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diff --git a/17388.txt b/17388.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c2f1972 --- /dev/null +++ b/17388.txt @@ -0,0 +1,9602 @@ +The Project Gutenberg eBook, Andrew Marvell, by Augustine Birrell + + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + + + + +Title: Andrew Marvell + + +Author: Augustine Birrell + + + +Release Date: December 25, 2005 [eBook #17388] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII) + + +***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK ANDREW MARVELL*** + + +E-text prepared by Irma Spehar, Louise Pryor, and the Project Gutenberg +Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net/) from images +generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries +(http://www.archive.org/details/toronto) + + + +Note: Images of the original pages are available through + Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries. See + http://www.archive.org/details/andrewmarvell00birruoft + + The caret character (^) indicates that the remainder of the word + is superscripted. + Italicized words or phrases are placed between underscore (_) + marks. + + + + + +English Men of Letters +Edited by John Morley + +ANDREW MARVELL + +by + +AUGUSTINE BIRRELL + + + + + + + +New York +The MacMillan Company +London: MacMillan & Co., Ltd. +1905 +All rights reserved +Copyright, 1905, +By the MacMillan Company. + +Set up and electrotyped. Published September, 1905. +Norwood Press +J.S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith Co. +Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. + + + + + +PREFACE + + +I desire to express my indebtedness to the following editions of +Marvell's Works:-- + + (1) _The Works of Andrew Marvell, Esq., Poetical, Controversial, and + Political_: containing many Original Letters, Poems, and Tracts + never before printed, with a New Life. By Captain Edward + Thompson. In three volumes. London, 1776. + + (2) _The Complete Works in Verse and Prose of Andrew Marvell, M.P._ + Edited with Memorial-Introduction and Notes by the Rev. Alexander + B. Grosart. In four volumes. 1872. + + (_In the Fuller Worthies Library._) + + (3) _Poems and Satires of Andrew Marvell, sometime Member of + Parliament for Hull._ Edited by G.A. Aitken. Two volumes. + Lawrence and Bullen, 1892. + + _Reprinted_ Routledge, 1905. + +Mr. C.H. Firth's Life of Marvell in the thirty-sixth volume of _The +Dictionary of National Biography_ has, I am sure, preserved me from +some, and possibly from many, blunders. + + A.B. + +3 NEW SQUARE, LINCOLN'S INN, + June 3, 1905. + + + + +CONTENTS + + +CHAPTER I + PAGE +EARLY DAYS AT SCHOOL AND COLLEGE 1 + + +CHAPTER II + +"THE HAPPY GARDEN-STATE" 19 + + +CHAPTER III + +A CIVIL SERVANT IN THE TIME OF THE COMMONWEALTH 48 + + +CHAPTER IV + +IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS 75 + + +CHAPTER V + +"THE REHEARSAL TRANSPROSED" 151 + + +CHAPTER VI + +LAST YEARS IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS 179 + + +CHAPTER VII + +FINAL SATIRES AND DEATH 211 + + +CHAPTER VIII + +WORK AS A MAN OF LETTERS 225 + + +INDEX 233 + + + + +ANDREW MARVELL + + + + +CHAPTER I + +EARLY DAYS AT SCHOOL AND COLLEGE + + +The name of Andrew Marvell ever sounds sweet, and always has, to use +words of Charles Lamb's, a fine relish to the ear. As the author of +poetry of exquisite quality, where for the last time may be heard the +priceless note of the Elizabethan lyricist, whilst at the same moment +utterance is being given to thoughts and feelings which reach far +forward to Wordsworth and Shelley, Marvell can never be forgotten in his +native England. + +Lines of Marvell's poetry have secured the final honours, and incurred +the peril, of becoming "familiar quotations" ready for use on a great +variety of occasion. We may, perhaps, have been bidden once or twice too +often to remember how the Royal actor + + "Nothing common did, or mean, + Upon that memorable scene," + +or have been assured to our surprise by some self-satisfied worldling +how he always hears at his back, + + "Time's winged chariot hurrying near." + +A true poet can, however, never be defiled by the rough usage of the +populace. + +As a politician Marvell lives in the old-fashioned vivacious +history-books (which if they die out, as they show some signs of doing, +will carry with them half the historic sense of the nation) as the hero +of an anecdote of an unsuccessful attempt made upon his political virtue +by a minister of the Crown, as a rare type of an inflexible patriot, and +as the last member of the House of Commons who was content to take wages +from, instead of contributing to the support of, his constituents. As +the intimate friend and colleague of Milton, Marvell shares some of the +indescribable majesty of that throne. A poet, a scholar, a traveller, a +diplomat, a famous wit, an active member of Parliament from the +Restoration to his death in 1678, the life of Andrew Marvell might _a +priori_ be supposed to be one easy to write, at all events after the +fashion in which men's lives get written. But it is nothing of the kind, +as many can testify. A more elusive, non-recorded character is hardly to +be found. We know all about him, but very little of him. His parentage, +his places of education, many of his friends and acquaintances, are all +known. He wrote nearly four hundred letters to his Hull constituents, +carefully preserved by the Corporation, in which he narrates with much +particularity the course of public business at Westminster. +Notwithstanding these materials, the man Andrew Marvell remains +undiscovered. He rarely comes to the surface. Though both an author and +a member of Parliament, not a trace of personal vanity is noticeable, +and vanity is a quality of great assistance to the biographer. That +Marvell was a strong, shrewd, capable man of affairs, with enormous +powers of self-repression, his Hull correspondence clearly proves, but +what more he was it is hard to say. He rarely spoke during his eighteen +years in the House of Commons. It is impossible to doubt that such a +man in such a place was, in Mr. Disraeli's phrase, a "personage." Yet +when we look for recognition of what we feel sure was the fact, we fail +to find it. Bishop Burnet, in his delightful history, supplies us with +sketches of the leading Parliamentarians of Marvell's day, yet to +Marvell himself he refers but once, and then not by name but as "the +liveliest droll of the age," words which mean much but tell little. In +Clarendon's _Autobiography_, another book which lets the reader into the +very clash and crowd of life, there is no mention of one of the author's +most bitter and cruel enemies. With Prince Rupert, Marvell was credited +by his contemporaries with a great intimacy; he was a friend of +Harrington's; it may be he was a member of the once famous "Rota" Club; +it is impossible to resist the conviction that wherever he went he made +a great impression, that he was a central figure in the lobbies of the +House of Commons and a man of much account; yet no record survives +either to convince posterity of his social charm or even to convey any +exact notion of his personal character. + +A somewhat solitary man he would appear to have been, though fond of +occasional jollity. He lived alone in lodgings, and was much immersed in +business, about a good deal of which we know nothing except that it took +him abroad. His death was sudden, and when three years afterwards the +first edition of his poems made its appearance, it was prefaced by a +certificate signed "Mary Marvell," to the effect that everything in the +book was printed "according to the copies of my late dear husband." +Until after Marvell's death we never hear of Mrs. Marvell, and with this +signed certificate she disappears. In a series of Lives of Poets' Wives +it would be hard to make much of Mrs. Andrew Marvell. For different but +still cogent reasons it is hard to write a life of her famous husband. + +Andrew Marvell was born at Winestead in Holdernesse, on Easter Eve, the +31st of March 1621, in the Rectory House, the elder Marvell, also +Andrew, being then the parson of the parish. No fitter birthplace for a +garden-poet can be imagined. Roses still riot in Winestead; the +fruit-tree roots are as mossy as in the seventeenth century. At the +right season you may still + + "Through the hazels thick espy + The hatching throstle's shining eye." + +Birds, fruits and flowers, woods, gardens, meads, and rivers still make +the poet's birthplace lovely. + + "Loveliness, magic, and grace, + They are here--they are set in the world! + They abide! and the finest of souls + Has not been thrilled by them all, + Nor the dullest been dead to them quite. + The poet who sings them may die, + But they are immortal and live, + For they are the life of the world." + +Holdernesse was not the original home of the Marvells, who would seem to +have been mostly Cambridgeshire folk, though the name crops up in other +counties. Whether Cambridge "men" of a studious turn still take long +walks I do not know, but "some vast amount of years ago" it was +considered a pleasant excursion, either on foot or on a hired steed, +from Cambridge to Meldreth, where the Elizabethan manor-house, long +known as "the Marvells'," agreeably embodied the tradition that here it +was that the poet's father was born in 1586. The Church Registers have +disappeared. Proof is impossible. That there were Marvells