virtue of patience, which it was 
 chiefly intended to inculcate." 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 157 
 
 grave critics — a vehemence of solemn reproof and 
 an eloquence of invective, that awes one with 
 the spirit of the modern Junius, and may give 
 some notion of that more ancient Satirist, whose 
 writings are said so completely to have an- 
 swered their design, that, after perusal, their 
 unhappy object hanged himself upon the first 
 tree ; and, in the present case, though the de- 
 linquent did not lay violent hands on himself, 
 he did what, for an author, may be considered 
 as desperate a course, — " withdraw from the 
 town, and cease writing for some years." 
 
 This quarrel originated in a preface written 
 by Parker, in which he poured contempt and 
 abuse on his old companions the Nonconform- 
 ists. It was then that Marvell clipped his 
 wings with his " Rehearsal Transprosed ;" and 
 his wit and humour were finely contrasted with 
 Parker's extravagance — set off in his usual de- 
 clamatory style — of which Marvell wittily com- 
 pares " the volume and circumference of the 
 periods, like too great a line ; which weakens 
 the defence, and requires too many men to 
 make it good/' The tilt was now opened ; and 
 Parkers knights attempted to grasp the sharp 
 $nd polished weapon of Marvell, and to turn it 
 against himself; but in this kind of literary 
 warfare, they were greatly inferior to their 
 gifted antagonist,* Parker, in fact, replied to 
 
 * As a specimen of what old Anthony calls ** a jerking, 
 flirting way of writing," we transcribe the titles of the 
 answers. As Marvell had nicknamed Parker, Bayes ; the 
 quaint humour of one, entitled his reply, " Rosemary and 
 fiayes ;" another, " The Transproser Rehearsed, or the 
 Fifth Act of Mr. Bayes'Play;" another, ''Gregory Father 
 Greybeard with his Vizard off." This was the very Bvrilemy 
 
158 ANDREW MARVELL, 
 
 Marvell anonymously, by " A Reproof of the 
 4 Rehearsal Transprosed ;' with a mild exhorta- 
 tion to the magistrate, to crush with the secular 
 arm, the pestilent wit, the servant of Cromwell, 
 and the friend of Milton." But this was not 
 all : an anonymous letter was despatched to 
 Marvell, short enough to have been an epigram, 
 could Parker have written one : but it was 
 more in character, for it contained a threat of 
 assassination, and concluded with these words: — 
 u If thou darest to print any lie, or libel, against 
 Dr. Parker, by the eternal God, I will cut 
 thy throat. 1 ' 
 
 In Marvell's two volumes of wit and broad 
 humour, and of the most galling invective, 
 one part flows so much into another, that the 
 volatile spirit would be injured by an analytical 
 process. We shall, however, given, few quota- 
 tions from this soil, in which the rich vegetation 
 breaks out in every part.*f 
 
 <{ The press hath owed him (Parker) a shame a long time, 
 and is but now beginning to pay off the debt. The y>res& 
 
 Fair of wit ! But Marvell, with malicious ingenuity, sees 
 Parker in them all — they so much resembled their master I 
 " There were no less," says he, "than six scaramouches to- 
 gether upon the stage, all of them of the same gravity and 
 behaviour, the same tone, and the same habit, that it was 
 impossible to discern which was the true author of * The 
 Ecclesiastical Polity/ I believe he imitated the wisdom of 
 some other princes, who have sometimes been persuaded 
 by their servants to disguise several others in the regal 
 garb, that the enemy might not know in the battle whom 
 to single.' ' 
 
 f That indefatigable collector of literary anecdotes and 
 curiosities, Mr. D'Israeli, in his " Quarrels of Authors," 
 has an interesting chapter on the controversy between* 
 Marvell and Parker, of which we have availed ourselves 
 
ANDREW MAItVELL. 159 
 
 (that villanous engine) invented much, about the same time 
 with the Reformation, hath done more mischief to the dis- 
 cipline of our Church than the doctrine can make amends 
 for. It was a happy time, when all learning was in manu" 
 script, and some little officer, like our author, did keep the 
 keys of the library. When the clergy needed no more 
 knowledge than to read the liturgy, and the laity no more 
 clerkship than to save them from hanging. But now, since 
 printing came into the world, such is the michief, that a 
 man cannot write a book, but presently he is answered. 
 Could the press but at once be conjured to obey only an 
 imprimatur, our author might not disdaine, perhaps, to be 
 one of its most zealous patrons. There have been wayes 
 found out to banish ministers, to find not only the people, 
 but even the grounds and fields where they assembled, in 
 conventicles ; but no art yet could prevent these seditious 
 meetings of letters. Two or three brawny fellows in a 
 corner, with meer ink, and elbow grease, do more harm 
 than a hundred systematical divines, with their sweaty 
 preaching. And, what is a strange thing, the very spunges, 
 which one would think should rather deface and blot out 
 the whole book, and were anciently used for that purpose, 
 are become now the instruments to make them legible. 
 Their ugly printing letters, which look but like so many 
 rotten tooth-drawers ; and yet these rascally operators 
 of the press have got a trick to fasten them again in 
 a few minutes, that they grow as fir ai a set, and as biting 
 and talkative as ever. 0, printing ! how hast thou dis- 
 turbed the peace of mankind ! that lead, when moulded 
 nto bvllets, is not so mortal as when formed into letters I 
 There was a mistake, sure, in the story of Cadmus; and 
 the serpent's teeth which he sowed, were nothing else but 
 the letters which he invented. The first essay that was 
 made towards this art, was in single characters upon iron, 
 wherewith, of old, they stigmatized slaves, and remarkable 
 
160 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 offenders ; and it was of good use, sometimes, to brand a 
 schismatic ; but a bulky Dutchman diverted it quite from 
 its first institution, and contriving those innumerable syn- 
 tagmes of alphabets, hath pestered the world ever since, with 
 the gross bodies of their German divinity. One would 
 have thought in reason, that a Dutchman might have con- 
 tented himself only with the wine-press." 
 
 Parker was both author and licenser of his 
 own work on "Ecclesiastical Polity/'* and it- 
 appears he got the license for printing Marvell's 
 first ''Rehearsal" recalled. The Church ap- 
 peared in danger when the doctor discovered 
 he was so furiously attacked* Marvell sar- 
 castically rallies him on his dual capacity. 
 
 " He is such an At-all of so many capacities, that he 
 would excommunicate any man who should have presumed 
 to intermeddle with any one of his provinces. Has he be«n 
 an Author ? he too is the IAcencer. Has he been a Father? 
 he will stand also for Godfather. Had he acted Pyramus 
 he would have been Moonshine too, and the Hole in the 
 Wall. That first author of " Ecclesiastical Polity," Nero, 
 was of the same temper. He could not be contented with 
 the Roman Empire, unless he were too his own Precentor ; 
 and lamented only the detriment that mankind must sus- 
 tain at his death, in losing so excellent ajidler." 
 
 The Satirist describes Parker's arrogance for 
 those whom he calls the " vulgar," and whom 
 he defies as " a rout of wolves and tigers, apes 
 
 * The title will convey some idea of its intolerant prin- 
 ciples ; — " A discourse of Ecclesiastical Polity ; wherein the 
 Authority of the Civil magistrate over the Consciences of 
 Subjects, in matters of external Religion, is asserted." 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 161 
 
 and buffoons ;" yet his personal fears are oddly- 
 contrasted with his self-importance : " If he 
 chance but to sneeze, he prays that the founda- 
 tions of the earth be not shaken. Ever since 
 he crept up to be but the weathercock of a 
 steeple, he trembles and creaks at every puff of 
 wind that blows about him, as if the Church of 
 England w T ere falling." Parker boasted, in 
 certain philosophical " Tentarnina" or Essays 
 of his, that he had confuted the atheists : 
 Marvell declares, "if he hath reduced any 
 atheists by his book, he can only pretend to have 
 converted them (as in the old Florentine wars) 
 by mere tiring them out with perfect weariness. 
 Marvell, when he lays by his playful hu- 
 mour, and fertile fancy, for more solemn remon- 
 strances, assumes a loftier tone, and a severity 
 of invective, from which, indeed, Parker never 
 recovered. Accused by Parker of aiming to 
 degrade the clerical character, Marvell declares 
 his veneration for that holy vocation, and would 
 reflect even on the failings of the men, from 
 whom so much is expected, with indulgent 
 reverence.* 
 
 " Their virtues are to be celebrated with all encourage- 
 ment, and if their vices be not notoriously palpable, let 
 the eye, as it defends its organ, so conceal the object by con- 
 nivance." But there are cases when even to write satiri- 
 cally against a clergyman may be not only excusable, but 
 necessary. " The man who gets into the church by the 
 belfry, or the window, ought never to be born in the pul- 
 pit ; the man who illustrates his own corrupt doctrines, 
 with as ill a conversation, and adorns the lasciviousness of 
 
 * Hartley Coleridge. 
 
162 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 hi3 life, with an equal petulancy of style and language :" 
 in such a concurrence of misdemeanors, what is to b« 
 done ? The example and the consequence so pernicious ! 
 which could not be " if our great pastors but exercise the 
 wisdom of common shepherds, by parting with one, to 
 stop the infection of the whole flock, when his rottenness 
 grows notorious. Or if our clergy would but use the 
 instinct of other creatures, and chase the blown deer out 
 of their herd, such mischiefs might easily be remedied. 
 !t is in this case that I think a clergyman is laid open to 
 the pen of any one, that knows how to manage it ; and 
 that every person who has either wit, learning, or sobriety, 
 is licensed— if debauched, to curb him ; if erroneous, to 
 catechise him ; and if foul-mouthed and biting, to muzzle 
 him. Such an one would never have come into the church, 
 but to take sanctuary ; wheresoever men shall find the 
 footing of so wanton a satyr out of his own bound, 
 ihe neighbourhood ought, notwithstanding all his pre- 
 tended capering divinity, to hunt him through the woods, 
 with hounds and horse, home to his harbour.'' 
 
 Towards the end of the reign of Charles II., 
 the bench of Bishops ran slavishly into all the 
 measures of the Court, which extorted from 
 Mr. Locke the memorable expression, " that 
 they were the dead weight of the House." 
 Marvel], whom Echard designates a " pesti- 
 lent wit," thus alludes to them : — 
 
 " 'Tis a very just observation that the English people 
 are slow at inventing, but excellent in the art of im- 
 proving a discovery ; and I cannot recollect any thing, 
 in which this is more verify' d, than with relation to 
 Episcopacy ; which, though originally of foreign growth ; 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 163 
 
 never arrived to its compleat maturity, till transplanted 
 into this hospitable country. 
 
 64 In the early ages of Christianity, a Bishopric was really 
 a laborious station, expos'd to numberless dangers, and 
 fiery trials ; insomuch that many of the Clergy then 
 declin'd it, in good earnest ; and had too much reason to 
 say, Nolo Episcopari : but amongst us the burtheA is so 
 happily alleviated, that a double-chin'd Prelate hath, now 
 little more to do than to loll at ease in his chariot, or to 
 snore in his stall. ISTo wonder therefore that whenever 
 any man is complimented with the tempting offer of a 
 mitre, though the old self-denying form is still religiously 
 observed, he, like a coy, but prudent damsel, cries no — ■ 
 and takes it. 
 
 " A primitive Bishop, notwithstanding the difficulties 
 and discouragements attending the study of the Scriptures, 
 sperit most part of his time in poring over his Bible ; 
 whereas, the politer moderns find it more profitable, as 
 well as pleasant, to amuse themselves with the fables of 
 Phadrus, or the entertaining comedies of Terence. 
 
 " It is (1 Tim. hi. 2.) one of the characteristics of an apos- 
 tolical Bishop, that he is the husband of one wife ; which 
 several of the old musty fathers interpret, that he must hi 
 wedded to one diocese for life. Accordingly, in the times 
 of ignorance and superstition, when translations were 
 deemed scandalous, a Bishop would as soon have deserted 
 his religion as his flock, and would have resigned his life 
 much rather than his See. — But a modish Prelate, of our 
 days, is no sooner thus allegorically married, than (like 
 other fine gentlemen) he grows weary of his wife, with 
 whom perhaps he never so much as cohabited, and long3 
 to get rid of her. Then, taking hold of the first oppor- 
 tunity, he gives her a bill of divorce, kicks her off, and 
 swoops her away for another, who brings a richer dowry 
 for her maintenance. In token of this episcopal xvedlock, 
 
164 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 the usual ceremony of a ring was antiently made use of in 
 the consecration of Bishops ; and, to this day, the arms of 
 the diocese are quarter' d, in their escutcheons, with their 
 own —if they have any. 
 
 " St. Paul, the first Bishop of the Gentile converts, tes- 
 tifies of himself, that he became all things to all men, that 
 by all means he might save some. (1 Cor. ix.) Our 
 modern Prelates, become all things to all men, that by all 
 means they may get something, as well as save. 
 
 " The ecclesiastical historians inform us, that in days of 
 yore, Bishops were so unmannerly, that they frequently 
 thwarted the civil powers, and disconcerted their measures. 
 But, behold how good and pleasant a thing it is, when 
 Church and State, like loving brethren, go cheek by jowl, 
 and dwell together in unity! (Psal. cxxxiii. 1.) "We had 
 a glorious instance of this, in the later* times, and though 
 their zeal happened to fail of success, it shows how ready 
 they were, upon all occasions, to serve the court. At 
 present I can ascribe the happy situation of our affairs to 
 nothing more effectual than the complaisant deportment 
 of that venerable order to the interests of our ministers, 
 and their almost unanimous concurrence with their stu- 
 pendous negotiations. 
 
