Perhaps the most interesting
passages
of the
work are those in which Marvell refers to his
great friend, John Milton.
work are those in which Marvell refers to his
great friend, John Milton.
Marvell - Poems
*
Had he been first elected in 1658, he would
have been member somewhat more than that
period.
During his long parliamentary career, Marvell
maintained a close correspondence with his con-
stituents — regularly sending to them, almost every
post night during the sittings of Parliament, an
account of its proceedings. These letters were
first made public by Captain Thompson, and
occupy about four hundred pages of the first
volume of his edition of MarvelFs works. They
are written with great plainness, and with a busi-
* Perhaps we are not to expect verbal exactness in an
epitaph, or perhaps allowance was made for the period of
Marvell's absence from his duties, but if he had not been
chosen to the Parliament of 1658-9 under Richard's Pro-
tectorate, it would be hard to explain why Marvell, in return-
ing thanks to the Corporation of Hull in a letter dated 6th
April, 1661, should say, ** I perceive you have a^^in made
choice of me, now the third time, to serve you in Parlia-
ment. " According to the statement in the text, he should
have said second. £d.
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NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR. XVU
ness-like brevity, which must have satisfiecl, we
should think, even the most laconic of his mer-
chant constituents. Thoy ai-e chiefly valuable
now, as affording proofs of the ability and fidelity
with which their author discharged his public
duties.
Marvell's stainless probity and honour every-
where appear, and in no case more amiably than
in the unhappy misunderstanding with his col-
league, or ** his partner," as he calls him. Colonel
Gilby, in 1661, and which seems to have arisen-
out of some electioneering proceedings. With
such unrivalled talents for ridicule as Marvell
possessed, one might not unnaturally have ex-
pected that this dispute would have furnished an
irresistible tempation to some ebullition of witty
malice. But his magnanimity was far superior
to such mean retaliation. He is eager to do his
opponent the amplest justice, and to put the
fairest construction on his conduct He is fearful
only lest their private quarrel should be of the
slighest detriment to the public service. He
says — " The bonds of civility betwixt Colonel
Gilby and myself being unliappily snapped in
pieces, and in such a manner that I cannot see
how it is possible ever to knit them again : the
only trouble that I have is, lest by our mis-intel-
ligence your business should receive any disad-
vantage Truly, I believe, that as
to your public trust and the discharge thereof,.
h
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XVlll NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.
we do each of us still retain the same princi-
ples upon which we first undertook it ; and that,
though perhaps we may sometimes differ in our
advice concerning the way of proceeding, yet we
have the same good ends in the general ; and by
this unlucky falling out, we shall be provoked to
a greater emulation of serving you. " * Yet the
offence, whatever it was, must have been. a grave
one, for he says at the conclusion of the same
letter — " I would not tell you any tales, because
there are nakednesses which it becomes us to
cover, if it be possible ; as I shall, -unless I be
obliged to make some vfndications by any false
report or misinterpretations. In the mean time,
pity, I beseech you, my weakness ; for there are
same tJangs which men ought not, others that they
cannot patie^itly suffer *^'\
Of his integrity even in little things — of his
desire to keep his conscience pure and his repu-
tation untarnished — we have some staking proofs.
On one occasion he had been employed by his
constituents to wait on the Duke of Monmouth,
then governor of Hull, with a complimentary
letter, and to present him with a purse contain-
ing " six broad pieces " as an honorary fee. He
says — " He had before I came in, as I was told,
considered what to do with the gold ; and but
that I by all means prevented the offer, I had
* MarvelPs Letters, pp. 83, 34.
t Ibid. p. 36.
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NOTICE OP THE AUTHOR. XIX
been in danger of being reimbursed with it. "*
In the same letter he says — " 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 opportu-
nity. -t
In one of his letters he makes the following
declaration, which we have no doubt was per-
fectly sincere, and, what is still more strange,
imph'citly believed: — "I shall, God willing,
maintain the same incorrupt mind and clear con-
science, free from faction or any self-ends, which
I have, by his grace, hitherio preserved*' %
Not seldom, to the very moderate ** wages *' of
a legislator, was added some homely expression
of good-will on the part of the constituents. That
of the Hull people generally appeared in the
shape of a stout cask of ale, for which Mar-
veil repeatedly returns thanks. In one letter he
says — "We must first give you thanks for the
kind present you have pleased to send us, which
will give occasion to us to remember you often ;
but the quantity is so great that it might make
sober men forgetful. '* §
Marvell's correspondence extends through
nearly twenty years. From June, 1661, there
is, however, a considerable break, owing to his
* MarvelPs Letters, p. 210. t Ibid. p. 210.
X Ibid. p. 276. § Ibid. pp. 14, 16.
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XX NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.
absence for an unknown period — probably about
two years — ^in Holland. He showed little dis-
position to return till Lord Bellasis, then high
steward of Hull, proposed to that worthy cor-
poration to choose a substitute for their absent
member. They replied that he was not far off,
and would be ready at their summons. He was
then at Frankfort, and at the solicitation of his
constituents immediately returned, April, 1663.
But he had not been more than three months
at home, when he intimates to his correspondents
his intention to accept an invitation to accompany
Lord Carlisle, who had been appointed ambas-
sador-extraordinary to Russia, Sweden, and Den-
mark. He formally solicits the assent of his
constituents to this step, urges the precedents for
it, and assures them that during his watchful col-
league's attendance, his own services may be
easily dispensed with. His constituents con-
sented ; he sailed in July, and appears to have
been absent rather more than a year. We find
him in his place in the Parliament that assembled
at Oxford, 1665.
In 1671, for some unknown reason, there is
another hicUtis in his correspondence. It ex-
tends over three year&. From 1674, the letters
are regularly continued till his death. There is
no proof that he ever spoke in Parliament ; but
it appears that he made copious notes of all the
debates.
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NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR. XXI
The strong views which Marvell took on public
affairs — the severe, satirical things which he had
said and written from time to time — and the con-
viction of his enemies, that it was impossible to
silence him by the usual methods of a place or a
bribe, must have rendered a wary and circum-
spect conduct very necessary. In fact, we are
informed that on more than one occasion he was
menaced with assassination. But, though hated
by the court party generally, he was as generally
feared, and in sonie few instances respected.
Prince Rupert continued to honour him with his
friendship long after the rest of his party had
honoured him by their hatred, and occasionally
visited the patriot at his lodgings. When he
voted on the side of Marvell, which was not in-
frequently the case, it used to be said that ** he
had been with his tutor. "
Inaccessible as Marvell was to flattery and
offers of preferment, it certainly was not for want
of temptations. The account of his memorable
interview with the Lord Treasurer Danby has
been often repeated, and yet it would be unpar-
donable to omit it here. Marvell, it appears, once
spent an evening at court, and fairly charmed
the merry monarch by his accomplishments and
wit At this we need not wonder : Charles loved
wit above all things — except sensual pleasure.
To his admiration of it, especially the humorous
species, he was continually sacrificing his royal
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XXll NOTICE OP THE AUTHOR.
dignity. On the morning after the above-men-
tioned interview, he sent Lord Danby to wait on
the patriot with a special message of regard. His
lordship had some difficulty in ferreting out Mar-
velFs residence ; but at last found him on a second
floor, in a dark court leading out of the Strand.
It is said, that groping up the narrow staircase,
he stumbled against the door of Marvell's humble
apartment, which, flying open, discovered him
writing. A little surprised, he asked his lordship
with a smile, if he had not mistaken his way.
The latter replied, in courtly phrase — " No ; not
since I have found Mr. Marvell. " He proceeded
to inform him that he came with a message from
the king, who was impressed with a deep sense
of his meiits, and was anxious to serve him.
Marvell replied with somewhat of the spirit of
the founder of the Cynics, but with a very differ-
ent manner, ^^ that his Majesty had it not in his
power to serve him. " * Becoming more serious,
however, he told his lordship that he well knew
* Another and less authentic version of this anecdote has
been given, much more circumstantial, indeed, but on that
very account, in our judgment, more apocryphaJ. But if the
main additions to the story be fictitious, they are amongst
those fictions which have gained extensive circulatitm only
because they are felt to be not intrinsically improbable.
We have been at some pains to investigate the origin of this
version; but can trace it no further than to a pamphlet
printed in Ireland about the middle of the last century. Of
this we have not been able to get a perusal. Suffice it
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NOTICE OP THE AUTIIOH. XXIU
that he who accepts court favour is expected to
vote in its interest. On his lordship's saying,
" that his Majesty only desired to know whether
there was any place at court he would accept ; **
the patriot replied, ^ that he could accept nothing
with honour, for either he must treat the king
with ingratitude by refusing compliance with
court measures, or be a traitor to his country by
yielding to them. " The only favour, therefore,
he begged of his Majesty, was to esteem him as
a loyal subject, and truer to his interests in refuB-
ing his offers than he could be by accepting them.
His lordship having exhausted this species of
logic, tried the argumentum ad crumenam, and
told him that his Majesty requested his accept-
ance of £1,000. But this, too, was rejected with
fircdness ; " though,** says his biographer, ** soon
after the departure of his lordship, Marvell was
compelled to borrow a guinea from a friend. "
In 1672 commenced Marvell's memorable con-
troversy with Samuel Parker, afterwards Bishop
of Oxford, of which we shall give a somewhat
copious account. To this it is entitled from the
important influence which it had on Marveirs
reputation and fortunes; and as having led to the
composition of that work, on which his literary
to say, that the version it contains of the above interview,
and which has been extensively circulated, is not borna
out by the early biographies ; for example,, that of Cooke,.
1726.
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XXIV NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.
fame, so far as he has any, principally depends —
we mean the Rehearsal Transprosed,
Parker was one of the worst specimens of the
highest of the high churchmen of the reign of
Charles II. It is difiicult in such times as these
to conceive of such a character as, by universal
testimony, Parker is proved to have been. Such
men could not well flourish in any other age than
that of Charles II. Only in such a period of un-
blushing profligacy-^K)f public corruption, happily
unexampled in the history of England — could we
expect to find a Bishop Parker, and his patron
and parallel. Archbishop Sheldon. The high
churchmen of that day managed to combine the
most hideous bigotry, with an utter absence of
seriousness — a zeal worthy of a " Pharisee " with
a character which would have disgraced a "publi-
can. " Scarcely Christians in creed, and any thing
rather than Christians in practice, they yet in-
sisted on the most scrupulous compliance with the
most trivial points of ceremonial ; and persisted
in persecuting thousands of devout and honest
men, because they hesitated to obey. Things
which they admitted to be indifferent, and which,
without violation of conscience, they might have
forborne to enforce, they remorselessly urged on
those who solemnly declared that without such a
violation they could not comply. More tolerant
of acknowledged vice than of supposed error,
drunkenness and debauchery were venial, com-
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NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR. XXV
pared with doubts about the propriety of making
the sign of the cross in baptism, or using the ring
in marriage ; and it would have been better for
a man to break half the commands in the deca-
logue, than admit a doubt of the most frivolous
of the church's rites. Equally truculent^ and ser-
vile, they displayed to all above them a meanness
proportioned to the insolence they evinced to all
below them. They formally invested the mo-
narch with absolute power over the consciences
of his subjects ; and, with a practice in harmony
with their principles, were ready at any moment
(if they had had any) to surrender their own.
As far as appears, they would have been willing
to embrace the faith of Mahometans or Hindoos
at the bidding of his Majesty ; and to believe and
disbelieve as he commanded them. Extravagant
as all this may appear, we shall shortly see it
gravely propounded by Parker himself. It was
fit that those who were willing to offer such vile
adulation, should be suffered to present it to such
an object as Charles II. — that so grotesque an
idolatry should have as grotesque an idol. As it
was, the God was every way worthy of the
worshippers. In a word, these men seemed to
reconcile the most opposite vices and the widest
contrarieties ; bigotry and laxity — pride and
meanness — religious scrupulosity and mocking
scepticism — a persecuting zeal against conscience,
and an indulgent latitudinarianism towards vice —
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XXVI NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.
the truculence of tyrants and the sycophancy of
parasites.