in the +neighbourhood is certain. The famous Cambridge antiquary, William Cole, +perhaps the greatest of all our collectors, has included among his +copies of early wills those of several Marvells and Mervells of Meldreth +and Shepreth, belonging to pre-Reformation times, as their pious gifts +to the "High Altar" and to "Our Lady's Light" pleasingly testify. But +our Andrew was a determined Protestant. + +The poet's father is an interesting figure in our Church history. +Educated at Emmanuel College, from whence he proceeded a Master of Arts +in 1608, he took Orders; and after serving as curate at Flamborough, was +inducted to the living of Winestead in 1614, where he remained till +1624, in which year he went to Hull as master of the Grammar School and +lecturer, that is preacher, of Trinity Church. The elder Marvell +belonged, from the beginning to the end of his useful and even heroic +life, to the Reformed Church of England, or, as his son puts it, "a +conformist to the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England, though +I confess none of the most over-running and eager in them." The younger +Marvell, with one boyish interval, belonged all through his life to the +paternal school of religious thought. + +Fuller's account of the elder Marvell is too good to be passed over:-- + + "He afterwards became Minister at Hull, where for his lifetime he was + well beloved. Most facetious in discourse, yet grave in his carriage, + a most excellent preacher who, like a good husband, never broached + what he had new brewed, but preached what he had pre-studied some + competent time before. Insomuch that he was wont to say that he would + cross the common proverb which called Saturday the working-day and + Monday the holyday of preachers. It happened that Anno Dom. 1640, + Jan. 23, crossing Humber in a Barrow boat, the same was sandwarpt, + and he was drowned therein (with Mrs. Skinner, daughter to Sir Edward + Coke, a very religious gentlewoman) by the carelessness, not to say + drunkenness of the boatmen, to the great grief of all good men. His + excellent comment upon St. Peter is daily desired and expected, if + the envy and covetousness of private persons _for their own use_ + deprive not the public of the benefit thereof."[6:1] + +This good man, to whom perhaps, remembering the date of his death, the +words may apply, _Tu vero felix non vitae tantum claritate sed etiam +opportunitate mortis_, was married at Cherry Burton, on the 22nd of +October 1612, to Anne Pease, a member of a family destined to become +widely known throughout the north of England. Of this marriage there +were five children, all born at Winestead, viz. three daughters, Anne, +Mary, and Elizabeth, and two sons, Andrew and John, the latter of whom +died a year after his birth, and was buried at Winestead on the 20th +September 1624. + +The three daughters married respectively James Blaydes of Sutton, +Yorkshire, on the 29th of December 1633; Edmund Popple, afterwards +Sheriff of Hull, on the 18th of August 1636; and Robert More. Anne's +eldest son, Joseph Blaydes, was Mayor of Hull in 1702, having married +the daughter of a preceding Mayor in 1698. The descendants of this +branch still flourish. The Popples also had children, one of whom, +William Popple, was a correspondent of his uncle the poet's, and a +merchant of repute, who became in 1696 Secretary to the Board of Trade, +and the friend of the most famous man who ever sat at the table of that +Board, John Locke. A son of this William Popple led a very comfortable +eighteenth-century life, which is in strong contrast with that of his +grand-uncle, for, having entered the Cofferers' Office about 1730, he +was made seven years later Solicitor and Clerk of the Reports to the +Commissioners of Trade and Plantations, and in 1745 became in +succession to a relative, one Alured Popple, Governor of the Bermudas, a +post he retained until his death, which occurred not + + "Where the remote Bermudas ride + In the ocean's bosom unespied," + +but at his house in Hampstead. So well placed and idle a gentleman was +almost bound to be a bad poet and worse dramatist, and this William +Popple was both. + +Marvell's third sister, Elizabeth, does not seem to have had issue, a +certain Thomas More, or Moore, a Fellow of Magdalen College, Cambridge, +whose name occurs in family records, being her stepson. + +In the latter part of 1624 the elder Marvell resigned the living of +Winestead, and took up the duties of schoolmaster and lecturer, or +preacher, at Hull. Important duties they were, for the old Grammar +School of Hull dates back to 1486, and may boast of a long career of +usefulness, never having fallen into that condition of decay and +disrepute from which so many similar endowments have been of late years +rescued by the beneficent and, of course, abused action of the Charity +Commissioners. Andrew Marvell the elder succeeded to and was succeeded +by eminent headmasters. Trinity Church, where the poet's father preached +on Sundays to crowded and interested congregations, was then what it +still is, though restored by Scott, one of the great churches in the +north of England. + +The Rev. Andrew Marvell made his mark upon Hull. Mr. Grosart, who lacked +nothing but the curb upon a too exuberant vocabulary, a little less +enthusiasm and a great deal more discretion, to be a model editor, tells +us in his invaluable edition of _The Complete Works in Verse and Prose +of Andrew Marvell, M.P._,[8:1] that he had read a number of the elder +Marvell's manuscripts, consisting of sermons and miscellaneous papers, +from which Mr. Grosart proceeds:-- + + "I gather three things. + + "(1) That he was a man of a very brave, fearlessly outspoken + character. Some of his practical applications in his sermons before + the Magistrates are daring in their directness of reproof, and + melting in their wistfulness of entreaty. + + "(2) That he was a well-read man. His Sermons are as full of + classical and patristic allusions and pat sayings from the most + occult literatures as even Bishop Andrewes. + + "(3) That he was a man of tireless activity. Besides the two offices + named, he became head of one of the Great Hospitals of the Town + (Charter House), and in an address to the Governors placed before + them a prescient and statesmanlike plan for the better management of + its revenues, and for the foundation of a Free Public Library to be + accessible to all." + +When at a later day, and in the midst of a fierce controversy, Andrew +Marvell wrote of the clergy as "the reserve of our Christianity," he +doubtless had such men as his father in his mind and memory. + +It was at the old Grammar School of Hull, and with his father as his +_Orbilius_, that Marvell was initiated into the mysteries of the Latin +grammar, and was, as he tells us, put to his + + "Montibus, inquit, erunt; et erant submontibus illis; + Risit Atlantiades; et me mihi, perfide, prodis? + Me mihi prodis? ait. + + "For as I remember this scanning was a liberal art that we learn'd at + Grammar School, and to scan verses as he does the Author's prose + before we did or were obliged to understand them."[8:2] + +Irrational methods have often amazingly good results, and the Hull +Grammar School provided its head-master's only son with the rudiments of +learning, thus enabling him to become in after years what John Milton +himself, the author of that terrible _Treatise on Education_ addressed +to Mr. Hartlibb, affirmed Andrew Marvell to be in a written testimonial, +"a scholar, and well-read in the Latin and Greek authors." + +Attached to the Grammar School there was "a great garden," renowned for +its wall-fruit and flowers; so by leaving Winestead behind, our +"garden-poet," that was to be, was not deprived of inspiration. + +Apart from these meagre facts, we know nothing of Marvell's boyhood at +Hull. His clerical foe, Dr. Parker, afterwards Bishop of Oxford, writes +contemptuously of "an hunger-starved whelp of a country vicar," and in +another passage, which undoubtedly refers to Marvell, he speaks of "an +unhappy education among Boatswains and Cabin-boys," whose unsavoury +phrases, he goes on to suggest, Marvell picked up in his childhood. But +truth need not be looked for in controversial pages. The best argument +for a married clergy is to be found, for Englishmen at all events, in +the sixty-seven volumes of the _Dictionary of National Biography_, where +are recorded the services rendered to religion, philosophy, poetry, +justice, and the empire by the "whelps" of many a country vicar. +Parsons' wives may sometimes be trying and hard to explain, but an +England without the sons of her clergy would be shorn of half her glory. + +Marvell's boyhood seems to have been surrounded with the things that +most make for a child's happiness. A sensible, affectionate, humorous, +religious father, occupying a position of authority, and greatly +respected, a mother and three elder sisters to make much of his bright +wit and early adventures, a comfortable yet simple home, and an +atmosphere of piety, learning, and good fellowship. What more is wanted, +or can be desired? The "Boatswains" and "Cabin-boys" of Bishop Parker's +fancy were in the neighbourhood, no doubt, and as stray companions for a +half-holiday must have had their attractions; but it is unnecessary to +attribute Andrew Marvell's style in controversy to his early +acquaintance with a sea-faring population, for he is far