 " The primitive Bishops were daily occupy'd in attend- 
 ing at the altar, and other fatiguing duties of their function. 
 Our more political Prelates are experimentally appriz'd 
 that it turns to much better account to dance attendance 
 at a great man's levee, and leave the drudgery of prayer 
 and preaching to their half-starv'd curates. 
 
 " The Patriarchs of the primitive Church were but slen- 
 
 * He means the reign of King Charles I. ; when most of 
 the bench suffered themselves to be governed by a proud 
 and insolent Bishop of London, (Laud) who worked him- 
 aelf, by those means, into 'he see of Canthrbury, and was 
 one of the chief causes, according to Lord Clarendon, of all 
 the miseries that ensued. 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 165 
 
 derly supported, by the voluntary contributions of Chris- 
 tian proselytes. Those of our own, besides the sums 
 drain'd out of the inferior clergy, and the various profits 
 arising from their spiritual courts, by which the vices of 
 the laity become marvellously beneficial to the hierarchy ; 
 are not only possess'd of ample temporal lordships, but 
 are also enabled, by the disposition of several ecclesiastical 
 preferments, to make a handsome provision for a numerous 
 progeny of sons, daughters, nieces, &c. The former 
 thought themselves oblig'd, out of their small revenues, to 
 be extensive in their acts of liberality and beneficence ; 
 and even to impoverish themselves, for the relief of dis- 
 tressed strangers. The latter have so conscientious a 
 regard for that enonomical precept, which injoins them 
 especially to provide for those of their own household, or 
 family, that they seldom bestow their charity abroad. 
 
 " As the advancement of a primitive priest to the epis- 
 copal dignity was entirely founded upon his own intrinsic 
 merit, abstracted from any worldly consideration ; so, in 
 promoting others, he had respect to nothing but learning 
 and diligence in the discharge of the ministerial office, 
 together with an exemplary purity and integrity of life. 
 He countenanc'd no cringers, sycophants, or informers ; 
 gave no encouragement to bribery, smock-simony, or any 
 of those mean arts, by which too many of the clergy now- 
 a-days, if not grossly misrepresented, endeavour to re- 
 commend themselves to the patronage of the Eight 
 Reverends.* 
 
 " The antient Bishops, in imitation of John the Eaptist, 
 would boldly rebuke the vices of courtiers and prinGes. 
 
 * Mr. Nelson says, in his " Life of Bishop Bull," that a 
 certain Clergyman applied to him for preferment, and had 
 the impudence to offer him a purse of gold. The good 
 Bishop saw it, and trembled ; and immediately sent away 
 this abandoned prostitute with great indignation. 
 
166 ANDREW MA&VELL. 
 
 Ambrose, a prelate of the fourth century, excluded the 
 Eraperor Theodosius from the eucharist ; nor could he be 
 persuaded to absolve and re-admit him to church com- 
 munion, till he had sate upon the stool of repentance for 
 eight months, and testify'd the deepest contrition for 
 revenging the extrajudicial proceedings against Butheri- 
 cus, a great officer at court, who had been assaulted by 
 popular fury. 
 
 " Lastly, the autients entertain' d such an insuperable 
 antipathy to pluralities, that no motive could influence 
 them to accept of any appendage to a Bishopric. — The 
 wiser moderns, in conjunction with their Bishoprics com- 
 monly hold either a Deanery, or a comfortable Prebend, 
 together with a good fat Parsonage, and perhaps half a 
 dozen sinecures, in commendam. 
 
 " The Greeks may have excell'd us in the art of rheto- 
 ric, or poetry, but we have fairly outstripp'd them in 
 refining upon Bishopcraft. A modern hath as much the 
 advantage of an antient Prelate, as riding in an easy coach 
 is preferable to trudging through the dirt on foot. Who 
 therefore but a stiff-rumped disciple of Jack Calvin will 
 fee so absurd as to deny that he who desired the office of 
 an English, nay, of a Welsh, Bishop, desireth a good 
 thing." 
 
 Marvell, in noticing Parker and his coadju- 
 tors, blends with a ludicrous description, great 
 fancy. 
 
 " The whole Posse Archidiaconatus was raised to repress 
 me ; and great riding there was, and sending post every 
 way, to pick out the ablest Ecclesiastical Droles to prepare 
 an answer. Never was such a hubbub made about a sorry 
 book. One flattered himself with being at least a surro- 
 gate ; another was so modest as to set up with being but 
 
ANDREW MARVELL, 167 
 
 a Paritw; while the moat generous hoped only to be 
 graciously smiled upon at a good dinner ; but the more 
 huagry starvelings generally looked upon it as an imme- 
 diate call to a benefice ; and he that could but write an 
 answer, whatever it were, took it for the most dexterous, 
 cheap, and legal way of simony. As is usual on these 
 occasions, there arose no small competition among the 
 candidates. 
 
 It seems all the body had not impudence 
 enough ; some possessed too nice consciences, 
 and others could not afford an extraordinary 
 expanse of wit for the occasion. It was then 
 that 
 
 " The author of the ' Ecclesiastical Polity* altered his 
 lodgings to a Calumny-Office, and kept open chambers for 
 all comers, that he might be supplied himself, or supply 
 others, as there was occasion. But the information came 
 in so slenderly, that he was glad to make use of any thing 
 rather than sit out ; and there was at last nothing so slight, 
 but it grew material ; nothing so false, but he resolved it 
 should go for truth ; and what it wanted in matter, he 
 would make out with invention and artifice. So that he, 
 and his remaining comrades, seemed to have set up a glass- 
 house, the model of which he had observed from the height 
 of his window in the neighbourhood ; and the art he had 
 been initiated into ever since the manufacture of soap-bub- 
 bles, he improved by degrees to the mystery of making 
 glass-drops, and thence, in running leaps, mounted by these 
 virtues to be a Fellow of the Koyal Society, Doctor of 
 Divinity, Parson, Prebend, and Archdeacon. The furnace 
 was so hot of itself, that there needed no coals, much less 
 any one to blow them. One burnt the weed, another cal- 
 cined the flint, a third melted clown that mixture ; but he 
 himself fashioned all with his breath, and polished with 
 
168 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 his style, till, out of a mere jelly of sand and ashes, he 
 had furnished a whole cupboard of things, so brittle and 
 incoherent, that the least touch would break them in 
 pieces, and so transparent, that every man might see 
 through them." 
 
 Parker had accused Marvell with having 
 served Cromwell, and being the friend of Mil- 
 ton, then living, at such a moment when such 
 an accusation, not only rendered a man odious, 
 but put his life in danger. Marvell, who now 
 perceived that Milton, whom he never looked 
 upon but with reverential awe, was likely to 
 be drawn into his quarrel, touches on this sub- 
 ject with great delicacy and tenderness, but not 
 with diminished energy against his malignant 
 adversary, who he shows to have been an im- 
 pertinent intruder into Milton's hous% where 
 he had first seen him. He cautiously alluded 
 to our English Homer by his initials ; at that 
 time, the very name of Milton would have 
 tainted the page !* 
 
 * The friendship between Milton and Marvell is an in- 
 teresting fact in the history of two of the noblest characters 
 this country has produced. The encomiastic verses prefixed 
 to "Paradise Lost," prove not only the admiration of 
 Marvell for the " mighty poet," but that, long before the 
 Earl of Dorset or Dry den, Marvell had discovered and 
 fully appreciated the incomparable Epic. Edward Phillips, 
 the nephew of Milton states, that "Marvell, with other 
 friends, frequently visited the Poet when secreted on 
 account of the threats of Government. " It is not impro- 
 bable that the humour of Marvell contrived the premature 
 and mock funeral of Milton, which is reported, for a time, 
 to have duped his enemies into a belief of his real death ; 
 and to Marvell' s friendship the world is probably indebted 
 for the great poems which were afterwards published. 
 
169 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 THE NO POPERY CRY, IN MARVELL S TIME. 
 
 " To consider what likelihood, or how much 
 danger there is, of the return of Popery into 
 this nation." This was declared by Parker to 
 be the object of his book. The very first word 
 in it is, — " For ray part I know none.'' Very 
 well considered. Why then, Mr. Bayes, I 
 must tell you, that if I had printed a book or 
 a preface upon the argument, I shoul ! have 
 thought myself, at least, a fool for my labour. 
 The next considerer is mine enemy ; T mean he 
 is an enemy to the state, whoever shall foment 
 such discourses without any likelihood or danger. 
 Yet, Mr Bayes, you know I have for a good 
 while had no great opinion of your integrity. 
 I doubt not you prevaricate a little with some- 
 body, for I suppose you cannot be ignorant that 
 some of your superiors of your robe did, upon 
 the publishing of that declaration, give the 
 word, and deliver orders through their ecclesi- 
 astical camp, to beat up the pulpit drums 
 against Popery. Nay, even so much that there 
 was care taken too, for arming the " poor 
 readers, that though they came short of preachers 
 in point of efficacy, yet they might be enabled 
 i 
 
J 70 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 to do something in point of common security/' 
 So that though for so many years, those your 
 superiors had forgot that there was any such 
 thing in the nation as a Popish recusant, though 
 a polemical and controversial divinity had for 
 long been hung up in the halls, like the rusty 
 obsolete armour of our ancestors, for monuments 
 of antiquity, and for derision rather than ser- 
 vice ; till all on a sudden, (as if the 15th of 
 March had been the 5th of November,) happy 
 was he that could climb up first to get down one 
 of the old cuirasses, or a habergeon that had 
 been worn in the days of Elizabeth, Great 
 variety there was — and heavy too. Some 
 clapped it on all rusty as it was, others fell to 
 
 oiling and furbishing their armour, some 
 
 in their barrels, others spat in their pans to 
 scour them. Here you might see one put on 
 his helmet the wrong way ; there one buckled 
 on a back instead of a breast. Some by 
 mistake, catch eel up a Socinian-Arminian 
 argument, and some a Popish to fight a Popish. 
 Here a dwarf lost in the accoutrements of a giant, 
 there a Don Quixote in an equipage of differing 
 pieces, and of several parishes. Never was 
 such incongruity and nonconformity in their 
 furniture. One ran to borrow a sword from 
 Calvin ; this man for a musquet from Beza ; 
 that for a bandeleers from Reckerman. But 
 when they came to seek match, and bullet, 
 and powder, there was none to be had. The 
 fanatics had bought it all up, and made them 
 pay for it most unconscionably, and through 
 the nose. And no less sport was it to see their 
 leaders. Few could tell how to give the word 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 171 
 
 of command, nor understood to drill a company; 
 they were as unexpert as their soldiers were 
 awkward, and the whole was as pleasant a 
 spectacle, as the exercising of the train bands 
 in shire, 
 
 Nero and Caligula. — Parker has said, "Tis 
 better to submit to the unreasonable imposi- 
 tions of Nero, or Caligula, than to hazard the 
 dissolution of the State; what he means here, by 
 dissolution of the State, he might have done 
 well to have expressed ; but what the unreason- 
 able impositions are, cannot be understood, 
 otherwise, than either in matters of religion, or 
 of propriety, and how both those emperors ac- 
 quitted themselves on those two accounts, ap- 
 pears in their history. For as to Nero, beside 
 his personal vices, which can scarce be imitated, 
 or paralleled, but by Caligula, I will but suc- 
 cinctly men ion how he behaved himself to 
 the public, in the course of his government. 
 If men bequeathed nothing to him by their 
 last wills and testaments, in token of their 
 gratitude to the prince, he confiscated the 
 whole estate, and fined all lawyers, whatsover, 
 by whose advice the w 7 ills bad been drawn. 
 He decreed, that though there was but one in- 
 former, it should suffice to convict men of 
 treason, either for words or actions ; whenso- 
 ever he bestowed an office, he did it with these 
 instructions : " You understand what I have 
 need of, and therefore, let us make it our busi- 
 ness, that no man may have any thing he can call 
 his own." Beside so many particular instances 
 of savage cruelty, he designed to cut off the 
 
172 ANDREW MAltVELL. 
 
 heads of all the governors of provinces. To 
 poison the whole senate at a dinner. To burn 
 the city, and at the same time, to turn out 
 wild beasts among the people, to terrify them 
 from quenching the fire. A blazing star ap- 
 pearing, he resolved to turn the omen from his 
 own head, by the massacre of all the nobility, 
 and the most considerable persons in Rome. 
 He did cause the city of Rome to be set on fire, 
 and so carelessly, that divers of his officers 
 being taken with fire and flax in their hands, 
 and in the very act, yet, were let go, for fear of 
 offending him ; and some houses not being so 
 easily burnt, he took care to have them beaten 
 down with engines. And though, it was 
 manifest, how it was designed, and acted, he 
 devised the crime of all this upon the innocent 
 Christians. He sacrilegiously took the donatives 
 from the temples, and melted down the very 
 images of the gods to make money. He con- 
 temned all religions, and particularly, isreckoned 
 to have been the first persecutor of Christianity. 
 He affirmed publicly, that u none of his prede- 
 cessors had known their own power;" the very 
 same words in a manner, and spoke in the same 
 sense, as those of our author, " that governors 
 have not been thoroughly instructed in the na- 
 ture, and extent of their power/' and the other, 
 u that no nation hath rightly understood, and 
 duly managed government, because they have 
 not chained their Nonconformists to the oar, 
 and condemned them to the galleys.*" The 
 conclusion of this tragedy is common ; how 
 Nero was by the senate proclaimed an enemy 
 to the state, and sentenced to be punished after 
 
ANDREW MA&VELL. 173 
 
 the ancient manner ; that is, to be stripped 
 naked, and his head held up with a fork, till 
 he was whipped unto death ; but this, by 
 another death he prevented. "This, I suppose, 
 is one of his uncontrollable magistrates ; these 
 his unreasonable impositions, and this your dis- 
 solution of the government ; and you think 
 that it was better that this Nero had still 
 reigned, than that Gralba had succeeded. I 
 would all of you, that are of that mind had 
 such governors ; and thus much, concerning 
 Nero. 
 