Happily the state of things which generated
such men has long since passed away. But
examples of this sort of high churchmanship
were not infrequent in the age of Charles II. ;
and perhaps Bishop Parker may be considered
the most perfect specimen of them. His father
was one of Oliver Cromwell's roost obsequious
committee-men ; his son, who was born in 1 640,
was brought up in the principles of the Puritans,
and was sent to Oxford in 1659. He was just
twenty at the Restoration, and immediately com-
menced and soon completed his transformation
into one of the most arrogant and time-serving of
high churchmen.
Some few propositions, for which he came
earnestly to contend as for the failh once de-
livered to the saints, may give an idea of the
principles and the temper of this worthy suc-
cessor of the Apostles. He affirms, " That unless
princes have power to bind their subjects to
that religion they apprehend most advantageous to
public peace and tranquillity, and restrain those
religious mistakes that tend to its subversion, they
are no better than statues and images of author-
ity : That in cases and disputes of public con-
cernment, private men are not properly sui juris ;
they have no power over their own actions ; they
are not to be directed by their own judgments, or
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NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR. XXVll
determined by their own wills, but bj the com*
mands and the determinations of the public con-
science ; and that if there he any sin in the com'
mandy he that imposed it shall answer for ity and
not I, whose whole dtUy it is to obey. The com-
mands of authority vyill warrant my obedience ; my
obedience wiU hallow^ or at least excuse my action^
and so secure me from sin, if not from error; and
in all doubtful and disputable cases 'tis better to
err with authority, than to be in the right against
it : That it is absolutely necessary to the peace
and happiness of kingdoms, that there be set up a
more severe government over men's consciences
and religious persuasions than over their vices
and immoralities ; and that princes may with less
hazard give liberty to men's vices and debauchee
ries than their consciences," *
He must have a very narrow mind or unchari-
table heart, who cannot give poor human nature
credit for the sincere adoption of the most oppo-
site opinions. Still there are limits to this exer-
cise of charity ; there may be such a concurrence
of suspicious symptoms, that our charity can be
exercised only at the expense of common sense.
We can easily conceive, under ordinary circum-
stances. Dissenters becoming Churchmen, and
Churchmen becoming Dissenters ; Tories and
Whigs changing sides ; Protestants and Koman-
* The Reheaital Transproudj vol. i. pp. 97, 98, 99, 100, 101.
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XXVm NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.
ists, like those two brothers mentioned in Locke's
second ''Letters on Toleration/'* so expert in
logic as to convert one another, and then, unhap-
pily, not expert enough to convert one another
back again — and all without any suspicion of in-
sincerity. But when we find very great revolu-
tions of opinion, at the same time very sudden,
and exquisitely well-timed in relation to private
interest ; — when we find these changes, let them
be what they may, always, like those of the helio-
trope, towards the sun ; — when we find a man
utterly uncharitable even to his own previous
errors, and maligning and abusing all who still
retain them, it is impossible to doubt the motives
which have animated him. On this subject. Mar-
veil himself well observes — " Though a man be
obliged to change a hundred times backward and
forward, if his judgment be so weak and variable,
yet there are some drudgeries that no man of
honour would put himself upon, and but few sub-
mit to if they were imposed; as, suppose one
had thought fit to pass over from one persuasion
of the Christian religion into another, he would
not choose to spit thrice at every article that he
relinquished, to curse solemnly his father and
mother for having educated him in those opinions,
to animate his new acquaintances to the mas-
sacring of his former comrades. These are busi-
* Locke's Works, vol. v. p. 79.
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NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR. XXlX
nesses that can only be expected from a renegade
of Algiers and Tunis — to overdo in expiation,
and gain better credence of being a sincere Mus-
sulman. '**
Marvell gives an amusing account of the pro-
gress of Parker's conversion— of the transforma-
tion by which the maggot became a carrion-fly.
In the second part of the Rehearsal^ after a humor-
ous description of his parentage and youtli, he
tells us that at the Restoration ^' he came to Lon-
don, where he spent a considerable time in creep-
ing into all corners and companies, horoscoping
up and down ** (" astrologizing " as he elsewhere
expresses it) " concerning the duration of the
government ; — not considering any thing as hest^
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
thenceforward cast about how to be admitted into
the Church of England, and find the highway to
her preferments. In order to this, he daily en-
larged not only his conversation but his con-
science, 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
♦ RehearBol TVantprotedf vol. i. pp. 91, 92.
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XXX NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.
should escape being traced by his perfumes. "*
Marvell sketches the early history and character
of Parker in both parts of the Rehearsal — though,
as might be expected, with greater severity in the
second than in the first. A few ludicrous sen-
tences may not displease the reader. He says : —
** This gentleman, as I have heard, after he had read
Don Quixote and the Bible, besides such school-books
as were necessary for his age, was sent early to the
university ; and there studied hard, and in a short time
became a competent rhetorician, and no ill disputant.
He had learned how to erect a thesis^ and to defend it
pro and con with a serviceable distinction
And so, thinking himself now ripe and qualified for
the greatest undertakings and highest fortune, he
therefore exchanged the narrowness of the university
for the town ; but coming out of the confinement of
the square cap and the quadrangle into the open air,
the world began to turn round with him, which he
imagined, though it were his own giddiness, to be
nothing less than the quadrature of the circle. This
accident concurring so happily to increase the good
opinion which he naturally had of himself, he thence-
forward applied to gain a like reputation with others.
He followed the town life, haunted the best companies ;
and, to polish himself from any pedantic roughness,
he read and saw the plays with much care, and more
proficiency than most of the auditory. But all this
while he forgot not the main chance ; but hearing of a
Tacancy with a nobleman, he clapped in, and easily
* Rehtanal Trcmproted, vol. ii. pp. 77, 78.
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NOTICE OP THE AUTHOR. XXXX
obtained to be his chaplain ; from that day you may
take the date of his pi*cfennent8 and his ruin; for
having soon wrought -himself dexterously into his pa-
tron's favour, by short gracos and sermons, and a
mimical way of drolling upon the Puritans, which he
knew would take both at chapel and at table, he gained
a great authority likewise among all the domestics.
They all listened to him as an oracle; and they
allowed him, by common consent, to have not only all
the divinity, but more wit, too, than all the rest of the
family put together. Nothing now must
serve him, but he must be a madman in print, and
write a book of Ecclesiastical Polity. There he distri-
butes all the territories of conscience into the Prince's
province, and makes the Hierarchy to be but Bishops
of the air ; and talks at such an extravagant rate in
things of higher concernment, that the reader will
avow that in the whole discourse he had not one lucid
interval. " ♦
The work here mentioned, his J^cclesiasttcal
Polity, was published in the year 1670. But the
book which called forth Marvell, was a Preface
• to a posthumous work of Archbishop Bramhairs,
which appeared in 1672. In this piece Parker
had displayed his usual zeal against the Non-
conformists with more than usual acrimony, and
pushed to the uttermost extravagance his fa-
vourite maxims of ecclesiastical tyranny. Like
his previous works on similar matters, it was
anonymous, though the author was pretty well
♦ Rehearsal Trainprosed^ vol. i. pp. 62-69.
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XXXll NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.
known. Marvell dubs him " Mr. Bayes," under
which name the Duke of Buckingham had ridi-
culed Dryden in the well-known play of the
Rehearsal ; from the title of which Marvell de-
signated his book, The Rehearsal Transprosed.
The success of the Rehearsal was instant and
signal. " After Parker had for some years en-
tertained the nation with several virulent books,'*
says Burnet, "he was attacked by the liveliest
droll of the age, who wrote in a burlesque strain,
but with so peculiar and entertaining a conduct,
that, from the King down to the tradesman, his
books were read with great pleasure; that not
only humbled Parker, but the whole party ; for
the author of the Rehearsal Transprosed had all
the men of wit (or, as the French phrase it, all
the laughers) on his side. *'
In fact, Marvell exhibited his adversary in so
ridiculous a light, that even his own party could
not keep their countenances. The unhappy
churchman resembled Gulliver at the court of
Brobdignag, when the mischievous page stuck
him into the marrow-bone. He cut such a ridi-
culous figure, that, says the author, even the
King and his courtiers could not help laughing
at him.
The first part of the Rehearsal elicited several
answers. They were written, for the most part,
in very unsuccessful imitation of MarvelFs style
of banter, and are now wholly forgotten. Mar-
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NOTICE OF THE ALTIIOR. XXXlll
veil gives an amusing account of the efforts which
were made to obtain effective replies, and of the
hopes of preferment which may be supposed to
have inspired their authors. Parker himself for
some time declined any reply. At last came out
his Reproof to the Rehearsal Transprosedy in which
he urged the Government to crush the pestilent
wit, the servant of Cromwell, and the friend of
Milton. ** To this work Marvell replied in the
second part of the Rehearsal, He was further
spirited to it by an anonymous letter, pleasant
and laconic enough, left for him at a friend's house,
signed ** T. G. ** and concluding with the words —
" If thou darest to print any lie or libel against
Dr. Parker, by the eternal God, I will cut thy
throat ! *' He who wrote it, whoever he was,
was ignorant of MarvelFs nature, if he thought
thereby to intimidate him into silence. His intre-
pid spirit was but further provoked by this inso-
lent threat, which he took care to publish in the
title-page of his reply. To this publication Par-
ker attempted no rejoinder. Anthony Wood him-
self tells us, that Parker "judged it more prudent
to lay down the cudgels, than to enter the lists
again with an untowardly combatant, so hugely
well versed and experienced in the then but newly
refined art ; though much in mode and fashion
ever since, of sporting and jeering buffoonery.
It was generally thought, however, by many of
those who were otherwise favourers of Parker's
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XXXIY NOTICE or THE AUTHOR,
cause, that the victory lay on Marveirs side, and
it wrought this good effect on Parker, that forever
after it took down his great spirit. " And Burnet
tells us, that he " withdrew from the town, and
ceased writii>g for some years. "
Of this greatest work of Marvell's singular
genius it is difficult, even if we had space for it,
to present the reader with any considerable ex-
tracts. The allusions are oflen so obscure — the
wit of one page is so dependent on that of an-
other — the humour and pleasantry are so continu-
ous — ^and the character of the work, from its very
nature, is so excursive, that its merits can be
fully appreciated only on a regular perusal. We
regret to say, also, that there are other reasons
which render any very lengthened citations un-
desirable. The work has faults which would, in
innumerable cases, disguise its real merit from
modern readers, or rather deter them from giving
it a reading altogether. It is characterized by
much of the coarseness which was so prevalent
in that age, and from which Marvell was by no
means free ; though, as we shall endeavour here-
after to show, his spirit was far from partaking
of the malevolence of ordinary satirists.
Yet the reader must not infer that the only, or
even the chief, merit of the Rehearsal Transprosed
consists in wit and banter. Not only is there
amidst all its ludicrous levities, " a vehemence of
solemn reproof, and an eloquence of invective, that
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NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR. XXXV
awes one with the spirit of a modem Junius;"*
but there are many passages of very powerful
reasoning, in advocacy of truths then but ill under-
stood, and of rights which had been shamefully
violated.
Perhaps the most interesting passages of the
work are those in which Marvell refers to his
great friend, John Milton. Parker, with his cus-
tomary malignity, had insinuated that the poet,
who was then living in cautious retirement, might
have been the author of the Rehearsal — appa-
rently with the view of turning the indignation
of government upon the illustrious recluse. Mar-
vell had always entertained towards Milton a
feeling of reverence akin to idolatry, and this
stroke of deliberate malice was more than he
could bear. He generously hastened to throw his
shield over his aged and prostrate patron.