more likely to +have picked it up from his great friend and colleague, the author of +_Paradise Lost_. + +Marvell's school education over, he went up to Cambridge, not to his +father's old college, but to the more splendid foundation of Trinity. +About the date of his matriculation there is a doubt. In Wood's _Athenae +Oxonienses_ there is a note to the effect that Marvell was admitted "in +matriculam Acad. Cant. Coll. Trin." on the 14th of December 1633, when +the boy was but twelve years old. Dr. Lort, a famous master of Trinity +in his day, writing in November 1765 to Captain Edward Thompson, of whom +more later on, told the captain that until 1635 there was no register of +admissions of ordinary students, or pensioners, as they are called, but +only a register of Fellows and Foundation Scholars, and in this +last-named register Marvell's name appears as a Scholar sworn and +admitted on the 13th of April 1638. As, however, Marvell took his B.A. +degree in 1639, he must have been in residence long before April 1638. +Probably Marvell went to Trinity about 1635, just before the register of +pensioners was begun, as a pensioner, becoming a Scholar in 1638, and +taking his degree in 1639. + +Cambridge undergraduates do not usually keep diaries, nor after they +have become Masters of Art are they much in the habit of giving details +as to their academic career. Marvell is no exception to this provoking +rule. He nowhere tells us what his University taught him or how. The +logic of the schools he had no choice but to learn. Molineus, Peter +Ramus, Seton, Keckerman were text-books of reputation, from one or +another of which every Cambridge man had to master his _simpliciters_, +his _quids_, his _secundum quids_, his _quales_, and his _quantums_. +Aristotle's Physics, Ethics, and Politics were "tutor's books," and +those young men who loved to hear themselves talk were left free to +discuss, much to Hobbes's disgust, "the freedom of the will, incorporeal +substance, everlasting nows, ubiquities, hypostases, which the people +understand not nor will ever care for." + +In the life of Matthew Robinson,[11:1] who went up to Cambridge a little +later than Marvell (June 1645), and was probably a harder reader, we are +told that "the strength of his studies lay in the metaphysics and in +those subtle authors for many years which rendered him an irrefragable +disputant _de quolibet ente_, and whilst he was but senior freshman he +was found in the bachelor schools, disputing ably with the best of the +senior sophisters." Robinson despised the old-fashioned Ethics and +Physics, but with the new Cartesian or Experimental Philosophy he was +_inter primos_. History, particularly the Roman, was in great favour at +both Universities at this time, and young men were taught, so old Hobbes +again grumbles, to despise monarchy "from Cicero, Seneca, Cato and other +politicians of Rome, and Aristotle of Athens, who seldom spake of kings +but as of wolves and other ravenous beasts."[12:1] The Muses were never +neglected at Cambridge, as the University exercises survive to prove, +whilst modern languages, Spanish and Italian for example, were greedily +acquired by such an eager spirit as Richard Crashaw, the poet, who came +into residence at Pembroke in 1631. There were problems to be "kept" in +the college chapel, lectures to be attended, both public and private, +declamations to be delivered, and even in the vacations the scholars +were not exempt from "exercises" either in hall or in their tutors' +rooms. Earnest students read their Greek Testaments, and even their +Hebrew Bibles, and filled their note-books, working more hours a day +than was good for their health, whilst the idle ones wasted their time +as best they could in an unhealthy, over-crowded town, in an age which +knew nothing of boating, billiards, or cricket. A tennis-court there was +in Marvell's time, for in Dr. Worthington's _Diary_, under date 3rd of +April 1637, it stands recorded that on that day and in that place that +learned man received "a dangerous blow on the Eye."[12:2] + +The only incident we know of Marvell's undergraduate days is remarkable +enough, for, boy though he was, he seems, like the Gibbon of a later +day, to have suddenly become a Roman Catholic. This occurrence may serve +to remind us how, during Marvell's time at Trinity, the University of +Cambridge (ever the precursor in thought-movements) had a Catholic +revival of her own, akin to that one which two hundred years afterwards +happened at Oxford, and has left so much agreeable literature behind it. +Fuller in his history of the University of Cambridge tells us a little +about this highly interesting and important movement:-- + + "Now began the University (1633-4) to be much beautified in + buildings, every college either casting its skin with the snake, or + renewing its bill with the eagle, having their courts or at least + their fronts and Gatehouses repaired and adorned. But the greatest + alteration was in their Chapels, most of them being graced with the + accession of organs. And seeing musick is one of the liberal arts, + how could it be quarrelled at in an University if they sang with + understanding both of the matter and manner thereof. Yet some took + great distaste thereat as attendancie to superstition."[13:1] + +The chapel at Peterhouse, we read elsewhere, which was built in 1632, +and consecrated by Bishop White of Ely, had a beautiful ceiling and a +noble east window. "A grave divine," Fuller tells us, "preaching before +the University at St. Mary's, had this smart passage in his Sermon--that +as at the Olympian Games he was counted the Conqueror who could drive +his chariot wheels nearest the mark yet so as not to hinder his running +or to stick thereon, so he who in his Sermons could preach _near Popery_ +and yet _no Popery_, _there was your man_. And indeed it now began to be +the general complaint of most moderate men that many in the University, +both in the schools and pulpits, approached the opinions of the Church +of Rome nearer than ever before." + +Archbishop Laud, unlike the bishops of Dr. Newman's day, favoured the +Catholic revival, and when Mr. Bernard, the lecturer of St. Sepulchre's, +London, preached a "No Popery" sermon at St. Mary's, Cambridge, he was +dragged into the High Commission Court, and, as the hateful practice +then was, a practice dear to the soul of Laud, was bidden to subscribe a +formal recantation. This Mr. Bernard refused to do, though professing +his sincere sorrow and penitence for any oversights and hasty +expressions in his sermon. Thereupon he was sent back to prison, where +he died. "If," adds Fuller, "he was miserably abused in prison by the +keepers (as some have reported) to the shortening of his life, He that +maketh inquisition for blood either hath or will be a revenger +thereof."[14:1] + +By the side of this grim story the much-written-about incidents of the +Oxford Movement seem trivial enough. + +Not a few Cambridge scholars of this period, Richard Crashaw among the +number, found permanent refuge in Rome. + +The story of Marvell's conversion is emphatic but vague in its details. +The "Jesuits," who were well represented in Cambridge at the time, are +said to have persuaded him to leave Cambridge secretly, and to take +refuge in one of their houses in London. Thither the elder Marvell +followed in pursuit, and after search came across his son in a +bookseller's shop, where he succeeded both in convincing the boy of his +errors and in persuading him to return to Trinity. An odd story, and +not, as it stands, very credible; but Mr. Grosart discovered among the +Marvell papers at Hull a fragment of a letter without signature, +address, or date, which throws some sort of light on the incident. This +letter was evidently, as Mr. Grosart surmises, sent to the elder Marvell +by some similarly afflicted parent. In its fragmentary state the letter +reads as follows:-- + + "Worthy S^r,--M^r Breerecliffe being w^th me to-day, I related vnto + him a fearfull passage lately at Cambridg touching a sonne of mine, + Bachelor of Arts in Katherine Hall, w^ch was this. He was lately + inuited to a supper in towne by a gentlewoman, where was one M^r + Nichols a felow of Peterhouse, and another or two masters of arts, I + know not directly whether felowes or not: my sonne hauing noe + p'ferment, but liuing meerely of my penny, they pressed him much to + come to liue at their house, and for chamber and extraordinary bookes + they promised farre: and then earnestly moued him to goe to Somerset + house, where they could doe much for p'ferring him to some eminent + place, and in conclusion to popish arguments to seduce him soe rotten + and vnsauory as being ouerheard it was brought in question before the + heads of the Uniuersity: _Dr. Cosens_, being _Vice Chancelor_ noe + punishment is inioined him: but on Ash-wednesday next a recantation + in regent house of some popish tenets Nicols let fall: I p'ceive by + M^r Breercliffe some such prank vsed towards y^r sonne: I desire to + know what y^u did therin: thinking I cannot doe god better seruice + then bring it vppon the stage either in Parliament if it hold: or + informing some Lords of the Counsail to whom I stand much oblieged if + a bill in Starchamber be meete To terrify others by making these some + publique spectacle: for if such fearfull practises may goe vnpunished + I take care whether I may send a child ... the lord."