 " But now as to Caligula and his imposi- 
 tions : — what disposition he was of, he mani- 
 fested, by his wishing that all the people of 
 Rome had but one neck. Beside that, he used 
 to lament the unhappiness of his time, because 
 it was not signalised by any public calamity 
 (as if there needed any other calamity but his 
 government, and he himself had not supplied 
 the defect of any misfortune). c Whereas/ 
 said he, c the reign of Augustus was felicitated 
 by the defeat of Varus and his legions, as that 
 of Tiberius was memorable for the fall of the 
 amphitheatre at Fideaae (in the ruins of which 
 twenty thousand men perished) ; but my un- 
 fortunate prosperity will leave me in danger of 
 being inglorious after death, and forgotten." " 
 But he took good and effectual care to the 
 contrary : he was often heard to say, "that he 
 would reduce things to such a condition that 
 the lawyers should not have anything to say or 
 do, but what he thought just and equitable," 
 and he was as good as his word. The things 
 may be seen, in particular in his history ; his 
 
174 ANDREW MARVELL, 
 
 whole reign having been a pandect of rapine 
 and tyranny, and his rule by which he pro- 
 ceeded, "that he might do what he pleased 
 with whom he pleased." As to the sacred 
 rights and precedents, take one instance. 
 
 The priest being ready to offer sacrifice at 
 the altar, he took upon himself, according to 
 the unalterable dictates of natural reason, to 
 exercise the priesthood in person ; and having 
 vested himself as in the power, — so too in the 
 sacerdotal habit, he took up the mallet, and 
 feigning to knock the beast down, instead 
 thereof, struck down the officer who stood by 
 with the knife ; which should, methinJcs, he suf- 
 ficient caution to Churchmen hereafter how they 
 trust the civil magistrate with exercising the 
 tools of the priesthood. But this is nothing 
 in respect of what follows. 
 
 He commanded that the Statue of Jupiter 
 Olympus, amongmany others, should be brought 
 from Greece, and their heads taken off, to 
 place his in the room of them. He seated 
 himself often in the middle, betwixt Castor 
 and Pollux, to be adored by the people. He 
 built a temple to himself, and appointed priests 
 to his own divinity: and even then there 
 wanted not ambitious men, who, by favours, 
 aspired to that office, or purchased it by simony 
 upon any ecclesiastical vacancy. The sacrifices 
 appointed for his own worship, were pheasants, 
 peacocks, and all the other delicate fowls, and 
 of greatest rarity. He took upon him the in- 
 signias of all the gods : — the lion from Her- 
 cules : the caps from the Castors ; the ivy and 
 thrysis from Liber ; the Caduceus from Mer« 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 175 
 
 cury; the sword, helmet, and buckler, from 
 Mars ; the crown, bow, arrows, and graces 
 from Apollo. He made love to the Moon, 
 and pretended to her embraces. But more 
 than this : he commanded that his image 
 should be set up in the Temple at Jerusalem, 
 and that the Temple should be dedicated only 
 to him, and he there to be worshipped under 
 the name of u The New Jupiter." He 
 caused his statues, moreover, to be placed in 
 the Jews' synagogues, to be there adored ; in- 
 somuch, that the great Grot i us does most accu- 
 rately deduce and expound 2 Thessalonians, 
 chap ii., ver. 3 — 4, concerning him, although 
 differing from other interpreters; and that St. 
 Paul had ventured to call him the son of Per- 
 dition, that is worthy to die in the most 
 miserable manner, (as he did afterwards) and 
 the adversary, — that is, the enemy of God, — 
 and that his sitting as God, in the temple of 
 God, was to be meant of his command to erect 
 his image there, though it w 7 ere not effected, 
 yet however seeing he did his best to have it 
 done. And this is your other magistrate 
 " who understood the nature and extent of his 
 pow T er." What a pity it is that you did not 
 live in that fortunate age, when desert was so 
 well rewarded and understood, when prefer- 
 ments were so current'! Certainly, one of 
 your heels and mettle would have arrived to 
 be something more than an Archdeacon. 
 
 Church Contentions. — And indeed, that 
 first contention raised by Augustine abou* the 
 introducing of the Romish ceremonies, which 
 
176 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 could not be quenched but by the blood and 
 slaughter of the innocent Britons, hath been 
 continued even to our later times with the like 
 mischief and murder of Christians. For when 
 once by those glorious ceremonies they forsook 
 the pure simplicity of the primitive Church, 
 they did not much trouble themselves about 
 holiness of life, the preaching of the Gospel^ 
 the efficacy and comfort of the Holy Spirit ; 
 but they fell every day into new squabbles 
 about new fangled ceremonies, added by every 
 Pope, who reckoned no man worthy of so high 
 a degree but one who had invented somewhat, 
 I will not say ceremonies, but monstrous, un- 
 heard of, and before unpractised ; and they 
 filled the schools and the pulpits with their 
 fables and brawling of such matters. For the 
 first beauty of the Church had more of sim- 
 plicity and plainness ; and was neither adorned 
 with splendid vestments, nor magnificent struc- 
 tures, nor shined with gold, silver, and precious 
 stones ; but with the entire and inward worship 
 of God as it was by Christ himself prescribed, 
 although it may be lawful to use these external 
 things, so they do not lead the mind astray 
 from that more inward and entire worship of 
 God ; by those curious and crabbed rites it 
 degenerated from that ancient and right Evan- 
 gelical symplicity. But that multitude of rites 
 in the Romish Church had un measurably in- 
 creased in the times of that great Augustine, 
 the Bishop of Hippo, insomuch that he com- 
 plained that the condition of Christians, as to 
 rites and ceremonies, was harder than that of 
 the Jews ; who, although they did not discern 
 
ANDREW MARVELL, 177 
 
 the time of their liberty, yet were only sub- 
 jected to legal burthens instituted by God him- 
 self, not to humane presumptions, for they 
 used fewer ceremonies in the worship of God 
 than Christians. Who, if he could have fore- 
 seen how great a heap of them was afterwards 
 piled up, and added by the several Popes, he 
 himself doubtless would have restrained it 
 within Christian measure, having already per- 
 ceived this growing evil in the Church. For 
 we see that even yet the Church is not free 
 from that contention ; but men otherwise 
 learned and pious, do still cut and slash about 
 vestments and such kind of trifles, rather in a 
 swash buckler and hectoring way than either 
 like philosophers or Christians. 
 
 Church Ceremonies. — He would persuade 
 princes that there cannot be a pin pulled out 
 of the Church, but the State immediately totters. 
 This is strange. And yet I have seen many a 
 pin pulled out on occasion, and yet not so much 
 as the Church hath wagged. It is true, indeed, 
 and we have had sad experiments of it, that 
 some clergymen have been so opiniastre, that 
 they have rather exposed the state to ruin, than 
 they would part with a pin ; I will not say 
 out of their Church, but out of their sleeve. 
 There is nothing more natural, than for the 
 ivy to be of opinion, that the oak cannot stand 
 without its support ; or, seeing, we are got into 
 ivy, that the Church cannot hold up longer 
 than it underprops the walls ; whereas, it is a 
 sneaking, insinuating imp, scarce better than 
 bind-weed, that sucks the tree dry, and 
 i 2 
 
178 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 moulders the building where it catches. But, 
 what pray, is this pin in Pallas's buckler? 
 " Why, it is some ceremony or other, that is in- 
 different in its own nature, that hath no antece- 
 dent necessity, but only as commanded (Parker) 
 that signifies nothing in itself, but what the 
 commander pleases ; that even by the Church 
 that commands it, is declared to have nothing 
 of religion in it ; and that is in itself, of no 
 great moment, or consequence, only it is abso- 
 lutely necessary that governors should enjoy it 
 to avoid the evils that would follow, if it were 
 not determined. '' 
 
 The Venom of Parker. — You see, Mr. 
 Bayes, that I, too, have improved my wit with 
 reading the Gazette. Were you of that fel- 
 low's diet, here about town, that epicurises upon 
 burning coals, drinks healths in scalding brim- 
 stone, scraunches the glasses for his dessert, and 
 draws his breath through glowing tobacco 
 pipes, nay, to say a thing yet greater, had you 
 never tasted other sustenance than the focus of 
 burning glasses, you could not show more flame 
 than you do always, upon that subject ; and 
 yet, one would think, that from the little sports, 
 with your comfortable importance after supper, 
 you should have learnt when 1:0 came into 
 play, to love your love with a y, because he is 
 judicious ; though you hate your son with a J y 
 because he is jealous ; and then to love your 
 love, with an 0, because he is oraculous; though 
 you hate your love with an 0, because he is 
 obscure. Is it not strange, that in those most 
 benign moments of a man's life, when the stars 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 179 
 
 smile, the birds sing, the winds whisper, the 
 fountains warble, the trees blossom, and uni- 
 versal nature seems to invite itself to the bridal ; 
 when the lion pulls in his claws, and the 
 aspic lays by its poison, and all the most noxious 
 creatures grow amorously innocent, that even 
 then, Mr. Bayes alone should not be able to 
 refrain his malignity ! As you love yourself, 
 madam, let him not come near you ; he hath 
 been fed all his life with vipers instead of 
 lampreys, and scorpions for cray fish ; and if 
 at any time he eat chickens, they have been 
 crambed by spiders, till he hath envenomed his 
 whole substance. It cannot be a vulgar fur- 
 nace that hath chafed so cool a Salamander. 
 
 " Is it not a great pity to see a man, in the 
 flower of his age, and the vigour of his studies, 
 to fall into such a distraction ; that his head 
 runs upon nothing but Roman Empire and 
 ecclesiastical polity ? This happens by his 
 growing too early acquainted with Don Quixote, 
 and reading the Bible too ; so that the first 
 impressions being most strong, and mixing with 
 the last as more novel, have made such a 
 medley in his brain-pan, that he is become a 
 mad priest, which of all the sorts is most 
 incurable." 
 
 " But how perfect soever a man may have 
 been in any science, yet without continual 
 practice, he will find a sensible decay of his 
 faculty. Hence, also, and upon the same 
 natural ground, it is the wisdom of cats to 
 whet their claws against the chairs and hang- 
 ings, in meditation of the next rat they are to 
 encounter. And 1 am confidant, that Mr. 
 
J 80 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 Bayes, by this way, hath brought himself into 
 so good a railing case, that pick what letter you 
 will out of the alphabet, he is able to write 
 an epistle upon it of 723 pages." 
 
 " When a man is once possessed with this 
 fanatic kind of spirit, he imagines, if a shoulder 
 do but itch, that the world has galled it with 
 leaning on it so long, and therefore he wisely 
 shrugs to remove the globe to the other. If 
 he chance to sneeze, he salutes himself, and 
 courteously prays that the foundations of the 
 earth be not shaken. And even so, the author 
 of the ' Ecclesiastical Polity,' ever since he 
 crept up to be the weather-cock of a steeple, 
 he trembles, and creaks, at every puff of wind 
 that blows him about, as if the Church of 
 England were falling, and the State tottered." 
 
 Marvell justifies his severity towards Parker 
 most ludicrously, by saying, a No man needs 
 letters of marque against any one that is a 
 pirate of other men's credit. I remember, 
 within our own time, one Simons, who robbed 
 always upon the Bricolle, that is to say, never 
 interrupted the passengers, but fell upon the 
 thieves themselves, after, like Sir John Fall- 
 staff, they were gorged with a booty ; and by 
 this way so ingenious, that it was scarce crimi- 
 nal. He lived secure and unmolested all his 
 days, with the reputation of a judge, rather 
 than a high way man.' * 
 
 " You appeal to governors themselves, to 
 judge whether it does not concern them, with 
 as much vigilance and severity to prevent their 
 rise, (sects) or suppress their growth, as to 
 punish any of the foulest crimes of immorality. 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 181 
 
 ,r Fis something like the story of Gondomar, 
 this ; who, from the example of a mother that 
 whipped her girl beforehand, lest she should 
 break the pitcher, argued that Sir Walter 
 Raleigh's head should have been cut off before 
 he went to Guinea. Indeed, it is the very 
 wisdom of Herod, who, lest there should be a 
 king born among them, massacred all the 
 children at Bethlehem. So they must be 
 prevented or suppressed." 
 