** J. M. was, and is, a man of great learning and
sharpness of wit as any man. It was his misfortune,
living in a tumultuous time, to be tossed on the wrong
side, and he writ, flagrante BeUo, certain dangerous
treatises of no other nature than that which I men-
tioned to you writ by your own father, only with this
difference, that your father's, which I have by me, was
written with the same design, but with much less wit
or judgment. At his Majesty's happy return, J. M.
did partake, even as you yourself did, of his regal
clemency, and has ever since lived in a most retired
* D^Israeli.
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XXXVl NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.
silence. It was after that, I well remember it, that
being one day at his house, I there first met you ac-
cidentally. But there it was, when you, as I told you,
wandered up and down Moorfields, astrologizing on
the duration of his Majesty's government, that you
frc((uentcd J. M. incessantly, and haunted his house
day by day. What discourses you there used he is
too generous to remember. "
About three years after the publication of the
second part of the Behears<dy Marvell's chival-
rous love of justice impelled him again to draw
the sword. In 1675, Dr. Croft, Bishop of Here-
ford, had published a work entitled " The Naked
Truth, or the true state of the Primitive Church,
by a humble Moderator. " It enjoined on all
religious parties the unwelcome duties of forbear-
ance and charity; but as it especially exposed
the danger and folly of enforcing a minute uni-
formity, it could not be suffered to pass unchal-
lenged in that age of high church intolerance. It
was petulantly attacked by Dr. Francis Turner,
Master of St John's College, Cambridge, in a
pamphlet entitled '* Animadversions on the Naked
Truth. " This provoked our satirist, who replied
in a pamphlet entitled, "Mr. Smirke, or the
Divine in Mode. " He here fits his antagonist
with a character out of Etherege's "Man of
Mode " — ^as he had before fitted Parker with one
from Buckingham's " Rehearsal. " The merits
and defects of this pamphlet are of much the
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NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR. XXXVll
same order as those of his former work — it is
perliaps less disfigured by coarseness and vehe-
mence. Of Dr. Croft's pamphlet, he beautifully
expresses a feeling, of which we imagine few of
us can have been unconscious when perusing any
work which strongly appeals to our reason and
conscience, and in which, as we proceed, we seem
to recognize what we have often thought, but
never uttered. " It is a book of that kind, that
no Christian can peruse it without wishing him-
self to have been the author, and almost imagin-
ing that he is so ; the conceptions therein being
of so eternal an idea, that every man finds it to
be but a copy of the original in his own mind. "
To this little brochure was attached, "A Short
Historical Essay concerning General Councils,
Creeds, and Impositions in matters of Religion. "
It is characterized by the same strong sense and
untiring vivacity as his other writings, and evinces
a creditable acquaintance with ecclesiastical his-
tory ; but it is neither copious nor profound
enough for the subject.
In 1677, Marvell published his last contro-
versial piece, elicited like the rest by his disinte-
rested love of fair play. It was a defence of the
celebmted divine, John Howe, whose conciliatory
tract on the " Divine Prescience '* had been rudely
assailed by three several antagonists. This little
volume, which is throughout in MarvelFs vein, is
now extremely scarce, is not included in any edi-
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XXXVlll NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.
tion of his works, and was evidentlj unknown to
all his biographers.
His last work of any extent was entitled "An
Account of the Growth of Popery and Arbitrary
Government in England. " It first appeared in
1678. It is written with much vigour — boldly
vindicates the great principles of the constitu-
tion — and discusses the limits of the royal pre-
rogative. The gloomy anticipations expressed
by the author were but too well justified by the
public events which transpired subsequently to
his death. But the fatal consequences of the
principles and policy he denounced, were happily
averted by the Bevolution of 1688.
A reward was oflTered by the government for
the discovery of the author of this " libel," as it
was pleasantly designated. Marvell seems to
have taken the matter very coolly, and thus hu-
morously alludes to the subject in a private letter
to Mr. Ramsden, dated June 10, 1678— "There
came out about Christmas last, here, a large book
concerning the growth of Popery and Arbitrary
Government. 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 since have described, as near as it
was proper to go (the man being a member of
Parliament) Mr. Marvell to have been the
author ; but^ if he had, surely he should not have
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NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR. XXXIX
escaped being questioned in Parliament, or some
other place. "
Marvell also published, during the latter years
of his life, several other political pamphlets, which,
though now forgotten, were doubtless not without
their influence in unmasking corruption, and rous-
ing the nation to a consciousness of its political
degradation.
Marvell's intrepid patriotism and bold writings
had now made him so odious to the corrupt court,
and especially to tlie bigoted heir presumptive,
James, that he was compelled frequently to con-
ceal himself for fear of assassination. He makes
an affecting allusion to this in one of his private
letters — *^ Magxs occidere^ says he, " met%u> quam
occidi; non quod vitam tanti astimam, sed ne
imparatus mortar," *
He died August 1 6, 1 678, the very year that
his obnoxious work on the growth of Popery and
Arbitrary Government appeared ; and, as he was
in vigorous health just before, strong suspicions
were entertained that he had been poisoned.
In person, according to the description of
Aubrey, who knew him well, Marvell " was of a
middling stature, pretty strong set, roundish-faced^
cherry-cheeked, hazel-eyed, brown-haired. In his
conversation he was modest, and of very few^
words. He was wont to say, he would not drink
high or freely with any one with whom he couldi
not trust his life. "
♦ Cooke's Life of Marvell, prefixed to his Poems, p. 14.
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Of the editious of MarvelFs collected works,
that of 1726, in two volumes duodecimo, contains
only his poems and some of his private letters.
That of Captain Thompson, in three volumes
quailo, was published in 1776. Yet even this,
as already said, omits one treatise. The Captain's
diligence is indeed worthy of commendation, and
his enthusiasm may be pardoned. But he was
far from being a correct or judicious editor ; and
is often betrayed by his indiscriminate admiration
into excessive and preposterous eulogy. The
only separate biography is, we believe, that of
John Dove.
The characteristic attribute of Marvell's genius
was unquestionably wit, in all the varieties of
which — ^brief sententious sarcasm, fierce invective,
light raillery, grave irony, and broad laughing
humour — he seems to have been by nature almost
equally fitted to excel. To say that he has equally
excelled in all would be untrue, though striking
examples of each might easily be selected from
his writings. The activity with which his mind
suggests ludicrous images and analogies is asto-
nishing ; he often absolutely startles us by the
remoteness and oddity of the sources from which
they are supplied, and by the unexpected inge-
nuity and felicity of his repartees. *
♦ In this respect he constantly reminds one of Butler, and
in proof of his literary catholicity, wo quote the following
from tlie Uehearsal Trunsprosed. " Uut lest I might be mis-
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His ybr^e, however, appears to be a grave ironi-
cal banter, which he often pursues at such a length
that there seems no limit to his fertility of inven-
tion. In his endless accumulation of ludicrous
images and allusions, the untiring exhaustive ridi-
cule with which he will play upon the same topics,
he is unique; yet this peculiarity not seldom
leads him to drain the generous wine even to the
dregs — to spoil a series of felicitous railleries by
some far-fetched conceit or unpardonable extra-
vagance.
But though Marvell was so great a master of
wit, and especially of that caustic species which
is appropriate to satirists, we will venture to say
that he was singularly free from many of the
faults which distinguish that irritable brotherhood.
Unsparing and merciless as his ridicule is, con-
temptuous and ludicrous as are the lights in which
he exhibits his opponent ; nay, further, though
his invectives are not only often terribly severe,
but (in compliance with the spirit of the age)
often grossly coarse and personal, it is still im-
possible to detect a single particle of malignity.
His geneml tone is that of broad laughing banter,
taken as to the persons I mention, I will assure the reader
that I intend not Hudibras; for he is a man of the other robe,
and his excellent wit hath taken a flight fur above these
ivhifficrs ; that whoever dislikes his subject cannot but com-
mend his performance of it, and calculate if on so barren a
theme he were so copious, what admirable sport he would
have made of an ecclesiastical politician. *' Ed.
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Xlii NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.
or of the most cutting invective ; but he appears
equally devoid of malevolence in both. In the
one, he seems amusing himself with opponents
too contemptible to move his anger ; in the other,
to lay on with the stern imperturbable gravity of
one who is performing the unpleasant but neces-
sary functions of a public executioner. This
freedom from the usual faults of satirists may be
traced to several causes ; partly to the honhommie
which, with all his talents for satire, was a pecu-
liar characteristic of the man, and which rendered
him as little disposed to take offence, and as pla-
cable when it was offered, as any man of his time;
partly to the integrity of his nature, which, while
it prompted him to champion any cause in which
justice had been outraged or innocence wmnged,
effectually preserved him from the wanton exer-
cise of his wit for the gratification of malevo-
lence; partly, perhaps principally, to the fact,
that both the above qualities restricted him to
encounters in which he had personally no con-
cern. If he carried a keen sword, it was a most
peaceable and gentlemanly weapon ; it never left
the scabbard except on the highest provocation,
and even then, only on behalf of others. His
magnanimity, self-control, and good temper, re-
strained him from avenging any insult offered to
himself; — his chivalrous love of justice instantly
roused all the lion within him on behalf of the
injured and oppressed. It is perhaps well for
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NOTICE OP THE AUTHOR. xliii
Marvcirs fame that his quarrels were not per-
sonal: had they been so, it is hardly probable
that such powers of sarcasm and irony should
have been so little associated with bitterness of
temper.
We must not quit the subject of his wit, with-
out presenting the reader with some few of his
pleasantries : premising that they form but a very
small part of those which we had marked in the
perusal of his works; and that, whatever their
merit, it were easy to find others far superior to
them, if we could afford space for long citations.
Of the invention of printing, he writes in the
following cutting train of irony : —
* The press, (that villanous engine,) invented much
about the same time with the Reformation, hath done
more mischief to the discipline of our Church than the
doctrine can make amends for. It was a happy time,
when all learning was in manuscript, 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 clerk-
ship than to save them from hanging. But now, since
printing came into the world, such is the mischief, that
a man cannot write a book, but presently ho is an-
swered. Could the press but at once be conjured to
obey only an imprimatur^ our author might not dis-
daine, 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
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Xliv NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.
art yet could prevent these seditious meetings of let-
ters. Two or three brawny fellows in a corner, with
meer ink and elbow-jrrease, do more harm than a
hundred systematical divines, with their sweaty preach-
injr. And, what is a stranjre thinjr, the very spunks,
which one would think should rather deface and blot
out the whole book, and were anciently used for that
purpose, are become now the instalments to make
them legible. Their ugly printing letters look but
like so many rotten teeth; how oft have they been
pulled out by B. & L. the public 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 firm a set, and as biting and talkative as
ever. O, printing ! how hast thou disturbed the
peace of mankind! — that lead, when moulded into
bullets, is not so mortal as when formed into letters !
There was a mistake, sure, in the story of Cadmus;
and the serpent's teeth which he sowed were nothing
else but the Icttera which he invented. The first essay
that was made towards this art, was in single charac-
ters upon iron, wherewith, of old, they stigmatized
slaves and remarkable offenders ; and it was of goo<l
use, sometimes, to brand a schismatic ; but a bulky
Dutchman diverted it quite from its first institution,
and contriving those innumerable si/ntagmes of alpha-
bets, hath pestered the world ever since, with the
gross bodies of their German divinity. One would
liave thought in reason, that a Dutchman might have
contented himself only with the wine-press. "
The following passage from ** Mr. Smirke, or
the Divine in Mode," would he enough to show
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NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR. xlv
even without any acknowledgment on his own
part, that Swift studied and profited by the prose
of Marvell.