[15:1] + +The reference to Dr. Cosens, or Cosin, being Vice-Chancellor gives a +clue to the date, for Cosin was chosen Vice-Chancellor on the 4th of +November 1639.[15:2] + +Though we can know nothing of the elder Marvell's methods of +re-conversion, they were more successful than the elder Gibbon's, who, +as we know, packed the future historian off to Lausanne and a Swiss +pastor's house. What Gibbon became on leaving off his Romanism we can +guess for ourselves, whereas Marvell, once out of the hands of these +very shadowy "Jesuits," remained the staunchest of Christian Protestants +to the end of his days. + +This strange incident, and two college exercises or poems, one in +Greek, the other in Latin, both having reference to an addition to the +Royal Family, and appearing in the _Musa Cantabrigiensis_ for 1637, are +all the materials that exist for weaving the story of Marvell, the +Cambridge undergraduate. The Latin verses, which are Horatian in style, +contain one pretty stanza, composed apparently before the sex of the +new-born infant was known at Cambridge. + + "Sive felici Carolum figura + Parvulus princeps imitetur almae + Sive Mariae decoret puellam + Dulcis imago." + +After taking his Bachelor's degree in 1639, Marvell, being still a +Scholar of the college, must have gone away, for the Conclusion Book of +Trinity, under date September 24, 1641, records as follows:-- + + "It is agreed by y^e Master and 8 seniors y^t M^r Carter and D^r + Wakefields, D^r Marvell, D^r Waterhouse, and D^r Maye in regard y^t + some of them are reported to be married and y^t others look not after + y^eir days nor Acts shall receave no more benefitt of y^e Coll and + shall be out of y^ier places unless y^ei shew just cause to y^e Coll + for y^e contrary in 3 months." + +Dr. Lort, in his amiable letter of 1765, already mentioned, points out +that this entry contains no reflection on Marvell's morals, but shows +that he was given "notice to quit" for non-residence, "then much more +strictly enjoined than it is now." The days referred to in the entry +were, so the master obligingly explains, "the certain number allowed by +statute to absentees," whilst the "acts mean the Exercises also enjoyned +by the statutes." Dr. Lort adds, "It does not appear, by any subsequent +entry, whether Marvell did or did not comply with this order." We may +now safely assume he did not. Marvell's Cambridge days were over. + +The vacations, no inconsiderable part of the year, were probably spent +by Marvell under his father's roof at Hull, where his two elder sisters +were married and settled. It is not to be wondered at that Andrew +Marvell should, for so many years, have represented Hull in the House of +Commons, for both he and his family were well known in the town. The +elder Marvell added to his reputation as a teacher and preacher the +character of a devoted servant of his flock in the hour of danger. The +plague twice visited Hull during the time of the elder Marvell, first in +1635 and again in 1638. In those days men might well pray to be +delivered from "plague, pestilence, and famine." Hull suffered terribly +on both occasions. We have seen, in comparatively recent times, the +effect of the cholera upon large towns, and the plague was worse than +the cholera many times over. The Hull preacher, despite the stigma of +_facetiousness_, which still clings to him, stuck to his post, visiting +the sick, burying the dead, and even, which seems a little superfluous, +preaching and afterwards printing "by request" their funeral sermons. A +brave man, indeed, and one reserved for a tragic end. + +In April 1638 the poet's mother died. In the following November the +elder Marvell married a widow lady, but his own end was close upon him. +The earliest consecutive account of this strange event is in Gent's +_History of Hull_ (1735):--"This year, 1640, the Rev. Mr. Andrew +Marvell, Lecturer of Hull, sailing over the Humber in company with +Madame Skinner of Thornton College and a young beautiful couple who were +going to be wedded; a speedy Fate prevented the designed happy union +thro' a violent storm which overset the boat and put a period to all +their lives, nor were there any remains of them or the vessel ever after +found, tho' earnestly sought for on distant shores." + +Thus died by drowning a brave man, a good Christian, and an excellent +clergyman of the Reformed Church of England. The plain narrative just +quoted has been embroidered by many long-subsequent writers in the +interests of those who love presentiments and ghostly intimations of +impending events, and in one of these versions it is recorded, that +though the morning was clear, the breeze fair, and the company gay, yet +when stepping into the boat "the reverend man exclaimed, 'Ho for +Heaven,' and threw his staff ashore and left it to Providence to fulfil +its awful warning." + +So melancholy an occurrence naturally excited great attention, and long +lingered in local memories. Everybody in Hull knew who was their +member's father. + +There is an obstinate tradition quite unverifiable that Mrs. Skinner, +the mother of the beautiful young lady who was drowned with the elder +Marvell, adopted the young Marvell as a son, sending to Cambridge for +him after his father's death, and providing him with the means of +travel, and that afterwards she bequeathed him her estate. Whether there +is any truth in this story cannot now be ascertained. The Skinners were +a well-known Hull family, one of them, a brother of that Cyriac Skinner +who was urged by Milton in immortal verse to enjoy himself whilst the +mood was on him, having been Mayor of Hull. The lady, doubtless, had +money, and Andrew Marvell was in need of money, and appears to have been +supplied with it. It is quite possible the tradition is true. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[6:1] Fuller's _Worthies_ (1662), p. 159. + +[8:1] "The Fuller Worthies Library," 4 vols., 1872. Hereafter referred +to as _Grosart_. + +[8:2] _Mr. Smirke or the Divine in Mode._--Grosart, iv. 15. + +[11:1] _Autobiography of Matthew Robinson_. Edited by J.E.B. Mayor, +Cambridge, 1856. + +[12:1] _Behemoth_, Hobbes' Works (Molesworth), vol. vi., see pp. 168, +218, 233-6. + +[12:2] Worthington's _Diary_, vol. i. p. 5 (Chetham Society). + +[13:1] Fuller, _History of Cambridge University_ (1655), p. 167. + +[14:1] Fuller, p. 166. + +[15:1] Grosart, I., xxviii. + +[15:2] See Worthington's _Diary_, vol. i. p. 7. + + + + +CHAPTER II + +"THE HAPPY GARDEN-STATE" + + +The seventeenth century was the century of travel for educated +Englishmen--of long, leisurely travel. Milton's famous Italian tour +lasted fifteen months. John Evelyn's _Wander-Jahre_ occupied four years. +Andrew Marvell lived abroad in France, Spain, Holland, and Italy from +1642 to 1646, and we have Milton's word for it that when the traveller +returned he was well acquainted with the French, Dutch, Spanish, and +Italian languages. Andrew Marvell was a highly cultivated man, living in +a highly cultivated age, in daily converse with scholars, poets, +philosophers, and men of very considerable scientific attainments. In +reading Clarendon and Burnet, and whilst turning over Aubrey's +delightful gossip, it is impossible not to be struck with the width and +variety of the learning as well as with the wit of the period. +Intellectually it was a great age. + +No record remains of Marvell's travels during these years. Up and down +his writings the careful reader will come across pleasant references to +foreign manners and customs, betokening the keen humorous observer, and +the possession of that wide-eyed faculty that takes a pleasure, half +contemplative, half the result of animal spirits, in watching the way of +the world wherever you may chance to be. Of another and an earlier +traveller, Sir Henry Wotton, we read in "Walton's _Life_." + + "And whereas he was noted in his youth to have a sharp wit and apt to + jest, _that_ by time, travel, and conversation was so polished and + made useful, that his company seemed to be one of the delights of + mankind." + +In all Marvell's work, as poet, as Parliamentarian, as controversialist, +we shall see the travelled man. Certainly no one ever more fully grasped +the sense of the famous sentence given by Wotton to Milton, when the +latter was starting on his travels: "_I pensieri stretti ed il viso +sciolto._" + +Marvell was in Rome about 1645. I can give no other date during the +whole four years. This, our only date, rests upon an assumption. In +Marvell's earliest satirical poem he gives an account of a visit he paid +in Rome to the unlucky poetaster Flecknoe, who was not in Rome until +1645. If, therefore, the poem records an actual visit, it follows that +the author of the poem was in Rome at the same time. It is not very +near, but it is as near as we can get. + +Richard Flecknoe was an Irish priest of blameless life, with a passion +for scribbling and for printing. His exquisite reason for both these +superfluous acts is worth quoting:-- + + "I write chiefly to avoid idleness, and print to avoid the imputation + (of idleness), and as others do it to live after they are dead, I do + it only not to be thought dead whilst I am alive."