182 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 EXTRACTS FROM MARVELL S FAMILIAR 
 EPISTLES. 
 
 The extracts already presented from MarvelFs 
 communications to Hull, only show his diligence 
 as a statesman, and his attention to the interests 
 of his constituents. Now we will present a 
 few extracts from those epistles, in which he 
 could with more freedom unfold his soul. In 
 the edition of his works, published by Captain 
 Thompson, no dates are given ; they are mostly 
 addressed to William Ramsden, Esq., who is 
 familiarly spoken to as " Dear Will ;" he was 
 a great Hull merchant and adventurer in trade. 
 
 " I have writ to you twice at Bordeaux. I received one 
 from you on the 1st. of March. To satisfy your curiosity 
 of our affairs, the Lord Lauderdale, the King's Commis- 
 sioner, from the Parliament of Scotland, returned hither 
 some few days before our sitting down, the 14th. of Feb- 
 ruary. He had passed, there, (through the weakness of 
 the Presbyterian and Episcopal parties,) an Act, giving 
 the King absolute power to dispose of all things in re- 
 ligious matters ; and another Act, for settling a militia of 
 
 
ANDREW MAttVELL. 183 
 
 twenty thousand foot and horse, proportionable to march 
 into England, Ireland, or any part of the King's dominions, 
 wherever his person, power, authority, or greatness was 
 concerned ; and a third, empowering his Majesty to name 
 Commissioners of Scotland, to treat 'with others of Eng- 
 land, on the Union of the two nations : for which service 
 he was received with extraordinary favour by the 
 King, and introduced into the Cabinet Council, and 
 is ripe for further honours at a due season. By other 
 parties, these affairs were discoursed of, according to their 
 several interests ; and many talked that he deserved a 
 Halter, rather than a Garter, and were meditating how, 
 (he not being an English Peer,) they might impeach him 
 in Parliament. 
 
 " Now for the affairs of Ireland.. About the same time, 
 the King had resolved to recall the Lord Roberts back. 
 His friends were representing him daily to his Majesty, 
 on all occasions, in the worst character ; and he himself 
 tired out with continued checks and countermands, (hence 
 in matters which he thought were agreed to him before he 
 went,) wrote a short letter to the King, desiring to be 
 dismissed from all employment whatever, which should 
 be his last request. The King took him at his word, and 
 ordered the Lord Barclay, a man unthought of, to go Lord 
 Lieutenant, which he does as soon as we rise ; and then 
 the other returns to tell his tale here, and to retire into 
 the country, and will, as is thought, relinquish the Privy 
 Seal. You know that we have voted the King, before 
 Christmas, four hundred thousand pounds, and no more ; 
 and enquiring severely into ill management ; and being 
 ready to adjourn ourselves till February, his Majesty, for- 
 tified by some undertakers of the meanest of our House, 
 threw up all as nothing, and prorogued us from the 1st. 
 of December till the 14th. of February. All that interval 
 there was great and numerous caballing among the cour- 
 
184 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 tiers. The King, also, all the while, examined at Council, 
 the reports from the Commissioners of Accounts, where 
 they were continually discountenanced, and treated rather 
 as offenders than judges. In this posture we met, and 
 the King being exceedingly necessitous for money spoke 
 to us stilo minaci et imperatorio, and told us the incon- 
 veniences, which would fall on the nation, by want of a 
 supply, should not lie at his door ; that we must not re- 
 vive any discord between the Lords and us, that he himself 
 had examined the accounts and found every penny to have 
 been employed in the war, — and he recommended the 
 Scotch Union. The Garroway party appeared with the 
 usual vigour, but the country gentlemen appeared not in 
 their true number the first day ; so, for want of voices, 
 the first blow was against them. When we began tfc talk 
 of the Lords, the King sent for us alone, and recommended 
 a rasure of all proceedings. The same thing you know, 
 that we proposed at first ; we presently ordered it and 
 went to tell him the same day, and to thank him. 
 
 "At coming down, (a pretty ridiculous thing,) Sir 
 Thomas Clifford carried the Speaker and the Mace and 
 all members there into the King's cellar, to drink his health. 
 The King sent to the Lords more peremptorily, and they 
 with much grumbling agreed to the rasure. When the 
 Commissioners of Accounts came before us, sometimes we 
 heard them pro forma, but all falls to the dirt. The ter- 
 rible Bill against conventicles is sent up to the Lords ; 
 and we and the Lords, as to the Scotch business, have 
 desired the King to name English Commissioners to treat, 
 but nothing they do be valid, but on a report to Parlia- 
 ment. We are now as we think within a week of rising. 
 They are making mighty alterations in the Conventicle 
 Bill, (which as we sent up in the quintescense of arbitrary 
 malice) and sit whole days, and yet proceed but by inches, 
 and will at the end probably fix a Scotch clause of the 
 
ANDREW MAItVELL. 185 
 
 King's power in externals. So the fate of the Bill is tin- 
 certain, but must probably pass, being the price of money. 
 The King told some eminent citizens, who applied to him 
 against it, that they must address themselves to the Houses, 
 that he must not disoblige his friends, and that if it had 
 been in the power of their friends he had gone without 
 money. There is a Bill in the Lords to encourage people 
 to buy all the King's fee-farm rents ; so he is resolved once 
 more to have money enough in his pocket, and live on the 
 common for the future. The great Bill began in the 
 Lords, and which 'makes more ado than any act ever in 
 this Parliament did, is for enabling Lord Boss, long since 
 divorced in the spiritual court, and his children declared 
 illegitimate by act of Parliament again. Anglesea and 
 Ashley who study and know their interests as well as 
 any gentlemen at court, and whose sons have married two 
 sisters of Ross, inheretrixes if he have no issue, yet they 
 also drive on the Bill with the greatest vigour. The King 
 is for the Bill ; the Duke of York, and all the Papist 
 Lords, and Bishops, except Cosins, Reynolds and Wilkins, 
 are against it. They sat all Thursday last without once 
 rising, till almost ten at night, in most solemn and memo- 
 rable debate, whether it should be read the second time or 
 thrown out. At last, at the question, there were forty 
 two persons and six proxies against it ; and forty-one 
 persons and fifteen proxies for it. If it had not gone for 
 it, the Lord Arlington had a power in his pocket from the 
 King, to have nulled the proxies, if it had been to the 
 purpose. It was read a second time yesterday ; and on a 
 long debate whether it should be committed, it went for 
 the Bill, in twelve odds, by persons and proxies. The 
 Duke of York, the Bishops, and the rest of the parties, 
 have entered their protests, on the first day's debates 
 against it. Is not this fine work ? This Bill must come 
 down to us. It is my opinion that Lauderdale talks to 
 
186 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 the King at one ear, of Monmouth ; and Buckingham, of 
 a new Queen. It is also my opinion, that the King was 
 never, since his coming in, {nay all things considered, no 
 King since the Conquest) so absolutely powerful at Home, 
 as he is at this present ; nor any Parliament, or places so 
 certainly and constantly supplied with men of the same 
 temper. In such a conjuncture, dear Will, what probabi- 
 lity is there of my doing any thing to the purpose ? The 
 King would needs take the Duke of Albemarle out of his 
 son's hand to bury him at his own charges. It is almost 
 three months, and yet he lies in the dark unburied, and 
 no talk of him. He left twelve thousand pounds a year, 
 and near two hundred thousand pounds in money. His 
 wife died nearly twenty days after him ; and laid in state, 
 and was buried at her son's expense, in Queen Elizsdbeth's 
 Chapel. And now, 
 
 " Disce, puer virtutem exine ^Erumque laborem 
 " Fortunam ex aliis. 
 
 "March, 21, 1670," 
 
 " Dearest Will, 
 " I wrote to you two letters, and payed for them at the 
 post-house here, at Westminster, to which I have had no 
 
 answer — perhaps they miscarried To proceed. The 
 
 same day my letter bore date, there was an extraordinary 
 thing done. The King, about ten o'clock, took boat, with 
 Lauderdale only, and two ordinary attendants, and rowed 
 awhile as towards the bridge, but soon turned back to the 
 Parliament Stairs, and so went up into the House of 
 Lords, and took his seat. Almost all of them were 
 amazed, but all seemed so ; and the Duke of York, espe- 
 cially, was very much surprised. Being sat, he told them 
 
ANDREW MARVRLL. 187 
 
 it was a privilege he claimed from his ancestors to be pre- 
 sent at their deliberations : that therefore they should not, 
 for his coming, interrupt their debates, but proceed and 
 be covered. They did so. It is true that this has been 
 done long ago, but it is now so old, and so disused, 
 that at any other but so bewitch' d a time as this, it would 
 have been looked on as an high usurpation, and breach of 
 privilege. He indeed sat still, for the most part, and in- 
 terposed very little, — sometimes a word or two. But the 
 most discerning opinion was, that he did herein as he 
 rowed : for, having had his face first to the Conventicle 
 Bill, he turned short to Lord Bosses. So that indeed it is 
 credible, the King, (in prospect of diminishing the Duke of 
 York's influence in the Lords' House, in this or any future 
 matter,) resolved, (and wisely enough at present,) to weigh 
 up and lighten the Duke's efficacy, by coming himself in 
 person. After three or four days' continuance, the Lords 
 were very well used in the King's presence, and sent the 
 Lord Steward and the Lord Chamberlain to wait upon 
 him as an House, when they might thank him for the 
 extraordinary honour he did them. The hour was ap- 
 pointed then, and they thanked him, and he took it well. 
 So this matter, of such importance on all great occasions, 
 seems rivetted to us for the future, and to all posterity. 
 Now the Lord Rosses' Bill came in order to another 
 debate, and the King present. Nevertheless the debate 
 lasted an entire day ; and it passed by very few voices. 
 The King has ever since continued his session among 
 them, and says it is better than going to a Play. In this 
 Session the Lords sent down to us a proviso for the King, 
 that would have restored him to all civil and ecclesiastical 
 prerogatives which his ancestors had enjoyed at any time 
 since the Conquest. There was never so compendious a 
 piece of absolute, universal tyranny. But the Commons 
 made them ashamed of it, and retrenched it. The Par- 
 
188 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 liament was never so embarrassed beyond recovery. We 
 are all venal cowards, except some few. What plots of 
 State will go on, this interval, I know not. There is a 
 new set of Justices of Peace framing throughout the whole 
 kingdom. The governing cabal, since Rosses' business, 
 are Buckingham, Lauderdale, Ashley, Orrery, and Trevor. 
 Not but the other cabal, too, have seemingly sometimes 
 their turn. Madame, our King's sister, (during the King 
 of France's progress in Flanders,) is to come as far as Can- 
 terbury. There will, doubtless, be family councils then. 
 Some talk of a French Queen to be then invented for our 
 King. Some talk of a sister of Denmark ; others, of a 
 good, virtuous Protestant, here at home. The King dis- 
 avows it : yet he has said in public, he knew not why a 
 woman may not be divorced for barrenness, as a man for 
 impotency." 
 
 "TO WILLIAM RAMSDEN, ESQ. 
 
 " Dear Will, 
 " I need not tell you I am always thinking of you. All 
 that has happened, which is remarkable, since I wrote, 
 is as follows : The Lieutenancy of London, chiefly Sterlin, 
 the Mayor, and Sir J. Robinson, alarmed the King conti- 
 nually with the Conventicles there. So the King sent them 
 strict and large powers. The Duke of York every Sun- 
 day would come over thence to look to the peace. To say 
 truth, they met in numerous open assemblys, without any 
 dread of government. But the train bands in the city, 
 and soldiery in Southwark and suburbs, harassed and 
 abused them continually ; they wounded many, and killed 
 some Quakers especially while they took all patiently. 
 Hence arose things of great remark. The Lieutenancy, 
 having got orders to their mind, pick out Hays and Jekill, 
 the innocentest of the whole party, to shew their power 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 189 
 
 on. They offer them illegal bonds of five thousand pounds 
 a man, which if they would not enter into, they must go 
 to prison. So they were committed, and at last (but it is 
 a very long story) got free. Some friends engaged for 
 them. The other was the tryal of Pen and Mead, Quakers, 
 at the Old Baily. The jury not finding them guilty, as the 
 Recorder and Mayor would have had them, they were 
 kept without meat or drink some three days, till almost 
 starved, but would not alter their verdict ; so fined and 
 imprisoned. There is a book out which relates all the 
 passages, which were very pertinent, of the prisoners, but 
 prodigiously barbarous by the Mayor and Recorder. The 
 Recorder, among the rest, commended the Spanish Inquisi- 
 tion, saving it would never be well till we had something like 
 it. The King had occasion for sixty thousand pounds. Sent 
 to borrow it of the city. Sterlin, Robinson and all the 
 rest of that faction, were at it many a week, and could not 
 get above ten thousand. The fanatics, under persecution, 
 served his Majesty. The other party, both in court and 
 city, would have prevented it. But the King protested 
 money would be acceptable. So the city patched up out of 
 the chamber and other ways, twenty thousand pounds. 
 The fanatics, of all sorts, forty thousand. The King, 
 though against many of his council, would have the Parlia- 
 ment sit this twenty-fourth of October. He, and the 
 Keeper spoke of nothing but to have money. Some one 
 million three hundred thousand pounds, to pay off the debt3 
 at interest; and eight hundred thousand for a brave navy 
 next spring. Both speeches forbid to be printed, for the 
 King said very little, and the Keeper, it was thought, too 
 much in his politic simple discourse of foreign affairs. The 
 House was thin and obsequious. They voted at first they 
 would supply him, according to his occasions, Nemine, as 
 it was remarked, contradicente ; but few affirmatives, 
 rather a silence as of men ashamed and unwilling. Sir R. 
 