" And from hence it proceeds, that, to the no small
scandal and disreputation of our church, a great arca-
num of their state hath been discovered and divulged ;
that, albeit wit be not inconsistent and incompatible
with a clergyman, yet neither is it inseparable from
them. So that it is of concernment to my Lords the
Bishops henceforward to repress those of them who
have no wit from writing, and to take care that even
those that have, do husband it better, as not knowing
to what exigency they may be reduced; but how-
ever, that they the Bishops be not too forward in
licensing and prefixing their venerable names to such
pamphlets. For admitting, though J am not too posi-
tive in ity that our episcopacy is of apostolical right, yet
we do not find, among all those gifls t^iere given to
men, that Wit is enumerated ; nor yet among those
qualifications requisite to a Bishop. And therefore
should they, out of complacency for an author, or de-
light in the argument, or facility oi their judgments,
approve of a dull book, their own understandings will
be answerable, and irreverent people, that cannot dis-
tinguish, will be ready to think that such of them diifer
from men of wit, not only in degree, but in order.
For all are not of my mind, who could never see any
one elevated to that dignity, but I presently conceived
a greater opinion of his wit than ever I had fornierly.
But some do not stick to affirm, that even they, the
Bishops, come by theirs, not by inspiration, not by
teaching, but even as the poor laity do sometimes
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Xlvi NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.
light upon it, — by a good mother. Which has occa*
sioned the homely Scotch proverb, that " an ounce of
mother wit is worth a pound of clergy. " And as they
come by it as do other men, so they possess it on
the same condition ; that they cannot transmit it by
breathing, touching, or any natural effluvium, to other
persons ; not so much as to their most domestick chap-
lains, or to the closest residentiary. That the King
himself, who is no less the spring of that, than he is the
fountain of honour, yet has never used the dubbing or
creating of wits as a flower of his prerogative ; much
less can the ecclesiastical power confcrrc it with the
same ease as they do the holy orders. That whatso-
ever they can do of that kind is, at uttermost, to im-
power men by their authority and commission, no
otherwise than in the licensing of midwives or physi-
cians. But that as to their collating of any internal
talent or ability, they could never pretend to it ; their
grants and their prohibitions are alike invalid, and
they can neither capacitate one man to be witty, nor
hinder another from being so, further than as they
press it at their devotion. Which, if it be the case,
they cannot be too exquisite, seeing this way of writing
is found so necessary, in making choice of fit instru-
ments. The Church's credit is more interested in an
ecclesiastical droll, than in a lay chancellor. It is no
small trust that is reposed in him to whom the Bishop
sliall commit omne et omni modo suimi ingeniumy tarn
temporale quam, spirUuale ; and, however it goes with
excommunication, they should take good heed to what
manner of person they delegate the keys of laughter.
It is not every man that is qualified to sustain the
dignity of the Church's jester, and, shouhl they take
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NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR. xlvu
as exact a scrutiny of them as of the Nonconformists
through their dioceses, the numbers would appear
inconsiderable upon this Easter visitation. Before
men be admitted to so important an employment, it
were fit they underwent a severe examination; and
that it might appear, first, whether they have any
sense ; for without that, how can any man pretend — and
yet they do— to be ingenious ? Then, whether they
have any modesty ; for without that they can only be
scurrilous and impudent. Next, whether any truth ;
for true jests are those that do the greatest execution.
And lastly, it were not amiss that they gave some
account, too, of their Christianity ; for the world has
hitherto been so uncivil as to expect something of that
from the clergy, in the design and style even of their
lightest and most uncanonical writings. "
MarveH's learning must have been very exten-
sive. His education was superior; and as we
have seen from the testimony of Milton, his indus-
try had made him master, during his long sojourn
on the Continent, of several continental languages.
It is certain also, that he continued to be a stu-
dent all his days : his works bear ample evidence
of his wide and miscellaneous reading. He ap-
pears to have been well versed in most branches
of literature, though he makes no pedantic dis-
play of erudition, and in this respect is favourably
distinguished from many of his contemporaries;
yet he cites his authors with the familiarity bf a
thorough scholar. In the department of history
be appears to have been particularly well read;
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Xlviii NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.
and derives his witty illustrations from such re-
mote and obscure sources, that Parker did not
hesitate to avow his belief that he had sometimes
drawn on his invention for them. In his Reply,
Marvell justifies himself in all the alleged in-
stances, and takes occasion to show that his oppo-
nent's learning is as hollow as all his other pre-
tensions.
Numerous examples show, that it is almost
impossible for even the rarest talents to confer
permanent popularity on books which turn on
topics of temporary interest, however absorbing
at the time. If Pascal's transcendent genius has
been unable to rescue even the Letters Promn-
dales from partial oblivion, it is not to be expected
that Marvell should have done more for the Jie-
hearsal Transprosed, Swift, it is true, about half
a century later, has been pleased, while express-
ing this opinion, to make an exception in favour
of Marvell. "There is indeed," says he, "an
exception, when any great genius thinks it worth
his while to expose a foolish piece : so we still
read MarvcU's answer to Parker with pleasure,
though the book it answers be sunk long ago. '*
But this statement is scarcely applicable now. It
is true that the " Rehearsal " is occasionally read
by the curious ; but it is by the resolutely curious
alone.
But admirable as were Marvell's intellectual
endowments, it is his moral worth, after all, which
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NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR. xlxix
constitutes his principal claim on the admiration
of posterity, and which sheds a redeeming lustre
on one of the darkest pages of the English annals.
Inflexible integrity was the basis of it — integrity
by which he has not unworthily earned the glo-
rious name of the " British Aristides. ** With
talents and acquirements which might have justi-
fied him in aspiring to almost any office, if he
could have disburdened himself of his conscience ;
with wit which, in that frivolous age, was a surer
passport to fame than any amount either of intel-
lect or virtue, and which, as we have seen, molli-
fied even the monarch himself in spite of his
prejudices ; Marvell preferred poverty and inde-
pendence to riches and servility. He had learned
the lesson, practised by few in that age, of being
content with little — so that he preserved his con-
science. He could be poor, but he could not be
mean ; could starve, but could not cringe. By
economizing in the articles of pride and ambition,
he could afford to keep what their votaries were
compelled to retrench, the necessaries, or rather
the luxuries, of integrity, and a good conscience.
Neither menaces, nor caresses, nor bribes, nor
poverty, nor distress, could induce him to abandon
his integrity ; or even to take an office in which
it might be tempted or endangered. He only who
has arrived at this pitch of magnanimity, has an
adequate security for his public virtue. He who
cannot subsist upon a little; who has not learned.
d
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1 NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.
to be content with such things as he has, and even
to be content with almost nothing ; who has not
learned to familiarize his thoughts to poverty,
much more readily than he can familiarize them
to dishonour, is not yet free from peril. Andrew
Marvell, as his whole course proves, had done
this. But we shall not do full justice to his public
integrity, if we do not bear in mind the corruption
of the age in whicb he lived; the manifold apos-
tasies amidst which he retained his conscience ;
and the effect which such wide -spread profligacy
must have had in making thousands almost scep-
tical as to whether there were such a thing as
public virtue at all. Such a relaxation in the
code of speculative morals, is one of the worst
results of general profligacy in practice. But
Andrew Marvell was not to be deluded ; and
amidst corruption perfectly unparalleled, he still
continued untainted. We are accustomed to hear
of his virtue as a truly Roman virtue, and so it
was ; but it was something more. Only the best
pages of Boman history can supply a parallel :
there was no Cincinnatus in those Ages of her
shame which alone can be compared with those
of Charles II. It were easier to find a Cincinna-
tus during the era of the English Commonwealth,
than an Andrew Marvell in the age of Com mo-
dus.
The integrity and patriotism which distin-
guished him in his relations to the Court, also
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NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR. h
marked all his public conduct. He was evidently
most scrupulously honest and faitliful in the dis-
charge of his duty to his constituents ; and, as we
have seen, almost punctilious in guarding against
any thing which could tarnish his fair fame, or
defile his conscience. On reviewing the whole
of his public conduct, we may well say that he
attained his wish, expressed in the lines which
he has written in imitation of a chorus in the
Thyestes of Seneca : —
" Climb at court for me that will-
Tottering favour's pinnacle;
All I seek is to lie still.
Settled in some secret nest,
In calm leisure let me rest,
And far oflf the public stage,
Pass away my silent age.
Thus, when without noise,. unknown,.
I have lived out all my span,
I shall die without a groan,
An old honest countryman. '*
He seems to have been as amiable in his pri-
vate as he was estimable in his public character.
So far as any documents throw light upon the
subject, the same integrity appears to have be-
longed to both. He is described as of a very
reserved and quiet temper; but, like Addison
(whom in this respect as in some few others he
resembled,) exceedingly facetious and lively
amonccst his intimate friends. His disinterested
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Hi KOTICK OF TIIK AUTHOR.
championship of others is no less a proof of his
sympathy with the oppressed than of his abhor-
rence of oppression ; and many pleasing traits of
amiability occur in his private correspondence as
well as in his writings. On the whole, we think
that Marvell's epitaph, strong as the terms of
panegyric are, records little more than the truth ;
and that it was not in the vain spirit of boasting,
but in the honest consciousness of virtue and in-
tegrity, that he himself concludes a letter to one
of his correspondents in the words —
"Disce, puer, virtutem ex me, verumque laborem;
Fortunam ex aliis. "
*^* The foregoing notice of Marvell (which is,
on the whole, the best in print,) has been taken
from the Edinburgh Rtview, and is said to have
been written by Mr. Henry Rogers. * The editor
has shortened it by some omissions, and hjvs added
a few notes. He has also given fuller extracts
from MarvelPs prose.
There has been no edition of MarvelFs poems
since 1776, and that seems to have retained the
blunders of the three previous editions, beside
adding a few of its own. If it were possible to
reverse the author's meaning by any ingenuity
of punctuation, the occasion seems never to have
been neglected. In the present edition, all the
* Poole's Index to Periodical Literature.
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NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR. lili
more apparent errors have been corrected, and
some advance made toward a pure text. The
poems were never published, or at any rate, col-
lected, by the author himself.
The intellect of Marvell was a remarkably
compact and sincere one, and his habitual charac-
ter was that of prudence and upnghtness. But
whenever he surrendered himself to his tempera-
ment, his mind sought relief in wit, so sportful
and airy, yet at the same time so recondite, that
it is hard to find anywhere an instance in which
the Court, the Tavern, and the Scholar*s Study
are blended with such Ck)rinthian justness of
measure. Nowhere is there so happy an exam-
ple of the truth that wit and fancy are diflferent
operations of the same principle. The wit is
so spontaneous and so interfused with feeling,
that we can scarce distinguish it from fancy ;
and the fancy brings together analogies so remote
that they give us the pleasurable shock of wit.
Now and then, in his poems, he touches a deeper
vein, but shuns instinctively the labour of laying
it open, and escapes gleefully into the more con-
genial sunshine. His mind presents the rare
combination of wit with the moral sense, by which
the one is rescued from scepticism and the other
from prosing. His poems form the synthesis of
Donne and Butler.
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POEMS
SEVERAL OCCASIONS.
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Google
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POEMS.
UPON THE HILL AND GROVE AT BILL-
BOROW.
TO THE LORD FAIRFAX.
See how the arched earth does here
Rise in a perfect hemisphere !
The stifiest compass could not strike
A line more circular and like,
Nor softest pencil draw a brow
So equal as this hill does bow ;
It seems as for a model laid,
And that the world by it was made.
Here learn, ye mountains more unjust.
Which to abrupter greatness thrust.
Which do, with your hook-shoulder'd height^
The earth deform, and heaven fright,
For whose excrescence, ill designed.
Nature must a new centre find.
Learn here those humble steps to tread.
Which to securer glory lead.
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TnE POEMS.