[20:1] + +Such frankness should have disarmed ridicule, but somehow or another +this amiable man came to be regarded as the type of a dull author, and +his name passed into a proverb for stupidity, so much so that when +Dryden in 1682 was casting about how best to give pain to Shadwell, he +devised the plan of his famous satire, "MacFlecknoe," where in biting +verse he describes Flecknoe (who was happily dead) as an aged Prince-- + + "Who like Augustus young + Was called to empire and had governed long; + In prose and verse was owned, without dispute, + Through all the realms of nonsense absolute." + +Dryden goes on to picture the aged Flecknoe, + + "pondering which of all his sons was fit + To reign and wage immortal war with Wit," + +and fixing on Shadwell. + + "Shadwell alone my perfect image bears, + Mature in dulness from his tender years; + Shadwell alone, of all my sons, is he + Who stands confirmed in full stupidity: + The rest to some faint meaning make pretence, + But Shadwell never deviates into sense." + +Thus has it come about that Flecknoe, the Irish priest, whom Marvell +visited in his Roman garret in 1645, bears a name ever memorable in +literature. + +Marvell's own poem, though eclipsed by the splendour of Glorious John's +resounding lines, has an interest of its own as being, in its roughly +humorous way, a forerunner of the "Dunciad" and "Grub Street" +literature, by which in sundry moods 'tis "pleasure to be bound." It +describes seeking out the poetaster in his lodging "three staircases +high," at the sign of the Pelican, in a room so small that it seemed "a +coffin set in the stair's head." No sooner was the rhymer unearthed than +straightway he began to recite his poetry in dismal tones, much to his +visitor's dismay:-- + + "But I who now imagin'd myself brought + To my last trial, in a serious thought + Calm'd the disorders of my youthful breast + And to my martyrdom prepared rest. + Only this frail ambition did remain, + The last distemper of the sober brain, + That there had been some present to assure + The future ages how I did endure." + +To stop the cataract of "hideous verse," Marvell invited the scarecrow +to dinner, and waits while he dresses. As they turn to leave, for the +room is so small that the man who comes in last must be the first to go +out, they meet a friend of the poet on the stairs, who makes a third at +dinner. After dinner Flecknoe produces ten quires of paper, from which +the friend proceeds to read, but so infamously as to excite their +author's rage:-- + + "But all his praises could not now appease + The provok't Author, whom it did displease + To hear his verses by so just a curse + That were ill made, condemned to be read worse: + And how (impossible!) he made yet more + Absurdities in them than were before: + For his untun'd voice did fall or raise + As a deaf man upon the Viol plays, + Making the half-points and the periods run + Confus'der than the atoms in the sun: + Thereat the poet swell'd with anger full," + +and after violent exclamations retires in dudgeon back to his room. The +faithful friend is in despair. What is he to do to make peace? "Who +would commend his mistress now?" Marvell + + "counselled him to go in time + Ere the fierce poet's anger turned to rhyme." + +The advice was taken, and Marvell, finding himself at last free from +boredom, went off to St. Peter's to return thanks. + +This poem is but an unsatisfactory _souvenir de voyage_, but it is all +there is. + +What Marvell was doing during the stirring years 1646-1650 is not +known. Even in the most troubled times men go about their business, and +our poet was always a man of affairs. As for his opinions during these +years, we can only guess at them from those to which he afterwards gave +expression. Marvell was neither a Republican nor a Puritan. Like his +father before him, he was a Protestant and a member of the Reformed +Church of England. He stood for both King and Parliament. Archbishop +Laud he distrusted, and it may well be detested, but good churchmen have +often distrusted and even detested their archbishops. Mr. Gladstone had +no great regard for Archbishop Tait. Before the Act of Uniformity and +the repressive legislation that followed upon its heels had driven +English dissent into its final moulds, it was not doctrine but +ceremonies that disturbed men's minds; and Marvell belonged to that +school of English churchmen, by no means the least distinguished school, +which was not disposed to quarrel with their fellow-Christians over +white surplices, the ring in matrimony, or the attitude during Holy +Communion. He shared the belief of a contemporary that no system is bad +enough to destroy a good man, or good enough to save a bad one. + +The Civil War was to Marvell what it was to most wise men not devoured +by faction--a deplorable event. Twenty years after he wrote in the +_Rehearsal Transprosed_:-- + + "Whether it be a war of religion or of liberty it is not worth the + labour to inquire. Whichsoever was at the top, the other was at the + bottom; but upon considering all, I think the cause was too good to + have been fought for. Men ought to have trusted God--they ought to + have trusted the King with that whole matter. The arms of the Church + are prayers and tears, the arms of the subject are patience and + petitions. The King himself being of so accurate and piercing a + judgment would soon have felt it where it stuck. For men may spare + their pains when Nature is at work, and the world will not go the + faster for our driving. Even as his present Majesty's happy + Restoration did itself, so all things else happen in their best and + proper time, without any heed of our officiousness."[24:1] + +In the face of this passage and many another of the like spirit, it is +puzzling to find such a man, for example, as Thomas Baker, the ejected +non-juring Fellow and historian of St. John's College, Cambridge +(1656-1740), writing of Marvell as "that bitter republican"; and Dryden, +who probably knew Marvell, comparing his controversial pamphlets with +those of Martin Marprelate, or at all events speaking of Martin +Marprelate as "the Marvell of those times."[24:2] A somewhat +anti-prelatical note runs through Marvell's writings, but it is a +familiar enough note in the works of the English laity, and by no means +dissevers its possessor from the Anglican Church. But there are some +heated expressions in the satires which probably gave rise to the belief +that Marvell was a Republican.[24:3] + +During the Commonwealth Marvell was content to be a civil servant. He +entertained for the Lord-Protector the same kind of admiration that such +a loyalist as Chateaubriand could not help feeling for Napoleon. Even +Clarendon's pedantic soul occasionally vibrates as he writes of Oliver, +and compares his reputation in foreign courts with that of his own +royal master. When the Restoration came Marvell rejoiced. Two +old-established things had been destroyed by Cromwell--Kings and +Parliaments, and Marvell was glad to see them both back again in +England. + +Some verses of Marvell's attributable to this period (1646-1650) show +him keeping what may be called Royalist company. With a dozen other +friends of Richard Lovelace, the Cavalier poet and the author of two of +the most famous stanzas in English verse, Marvell contributed some +commendatory lines addressed to his "noble friend, Mr. Richard Lovelace, +upon his Poems," which appeared with the poems themselves in that year +of fate, 1649. "After the murder of the King," says Anthony Wood, +"Lovelace was set at liberty, and having by that time consumed all his +estate, grew very melancholy, became very poor in body and purse, was +the object of charity, went in ragged clothes (whereas when he was in +glory he wore cloth of gold and silver), and mostly lodged in obscure +and dirty places, more befitting the worst of beggars and poorest of +servants." + +Then it was that _Lucasta_ made its first appearance. When the fortunes +of the gallant poet were at their lowest and never to revive, Marvell +seizes the occasion to deplore the degeneracy of the times, a familiar +theme with poets:-- + + "Our civil wars have lost the civic crown, + He highest builds who with most art destroys, + And against others' fame his own employs." + +He then glances scornfully at the new Presbyterian censorship of the +press:-- + + "The barbed censurers begin to look + Like the grim consistory on thy book, + And on each line cast a reforming eye," + +and suggests that _Lucasta_ is in danger because in 1642 its author had +been imprisoned by order of the House of Commons for presenting a +petition from Kent which prayed for the restoration of the Book of +Common Prayer. This danger is, however, overcome by the ladies, who rise +in arms to defend their favourite poet. + + "But when the beauteous Ladies came to know + That their dear Lovelace was endangered so, + Lovelace that thaw'd the most congealed breast, + He who lov'd best and them defended best, + They all in mutiny, though yet undrest, + Sally'd." + +One of them challenged Marvell as to whether he had not been of the +poet's traducers, but he answered No! + + "O No, mistake not, I reply'd, for I + In your defence or in his cause would die. + But he, secure of glory and of time, + Above their envy or my aid doth climb. + Him, bravest men and fairest nymphs approve, + His book in them finds Judgment, with you, Love." + +Lovelace did not live to see the Restoration, but died in a mean lodging +near Shoe Lane in April 1658, and was buried in St. Bridget's Church. +Let us indulge the hope that the friends who occupied so many of the +introductory pages of Lovelace's _Lucasta_ occasionally enlivened the +solitude and relieved the distress of the poet whose praises they had +once sung with so much vigour. As Marvell was undoubtedly a friendly +man, and one who loved to be alone with his friends, and had never any +house of his own to keep up, living for the most part in hired lodgings, +it would be unkind to doubt that he at least did not forget Lovelace in +his poverty and depression of spirit. + +In 1649 thirty-three poets combined to weep over the early grave of the +Lord Henry Hastings, the eldest son of the sixth Earl of Huntingdon, who +died of the smallpox in the twentieth year of his age. Not even this +plentiful discharge of poets' tears should rob the young nobleman of his +claim to be regarded as a fine example of the great learning, +accomplishments, and high spirits of the age. We can still produce the +thirty-three poets, but what young nobleman is there who can boast such +erudition as had rewarded the scorned delights and the laborious days of +this Lord Hastings? We have at least the satisfaction of knowing that +did such a one exist he probably would not die of the smallpox. Among +the poets who wept on this occasion were Herrick, Sir John Denham, +Andrew Marvell, and John Dryden, then a Westminster schoolboy, whose +description of the smallpox is as bad as the disease. + +Marvell's verses begin very prettily and soon introduce a characteristic +touch:-- + + "Go, stand betwixt the Morning and the Flowers, + And ere they fall arrest the early showers, + Hastings is dead; and we disconsolate + With early tears must mourn his early fate." + +In 1650 Marvell, then in his twenty-ninth year, went to live with Lord +Fairfax at Nunappleton House in Yorkshire, as tutor to the only child +and daughter of the house, Mary Fairfax, aged twelve years (born 30th +July 1638). This proved to be a great event in Marvell's life as a poet, +and it happened at an epoch in the distinguished career of the famous +Parliamentarian general + + "Whose name in arms through Europe rings." + +Lord Fairfax, though he had countenanced, if not approved, the trial +and deposition of the king, had resolutely held himself aloof from the +proceedings which, beginning on Saturday the 20th of January 1649, +terminated so dismally on Tuesday the 30th. The strange part played by +Lady Fairfax on the first day of the so-called trial (though it was no +greater a travesty of justice than many a real trial both before and +after) is one of the best-known stories in English history. There are +several versions of it. Having provided herself with a seat in a small +gallery in Westminster Hall, just above the heads of the judges, when +her husband's name was called out as one of the commissioners, the +intrepid lady (no Cavalier's dame, be it remembered, but a true blue +Presbyterian), a brave soldier's daughter, cried out, "Lord Fairfax is +not here; he will never sit among you. You do wrong to name him as a +sitting Commissioner." This is Rushworth's version, and he was present. +Clarendon, who was not present, being abroad at the time, reports the +words as, "He has more wit than to be here." + +Later on in the day, when the President Bradshaw interrupted the king +and peremptorily bade him to answer the charges exhibited against him +"in the name of the Commons of England assembled, and of the people of +England," Lady Fairfax again rose to her feet and exclaimed, "It's a +lie! Not half the people. Where are they and their consents? Oliver +Cromwell is a traitor." + +Lieutenant-Colonel Axtell, who during the trial was in command of a +regiment in Westminster and charged by his military superior, Lord +Fairfax himself, with the duty of maintaining order, hearing this +disturbance, went forward and told Lady Fairfax to hold her tongue, +sound advice which she appears to have taken. After the Restoration +Axtell was put to his trial as a "regicide." His defence, which was, +that as a soldier he obeyed his orders, and was no more guilty than his +general, Lord Fairfax, was not listened to, and he was sentenced to +death, a fate which he met like the brave man he was. + +Although Fairfax did not immediately resign his command after the king's +death, from that moment he lost heart in the cause. Lady Fairfax, whose +loyalty to Charles may have been quickened by her dislike of Oliver, had +great influence with him, and it may well be that his conscience pricked +him. The rupture came in June 1650, when Charles's son made his +appearance in Scotland and his peace with the Presbyterians, subscribing +with inward emotions it would be unkind to attempt to describe the +Solemn League and Covenant, and attending services and listening to +sermons the length of which, at least, he never forgot. War was plainly +imminent between the two countries. The question was, who should begin? +Cromwell, who had hurried home from Ireland, Lambert, and Harrison were +all keen to strike the first blow. Fairfax felt a scruple, and in those +days scruples counted. Was there, he asked, a just cause for an invasion +of Scotland? A committee was appointed, consisting of the three warriors +above-named with St. John and Whitelock, to confer with the Lord-General +and satisfy him of the lawfulness of the undertaking. The six met, and +having first prayed--Oliver praying first--they proceeded to a +discussion which may be read at length in Whitelock's _Memorials_, vol. +iii. p. 207. The substance of their talk was as follows: Fairfax's +scruple proved to be that both they and the Scots had joined in the +Solemn League and Covenant, and that, therefore, until Scotland assumed +the offensive, there was no cause for an invasion. Cromwell's retort, +after a preliminary quibble, was practical enough. "War is inevitable. +Is it better to have it in the bowels of another's country or in one's +own? In one or other it must be." Fairfax's scruple, however, withstood +this battery, though it was strongly enforced by Harrison, who, in reply +to the Lord-General's question, "What was the warrant for the assumption +that Scotland meant to fall upon England?" inquired, if Scotland did not +mean to invade England, for whose benefit were levies being made and +soldiers enlisted. + +Fairfax proved immovable. "Every man," said he, "must stand or fall by +his own conscience"; and as he offered to lay down his command, there +was nothing for it but to accept the resignation and appoint his +successor. This was speedily done, and on the 28th of June 1650 "Oliver +Cromwell, Esquire," was appointed Captain-General and Commander-in-chief +of all the forces. On 16th July Cromwell crossed the Tweed, and on the +3rd of September the Lord delivered Leslie into his hands at Dunbar. + +It was in these circumstances that Lord Fairfax and his energetic lady +and only child went back to their Yorkshire home in the midsummer of +1650, taking Marvell with them to instruct the Lady Mary in the tongues. + +Nunappleton House is in the Ainstey of York, a pleasant bit of country +bounded by the rivers Ouse, Wharfe, and Nidd. The modern traveller, as +his train rushes north, whilst shut up in his corridor-carriage with his +rug, his pipe, and his novel, passes at no great distance from the house +on the way between Selby and York. The old house, as it was in Marvell's +time, is thus described by Captain Markham, who had a print to help +him, in his delightful _Life of the Great Lord Fairfax_:-- + + "It was a picturesque brick mansion with stone copings and a high + steep roof, and consisted of a centre and two wings at right angles, + forming three sides of a square, facing to the north. The great hall + or gallery occupied the centre between the two wings. It was fifty + yards long, and was adorned with thirty shields in wood, painted with + the arms of the family. In the three rooms there were chimney-pieces + of delicate marble of various colours, and many fine portraits on the + walls. The central part of the house was surrounded by a cupola, and + clustering chimneys rose in the two wings. A noble park with splendid + oak-trees, and containing 300 head of deer, stretched away to the + north, while on the south side were the ruins of the old Nunnery, the + flower-garden, and the low meadows called _ings_ extending to the + banks of the Wharfe. In this flower-garden the General took especial + delight. The flowers were planted in masses, tulips, pinks, and + roses, each in separate beds, which were cut into the shape of forts + with five bastions. General Lambert, whom Fairfax had reared as a + soldier, also loved his flowers, and excelled both in cultivating + them and in painting them from Nature. Lord Fairfax only went to + Denton, the favourite seat of his grandfather, when the floods were + out over the _ings_ at Nunappleton, and he also occasionally resorted + to his house at Bishop Hill in York."