190 ANDREW MAItVELL. 
 
 Howard, Seymour, Temple, Car, and Hollis, openly took 
 leave of their former party, and fell to head the King's 
 business. There is like to be a terrible Act of Conventicles. 
 The Prince of Orange here is much made of. The King 
 owes him a great deal of mony. The paper is full. 
 
 " I am your's, &c." 
 "Nov. 28, 1670." 
 
 " TO WILLIAM RAMSDEN, ESQ. 
 "Dear Will, 
 
 "Affairs begin to alter, and men talk of a peace with 
 Holland, and taking them into our protection ; and it is 
 my opinion it will be before Michaelmas, for some reasons 
 not fit to write. We cannot have a peace with France and 
 Holland both. The Dutch are now brought very low; 
 but Amsterdam, and some other provinces, are resolved to 
 stand out to the last. De-wit is stabbed, and dead of his 
 wounds. It was at twelve a clock at night, the 11th of this 
 month, as he came from the council at the Hague. Four 
 men wounded him with their swords. But his own 
 letter next morning to the States says nothing appeared 
 mortal. The whole Province of Utrecht is yielded up. 
 No man con conceive the coudition of the State of Holland, 
 in this j uncture, unless he can at the same time conceive 
 an earthquake, an hurricane, and the deluge. France is 
 potent and subtle. Here have been several fires of late. 
 One at St. Catharine's, which burned about six score or 
 two hundred houses, and some seven or eight ships. 
 Another in Bishopsgate-street. Another in Crichet Fryars. 
 Another in Southwark ; and some elsewhere. You may 
 be sure all the old talk is hereupon revived. There was 
 the other day, though not on this occasion, a severe pro- 
 clamation issued out against all who shall vent false news, 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 191 
 
 or discourse ill-concerning affairs of state. So that in writ- 
 ing to you I run the risque of making a breach in the 
 commandment. 
 
 " Yours, &c." 
 
 "Jime, 1672." 
 
 " TO WILLIAM RAMSDEN*, ESQ. 
 
 "Dear Sir, 
 " I have now before me yours of the 17th of June, with 
 the inclosed paper of 17th of May, to which I owed you a 
 quicker return. Being resolved now to sequester myself 
 one whole day at Highgate, I shall write four whole sides 
 (if my spirit will hold out) in answer to your kind letter, 
 and to atone for my so long unaffected silence." 
 
 i( And now, Will, I have cast it so, that I can give you 
 an account of the business of Parliament last sitting. If it 
 should seem to come too late, it is but imagining yourself in 
 the East Indies, and it could not have come sooner. Nor 
 is there any philosophical difference betwixt the ignorance 
 or knowledge of these publick matters. The Treasurer, 
 Lauderdale, and I should have said the Duke of York, 
 had, as they generally have, the great stroke in our 
 counsels. It seemed necessary for the King's affairs, who 
 always, but now more, wants money, the Parliament 
 should meet. Lauderdale therefore, and the Treasurer 
 Coke, voted so obnoxious to the Parliament, (the second fore- 
 
 * William and John Rainsden, Esqrs. were the sons of 
 John Ramsden, who was Mayor of Hull, and died of the 
 plague in the year 1637, and was buried by the Reverend 
 Mr. Andrew Marvel (father to our author) who delivered 
 from the pulpit, upon this mournful occasion, a most 
 pathetic oration. His eldest son, Mr. John Ramsden, was 
 twice chosen member for Hull, and Mr. William was 
 Mayor thereof, and the first Alderman that resigned by fine. 
 
192 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 seeing himself to have many enemys) that they were forced 
 to make a most strict league with the bishops, and the whole 
 old cavalier party, in order to their own security, and the 
 King's business, and for the Duke of York, who ought to 
 be against the Parliament's meeting. They persuaded him, 
 that, in an Act for taking the Popish Test, he should be 
 exempted by particular proviso. And though they two 
 could have been content the meeting should have been put 
 off, so the blame might have layed at the Duke's door, yet 
 he thought himself as able to abide the brunt as they 
 were, and so let it take its chance ; for there is no real 
 union betwixt any of them ; but they shuffle and cab 
 every dealing. In order to make their episcopal cavalier 
 party, they tried beforehand a politic test to be inacted, 
 and then taken by all Members of Parliament, and all 
 officers ; though there lay an hook too under that, for 
 after such an Act they thought another parliament might 
 safely be called, if this proved refractory. Among other 
 chimseras, they discoursed of none having any beneficial 
 offices but cavaliers, or sons of cavaliers. But, for more 
 pageantry, the old King's statute on horseback, of brass, 
 was bought and to be set up at Charing-Cross, which hath 
 been doiDg longer than Viner's, but does not yet see the 
 light. The old King's body was taken up to make a per- 
 fect resurrection of loyalty, and to be reinterred with great 
 magnificence ; but that sleeps. But principally the laws 
 were to be severely executed, and reinforced against 
 Fanatics and Papists ; Proclamations issuing a month, 
 which is always time enough, before the sitting, to that 
 purpose. And the King should ask, forsooth, no money, 
 but only mention the building and refitting of ships. And 
 thus the Parliament meets, and the King tells them 'tis 
 only to see what farther is wanted for religion and pro- 
 perty. The Commons were very difficultly brought to give 
 him thanks for his gracious expressions. Strait they 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 193 
 
 poured in bills for Habeas Corpus against imprisonment 
 beyond sea; treason to levy money without, or longer 
 than, consent of Parliament ; and that it should be lawful 
 to resist. To vacate any Member of Parliament, and 
 issue a new writ, who, hereafter being chosen, should 
 accept a beneficial office. A new Popish test for Book- 
 Houses, else to be incapable. New test, and way of pro- 
 ceeding, for speedyer conviction of Papists, and which is 
 worse, for appropriating the King's customs to the use of 
 the navy ; and, worse of all, voted one morning to proceed 
 on no more Bills before the recess ; which the King inti- 
 mated should be shortly, but to return in winter. Address 
 upon address against Lauderdale. Articles of impeach- 
 ment against the Treasurer, but which were blown off at 
 last by great bribing. Several addresses for recalling our 
 forces out of the French service. One day, in this last 
 matter, upon dispute of telling right upon division, both 
 parties grew so hot, that all order was lost ; men came 
 running confusedly up to the table, grievously affronted one 
 by another ; every man's hand on his hilt ; quieted though 
 \ at lsst by the present prudence of the Speaker ; and every 
 man, in his place, was obliged to stand up, and engage his 
 honour, not to resent any thing of that day's proceeding. 
 
 "Shaftsbury of the Lords, Cavendish and Newport of 
 the Commons, are forbid the Court ; Strang ways, a flagrant 
 churchman, made privy counsellor. Scaramuccio* acting 
 daily in the hall of Whitehall, and all soirts of people flock- 
 ing thither, and paying their money as at a common play* 
 house ; nay even a twelve-penny gallery is builded for the 
 convenience of his Majesty's poorer subjects. 
 
 " Dear Will, present my kind love and service to your 
 wife. when will you have arrived at what is necessary? 
 Make other serviceable instruments that you may not be 
 
 * Performing Mass. 
 
194 ANDEEW MAEVELL. 
 
 a drudge, but govern all by your understanding. When I 
 hear you have received this letter, 1 have another of more 
 pleasure ready for you. 
 "July 24, 1675." 
 
 "P. S. Strang ways, a man of seven or eight thousand 
 pounds a year, having, as I told you, been lately made 
 privy counsellor, is dead, like a fool. The same post 
 brings it certain. He was gone into the country, swoln 
 with his new honour, and with venom against the fanatics. 
 He had set the informers to work, and died suddenly, not- 
 withstanding his church's letany, from sudden death, good 
 Lord, &c. He was their great pillar in the House of Com- 
 mons. Thus Holy Church goes to wrack on all side?. 
 Never were poor men exposed and abused all the session, 
 as the bishops were by the Duke of Buckingham, upon the 
 test ; never the like, nor so infinitely pleasant : and no 
 men were ever grown so odiously ridiculous. 
 
 "Dr. Burnet, one of Lauderdale's former confidants, 
 witnessed, at the Commons bar, that, discoursing to 
 Lauderdale of the danger of using such severitys against 
 the nonconformists in Scotland, while the King was en- 
 gaged in war abroad, Lauderdale said, He wished they 
 would rebel. How so ? Why, He would bring over the 
 Irish Papists to cut their throats. Farther, concerning the 
 Parliament, if they be refractory, I will bring the Scotch 
 army upon them : But it will be difficult to persuade them. 
 No, the prey of England will draw in a great many. 
 Nevertheless Lauderdale is in as much favour as ever." 
 
 "TO WILLIAM RAMSDEN, Esq'. 
 
 "Dear Will, 
 " I have time to tell you this much of publick matters. 
 The patience of the Scots, under their oppressions, is 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 195 
 
 not to be paralleled in any history. They still continue 
 their extraordinary and" numerous, but peaceable, field 
 conventicles. One Mr. Welch is their arch-minister, and 
 the last letter I saw tells, people were going forty miles to 
 hear him. There came out, about Christmas last, here, a 
 book concerning the growth of popery and arbitrary govern- 
 ment. There have been great rewards offered in private, 
 and considerable in the Gazette, to any one who could 
 inform of the author or printer, but not yet discovered. 
 Three or four printed books have since described, as near 
 as it was proper to go, the man being a Member of Parlia- 
 ment, Mr. Marvell, to have been the author ; but if he 
 had, surely he should not have escaped being questioned in 
 Parliament, or some other place. My good wishes attend 
 you. 
 
 " Yours, &c." 
 "June 10, 1678." 
 
196 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 CONCLUSION OF LIFE AND MISCELLANEOUS 
 PAPEKS. 
 
 We have thus travelled over the Works of 
 the member for Hull, and considered some of 
 his sayings and doings. It will be seen that 
 we have been able to gather but little of his life. 
 Few anecdotes are recorded, but those few do 
 appear to be characteristic. All anecdotes, 
 almost, related of great and notable men, have 
 this worth about them, that they give the deline- 
 ations and outlines of character. Theymay, some- 
 times, exaggerate the image ; but still it is 
 beyond all doubt the image. Captain Thomp- 
 son relates an anecdote, which we do not re- 
 member to have seen elsewhere, on the authority 
 of Mr. Caleb Flemming. For our own part, 
 we feel inclined to doubt it as it stands. From 
 our knowledge of Marvel l's character, it appears 
 to want the internal evidence of truth ; the 
 verbal wit is more like Marvel], than the 
 muscular exercise. When the controversies 
 ran very high, on one occasion, Mr. Marvell 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. J 97 
 
 met Dr. Parker, his antagonist, (who was at 
 that time chaplain to the Bishop of Rochester) 
 in one of the public streets of London, when 
 the latter rudely attempted to take the wall of 
 him, which Mr. Marvell wanting, placed his 
 foot and arm in such a manner, that the doctor 
 fell into the kennel ; and as the doctor lay 
 sprawling in the dirt, he said to him, with his 
 usual pleasantry, cc Lye there for a son of a 
 
 w ." The doctor complaining to the 
 
 Bishop, his lordship desired that Mr. Marvell 
 would be pleased to call upon him : when on 
 the visit, Mr. Marvell asking his Grace the 
 occasion of it, he reproached him with abusive 
 usage of his chaplain ; but laid the emphasis 
 on the foul language, and assured him, that 
 unless he made ample satisfaction, a prosecution 
 should take place, and he would see justice 
 done Dr. Parker. Mr. Marvell replied, that 
 his chaplain was impudent to demand the w T all 
 of a Member of the House of Commons ; and 
 that he had only given him the reproachful 
 name he had given himself. 
 
 " How does that appear V 
 
 " Have you not, my Lord Bishop, such a 
 book, which he hath lately written S" 
 
 " Yes." 
 
 " Please to produce it. — There, my lord," 
 says Marvell, "look over that page of the 
 preface !" 
 
 "Well, what of this T 
 
 " Why, my lord, does he not say, ' He is a 
 true son of his mother, the Church of England f 
 
 44 Well, and what of that V 9 
 
198 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 " Read further on, my lord : c The church of 
 England has spawned two bastards, the Pres- 
 byterians and the Congregationals/ Ergo, ray 
 lord, he expressly declares, that he is the son 
 oj a w . 
 
 " You are very witty, indeed, Mr. Marvel]," 
 replied the Lord Bishop, u but let me intreat 
 you in future time to show more reverence to 
 the cloth." 
 