Had he been first elected in 1658, he would
have been member somewhat more than that
period.
During his long parliamentary career, Marvell
maintained a close correspondence with his con-
stituents — regularly sending to them, almost every
post night during the sittings of Parliament, an
account of its proceedings. These letters were
first made public by Captain Thompson, and
occupy about four hundred pages of the first
volume of his edition of MarvelFs works. They
are written with great plainness, and with a busi-
* Perhaps we are not to expect verbal exactness in an
epitaph, or perhaps allowance was made for the period of
Marvell's absence from his duties, but if he had not been
chosen to the Parliament of 1658-9 under Richard's Pro-
tectorate, it would be hard to explain why Marvell, in return-
ing thanks to the Corporation of Hull in a letter dated 6th
April, 1661, should say, ** I perceive you have a^^in made
choice of me, now the third time, to serve you in Parlia-
ment. " According to the statement in the text, he should
have said second. £d.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR. XVU
ness-like brevity, which must have satisfiecl, we
should think, even the most laconic of his mer-
chant constituents. Thoy ai-e chiefly valuable
now, as affording proofs of the ability and fidelity
with which their author discharged his public
duties.
Marvell's stainless probity and honour every-
where appear, and in no case more amiably than
in the unhappy misunderstanding with his col-
league, or ** his partner," as he calls him. Colonel
Gilby, in 1661, and which seems to have arisen-
out of some electioneering proceedings. With
such unrivalled talents for ridicule as Marvell
possessed, one might not unnaturally have ex-
pected that this dispute would have furnished an
irresistible tempation to some ebullition of witty
malice. But his magnanimity was far superior
to such mean retaliation. He is eager to do his
opponent the amplest justice, and to put the
fairest construction on his conduct He is fearful
only lest their private quarrel should be of the
slighest detriment to the public service. He
says — " The bonds of civility betwixt Colonel
Gilby and myself being unliappily snapped in
pieces, and in such a manner that I cannot see
how it is possible ever to knit them again : the
only trouble that I have is, lest by our mis-intel-
ligence your business should receive any disad-
vantage Truly, I believe, that as
to your public trust and the discharge thereof,.
h
Digitized by
XVlll NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.
we do each of us still retain the same princi-
ples upon which we first undertook it ; and that,
though perhaps we may sometimes differ in our
advice concerning the way of proceeding, yet we
have the same good ends in the general ; and by
this unlucky falling out, we shall be provoked to
a greater emulation of serving you. " * Yet the
offence, whatever it was, must have been. a grave
one, for he says at the conclusion of the same
letter — " I would not tell you any tales, because
there are nakednesses which it becomes us to
cover, if it be possible ; as I shall, -unless I be
obliged to make some vfndications by any false
report or misinterpretations. In the mean time,
pity, I beseech you, my weakness ; for there are
same tJangs which men ought not, others that they
cannot patie^itly suffer *^'\
Of his integrity even in little things — of his
desire to keep his conscience pure and his repu-
tation untarnished — we have some staking proofs.
On one occasion he had been employed by his
constituents to wait on the Duke of Monmouth,
then governor of Hull, with a complimentary
letter, and to present him with a purse contain-
ing " six broad pieces " as an honorary fee. He
says — " He had before I came in, as I was told,
considered what to do with the gold ; and but
that I by all means prevented the offer, I had
* MarvelPs Letters, pp. 83, 34.
t Ibid. p. 36.
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NOTICE OP THE AUTHOR. XIX
been in danger of being reimbursed with it. "*
In the same letter he says — " 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 opportu-
nity. -t
In one of his letters he makes the following
declaration, which we have no doubt was per-
fectly sincere, and, what is still more strange,
imph'citly believed: — "I shall, God willing,
maintain the same incorrupt mind and clear con-
science, free from faction or any self-ends, which
I have, by his grace, hitherio preserved*' %
Not seldom, to the very moderate ** wages *' of
a legislator, was added some homely expression
of good-will on the part of the constituents. That
of the Hull people generally appeared in the
shape of a stout cask of ale, for which Mar-
veil repeatedly returns thanks. In one letter he
says — "We must first give you thanks for the
kind present you have pleased to send us, which
will give occasion to us to remember you often ;
but the quantity is so great that it might make
sober men forgetful. '* §
Marvell's correspondence extends through
nearly twenty years. From June, 1661, there
is, however, a considerable break, owing to his
* MarvelPs Letters, p. 210. t Ibid. p. 210.
X Ibid. p. 276. § Ibid. pp. 14, 16.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
XX NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.
absence for an unknown period — probably about
two years — ^in Holland. He showed little dis-
position to return till Lord Bellasis, then high
steward of Hull, proposed to that worthy cor-
poration to choose a substitute for their absent
member. They replied that he was not far off,
and would be ready at their summons. He was
then at Frankfort, and at the solicitation of his
constituents immediately returned, April, 1663.
But he had not been more than three months
at home, when he intimates to his correspondents
his intention to accept an invitation to accompany
Lord Carlisle, who had been appointed ambas-
sador-extraordinary to Russia, Sweden, and Den-
mark. He formally solicits the assent of his
constituents to this step, urges the precedents for
it, and assures them that during his watchful col-
league's attendance, his own services may be
easily dispensed with. His constituents con-
sented ; he sailed in July, and appears to have
been absent rather more than a year. We find
him in his place in the Parliament that assembled
at Oxford, 1665.
In 1671, for some unknown reason, there is
another hicUtis in his correspondence. It ex-
tends over three year&. From 1674, the letters
are regularly continued till his death. There is
no proof that he ever spoke in Parliament ; but
it appears that he made copious notes of all the
debates.
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NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR. XXI
The strong views which Marvell took on public
affairs — the severe, satirical things which he had
said and written from time to time — and the con-
viction of his enemies, that it was impossible to
silence him by the usual methods of a place or a
bribe, must have rendered a wary and circum-
spect conduct very necessary. In fact, we are
informed that on more than one occasion he was
menaced with assassination. But, though hated
by the court party generally, he was as generally
feared, and in sonie few instances respected.
Prince Rupert continued to honour him with his
friendship long after the rest of his party had
honoured him by their hatred, and occasionally
visited the patriot at his lodgings. When he
voted on the side of Marvell, which was not in-
frequently the case, it used to be said that ** he
had been with his tutor. "
Inaccessible as Marvell was to flattery and
offers of preferment, it certainly was not for want
of temptations. The account of his memorable
interview with the Lord Treasurer Danby has
been often repeated, and yet it would be unpar-
donable to omit it here. Marvell, it appears, once
spent an evening at court, and fairly charmed
the merry monarch by his accomplishments and
wit At this we need not wonder : Charles loved
wit above all things — except sensual pleasure.
To his admiration of it, especially the humorous
species, he was continually sacrificing his royal
Digitized by VjOOQIC
XXll NOTICE OP THE AUTHOR.
dignity. On the morning after the above-men-
tioned interview, he sent Lord Danby to wait on
the patriot with a special message of regard. His
lordship had some difficulty in ferreting out Mar-
velFs residence ; but at last found him on a second
floor, in a dark court leading out of the Strand.
It is said, that groping up the narrow staircase,
he stumbled against the door of Marvell's humble
apartment, which, flying open, discovered him
writing. A little surprised, he asked his lordship
with a smile, if he had not mistaken his way.
The latter replied, in courtly phrase — " No ; not
since I have found Mr. Marvell. " He proceeded
to inform him that he came with a message from
the king, who was impressed with a deep sense
of his meiits, and was anxious to serve him.
Marvell replied with somewhat of the spirit of
the founder of the Cynics, but with a very differ-
ent manner, ^^ that his Majesty had it not in his
power to serve him. " * Becoming more serious,
however, he told his lordship that he well knew
* Another and less authentic version of this anecdote has
been given, much more circumstantial, indeed, but on that
very account, in our judgment, more apocryphaJ. But if the
main additions to the story be fictitious, they are amongst
those fictions which have gained extensive circulatitm only
because they are felt to be not intrinsically improbable.
We have been at some pains to investigate the origin of this
version; but can trace it no further than to a pamphlet
printed in Ireland about the middle of the last century. Of
this we have not been able to get a perusal. Suffice it
Digitized by VjOOQIC
NOTICE OP THE AUTIIOH. XXIU
that he who accepts court favour is expected to
vote in its interest. On his lordship's saying,
" that his Majesty only desired to know whether
there was any place at court he would accept ; **
the patriot replied, ^ that he could accept nothing
with honour, for either he must treat the king
with ingratitude by refusing compliance with
court measures, or be a traitor to his country by
yielding to them. " The only favour, therefore,
he begged of his Majesty, was to esteem him as
a loyal subject, and truer to his interests in refuB-
ing his offers than he could be by accepting them.
His lordship having exhausted this species of
logic, tried the argumentum ad crumenam, and
told him that his Majesty requested his accept-
ance of £1,000. But this, too, was rejected with
fircdness ; " though,** says his biographer, ** soon
after the departure of his lordship, Marvell was
compelled to borrow a guinea from a friend. "
In 1672 commenced Marvell's memorable con-
troversy with Samuel Parker, afterwards Bishop
of Oxford, of which we shall give a somewhat
copious account. To this it is entitled from the
important influence which it had on Marveirs
reputation and fortunes; and as having led to the
composition of that work, on which his literary
to say, that the version it contains of the above interview,
and which has been extensively circulated, is not borna
out by the early biographies ; for example,, that of Cooke,.
1726.
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XXIV NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.
fame, so far as he has any, principally depends —
we mean the Rehearsal Transprosed,
Parker was one of the worst specimens of the
highest of the high churchmen of the reign of
Charles II. It is difiicult in such times as these
to conceive of such a character as, by universal
testimony, Parker is proved to have been. Such
men could not well flourish in any other age than
that of Charles II. Only in such a period of un-
blushing profligacy-^K)f public corruption, happily
unexampled in the history of England — could we
expect to find a Bishop Parker, and his patron
and parallel. Archbishop Sheldon. The high
churchmen of that day managed to combine the
most hideous bigotry, with an utter absence of
seriousness — a zeal worthy of a " Pharisee " with
a character which would have disgraced a "publi-
can. " Scarcely Christians in creed, and any thing
rather than Christians in practice, they yet in-
sisted on the most scrupulous compliance with the
most trivial points of ceremonial ; and persisted
in persecuting thousands of devout and honest
men, because they hesitated to obey. Things
which they admitted to be indifferent, and which,
without violation of conscience, they might have
forborne to enforce, they remorselessly urged on
those who solemnly declared that without such a
violation they could not comply. More tolerant
of acknowledged vice than of supposed error,
drunkenness and debauchery were venial, com-
Digitized by VjOOQIC
NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR. XXV
pared with doubts about the propriety of making
the sign of the cross in baptism, or using the ring
in marriage ; and it would have been better for
a man to break half the commands in the deca-
logue, than admit a doubt of the most frivolous
of the church's rites. Equally truculent^ and ser-
vile, they displayed to all above them a meanness
proportioned to the insolence they evinced to all
below them. They formally invested the mo-
narch with absolute power over the consciences
of his subjects ; and, with a practice in harmony
with their principles, were ready at any moment
(if they had had any) to surrender their own.
As far as appears, they would have been willing
to embrace the faith of Mahometans or Hindoos
at the bidding of his Majesty ; and to believe and
disbelieve as he commanded them. Extravagant
as all this may appear, we shall shortly see it
gravely propounded by Parker himself. It was
fit that those who were willing to offer such vile
adulation, should be suffered to present it to such
an object as Charles II. — that so grotesque an
idolatry should have as grotesque an idol. As it
was, the God was every way worthy of the
worshippers. In a word, these men seemed to
reconcile the most opposite vices and the widest
contrarieties ; bigotry and laxity — pride and
meanness — religious scrupulosity and mocking
scepticism — a persecuting zeal against conscience,
and an indulgent latitudinarianism towards vice —
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XXVI NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.
the truculence of tyrants and the sycophancy of
parasites.