[31:1] + +In this garden the muse of Andrew Marvell blossomed like the +cherry-tree. + +Lord Fairfax, though furious in war, and badly wounded in many a fierce +engagement, was, when otherwise occupied, a man of quiet literary +tastes, and a good bit of a collector and _virtuoso_. Some of the rare +books and manuscripts he had around him at Nunappleton are now in the +Bodleian, the treasures of which he had protected in troubled times. He +loved to handle medals and coins, and knew the points of old +engravings. He wrote a history of the Christian Church down to our own +ill-conducted Reformation, and composed a complete metrical version of +the Psalms of David and of the Song of Solomon. These and many other +productions, which he characterised as "The Employment of my Solitude," +still remain in his own handwriting. Amongst them, Yorkshire men will +hear with pleasure, is a "Treatise on the breeding of the Horse." + +Of the quality of his wife we have already had a touch. She was one of +the four daughters of Lord Vere of Tilbury, who came of a fine fighting +family, and whose daughters had a roughish bringing-up, chiefly in the +Netherlands. None of the daughters were reckoned beautiful, either in +face or figure, and it may well be that Lady Fairfax had something about +her of the old campaigner; but of her courage, sincerity, and goodness +there can be no question. Her loyalty was no sickly fruit of "Church +Principles," for her strong intelligence rejected scornfully the slavish +doctrines, alien to our political constitution, of divine right and +passive obedience; but a loyalty, none the less, it was, of a very +valuable kind. She was fond of argument, and with Lady Fairfax at +Nunappleton there was never likely to be any dearth of sensible talk and +lively reminiscence. The tragedy of the 30th of January could never be +forgotten, and it is possible that Marvell's most famous verses, so +nobly descriptive of the demeanour of the king on that memorable +occasion, derived their inspiration from discourse at Nunappleton. + +Of the Lady Mary, aged twelve, we have no direct testimony. When she +grew up and had her portrait painted she stands revealed as a stout +young woman with a plain good-natured face. The poor soul needed all +the good-nature heaven had bestowed upon her, for she had to bear the +misery and disgrace which were the inevitable marriage-portion of the +woman whose ill-luck it was to become the wife of George Villiers, +second Duke of Buckingham. Somebody seems to have taught her philosophy, +for she bore her misfortunes as best became a great lady, living as one +who had sorrow but no grievance. The duke died in 1688; she lived on +till 1704. She was ever a good friend to another ill-used solitary wife, +Catherine of Braganza. Marvell had every reason to be proud of his +pupil. + +Beside the actual inmates of the great house, the whole countryside +swarmed with Fairfaxes. At the Rectory of Bolton Percy was the late +Lord-General's uncle, Henry Fairfax, and his two sons, Henry, who +succeeded to the title, and the better-known Brian, the biographer of +the Duke of Buckingham. At Stenton, four miles off, lived the widow of +the gallant Sir William Fairfax, who died, covered with wounds, in 1644 +before Montgomery Castle. There were two sons and two daughters at +Stenton, whilst Charles Fairfax, another uncle, and the lawyer and +genealogist of the family, lived at no great distance with no less than +fourteen children. There were also sisters of Lord Fairfax, with +families of their own, all settled in the same part of the county. + +Such were the agreeable surroundings of our poet for two years, +1650-1652. I must leave it to the imaginations of my readers to fill up +the picture, for excepting the poems, which we may safely assume were +written at Nunappleton House, and--who can doubt it?--read aloud to its +inmates, there is nothing more to be said. + +Before considering the Nunappleton poetry, a word must be got in of +bibliography. College exercises and complimentary verses excepted, +Marvell printed none of his verse under his own name in his lifetime. So +far as his themes were political there is no need to wonder at this. +Indeed, the wonder is how, despite their anonymity, their author kept +his ears; but why the Nunappleton verse should have remained in +manuscript for more than thirty years is hard to explain. + +Until Pope took his muse to market, poetry, apart from the drama, had no +direct commercial value, or one too small to be ranked as a motive for +publication. None the less, the age loved distinction and appreciated +wit, and to be known as a poet whose verses "numbered good intellects" +was to gain the _entree_ to the society of men both of intellect and +fashion, and also, not infrequently, snug berths in the public service, +and secretaryships to foreign missions and embassies. Thus there was +always, in addition to natural vanity, a strong motive for a +seventeenth-century poet to publish his poems. To-day one would hesitate +to recommend a young man who wanted to get on in the world to publish a +volume of verse; but the age of "wit" and "parts" is over. + +It was not till 1681--three years after Marvell's death--that the small +folio appeared with a fine portrait, still dear to the collector, which +contains for the first time what may be called the "garden-poetry" of +our author, together with some specimens of his political and satirical +versification. + +Marvell's most famous poem--_The Ode upon Cromwell's Return from +Ireland_--is not included in the 1681 volume, and remained in manuscript +until 1776, as also did the poem upon Cromwell's death. + +The remainder of the political poems, which had made their first +appearance as broadsheets, were reprinted after the Revolution in the +well-known _Collection of Poems on Affairs of State_.[35:1] These verses +were never owned by Marvell, and it is probable that some of them, +though attributed to him, are not his at all. We have only tradition to +go by. In the case of political satires, squibs, epigrams, rough popular +occasional rhymes flung off both in haste and heat to be sold with old +ballads in the market-place, we need not seek for better evidence than +tradition, which indeed is often the only external evidence we have for +the authorship of much more important things. + +Now to return to the Nunappleton poetry. + +In a poem of 776 lines Marvell tells the story and describes the charms +of the house which Lord Fairfax built for himself during the war, and to +which, as just narrated, he retired in the summer of 1650. The story is +only too familiar a one, being writ large over many a fine property. +Appleton House was Church loot. In the time of Henry, "the majestic lord +that burst the bonds of Rome," the old house at Nunappleton was a +Cistercian nunnery, a religious house. In 1542 the community was +suppressed and its property appropriated by the great-grandfather of the +Lord-General--one Sir Thomas Fairfax. The religious buildings were +pulled down and a new secular house rose in their place. In these bare +and sordid facts there is not much room for poetry, but there is a story +thrown in. Shortly before 1518 a Yorkshire heiress, bearing the +unromantic name of Isabella Thwaites, was living in the Cistercian +abbey, under the guardianship of the abbess, the Lady Anna Langton. +Property under the care of the Church is always supposed to be in +danger, and the Lady Anna was freely credited with the desire to make a +nun of her ward, and so keep her broad acres in Wharfedale and her +messuages in York for the use of Mother Church. None the less, the young +lady was allowed to go about and visit her neighbours, and whilst so +doing she fell in love with Sir William Fairfax, or he fell in love with +her or with her estates. Thereupon, so the story proceeds, the abbess +kept her ward a close prisoner within the nunnery walls. Legal +proceedings were taken, but in the end the privacy of the nunnery was +invaded, and Miss Thwaites was abducted and married to Sir William +Fairfax at the church of Bolton Percy. The lady abbess had to submit to +_vis major_, but worse days were in front of her, for she lived on to +see the nunnery itself despoiled, and the fair domains she had during a +long life preserved and maintained for religious uses handed over to the +son of her former ward, Isabella Thwaites. + +Our poet begins by referring to the modest dimensions of the house, and +the natural charms of its surroundings:-- + + "The house was built upon the place, + Only as for a mark of grace, + And for an inn to entertain + Its Lord awhile, but not remain. + Him Bishop's-hill or Denton may, + Or Billborow, better hold than they: + But Nature here hath been so free, + As if she said, 'Leave this to me.' + Art would more neatly have defac'd + What she had laid so sweetly waste + In fragrant gardens, shady woods, + Deep meadows, and transparent floods." + +And then starts the story:-- + + "While, with slow eyes, we these survey, + And on each pleasant footstep stay, + We opportunely may relate + The progress of this house's fate. + A nunnery first gave it birth, + (For virgin buildings oft brought forth) + And all that neighbour-ruin shows + The quarries whence this dwelling rose. + Near to this gloomy cloister's gates, + There dwelt the blooming virgin Thwaites, + Fair beyond measure, and an heir, + Which might deformity make fair; + And oft she spent the summer's suns + Discoursing with the subtle Nuns, + Whence, in these words, one to her weav'd, + As 'twere by chance, thoughts long conceiv'd: + 'Within this holy leisure, we + Live innocently, as you see. + These walls restrain the world without, + But hedge our liberty about; + These bars inclose that wilder den + Of those wild creatures, called men, + The cloister outward shuts its gates, + And, from us, locks on them the grates. + Here we, in shining armour white, + Like virgin amazons do fight, + And our chaste lamps we hourly trim, + Lest the great Bridegroom find them dim. + Our orient