 There can be no doubt, that in the unre- 
 strained freedom of social intercourse, the wit 
 of Marvell flashed and sparkled around the 
 table and the fireside. But this is lost to us. 
 We do not know much of his social usages. 
 True to his reputation, almost all we do know 
 of him, is the reflection of a character of lofty 
 integrity and constancy. But we suspect he 
 was reserved in his usual deportment. The 
 great difference between his " Familiar Epis- 
 tles," and his " Letters to the Corporation of 
 Hull," show this. We have seen in the former 
 the outflowings of his mind and his opinion 
 upon all subjects ; but in the latter, there is a 
 cautious holding back of everything, except 
 mere intelligence, and a counselling to silence, 
 where there did appear to be a probability of a 
 tripping tongue. He was cautious, probably, 
 in the company in which he allowed himself 
 to enter, as well as the most of his conversation 
 while there. All which reveals to us a man 
 with clear ideas of justice and prudence ; not 
 a man who would be likely to lay himself open 
 to condemnation, by incautious conduct, and 
 rash assaults, either by tongue or arm. 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 199 
 
 In 1675, Dr. Croft,* Bishop of Hereford, 
 published a Discourse, entitled " The Naked 
 Truth, or the true state of the Primitive 
 Church, By an humble Moderator." This 
 work was written when the controversy with 
 the Nonconformists was at its greatest height, 
 and the quarrel so artfully widened, that the 
 Papists entertained hopes of coming in through 
 the breach. The Bishop's book, though no 
 more than a pamphlet of four or five sheets, 
 made a great noise in the world, and was read 
 and studied by all men of sense and learning 
 in the kingdom. Though it has often been 
 reprinted, it was never common, and is now 
 scarce. In this work, the Bishop shows the 
 
 * Herbert Croet was descended from an ancient family 
 in Herefordshire. He was born October 18, 1603, at 
 Great Milton, near Thame, in Oxfordshire, in the house of 
 Sir Wm. Green, where his mother was then on a visit. 
 Being carefully educated in his early years, and possessing 
 unwearied applications, he soon qualified himself for 
 academical studies, and was, in 1616, sent to Oxford. But 
 he had not been loDg there, before his father joined the 
 Church of Home, and became a Lay Brother in the Bene- 
 dictine Monastery, at Douay. Upon his father's command, 
 he went into France, and was sent to the English college 
 of Jesuits at St. Omer's, where, by the persuasion of 
 Father Lloyd, he was reconciled to the Church of Rome, 
 and by the insinuations of the same person, and some 
 others, contrary to his father's advice in that particular, 
 was wrought upon to enter into " the order." Some time 
 before his father's death, he returned to England to 
 manage some family affairs, and becoming acquainted with 
 Dr. Morton, Bishop of Durham, he was, by his arguments, 
 brought back to the Church of England, and soon after, at 
 the desire of Laud, he went a second time to Oxford, and 
 was admitted of Christ Church. 
 
 In the spriDg of 1639, he attended the Earl of Northum- 
 berland as Chaplain, in an expedition to Scotland, and in 
 1640, he was admitted to the degree of Doctor of Divinity. 
 
200 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 danger of imposing more than is necessary, 
 especially as to terras of communion, and pro- 
 ceeds through all the great points in dispute 
 between the Church of England and the Dis- 
 senters ; labouring throughout to prove, that 
 Protestants differ in nothing truly essential to 
 religion, and that, for the sake of union, com- 
 pliances would be more becoming and effectual, 
 than in enforcing uniformity, by penalties and 
 persecution. The whole is written with great 
 plainness and piety, as well as with much force 
 of argument and learning. If we consider the 
 temper of those times, we need not wonder 
 that this work was immediately replied to with 
 much heat and zeal, not to use the harsher 
 
 He was afterwards employed by the King upon various 
 occasions, in those dangerous times, and always discharged 
 his duty with fidelity, though sometimes at the hazard of 
 his life. In the year 1644, he was nominated Dean of 
 Hereford, where he married Mrs. Ann Brown, the daughter 
 of his predecessor. His circumstances were very narrow 
 for some years, notwithstanding he had several prefer- 
 ments, for the dissolution of Cathedrals took place about 
 this time : but in 1659, by the successive deaths of his 
 elder brothers, he became possessed of the family estate. 
 Upon the death of Dr. Nicholas Mont, Bishop of Hereford, 
 he was promoted to that See in December, 1661. He 
 frequently officiated in the King's Chapel, and was re- 
 markable for his practical preaching, and for the corres- 
 ponding sanctity of his manners. Charles II. offered him, 
 more than once, a better See, which he conscientiously 
 refused. Being weary of a Court Life, and finding but 
 little good effects from his pious endeavours, in 1669, he 
 retired to his Bishopric, where he was exceedingly beloved 
 for his constant preaching, edifying conversation, hospita- 
 ble manner of living, and most extensive charity. At 
 length, full of years, and in the highest reputation, this 
 venerable prelate ended his days at Hereford, on the 18th 
 of May, 1691. The late Kev. Herbert Croft was his 
 descendant. 
 
ANDHEW MARVELL. 201 
 
 terms, of fury and resentment. It was first 
 attacked by Dr. Francis Turner,* Master of 
 St. John's College, Cambridge, a great defender 
 of ecclesiastical tyranny, and the imposition of 
 human creeds, in a pamphlet entitled " Anim- 
 adversions on the Naked Truth. " This pamph- 
 let was penned, like all the rest of the writings 
 of the same author, in an affected, but flowing 
 style. It was replied to with great vivacity by 
 Marvell, in a work entitled " Mr. Smirke, or 
 the Divine in Mode." He made him a second 
 Bayes, as he had done Parker before, in " The 
 Rehearsal Transprosed." Marvel], in speaking 
 of Bishop Croft's works, says, wi It is a treatise 
 which, if not for its opposes needs no commen- 
 dation ; being writ with that evidence and 
 demonstration of truth, that all sober men can- 
 not but give their assent, and consent to it un- 
 asked. It is a book of that kind, that no 
 Christian can peruse it without wishing him- 
 self to have been the author, and almost 
 imagining that he is so : the conceptions there- 
 in being of so eternal an idea, that every man 
 finds it to be but a copy of the original in his 
 own mind." 
 
 * Francis Turner^ was son of Dr. Thomas Turner, 
 Dean of Canterbury. He received his education at New 
 College, in Oxford. In 1670 he was preferred to the 
 Mastership of St. John's College, Cambridge. He was 
 afterwards advanced to the Deanery of Windsor, which he 
 held together with the Bishopric of Rochester. He was 
 deprived for not taking the new oaths, 1st February, 
 1689 — 90. The next year, he was accused of being a con- 
 spirator in a plot of Nonjurors, for restoring King James, 
 for rj which some of that party were imprisoned ; but he 
 thought it prudent to abscond. A proclamation was soon 
 after issued for apprehending him as a traitor. 
 K 2 
 
202 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 Marvell had a peculiar knack of calling 
 names : it consisted in appropriating a ludi- 
 crous character in some popular comedy, and 
 dubbing his adversaries with it. In this spirit 
 he ridiculed Dr. Turner, by giving him the 
 name of a chaplain in Ethertdge's " Man of 
 Mode," and thus, with a stroke of the pen, 
 conveyed an idea of " a neat, starched, formal, 
 ana 1 forward divine/' This application of a 
 fictitious character to a real one, — this christen- 
 ing a man with ridicule, though of no difficult 
 invention, will prove not a little hazardous to 
 inferior writers ; for it requires not less wit 
 than MarvelPs, to bring out of the real charac- 
 ter, the ludicrous features which mark the 
 prototype. 
 
 In return for this defence of his work, the 
 Bishop of Hereford wrote the following letter 
 to Marvell : — 
 
 " Sir, 
 " I choose to ran some hazard of this, (having noe certain 
 information,) rather than incurre your censure of ingrati- 
 tude to the person who hath set forth Mr. Smirke in so 
 trim and proper a dresse, unto whose hands I hope this 
 will happily arrive, to render him due thanks for the 
 humane civility, and christian charity shewed to the author 
 of Naked Truth, so bespotted with the dirty language of 
 foule-mouthed beasts, whoe, though he feared much his 
 own weaknesse, yet, by God's undeserved grace, is so 
 strengthened, as not at all to be dejected, or much con- 
 cerned with such snarling curs, though sett on by many 
 spightfull hands and hearts, of a high stamp, but as base 
 alloy. I cannot yet get a sight of what the Bishop of Ely 
 (Turner) hath certainly printed ; but keeps very close, to 
 
ANDREW MARVELL* 203 
 
 put forth, I suppose the next approaching session of Par- 
 liament, when there cannot be time to make a reply ; for 
 I have just cause to feare the session will be short. Sir, 
 this assures you, that you have the zealous prayers, and 
 hearty service of the author of Naked Truth, your humble 
 Servant. 
 
 " H. C. 
 " July, 1676." 
 
 In answer to this Letter from Bishop Croft, 
 Marvell says : — 
 
 " My Lord, 
 
 "Upon Tuesday night last I received your thanks for 
 that which could not deserve your pardon ; for great is 
 your goodnesse to professe a gratitude, where you had a 
 justifiable reason for your clemency ; for notwithstanding 
 the ill-treatment you received from others, 'tis I that have 
 given you the highest provocation. A good cause receives 
 more injury from a weak defence, than from a frivolous ac- 
 cusation ; and the ill that does a man no harm, is to be 
 preferred before the good that creates him a prejudice ; 
 but your Lordship's generosity is not, I see, to be reformed 
 by the most exquisite patterns of ill-nature ; and while 
 perverse men have made a crime of your virtue, yet 'tis 
 your pleasure to convert the obligation I have placed upon 
 you into a civility. 
 
 " Indeed, I meant all well, but 'tis not every one's good 
 fortune to light into hands where he may escape ; and for a 
 man of good intentions, lesse than this I could not say in due 
 and humble acknowledgment, and your favourable interpre- 
 tation of me ; for the r?st, I most heartily rejoice to under- 
 stand, that the same God who hath chosen you out to 
 beare so eminent a testimony to his truth, hath given you 
 also that Christian magnanimity to hold up, without any 
 
204 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 depression of spirit, against its and your opposers : what 
 they intend further, I know not, neither am I curious ; 
 my soul shall not enter into their secrets ; but as long as 
 God shall lend you life and health, I reckon our Church is 
 indefectible ; may he, therefore, long preserve you to his 
 honour, and further service, which shall be the constant 
 prayer of, 
 
 " My Lord, 
 4t Your Lordship's most humble 
 
 " and most faithful Servant, 
 
 " Andrew Marvell " 
 "London, July 16, 1676." 
 
 To this work of Marvell's was added a short 
 " Historical Essay concerning general Councils, 
 Creeds, and Impositions, in Matters of Re- 
 ligion, by Andreas Redivivus, Jun., 1675 
 quarto. This is a continuation of The defence 
 of Naked Truth, to show the absurdity of im- 
 posing articles of faith. He gives a full account 
 of the general Council of Nice, and the ill con- 
 sequences of such unhappy debates. A perse- 
 cuting spirit in the times drives the greatest 
 men to take refuse in the arts of subterfuge. 
 Compelled, indeed, to disguise their senti- 
 ments, they will not, however, suppress them; 
 and hence all their ambiguous proceedings, all 
 that ridicule and irony, with which ingenious 
 minds, when forced to, have never failed to try 
 the patience or the sagacity of intolerance. 
 Shaftesbury has thrown out, on this head, 
 some important truths. — " If men are forbid to 
 speak their minds seriously, they will do it ironi- 
 cally. If they find it dangerous to do so, they 
 will then redouble their disguise, and talk so as 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 205 
 
 hardly to be understood. The persecuting spirit 
 raises the bantering one : — the higher the 
 slavery, the more exquisite the buffoonery. '' To 
 this cause we owe the strong raillery of Mar- 
 vell, the cloudy u Oracles of Reason" of 
 Blount, and the formidable though gross bur- 
 lesque of Hickertngtll. Besides these, were 
 two other compositions, — " A seasonable Ques- 
 tion and an useful Answer, between a Parlia- 
 ment Man in Cornwall, and a Bencher in the 
 Temple, by A.M., ] 676." Also, — " A season- 
 able Argument to the Grand Juries of England, 
 to petition for a new Parliament, or a List of 
 the principal Labourers in the great Design of 
 Popery and Arbitrary Power, who have be- 
 trayed their Country.'' 
 
 The last work of Marvell's published before 
 his death, was, — u An Account of the Growth 
 of Popery and Arbitrary Government in Eng- 
 land.'" Printed in J 768 : re-printed in the 
 State Trials, 1689. In this work, the princi- 
 ples of our excellent constitution are clearly 
 laid down : the legal authority of the Kings of 
 England is precisely ascertained ; and the 
 glory of the monarch, and the happiness of the 
 people, are proved equally to depend upon a 
 strict observance of their respective obligations. 
 In comparing the sovereigns of England with 
 other potentates, he observes : — " The Kings 
 of England are nothing inferior to other princes, 
 save in being more abridged from injuring their 
 own subjects ; but have as large a field as any, 
 of external felicity, wherein to exercise their 
 own virtue, and to reward and encourage it in 
 others. In short, there is nothing that comes 
 
206 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 nearer the Divine perfection, than where the 
 monarch, as with us, enjoys a capacity of doing 
 all the good imaginable to mankind, under a 
 disability to do all that is evil.'" 
 