Happily the state of things which generated
such men has long since passed away. But
examples of this sort of high churchmanship
were not infrequent in the age of Charles II. ;
and perhaps Bishop Parker may be considered
the most perfect specimen of them. His father
was one of Oliver Cromwell's roost obsequious
committee-men ; his son, who was born in 1 640,
was brought up in the principles of the Puritans,
and was sent to Oxford in 1659. He was just
twenty at the Restoration, and immediately com-
menced and soon completed his transformation
into one of the most arrogant and time-serving of
high churchmen.
Some few propositions, for which he came
earnestly to contend as for the failh once de-
livered to the saints, may give an idea of the
principles and the temper of this worthy suc-
cessor of the Apostles. He affirms, " That unless
princes have power to bind their subjects to
that religion they apprehend most advantageous to
public peace and tranquillity, and restrain those
religious mistakes that tend to its subversion, they
are no better than statues and images of author-
ity : That in cases and disputes of public con-
cernment, private men are not properly sui juris ;
they have no power over their own actions ; they
are not to be directed by their own judgments, or
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NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR. XXVll
determined by their own wills, but bj the com*
mands and the determinations of the public con-
science ; and that if there he any sin in the com'
mandy he that imposed it shall answer for ity and
not I, whose whole dtUy it is to obey. The com-
mands of authority vyill warrant my obedience ; my
obedience wiU hallow^ or at least excuse my action^
and so secure me from sin, if not from error; and
in all doubtful and disputable cases 'tis better to
err with authority, than to be in the right against
it : That it is absolutely necessary to the peace
and happiness of kingdoms, that there be set up a
more severe government over men's consciences
and religious persuasions than over their vices
and immoralities ; and that princes may with less
hazard give liberty to men's vices and debauchee
ries than their consciences," *
He must have a very narrow mind or unchari-
table heart, who cannot give poor human nature
credit for the sincere adoption of the most oppo-
site opinions. Still there are limits to this exer-
cise of charity ; there may be such a concurrence
of suspicious symptoms, that our charity can be
exercised only at the expense of common sense.
We can easily conceive, under ordinary circum-
stances. Dissenters becoming Churchmen, and
Churchmen becoming Dissenters ; Tories and
Whigs changing sides ; Protestants and Koman-
* The Reheaital Transproudj vol. i. pp. 97, 98, 99, 100, 101.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
XXVm NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.
ists, like those two brothers mentioned in Locke's
second ''Letters on Toleration/'* so expert in
logic as to convert one another, and then, unhap-
pily, not expert enough to convert one another
back again — and all without any suspicion of in-
sincerity. But when we find very great revolu-
tions of opinion, at the same time very sudden,
and exquisitely well-timed in relation to private
interest ; — when we find these changes, let them
be what they may, always, like those of the helio-
trope, towards the sun ; — when we find a man
utterly uncharitable even to his own previous
errors, and maligning and abusing all who still
retain them, it is impossible to doubt the motives
which have animated him. On this subject. Mar-
veil himself well observes — " Though a man be
obliged to change a hundred times backward and
forward, if his judgment be so weak and variable,
yet there are some drudgeries that no man of
honour would put himself upon, and but few sub-
mit to if they were imposed; as, suppose one
had thought fit to pass over from one persuasion
of the Christian religion into another, he would
not choose to spit thrice at every article that he
relinquished, to curse solemnly his father and
mother for having educated him in those opinions,
to animate his new acquaintances to the mas-
sacring of his former comrades. These are busi-
* Locke's Works, vol. v. p. 79.
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NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR. XXlX
nesses that can only be expected from a renegade
of Algiers and Tunis — to overdo in expiation,
and gain better credence of being a sincere Mus-
sulman. '**
Marvell gives an amusing account of the pro-
gress of Parker's conversion— of the transforma-
tion by which the maggot became a carrion-fly.
In the second part of the Rehearsal^ after a humor-
ous description of his parentage and youtli, he
tells us that at the Restoration ^' he came to Lon-
don, where he spent a considerable time in creep-
ing into all corners and companies, horoscoping
up and down ** (" astrologizing " as he elsewhere
expresses it) " concerning the duration of the
government ; — not considering any thing as hest^
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
thenceforward cast about how to be admitted into
the Church of England, and find the highway to
her preferments. In order to this, he daily en-
larged not only his conversation but his con-
science, 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
♦ RehearBol TVantprotedf vol. i. pp. 91, 92.
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XXX NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.
should escape being traced by his perfumes. "*
Marvell sketches the early history and character
of Parker in both parts of the Rehearsal — though,
as might be expected, with greater severity in the
second than in the first. A few ludicrous sen-
tences may not displease the reader. He says : —
** This gentleman, as I have heard, after he had read
Don Quixote and the Bible, besides such school-books
as were necessary for his age, was sent early to the
university ; and there studied hard, and in a short time
became a competent rhetorician, and no ill disputant.
He had learned how to erect a thesis^ and to defend it
pro and con with a serviceable distinction
And so, thinking himself now ripe and qualified for
the greatest undertakings and highest fortune, he
therefore exchanged the narrowness of the university
for the town ; but coming out of the confinement of
the square cap and the quadrangle into the open air,
the world began to turn round with him, which he
imagined, though it were his own giddiness, to be
nothing less than the quadrature of the circle. This
accident concurring so happily to increase the good
opinion which he naturally had of himself, he thence-
forward applied to gain a like reputation with others.
He followed the town life, haunted the best companies ;
and, to polish himself from any pedantic roughness,
he read and saw the plays with much care, and more
proficiency than most of the auditory. But all this
while he forgot not the main chance ; but hearing of a
Tacancy with a nobleman, he clapped in, and easily
* Rehtanal Trcmproted, vol. ii. pp. 77, 78.
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NOTICE OP THE AUTHOR. XXXX
obtained to be his chaplain ; from that day you may
take the date of his pi*cfennent8 and his ruin; for
having soon wrought -himself dexterously into his pa-
tron's favour, by short gracos and sermons, and a
mimical way of drolling upon the Puritans, which he
knew would take both at chapel and at table, he gained
a great authority likewise among all the domestics.
They all listened to him as an oracle; and they
allowed him, by common consent, to have not only all
the divinity, but more wit, too, than all the rest of the
family put together. Nothing now must
serve him, but he must be a madman in print, and
write a book of Ecclesiastical Polity. There he distri-
butes all the territories of conscience into the Prince's
province, and makes the Hierarchy to be but Bishops
of the air ; and talks at such an extravagant rate in
things of higher concernment, that the reader will
avow that in the whole discourse he had not one lucid
interval. " ♦
The work here mentioned, his J^cclesiasttcal
Polity, was published in the year 1670. But the
book which called forth Marvell, was a Preface
• to a posthumous work of Archbishop Bramhairs,
which appeared in 1672. In this piece Parker
had displayed his usual zeal against the Non-
conformists with more than usual acrimony, and
pushed to the uttermost extravagance his fa-
vourite maxims of ecclesiastical tyranny. Like
his previous works on similar matters, it was
anonymous, though the author was pretty well
♦ Rehearsal Trainprosed^ vol. i. pp. 62-69.
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XXXll NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.
known. Marvell dubs him " Mr. Bayes," under
which name the Duke of Buckingham had ridi-
culed Dryden in the well-known play of the
Rehearsal ; from the title of which Marvell de-
signated his book, The Rehearsal Transprosed.
The success of the Rehearsal was instant and
signal. " After Parker had for some years en-
tertained the nation with several virulent books,'*
says Burnet, "he was attacked by the liveliest
droll of the age, who wrote in a burlesque strain,
but with so peculiar and entertaining a conduct,
that, from the King down to the tradesman, his
books were read with great pleasure; that not
only humbled Parker, but the whole party ; for
the author of the Rehearsal Transprosed had all
the men of wit (or, as the French phrase it, all
the laughers) on his side. *'
In fact, Marvell exhibited his adversary in so
ridiculous a light, that even his own party could
not keep their countenances. The unhappy
churchman resembled Gulliver at the court of
Brobdignag, when the mischievous page stuck
him into the marrow-bone. He cut such a ridi-
culous figure, that, says the author, even the
King and his courtiers could not help laughing
at him.
The first part of the Rehearsal elicited several
answers. They were written, for the most part,
in very unsuccessful imitation of MarvelFs style
of banter, and are now wholly forgotten. Mar-
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NOTICE OF THE ALTIIOR. XXXlll
veil gives an amusing account of the efforts which
were made to obtain effective replies, and of the
hopes of preferment which may be supposed to
have inspired their authors. Parker himself for
some time declined any reply. At last came out
his Reproof to the Rehearsal Transprosedy in which
he urged the Government to crush the pestilent
wit, the servant of Cromwell, and the friend of
Milton. ** To this work Marvell replied in the
second part of the Rehearsal, He was further
spirited to it by an anonymous letter, pleasant
and laconic enough, left for him at a friend's house,
signed ** T. G. ** and concluding with the words —
" If thou darest to print any lie or libel against
Dr. Parker, by the eternal God, I will cut thy
throat ! *' He who wrote it, whoever he was,
was ignorant of MarvelFs nature, if he thought
thereby to intimidate him into silence. His intre-
pid spirit was but further provoked by this inso-
lent threat, which he took care to publish in the
title-page of his reply. To this publication Par-
ker attempted no rejoinder. Anthony Wood him-
self tells us, that Parker "judged it more prudent
to lay down the cudgels, than to enter the lists
again with an untowardly combatant, so hugely
well versed and experienced in the then but newly
refined art ; though much in mode and fashion
ever since, of sporting and jeering buffoonery.
It was generally thought, however, by many of
those who were otherwise favourers of Parker's
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XXXIY NOTICE or THE AUTHOR,
cause, that the victory lay on Marveirs side, and
it wrought this good effect on Parker, that forever
after it took down his great spirit. " And Burnet
tells us, that he " withdrew from the town, and
ceased writii>g for some years. "
Of this greatest work of Marvell's singular
genius it is difficult, even if we had space for it,
to present the reader with any considerable ex-
tracts. The allusions are oflen so obscure — the
wit of one page is so dependent on that of an-
other — the humour and pleasantry are so continu-
ous — ^and the character of the work, from its very
nature, is so excursive, that its merits can be
fully appreciated only on a regular perusal. We
regret to say, also, that there are other reasons
which render any very lengthened citations un-
desirable. The work has faults which would, in
innumerable cases, disguise its real merit from
modern readers, or rather deter them from giving
it a reading altogether. It is characterized by
much of the coarseness which was so prevalent
in that age, and from which Marvell was by no
means free ; though, as we shall endeavour here-
after to show, his spirit was far from partaking
of the malevolence of ordinary satirists.
Yet the reader must not infer that the only, or
even the chief, merit of the Rehearsal Transprosed
consists in wit and banter. Not only is there
amidst all its ludicrous levities, " a vehemence of
solemn reproof, and an eloquence of invective, that
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NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR. XXXV
awes one with the spirit of a modem Junius;"*
but there are many passages of very powerful
reasoning, in advocacy of truths then but ill under-
stood, and of rights which had been shamefully
violated.
Perhaps the most interesting passages of the
work are those in which Marvell refers to his
great friend, John Milton. Parker, with his cus-
tomary malignity, had insinuated that the poet,
who was then living in cautious retirement, might
have been the author of the Rehearsal — appa-
rently with the view of turning the indignation
of government upon the illustrious recluse. Mar-
vell had always entertained towards Milton a
feeling of reverence akin to idolatry, and this
stroke of deliberate malice was more than he
could bear. He generously hastened to throw his
shield over his aged and prostrate patron.