 He likewise draws a striking contrast of the 
 miseries of a nation living under a Popish ad- 
 ministration, and the blessings enjoyed under a 
 Protestant government ; nor can a stronger 
 proof be adduced of the complexion of the 
 reigning politics of that era, than the disgust 
 excited at court by the free sentiments con- 
 tained in this work. It has been denied by 
 some historians, that Charles II. either en- 
 couraged Popery, or governed arbitrarily ; and 
 yet the following advertisement appeared in 
 the Gazette, respecting Marvel Fs work : — 
 
 " Whereas there have been lately printed 
 and published, several seditious and scandalous 
 libels, against the proceedings of both Houses 
 of Parliament, and other his Majesty "s Courts 
 of Justice, to the dishonour of his Majesty's 
 government, and the hazard of the public 
 peace : These are to give notice, that what 
 person soever shall discover unto one of the 
 Secretaries of State, the printer, publisher, 
 author, or hander to the press, of any of the 
 said libels, so that full evidence may be made 
 thereof to a jury, without mentioning the in- 
 former; especially one libel, entitled 'An Ac- 
 count of the Growth of Popery, ' &c, and an- 
 other, called c A Seasonable Argument to all 
 Grand Juries,"* &c. ; the discoverer shall be re- 
 warded as follows- — he shall have i?50 for 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 207 
 
 the discoverer of the printer, or publisher, and 
 for the hander of it to the press, iPlOO." 
 
 This reward of the Court did not move the 
 calm disposition of Marvell ; for, in a letter to 
 his friend, Mr. Popple, dated June 10th, 1678, 
 he pleasantly says, — " There came out about 
 Christmas last, a large book, concerning c The 
 Growth of Popery and Arbitrary Government.*' 
 There have been great rewards offered in pri- 
 vate, and considerable in the Gazette, to any 
 who would inform of the author. Three or 
 four books, printed since, have described, as 
 near as it was proper to go, the man, Mr. 
 Marvell, being a Member of Parliament, to 
 have been the author ; but if he had, surely he 
 would not have escaped being questioned in 
 Parliament, or some other place." No prosecu- 
 tion, however, ensued. 
 
 Marvell had now rendered himself so ob- 
 noxious to the venal friends of a corrupt court, 
 and to the heir presumptive, James, Duke of 
 York (himself a bigotted Papist), that he was 
 beset on all sides by powerful enemies, who 
 even proceeded so far as to menace his life. 
 Hence he was obliged to use great caution, to 
 appear seldom in public, and frequently to 
 conceal the place of his abode : but ail his care 
 proved ineffectual to preserve him from their 
 vengeance ; for he died on the 16th of August, 
 1678, aged 58 years, not without strong suspi- 
 cions, (as his constitution was still entire and 
 vigorous) of having suffered under the effect of 
 poison. He appears to have attended at a pub- 
 lic Court, in the Townhall of Hull, a few 
 
208 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 weeks previous to his death ; for, in an extract 
 from their books, we find the following entry : 
 " This day, (29th of July, 1678,) the Court 
 being mett, Andrew Marvell, Esquire, one of 
 the Burgesses of Parliament for this Borough, 
 came into Court, and several discourses were 
 held about the tow T n affaires." 
 
 The public, however, reaped the benefit of 
 his patriotism in the following year. His 
 writings had opened the eyes of several mem- 
 bers of the House of Commons ; and those 
 who had long been obsequious to government, 
 now found so strong an opposition to its mea- 
 sures, that the King found himself under the 
 necessity, in the beginning of 1679, of dissolv- 
 ing his favourite assembly, which, with the 
 exception of one prorogation, had sat for eight- 
 teen years, under the odious epithet of u The. 
 Pensionary Parliament.." The New Parlia- 
 ment, which met in March, 1679, seemed to 
 have imbibed the sentiments of the deceased 
 Marvell ; the growth of Popery, the arbitrary 
 measures of the ministry, and the expediency 
 of excluding the Duke of York from the suc- 
 cession, being the chief objects which engaged 
 their attention. This produced their dissolu- 
 tion in the following July. But the spirit of 
 civil liberty having now gone forth among the 
 people, the next Parliament, which assembled 
 in 1680, still more steadily opposed the Popish 
 succession, and was, therefore, like its prede- 
 cessor, prematurely dissolved in 168J. From 
 the ashes of Marvell had sprung up, as it were, 
 a new race of patriots, whose hostility to the 
 Court made the ministry dread a new election ; 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 209 
 
 and though some of them fell a sacrifice to 
 their zeal, it may with truth be asserted, that 
 their vigorous integrity laid the foundation of 
 the glorious Revolution. 
 
 Marvell left a small paternal estate, on which, 
 and the allowance given him by his constitu- 
 ents, during the sitting of Parliament, he sub- 
 sisted, being neither extravagant nor expensive. 
 At his death the corporation of Hull imme- 
 diately assembled in Common-hall, and unani- 
 mously voted fifty pounds towards defraying the 
 expense of his funeral. 
 
 To Marvell have been ascribed, by Dr. Whar- 
 ton and others, the celebrated Latin lines, sent 
 with a portrait of the Protector, to Christiana, 
 Queen of Sweden, which have been thus trans- 
 lated by Dr. Symmons : — 
 
 " Imperial maid, great arbitress of war, 
 Queen of the Pole, yourself its brightest star ! 
 Christiana, view this helmet-furrow'd brow, 
 This age, that arms have won, but cannot bow; 
 As through the pathless wilds of fate I press, 
 And hear the people's purpose to success; 
 Yet see ! to you this front submits its pride : 
 Thrones are not always by its frown defied." 
 
 But as the lines must have been written 
 before 1654, when Christiana abdicated heF 
 throne, it is not probable that they were written 
 by Marvell, as Milton could hardly, by the dis- 
 use of a few years, have lost his facility in the 
 construction of Latin verse. 
 
 In 1688, the inhabitants of his native town, 
 who had not dared to declare their feelings 
 under the two preceding Princes, to testify their 
 
210 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 grateful remembrance of his patriotic services, 
 collected a sum of money for the purpose of 
 erecting a monument to his memory, in the 
 church of St. Giles* 1 in the Fields, London, 
 where he was interred : but the bi^otted rector 
 of the day would not suffer it to be placed 
 within its walls. The epitaph, drawn up on 
 the occasion, is a manly composition, and ex- 
 hibits a bright example of active and incor- 
 ruptible patriotism. 
 
 NEAR THIS PLACE 
 
 lieth the bodt of ANDREW MARVELL, Esquire, 
 
 A MAN SO ENDOWED BY NATURE, 
 
 SO IMPROVED BY EDUCATION, STUDY, AND TRAVEL, 
 
 SO CONSUMMATE BY EXPERIENCE; 
 
 THAT JOINING THE MOST PECULIAR GRACES OF 
 
 WIT AND LEARNING, 
 
 WITH A SINGULAR PENETRATION AND STRENGTH OF 
 
 JUDGMENT, 
 
 AND EXERCISING ALL THESE IN THE WHOLE COURSE OF 
 
 HIS LIFE, 
 
 WITH UNALTERABLE STEADINESS IN THE WAYS OF 
 
 VIRTUE, 
 
 HE BECAME THE ORNAMENT AND EXAMPLE OF HIS 
 
 AGE ! 
 
 BELOVED BY GOOD MEN, FEARED BY BAD, ADMIRED BY ALL ; 
 
 THO' IMITATED, ALAS ! BY FEW, AND SCARCELY 
 
 PARALLELED BY ANY. 
 
 BUT A TOMBSTONE CAN NEITHER CONTAIN HIS CHARACTER, 
 
 NOR IS MARBLE NECESSARY TO TRANSMIT IT 
 
 TO POSTERITY; 
 
 IT IS ENGRAVED IN TILE MINDS OF THIS GENERATION, 
 
 AND WILL BE ALWAYS LEGIBLE IN HIS INIMITABLE WRITINGS. 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 21 1 
 
 NEVERTHELESS, 
 
 HE HAVING SERVED NEAR TWENTY TEARS SUCCESSIVELY 
 
 IN PARLIAMENT, 
 
 AND THAT WITH SUCH WISDOM, DEXTERITY, INTEGRITY, 
 
 AND COURAGE, AS BECAME 
 
 A TRUE PATRIOT I 
 
 the town or KINGSTON-UPON-HULL, 
 
 FROM WHENCE HE WAS CONSTANTLY DEPUTED TO THAT 
 
 ASSEMBLY, 
 
 LAMENTING IN HIS DEATH THE PUBLIC LOSS, 
 
 HATH ERECTED THIS MONUMENT OP THEIR GRIEF, AND 
 
 GRATITUDE. 
 
 HE DIED IN THE 58TH YEAR OF HIS AGE, 
 
 ON THE 16TH DAY OF AUGUST, 1678. 
 
 lieu fragile humanum genus/ lieu terrestria vanaf 
 Heu quam spectatum continet urna virum 1 
 
 It will be seen that our materials afford an 
 insufficient data for an estimate of MarvelFs 
 character as a man. We have only to speak 
 of him as a Senator, and as a Poet. 
 
 In 1771, Captain Thompson presented a 
 copy of the Portrait in the British Museum to 
 the Trinity House, at Hull, which they placed 
 in their Council Chamber, accompanied with 
 the following character, by Captain Thompson, 
 who appears to have been an enthusiastic ad- 
 mirer of the patriot : 
 
 " Andrew Marvell, Esquire, was the unshaken friend 
 of England, Liberty, and Magna Charta, who to the 
 highest ability, natural and acquired, joined the purest 
 and most unsullied virtue ; and a magnanimity not to be 
 shaken by the foes of freedom. His wit was the scourge 
 of i mitred dulness/ and royal folly ; the lures of corrup- 
 
212 ANDREW MARVELL, 
 
 tion he scorned with, manly steadiness, and vested with 
 the armour of truth, he bid . defiance to oppression. 
 Amidst the cobwebs of poverty, and'need, he maintained 
 his honour and honesty, and rejected the pageantry of a 
 court, as much as the venal temptations of a minister. He 
 preferred virtue and a garret, to meanness and the star- 
 chamber, and gave up the viands of a king, for health, 
 peace, and a crust. Places, pensions, bribes, lucre, and 
 reversions, he left for such, whose prostituted hearts could 
 sell and betray their country. In vain did the treasury 
 pour forth her golden tides ; in spite of every temptation, 
 even in the most fretting need and indigence, he stood un- 
 corrupted, the coiossian champion of liberty and independ- 
 ence ; and made the minions of lust and folly tremble 
 under the burnished canopy of the throne. And yet, alas ! 
 all these patriot virtues were insufficient to guard him 
 against the Jesuitical machinations of the state ; for what 
 vice and bribery could not influence, was perpetrated 1 by 
 poison. Thus fell one of the first characters of this king- 
 dom, or any other ; a greater Rome, Sparta, Athens, Car- 
 thage could not boast ! — he was an honest man, a real 
 patriot, and an incorruptible senator." 
 
 Thus we have gone through the particulars 
 of the life and the works of one of those heroes 
 of English greatness, who reminds us of the 
 ancient Roman duty to the interests of the 
 state. Marvell w^as a man, however, of more 
 than Roman grandeur. When Rome produced 
 her great men, she was never so hopelessly 
 sunk in degradation as England was when she 
 produced Marvell. There are many circum- 
 stances in his history most interesting to con- 
 template : — his pride in his poverty — he esti- 
 mated things at their true and legitimate value, 
 
ANDREW MARVELL, 213 
 
 and he appraised higher than aught else a good 
 conscience ; he set the principal value on the 
 pot of herbs eaten in obscurity, and in contempt 
 and neglect, rather than on the rich, golden 
 vases which were bought with the disgrace a»d 
 the shame of the country ; he was not to be 
 bought — he was not to be lured. Among all 
 the rich and costly luxuries of that time, all 
 the over-flowing wealth surrounding tlie throne 
 and the court, probably there was not one rich 
 thing that might not have been, for a long 
 season, at his command. How many of those 
 voluptuous houries who surrounded the court of 
 the king might have been his slaves ? but all 
 were in vain. The king, his pampered and 
 servile menials in court and in senate, tried 
 their wiles upon him in vain — they could not 
 buy him, — he remained, as his great comrade 
 said of another — 
 
 " Faithful among the faithless — 
 Faithful only He." 
 
 Certainly, as we have before said, there is in 
 this no more than we may expect from any 
 rightly thinking, rightly acting citizen ; but in 
 that day, such devotion to principle was indeed 
 rare. Well might lie write, as he did, in verses 
 beautiful, not merely from their measure, but 
 their reality and truth — 
 
 " Climb at Court for me, that will 
 Tottering favours pinnacle : 
 All I seek is to lie still. 
 Settled in some secret nest, 
 In calm leisure let me rest : 
 
214 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 And far off the public stage 
 Pass away my silent age. 
 Thus -when, without noise, unknown, 
 I have lived out all my span, 
 m I shall die without a groan, 
 
 An old, honest country- man, 
 Who exposed to others' eyes, 
 Into his own heart he empries — 
 Death's to him a strange surprise." 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 There are two specimens of MarvelFs com- 
 position, so widely different, that we will 
 venture to close our extracts with them : the 
 one is the very life of characteristic wit and 
 humour ; the other, the second, is a beautiful 
 vein of warm and expressive tenderness. 
 
 The following is a parody by Marvell, on 
 the speeches of Charles II. — 
 
 "My Lords and Gentlemen, 
 " I told you, at our last meeting, the winter was the 
 fittest time for business, and truly I thought so, till My 
 Lord Treasurer assured me the spring was the best 
 season for salads and subsidies. I hope, therefore, that 
 April will not prove so unnatural a month, as not to afford 
 some kind showers upon my parched exchequer, which 
 gapes for want of them. Some of you, perhaps, will think ' 
 it dangerous to make me too rich ; but I do not fear it ; 
 for I promise you faithfully, whatever you give me I 
 will always want ; and although in other things my word 
 may be thought a slender authority, yet in that, you may 
 rely on me, I will never break it." 
 
 "My Lords and Gentlemen, 
 "I can bear my straits with patience ; but My Lord 
 
216 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 Treasurer* does protest to me, that the revenue, as it 
 now stands, will not serve him and me too. One of us 
 must pinch for it, if you do not help me. I must speak 
 freely to you ; I am in bad circumstances, for besides my 
 harlots in service, my reformado concubines lie heavy upon 
 me. I have a passable good estate, I confess ; but God's 
 fish ! I have a great charge upon it. Here is my Lord- 
 Treasurer can tell, that all the money designed for next 
 summer's guards must, of necessity, be applied to the 
 next year's cradles and swaddling clothes. What shall we 
 do for ship3 then ? I hint this only to you, it being your 
 
 * "The person," says Burnet, "who was appointed to 
 succeed Lord Clifford as treasurer, was Sir Thomas 
 Osborn, a gentleman of Yorkshire, whose estate was sunk. 
 He was a very plausible speaker, but too copious, and 
 could not easily make an end of his discourse. He had 
 been always among the high cavaliers ; and missing pre- 
 ferment, he opposed the court much, and was one of Lord 
 Clarendon's bitterest enemies. . He gave himself great 
 liberties in discourse, and did not seem to have any re- 
 gard for truth, or so much as to the appearances of it ; and 
 was an implacable enemy ; but he had a peculiar way to 
 make his friends depend on him, and to believe he was 
 true to them. He was a positive and undertaking man : 
 so he gave the King great ease by assuring him all things 
 would go according to his mind in the next Session of 
 Parliament. And when his hopes failed him, he had al- 
 ways some excuse to put the miscarriage upon. And 
 by this means he got into the highest degree of confidence 
 with the King, and maintained it the longest of all who 
 ever served him." The Earl of Dartmouth also says of 
 him, "I never knew a man that could express himself so 
 clearly, or that seemed to carry his point so much by 
 force of superior understanding. In private conversation 
 he had a particular art in making the company tell their 
 opinions without discovering his own, which he would 
 afterwards make use of very much to his advantage, by 
 undertaking that people should be of an opinion that he 
 knew was theirs before." Sir Thomas Osborn was after- 
 wards created Lord Danby, next Marquis of Carmarthen, 
 and lastly, Duke of Leeds. 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 217 
 
 business, not mine ; I know, by experience, I can live with- 
 out ships. I lived ten years abroad without, and never had 
 my health better in my life ; but how you will be without, 
 I leave to yourselves to judge, and hint this only by the bye : 
 I do not insist upon it. There is another thing I must 
 press more earnestly, and that is this : it seems a good part 
 of my revenue will expire in two or three years, except 
 you will be pleased to continue it. I have to say for it ; 
 pray, why did you give me so much as you have done, 
 unless you resolve to give on as fast as I call for it ? The 
 nation hates you already for giving so much, and I will 
 hate you too, if you do not give me more. So that if you 
 stick not to me, you will not have a friend in England. 
 On the other hand, if you will give me the revenue I 
 desire, I shall be able to do those things for your religion 
 and liberty, that I have had long in my thoughts, but 
 cannot effect them without a little more money to carry 
 me through. Therefore look to't, and take notice, that if 
 you do not make me rich enough to undo you, it shall lie 
 at your doors. For my part, I wash my hands on it. But 
 that I may gain your good opinion, the best way is to ac- 
 quaint you what I have done to deserve it, out of my royal 
 care for your religion and your property. For the first, 
 my proclamation is a true picture of my mind. He that 
 cannot, as in a glass, see my zeal for the Church of Eng- 
 land, does not deserve any farther satisfaction, for I de- 
 clare him wilful, abominable, and not good. Some may, 
 perhaps, be startled, and cry, how comes this sudden 
 change ? To which I answer, I am a changeling, and that 
 is sufficient, I think. But to convince men farther, that 1 
 meaa what I say, there are these arguments. 
 
 " First, I tell you so, and you know I never break my 
 word. 
 
 ' ' Secondly, My Lord Treasurer says so, and he never 
 told a lie in his life. 
 
218 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 " Thirdly, My Lord Lauderdale* will undertake it for 
 me ; and T should be loath, by any act of mine, he should 
 forfeit the credit he has with you. 
 
 " If you desire more instances of my zeal, I have them 
 for you. For example, I have converted my natural sons 
 
 * Burnett, who was acquainted with Lauderdale, says, 
 " I knew him particularly. He made an ill appearance ; 
 he was very big ; his hair red hanging oddly about him ; 
 his tongue was too big for his mouth, which made him un- 
 fit for a court. He was very learned, not only in Latin, in 
 which he was a master, but in Greek and Hebrew. He 
 had read a great deal of divinity, and almost all the histo- 
 rians, ancient and modern, so that he had great materials. 
 He had with these an extraordinary memory, and a copious 
 but unpolished expression ; abject to those he saw he must 
 stoop to, but imperious to all others. He had a violence 
 of passion that carried him often to fits like madness, in 
 which he had no temper. If he took a thing wrong, it was 
 impossible to convince him, and he would swear he would 
 never be of another mind — he was to be left alone ; and 
 perhaps he would have forgot what he had said, and come 
 >ut of his own accord. He was the coldest friend, and 
 
 *e most violent enemy I ever knew ; and I felt it too 
 jmch not to kuow it. He at first seemed to despise wealth ; 
 but he delivered himself up afterwards to luxury and sen- 
 suality, and by that means he ran into a vast expense, and 
 stuck at nothing that was necessary to support it. In hia 
 long imprisonment he had great impressions of religion on 
 his mind ; but he wore these out so entirely, that scarce 
 any trace of them was left. His great experience in affairs, 
 bis ready compliance with every thing that he thought 
 would please the king, and his bold offering at the most 
 desperate counsels, gained him such an interest in the 
 king, that no attempt against him, nor complaint of him, 
 could ever shake it, till a decay of strength and under- 
 standing forced him to let go his hold. He was, in his 
 principle =*, much against Popery and arbitrary government ; 
 and yet, by a fatal train of passions and interests, he made 
 way for the former, and had almost established the latter. 
 And, where some, by a smooth deportment, made the first 
 beginnings of tyranny lem discernible and unacceptable, 
 he, by the fury of his behaviour, heightened the severity 
 of his ministry, which was liker the cruelty of an inquisi- 
 tion than the legality of justice." 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 219 
 
 from Popery, and I may say without vanity, it was my 
 own work, so much the more peculiarly mine than the be- 
 getting them. 'Twould do one's heart good to hear how 
 prettily George can read already in the Psalter. They are 
 all fine children, God bless 'em, and so like me in their 
 understandings ! But, as I was saying, I have, to pleas* 
 you, given a pension to your favourite, my Lord Lauder- 
 dale ; not so much that I thought he wanted it. as that 
 you would take it kindly. I have made Carwell, Duchess 
 of Portsmouth, and married her sister to the Earl of Pem- 
 broke. I have, at my brother's request, sent my Lord 
 Inchiquin into Barbary, to settle the Protestant religion 
 among the Moors, and an English interest at Tangier. I 
 have made Crew, Bishop of Durham, and at the first word 
 of my Lady Portsmouth, Prideaux, Bishop of Chichester. I 
 know not, for my part, what factious men would have ; 
 but this I am sure of, my predecessors never did any thing 
 like this, to gain the good will of their subjects. So much 
 for your religion, and now for your property. My be- 
 haviour to the bankers is a public instance ; and the pro- 
 ceedings between Mrs. Hyde and Mrs. Sutton, for private 
 ati3S, are such convincing evidences, that it will be need- 
 less to say any more to it 
 
 "I must now acquaint you that, by my Lord Treasurer's 
 advice, I have made a considerable retrenchment upon my 
 expenses in candles and charcoal, and do not intend to 
 stop, but will, with your help, look into the late embezzle- 
 ments of my dripping-pans and kitchen -stuffs ; of which, 
 by the way, upon my conscience, neither my Lord Trea- 
 surer nor my Lord Lauderdale are guilty. I tell you my 
 opinion ; but if you should find them dabbling in that 
 business, I tell you plainly, I leave them to you ; for, I 
 would have the world to know, I am not a man to be 
 cheated." 
 
220 ANDREW MARVELL. 
 
 '•My Loeds and Gentlemen, 
 " I desire you to believe me as you have found me ; and 
 I do solemnly promise you, that whatsoever you give me 
 shall be specially managed with the same conduct, trust, 
 sincerity, and prudence, that I have ever practised, since 
 my happy restoration." 
 
 The following beautiful and tender letter, 
 which was written by Marvell to Sir John 
 Trott, on the death of his son, we'think worth 
 a place at the end of this memoir : — 
 
 "HONOURED SIR, 
 
 " I have not that vanity to believe, if you weigh your 
 late loss by the common balance, that anything I can 
 write to you should lighten your resentments ; nor if you 
 measure things by the rules of Christianity, do I think it 
 needful to comfort you in your duty, and your son's hap- 
 piness. Only having a great esteem. and affection for you, 
 and the grateful memory of him that is departed, being 
 still green and fresh upon my spirit, I cannot forbear 
 to enquire, how you stood the second shock, at the sad 
 meeting of friends in the country. I know that the very 
 sight of those who have been witnesses of our better for- 
 tune, doth but serve to reinforce a calamity. I know the 
 eontagion of grief, and infection of tears ; and especially 
 when it runs in a blood. And I myself could sooner imi- 
 tate than blame those innocent relentings of nature, so 
 that they spring from tenderness only, and humanity, not 
 from an implacable sorrow. The tears of a family may 
 flow together like those little drops that compact the 
 rainbow, and if they be placed with the same advantage 
 towards heaven, as those are to the sun, they too, have 
 their splendour ; and like that bow, while they unbend 
 into seasonable showers, yet they promise that there shall 
 
ANDREW MARVELL. 221 
 
 not be a second flood. But the dissoluteness of grief — 
 the prodigality of sorrow — is neither to be indulged in a 
 man's self, nor complyed with in others. If that were 
 allowable in these cases, Eli's was the reddyest way, and 
 highest compliment, of mourning, who fell back from his 
 seat, and broke his neck. But neither does that precedent 
 hold : for though he had been chancellor, and in effect, 
 King of Israel, for so many years (and such men value, as 
 themselves, their losses at a higher rate than others), yet, 
 when he heard that Israel was overcome, that his two sons, 
 Hophni and Phineas, were slain in one day, and saw him- 
 self so without hope of issue, and which embittered it 
 further, without succession to the government, yet he fell 
 not till the news that the ark of God was taken. I pray God 
 that we may never have the same parallel perfected in 
 our publick concernments. Then we shall need all the 
 strength of grace and nature to support us. But on a pri- 
 vate loss, and sweetened with so many circumstances as 
 yours, to be impatient, to be uncomfortable, would be to 
 dispute with God. Though an only son be inestimable, 
 yet it is, like Jonah's sin, to be angry at God for the wither- 
 ing of his shadow. Zipporah, though the delay had almost 
 cost her husband his life, yet when he did but circumcise 
 her son, in a womanish peevishness reproached Moses as a 
 bloody husband. But if God take the son himself, but spare 
 the father, shall we say that he is a bloody God ? He 
 that gave his Son, may he not take ours ? It is pride that 
 makes a rebel ; and nothing but the overweening of our- 
 selves, and our own things, that raises us against Divine 
 Providence. Whereas, Abraham's obedience was better 
 than sacrifice. And if God please to accept both, it is in- 
 deed a farther tryal, but a greater honour. I could say 
 over upon this beaten occasion, most of those lessons of 
 morality and religion, which have been so often repeated, 
 and are as soon forgotten. We abound with precept, but 
 
222 ANDREW MAEVELL. 
 
 we want examples. You, sir, that have all these things m 
 your memory, and the clearness of whose judgment is not 
 to be obscured by any greater interposition, should be ex- 
 emplary to others in your own practice. "Pis true, it is a 
 hard task to learn and teach at the same time. And 
 where yourselves are the experiment, it is as if a man 
 should dissect his own body, and read the anatomy lecture. 
 But 1 will not heighten the difficulty, while I advise the 
 attempt. Only, as in difficult things, you would do well 
 to make use of all that may strengthen and assist you ; 
 the word of God, the society of good men, and the books 
 of the ancients : there is one way more, which is, by 
 diversion, business, and activity, which are also necessary 
 to be used in their season. But I, who live to so little 
 purpose, can have little authority or ability to advise you 
 in it. 
 
 "From your very affectionate friend, 
 
 ** and most humble servant, 
 " Andrew MaryellJ* 
 
 FINIS, 
 
 J. S. Pratt, Stokesley, Yorkshire. 
 
SELECT NEW WOBKS, 
 
 SOLD BY PARTRIDGE AND OAKEY, 
 
 PATERNOSTER-ROW, LONDON, 
 
 LIONS : LIVING AND DEAD : 
 
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