** J. M. was, and is, a man of great learning and
sharpness of wit as any man. It was his misfortune,
living in a tumultuous time, to be tossed on the wrong
side, and he writ, flagrante BeUo, certain dangerous
treatises of no other nature than that which I men-
tioned to you writ by your own father, only with this
difference, that your father's, which I have by me, was
written with the same design, but with much less wit
or judgment. At his Majesty's happy return, J. M.
did partake, even as you yourself did, of his regal
clemency, and has ever since lived in a most retired
* D^Israeli.
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XXXVl NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.
silence. It was after that, I well remember it, that
being one day at his house, I there first met you ac-
cidentally. But there it was, when you, as I told you,
wandered up and down Moorfields, astrologizing on
the duration of his Majesty's government, that you
frc((uentcd J. M. incessantly, and haunted his house
day by day. What discourses you there used he is
too generous to remember. "
About three years after the publication of the
second part of the Behears<dy Marvell's chival-
rous love of justice impelled him again to draw
the sword. In 1675, Dr. Croft, Bishop of Here-
ford, had published a work entitled " The Naked
Truth, or the true state of the Primitive Church,
by a humble Moderator. " It enjoined on all
religious parties the unwelcome duties of forbear-
ance and charity; but as it especially exposed
the danger and folly of enforcing a minute uni-
formity, it could not be suffered to pass unchal-
lenged in that age of high church intolerance. It
was petulantly attacked by Dr. Francis Turner,
Master of St John's College, Cambridge, in a
pamphlet entitled '* Animadversions on the Naked
Truth. " This provoked our satirist, who replied
in a pamphlet entitled, "Mr. Smirke, or the
Divine in Mode. " He here fits his antagonist
with a character out of Etherege's "Man of
Mode " — ^as he had before fitted Parker with one
from Buckingham's " Rehearsal. " The merits
and defects of this pamphlet are of much the
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NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR. XXXVll
same order as those of his former work — it is
perliaps less disfigured by coarseness and vehe-
mence. Of Dr. Croft's pamphlet, he beautifully
expresses a feeling, of which we imagine few of
us can have been unconscious when perusing any
work which strongly appeals to our reason and
conscience, and in which, as we proceed, we seem
to recognize what we have often thought, but
never uttered. " It is a book of that kind, that
no Christian can peruse it without wishing him-
self to have been the author, and almost imagin-
ing that he is so ; the conceptions therein being
of so eternal an idea, that every man finds it to
be but a copy of the original in his own mind. "
To this little brochure was attached, "A Short
Historical Essay concerning General Councils,
Creeds, and Impositions in matters of Religion. "
It is characterized by the same strong sense and
untiring vivacity as his other writings, and evinces
a creditable acquaintance with ecclesiastical his-
tory ; but it is neither copious nor profound
enough for the subject.
In 1677, Marvell published his last contro-
versial piece, elicited like the rest by his disinte-
rested love of fair play. It was a defence of the
celebmted divine, John Howe, whose conciliatory
tract on the " Divine Prescience '* had been rudely
assailed by three several antagonists. This little
volume, which is throughout in MarvelFs vein, is
now extremely scarce, is not included in any edi-
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XXXVlll NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.
tion of his works, and was evidentlj unknown to
all his biographers.
His last work of any extent was entitled "An
Account of the Growth of Popery and Arbitrary
Government in England. " It first appeared in
1678. It is written with much vigour — boldly
vindicates the great principles of the constitu-
tion — and discusses the limits of the royal pre-
rogative. The gloomy anticipations expressed
by the author were but too well justified by the
public events which transpired subsequently to
his death. But the fatal consequences of the
principles and policy he denounced, were happily
averted by the Bevolution of 1688.
A reward was oflTered by the government for
the discovery of the author of this " libel," as it
was pleasantly designated. Marvell seems to
have taken the matter very coolly, and thus hu-
morously alludes to the subject in a private letter
to Mr. Ramsden, dated June 10, 1678— "There
came out about Christmas last, here, a large book
concerning the growth of Popery and Arbitrary
Government. 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 since have described, as near as it
was proper to go (the man being a member of
Parliament) Mr. Marvell to have been the
author ; but^ if he had, surely he should not have
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NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR. XXXIX
escaped being questioned in Parliament, or some
other place. "
Marvell also published, during the latter years
of his life, several other political pamphlets, which,
though now forgotten, were doubtless not without
their influence in unmasking corruption, and rous-
ing the nation to a consciousness of its political
degradation.
Marvell's intrepid patriotism and bold writings
had now made him so odious to the corrupt court,
and especially to tlie bigoted heir presumptive,
James, that he was compelled frequently to con-
ceal himself for fear of assassination. He makes
an affecting allusion to this in one of his private
letters — *^ Magxs occidere^ says he, " met%u> quam
occidi; non quod vitam tanti astimam, sed ne
imparatus mortar," *
He died August 1 6, 1 678, the very year that
his obnoxious work on the growth of Popery and
Arbitrary Government appeared ; and, as he was
in vigorous health just before, strong suspicions
were entertained that he had been poisoned.
In person, according to the description of
Aubrey, who knew him well, Marvell " was of a
middling stature, pretty strong set, roundish-faced^
cherry-cheeked, hazel-eyed, brown-haired. In his
conversation he was modest, and of very few^
words. He was wont to say, he would not drink
high or freely with any one with whom he couldi
not trust his life. "
♦ Cooke's Life of Marvell, prefixed to his Poems, p. 14.
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Xl NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.
Of the editious of MarvelFs collected works,
that of 1726, in two volumes duodecimo, contains
only his poems and some of his private letters.
That of Captain Thompson, in three volumes
quailo, was published in 1776. Yet even this,
as already said, omits one treatise. The Captain's
diligence is indeed worthy of commendation, and
his enthusiasm may be pardoned. But he was
far from being a correct or judicious editor ; and
is often betrayed by his indiscriminate admiration
into excessive and preposterous eulogy. The
only separate biography is, we believe, that of
John Dove.
The characteristic attribute of Marvell's genius
was unquestionably wit, in all the varieties of
which — ^brief sententious sarcasm, fierce invective,
light raillery, grave irony, and broad laughing
humour — he seems to have been by nature almost
equally fitted to excel. To say that he has equally
excelled in all would be untrue, though striking
examples of each might easily be selected from
his writings. The activity with which his mind
suggests ludicrous images and analogies is asto-
nishing ; he often absolutely startles us by the
remoteness and oddity of the sources from which
they are supplied, and by the unexpected inge-
nuity and felicity of his repartees. *
♦ In this respect he constantly reminds one of Butler, and
in proof of his literary catholicity, wo quote the following
from tlie Uehearsal Trunsprosed. " Uut lest I might be mis-
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KOTIC£ OF THE AUTHOR. xli
His ybr^e, however, appears to be a grave ironi-
cal banter, which he often pursues at such a length
that there seems no limit to his fertility of inven-
tion. In his endless accumulation of ludicrous
images and allusions, the untiring exhaustive ridi-
cule with which he will play upon the same topics,
he is unique; yet this peculiarity not seldom
leads him to drain the generous wine even to the
dregs — to spoil a series of felicitous railleries by
some far-fetched conceit or unpardonable extra-
vagance.
But though Marvell was so great a master of
wit, and especially of that caustic species which
is appropriate to satirists, we will venture to say
that he was singularly free from many of the
faults which distinguish that irritable brotherhood.
Unsparing and merciless as his ridicule is, con-
temptuous and ludicrous as are the lights in which
he exhibits his opponent ; nay, further, though
his invectives are not only often terribly severe,
but (in compliance with the spirit of the age)
often grossly coarse and personal, it is still im-
possible to detect a single particle of malignity.
His geneml tone is that of broad laughing banter,
taken as to the persons I mention, I will assure the reader
that I intend not Hudibras; for he is a man of the other robe,
and his excellent wit hath taken a flight fur above these
ivhifficrs ; that whoever dislikes his subject cannot but com-
mend his performance of it, and calculate if on so barren a
theme he were so copious, what admirable sport he would
have made of an ecclesiastical politician. *' Ed.
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Xlii NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.
or of the most cutting invective ; but he appears
equally devoid of malevolence in both. In the
one, he seems amusing himself with opponents
too contemptible to move his anger ; in the other,
to lay on with the stern imperturbable gravity of
one who is performing the unpleasant but neces-
sary functions of a public executioner. This
freedom from the usual faults of satirists may be
traced to several causes ; partly to the honhommie
which, with all his talents for satire, was a pecu-
liar characteristic of the man, and which rendered
him as little disposed to take offence, and as pla-
cable when it was offered, as any man of his time;
partly to the integrity of his nature, which, while
it prompted him to champion any cause in which
justice had been outraged or innocence wmnged,
effectually preserved him from the wanton exer-
cise of his wit for the gratification of malevo-
lence; partly, perhaps principally, to the fact,
that both the above qualities restricted him to
encounters in which he had personally no con-
cern. If he carried a keen sword, it was a most
peaceable and gentlemanly weapon ; it never left
the scabbard except on the highest provocation,
and even then, only on behalf of others. His
magnanimity, self-control, and good temper, re-
strained him from avenging any insult offered to
himself; — his chivalrous love of justice instantly
roused all the lion within him on behalf of the
injured and oppressed. It is perhaps well for
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NOTICE OP THE AUTHOR. xliii
Marvcirs fame that his quarrels were not per-
sonal: had they been so, it is hardly probable
that such powers of sarcasm and irony should
have been so little associated with bitterness of
temper.
We must not quit the subject of his wit, with-
out presenting the reader with some few of his
pleasantries : premising that they form but a very
small part of those which we had marked in the
perusal of his works; and that, whatever their
merit, it were easy to find others far superior to
them, if we could afford space for long citations.
Of the invention of printing, he writes in the
following cutting train of irony : —
* The press, (that villanous engine,) invented much
about the same time with the Reformation, hath done
more mischief to the discipline of our Church than the
doctrine can make amends for. It was a happy time,
when all learning was in manuscript, 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 clerk-
ship than to save them from hanging. But now, since
printing came into the world, such is the mischief, that
a man cannot write a book, but presently ho is an-
swered. Could the press but at once be conjured to
obey only an imprimatur^ our author might not dis-
daine, 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
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Xliv NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.
art yet could prevent these seditious meetings of let-
ters. Two or three brawny fellows in a corner, with
meer ink and elbow-jrrease, do more harm than a
hundred systematical divines, with their sweaty preach-
injr. And, what is a stranjre thinjr, the very spunks,
which one would think should rather deface and blot
out the whole book, and were anciently used for that
purpose, are become now the instalments to make
them legible. Their ugly printing letters look but
like so many rotten teeth; how oft have they been
pulled out by B. & L. the public 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 firm a set, and as biting and talkative as
ever. O, printing ! how hast thou disturbed the
peace of mankind! — that lead, when moulded into
bullets, is not so mortal as when formed into letters !
There was a mistake, sure, in the story of Cadmus;
and the serpent's teeth which he sowed were nothing
else but the Icttera which he invented. The first essay
that was made towards this art, was in single charac-
ters upon iron, wherewith, of old, they stigmatized
slaves and remarkable offenders ; and it was of goo<l
use, sometimes, to brand a schismatic ; but a bulky
Dutchman diverted it quite from its first institution,
and contriving those innumerable si/ntagmes of alpha-
bets, hath pestered the world ever since, with the
gross bodies of their German divinity. One would
liave thought in reason, that a Dutchman might have
contented himself only with the wine-press. "
The following passage from ** Mr. Smirke, or
the Divine in Mode," would he enough to show
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NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR. xlv
even without any acknowledgment on his own
part, that Swift studied and profited by the prose
of Marvell.
" And from hence it proceeds, that, to the no small
scandal and disreputation of our church, a great arca-
num of their state hath been discovered and divulged ;
that, albeit wit be not inconsistent and incompatible
with a clergyman, yet neither is it inseparable from
them. So that it is of concernment to my Lords the
Bishops henceforward to repress those of them who
have no wit from writing, and to take care that even
those that have, do husband it better, as not knowing
to what exigency they may be reduced; but how-
ever, that they the Bishops be not too forward in
licensing and prefixing their venerable names to such
pamphlets. For admitting, though J am not too posi-
tive in ity that our episcopacy is of apostolical right, yet
we do not find, among all those gifls t^iere given to
men, that Wit is enumerated ; nor yet among those
qualifications requisite to a Bishop. And therefore
should they, out of complacency for an author, or de-
light in the argument, or facility oi their judgments,
approve of a dull book, their own understandings will
be answerable, and irreverent people, that cannot dis-
tinguish, will be ready to think that such of them diifer
from men of wit, not only in degree, but in order.
For all are not of my mind, who could never see any
one elevated to that dignity, but I presently conceived
a greater opinion of his wit than ever I had fornierly.
But some do not stick to affirm, that even they, the
Bishops, come by theirs, not by inspiration, not by
teaching, but even as the poor laity do sometimes
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Xlvi NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.
light upon it, — by a good mother. Which has occa*
sioned the homely Scotch proverb, that " an ounce of
mother wit is worth a pound of clergy. " And as they
come by it as do other men, so they possess it on
the same condition ; that they cannot transmit it by
breathing, touching, or any natural effluvium, to other
persons ; not so much as to their most domestick chap-
lains, or to the closest residentiary. That the King
himself, who is no less the spring of that, than he is the
fountain of honour, yet has never used the dubbing or
creating of wits as a flower of his prerogative ; much
less can the ecclesiastical power confcrrc it with the
same ease as they do the holy orders. That whatso-
ever they can do of that kind is, at uttermost, to im-
power men by their authority and commission, no
otherwise than in the licensing of midwives or physi-
cians. But that as to their collating of any internal
talent or ability, they could never pretend to it ; their
grants and their prohibitions are alike invalid, and
they can neither capacitate one man to be witty, nor
hinder another from being so, further than as they
press it at their devotion. Which, if it be the case,
they cannot be too exquisite, seeing this way of writing
is found so necessary, in making choice of fit instru-
ments. The Church's credit is more interested in an
ecclesiastical droll, than in a lay chancellor. It is no
small trust that is reposed in him to whom the Bishop
sliall commit omne et omni modo suimi ingeniumy tarn
temporale quam, spirUuale ; and, however it goes with
excommunication, they should take good heed to what
manner of person they delegate the keys of laughter.
It is not every man that is qualified to sustain the
dignity of the Church's jester, and, shouhl they take
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NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR. xlvu
as exact a scrutiny of them as of the Nonconformists
through their dioceses, the numbers would appear
inconsiderable upon this Easter visitation. Before
men be admitted to so important an employment, it
were fit they underwent a severe examination; and
that it might appear, first, whether they have any
sense ; for without that, how can any man pretend — and
yet they do— to be ingenious ? Then, whether they
have any modesty ; for without that they can only be
scurrilous and impudent. Next, whether any truth ;
for true jests are those that do the greatest execution.
And lastly, it were not amiss that they gave some
account, too, of their Christianity ; for the world has
hitherto been so uncivil as to expect something of that
from the clergy, in the design and style even of their
lightest and most uncanonical writings. "
MarveH's learning must have been very exten-
sive. His education was superior; and as we
have seen from the testimony of Milton, his indus-
try had made him master, during his long sojourn
on the Continent, of several continental languages.
It is certain also, that he continued to be a stu-
dent all his days : his works bear ample evidence
of his wide and miscellaneous reading. He ap-
pears to have been well versed in most branches
of literature, though he makes no pedantic dis-
play of erudition, and in this respect is favourably
distinguished from many of his contemporaries;
yet he cites his authors with the familiarity bf a
thorough scholar. In the department of history
be appears to have been particularly well read;
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Xlviii NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.
and derives his witty illustrations from such re-
mote and obscure sources, that Parker did not
hesitate to avow his belief that he had sometimes
drawn on his invention for them. In his Reply,
Marvell justifies himself in all the alleged in-
stances, and takes occasion to show that his oppo-
nent's learning is as hollow as all his other pre-
tensions.
Numerous examples show, that it is almost
impossible for even the rarest talents to confer
permanent popularity on books which turn on
topics of temporary interest, however absorbing
at the time. If Pascal's transcendent genius has
been unable to rescue even the Letters Promn-
dales from partial oblivion, it is not to be expected
that Marvell should have done more for the Jie-
hearsal Transprosed, Swift, it is true, about half
a century later, has been pleased, while express-
ing this opinion, to make an exception in favour
of Marvell. "There is indeed," says he, "an
exception, when any great genius thinks it worth
his while to expose a foolish piece : so we still
read MarvcU's answer to Parker with pleasure,
though the book it answers be sunk long ago. '*
But this statement is scarcely applicable now. It
is true that the " Rehearsal " is occasionally read
by the curious ; but it is by the resolutely curious
alone.
But admirable as were Marvell's intellectual
endowments, it is his moral worth, after all, which
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NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR. xlxix
constitutes his principal claim on the admiration
of posterity, and which sheds a redeeming lustre
on one of the darkest pages of the English annals.
Inflexible integrity was the basis of it — integrity
by which he has not unworthily earned the glo-
rious name of the " British Aristides. ** With
talents and acquirements which might have justi-
fied him in aspiring to almost any office, if he
could have disburdened himself of his conscience ;
with wit which, in that frivolous age, was a surer
passport to fame than any amount either of intel-
lect or virtue, and which, as we have seen, molli-
fied even the monarch himself in spite of his
prejudices ; Marvell preferred poverty and inde-
pendence to riches and servility. He had learned
the lesson, practised by few in that age, of being
content with little — so that he preserved his con-
science. He could be poor, but he could not be
mean ; could starve, but could not cringe. By
economizing in the articles of pride and ambition,
he could afford to keep what their votaries were
compelled to retrench, the necessaries, or rather
the luxuries, of integrity, and a good conscience.
Neither menaces, nor caresses, nor bribes, nor
poverty, nor distress, could induce him to abandon
his integrity ; or even to take an office in which
it might be tempted or endangered. He only who
has arrived at this pitch of magnanimity, has an
adequate security for his public virtue. He who
cannot subsist upon a little; who has not learned.
d
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1 NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.
to be content with such things as he has, and even
to be content with almost nothing ; who has not
learned to familiarize his thoughts to poverty,
much more readily than he can familiarize them
to dishonour, is not yet free from peril. Andrew
Marvell, as his whole course proves, had done
this. But we shall not do full justice to his public
integrity, if we do not bear in mind the corruption
of the age in whicb he lived; the manifold apos-
tasies amidst which he retained his conscience ;
and the effect which such wide -spread profligacy
must have had in making thousands almost scep-
tical as to whether there were such a thing as
public virtue at all. Such a relaxation in the
code of speculative morals, is one of the worst
results of general profligacy in practice. But
Andrew Marvell was not to be deluded ; and
amidst corruption perfectly unparalleled, he still
continued untainted. We are accustomed to hear
of his virtue as a truly Roman virtue, and so it
was ; but it was something more. Only the best
pages of Boman history can supply a parallel :
there was no Cincinnatus in those Ages of her
shame which alone can be compared with those
of Charles II. It were easier to find a Cincinna-
tus during the era of the English Commonwealth,
than an Andrew Marvell in the age of Com mo-
dus.
The integrity and patriotism which distin-
guished him in his relations to the Court, also
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NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR. h
marked all his public conduct. He was evidently
most scrupulously honest and faitliful in the dis-
charge of his duty to his constituents ; and, as we
have seen, almost punctilious in guarding against
any thing which could tarnish his fair fame, or
defile his conscience. On reviewing the whole
of his public conduct, we may well say that he
attained his wish, expressed in the lines which
he has written in imitation of a chorus in the
Thyestes of Seneca : —
" Climb at court for me that will-
Tottering favour's pinnacle;
All I seek is to lie still.
Settled in some secret nest,
In calm leisure let me rest,
And far oflf the public stage,
Pass away my silent age.
Thus, when without noise,. unknown,.
I have lived out all my span,
I shall die without a groan,
An old honest countryman. '*
He seems to have been as amiable in his pri-
vate as he was estimable in his public character.
So far as any documents throw light upon the
subject, the same integrity appears to have be-
longed to both. He is described as of a very
reserved and quiet temper; but, like Addison
(whom in this respect as in some few others he
resembled,) exceedingly facetious and lively
amonccst his intimate friends. His disinterested
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Hi KOTICK OF TIIK AUTHOR.
championship of others is no less a proof of his
sympathy with the oppressed than of his abhor-
rence of oppression ; and many pleasing traits of
amiability occur in his private correspondence as
well as in his writings. On the whole, we think
that Marvell's epitaph, strong as the terms of
panegyric are, records little more than the truth ;
and that it was not in the vain spirit of boasting,
but in the honest consciousness of virtue and in-
tegrity, that he himself concludes a letter to one
of his correspondents in the words —
"Disce, puer, virtutem ex me, verumque laborem;
Fortunam ex aliis. "
*^* The foregoing notice of Marvell (which is,
on the whole, the best in print,) has been taken
from the Edinburgh Rtview, and is said to have
been written by Mr. Henry Rogers. * The editor
has shortened it by some omissions, and hjvs added
a few notes. He has also given fuller extracts
from MarvelPs prose.
There has been no edition of MarvelFs poems
since 1776, and that seems to have retained the
blunders of the three previous editions, beside
adding a few of its own. If it were possible to
reverse the author's meaning by any ingenuity
of punctuation, the occasion seems never to have
been neglected. In the present edition, all the
* Poole's Index to Periodical Literature.
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NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR. lili
more apparent errors have been corrected, and
some advance made toward a pure text. The
poems were never published, or at any rate, col-
lected, by the author himself.
The intellect of Marvell was a remarkably
compact and sincere one, and his habitual charac-
ter was that of prudence and upnghtness. But
whenever he surrendered himself to his tempera-
ment, his mind sought relief in wit, so sportful
and airy, yet at the same time so recondite, that
it is hard to find anywhere an instance in which
the Court, the Tavern, and the Scholar*s Study
are blended with such Ck)rinthian justness of
measure. Nowhere is there so happy an exam-
ple of the truth that wit and fancy are diflferent
operations of the same principle. The wit is
so spontaneous and so interfused with feeling,
that we can scarce distinguish it from fancy ;
and the fancy brings together analogies so remote
that they give us the pleasurable shock of wit.
Now and then, in his poems, he touches a deeper
vein, but shuns instinctively the labour of laying
it open, and escapes gleefully into the more con-
genial sunshine. His mind presents the rare
combination of wit with the moral sense, by which
the one is rescued from scepticism and the other
from prosing. His poems form the synthesis of
Donne and Butler.
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POEMS
SEVERAL OCCASIONS.
Digitized by
Digitized by
POEMS.
UPON THE HILL AND GROVE AT BILL-
BOROW.
TO THE LORD FAIRFAX.
See how the arched earth does here
Rise in a perfect hemisphere !
The stifiest compass could not strike
A line more circular and like,
Nor softest pencil draw a brow
So equal as this hill does bow ;
It seems as for a model laid,
And that the world by it was made.
Here learn, ye mountains more unjust.
Which to abrupter greatness thrust.
Which do, with your hook-shoulder'd height^
The earth deform, and heaven fright,
For whose excrescence, ill designed.
Nature must a new centre find.
Learn here those humble steps to tread.
Which to securer glory lead.
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TnE POEMS.