breaths perfumed are + With incense of incessant prayer; + And holy-water of our tears + Most strangely our complexion clears; + Not tears of grief, but such as those + With which calm pleasure overflows; + Or pity, when we look on you + That live without this happy vow. + How should we grieve that must be seen + Each one a spouse, and each a queen, + And can in heaven hence behold + Our brighter robes and crowns of gold! + When we have prayed all our beads, + Some one the holy Legend reads, + While all the rest with needles paint + The face and graces of the Saint; + Some of your features, as we sewed, + Through every shrine should be bestowed, + And in one beauty we would take + Enough a thousand Saints to make. + And (for I dare not quench the fire + That me does for your good inspire) + 'Twere sacrilege a man to admit + To holy things for heaven fit. + I see the angels in a crown + On you the lilies showering down; + And round about you glory breaks, + That something more than human speaks. + All beauty when at such a height, + Is so already consecrate. + Fairfax I know, and long ere this + Have marked the youth, and what he is; + But can he such a rival seem, + For whom you heaven should disesteem? + Ah, no! and 'twould more honour prove + He your devoto were than Love. + Here live beloved and obeyed, + Each one your sister, each your maid, + And, if our rule seem strictly penned, + The rule itself to you shall bend. + Our Abbess, too, now far in age, + Doth your succession near presage. + How soft the yoke on us would lie, + Might such fair hands as yours it tie! + Your voice, the sweetest of the choir, + Shall draw heaven nearer, raise us higher, + And your example, if our head, + Will soon us to perfection lead. + Those virtues to us all so dear, + Will straight grow sanctity when here; + And that, once sprung, increase so fast, + Till miracles it work at last.'" + +What reply was given by the heiress to these arguments, and others of a +still more seductive hue, the poet does not tell, but turns to the eager +lover who asks, What should he do? He hints that a nunnery is no place +for a virtuous maid, and that the nuns (unlike himself, I hope) are only +thinking of her property. He complains that though the Court has +authorised him to use either peace or force, the nuns still stand upon +their guard. + + "Ill-counselled women, do you know + Whom you resist or what you do?" + +Using a most remarkable poetic licence, the poet refers to the fact that +this barred-out lover is to be the progenitor of the great Lord Fairfax. + + "Is not this he, whose offspring fierce + Shall fight through all the universe; + And with successive valour try + France, Poland, either Germany, + Till one, as long since prophesied, + His horse through conquered Britain ride?" + +The lover determines to take the place by assault. It was not a very +heroic enterprise, as Marvell describes it. + + "Some to the breach, against their foes, + Their wooden Saints in vain oppose; + Another bolder, stands at push, + With their old holy-water brush, + While the disjointed Abbess threads + The jingling chain-shot of her beads; + But their loud'st cannon were their lungs, + And sharpest weapons were their tongues. + But waving these aside like flies, + Young Fairfax through the wall does rise. + Then the unfrequented vault appeared, + And superstition, vainly feared; + The relicks false were set to view; + Only the jewels there were true, + And truly bright and holy Thwaites, + That weeping at the altar waits. + But the glad youth away her bears, + And to the Nuns bequeathes her tears, + Who guiltily their prize bemoan, + Like gypsies who a child have stol'n." + +The poet then goes on to glorify the results of this union and to +describe happy days spent at Nunappleton by the descendants of Isabella +Thwaites. + + "At the demolishing, this seat + To Fairfax fell, as by escheat; + And what both nuns and founders willed, + 'Tis likely better thus fulfilled. + For if the virgin proved not theirs, + The cloister yet remained hers; + Though many a nun there made her vow, + 'Twas no religious house till now. + From that blest bed the hero came + Whom France and Poland yet does fame; + Who, when retired here to peace, + His warlike studies could not cease; + But laid these gardens out, in sport, + In the just figure of a fort, + And with five bastions it did fence, + As aiming one for every sense. + When in the east the morning ray + Hangs out the colours of the day, + The bee through these known alleys hums, + Beating the dian with its drums. + Then flowers their drowsy eyelids raise, + Their silken ensigns each displays, + And dries its pan, yet dank with dew, + And fills its flask with odours new. + These as their Governor goes by + In fragrant volleys they let fly, + And to salute their Governess + Again as great a charge they press: + None for the virgin nymph; for she + Seems with the flowers a flower to be. + And think so still! though not compare + With breath so sweet, or cheek so fair! + Well shot, ye firemen! Oh, how sweet + And round your equal fires do meet, + Whose shrill report no ear can tell, + But echoes to the eye and smell! + See how the flowers, as at parade, + Under their colours stand displayed; + Each regiment in order grows, + That of the tulip, pink and rose. + But when the vigilant patrol + Of stars walk round about the pole, + Their leaves, which to the stalks are curled, + Seem to their staves the ensigns furled. + Then in some flower's beloved hut, + Each bee, as sentinel, is shut, + And sleeps so too, but, if once stirred, + She runs you through, nor asks the word. + + Oh, thou, that dear and happy isle, + The garden of the world erewhile, + Thou Paradise of the four seas, + Which heaven planted us to please, + But, to exclude the world, did guard + With watery, if not flaming sword,-- + What luckless apple did we taste, + To make us mortal, and thee waste? + Unhappy! shall we never more + That sweet militia restore, + When gardens only had their towers + And all the garrisons were flowers, + When roses only arms might bear, + And men did rosy garlands wear? + Tulips, in several colours barred, + Were then the Switzers of our guard; + The gardener had the soldier's place, + And his more gentle forts did trace; + The nursery of all things green + Was then the only magazine; + The winter quarters were the stoves, + Where he the tender plants removes. + But war all this doth overgrow: + We ordnance plant, and powder sow. + + The arching boughs unite between + The columns of the temple green, + And underneath the winged quires + Echo about their tuned fires. + The nightingale does here make choice + To sing the trials of her voice; + Low shrubs she sits in, and adorns + With music high the squatted thorns; + But highest oaks stoop down to hear, + And listening elders prick the ear; + The thorn, lest it should hurt her, draws + Within the skin its shrunken claws. + But I have for my music found + A sadder, yet more pleasing sound; + The stock-doves, whose fair necks are graced + With nuptial rings, their ensigns chaste, + Yet always, for some cause unknown, + Sad pair, unto the elms they moan. + O why should such a couple mourn, + That in so equal flames do burn! + Then as I careless on the bed + Of gelid strawberries do tread, + And through the hazels thick espy + The hatching throstle's shining eye, + The heron, from the ash's top, + The eldest of its young lets drop, + As if it stork-like did pretend + That tribute to its lord to send. + + Thus I, easy philosopher, + Among the birds and trees confer; + And little now to make me, wants, + Or of the fowls, or of the plants; + Give me but wings as they, and I + Straight floating on the air shall fly; + Or turn me but, and you shall see + I was but an inverted tree. + Already I begin to call + In their most learn'd original, + And where I language want, my signs + The bird upon the bough divines, + And more attentive there doth sit + Than if she were with lime-twigs knit, + No leaf does tremble in the wind, + Which I returning cannot find. + One of these scattered Sibyls' leaves + Strange prophecies my fancy weaves, + And in one history consumes, + Like Mexique paintings, all the plumes; + What Rome, Greece, Palestine e'er said, + I in this light mosaic read. + Thrice happy he, who, not mistook, + Hath read in Nature's mystic book! + And see how chance's better wit + Could with a mask my studies hit! + The oak-leaves me embroider all, + Between which caterpillars crawl; + And ivy, with familiar trails, + Me licks and clasps, and curls and hales. + Under this Attic cope I move, + Like some great prelate of the grove; + Then, languishing with ease, I toss + On pallets swoln of velvet moss, + While the wind, cooling through the boughs, + Flatters with air my panting brows. + Thanks for your rest, ye mossy banks, + And unto you, cool zephyrs, thanks, + Who, as my hair, my thoughts too shed, + And winnow from the chaff my head! + + How safe, methinks, and strong behind + These trees, have I encamped my mind, + Where beauty, aiming at the heart, + Bends in some tree its useless dart, + And where the world no certain shot + Can make, or me it toucheth not, + But I on it securely play + And gall its horsemen all the day. + Bind me, ye woodbines, in your twines + Curl me about, ye gadding vines, + And oh so close your circles lace, + That I may never leave this place! + But, lest your fetters prove too weak, + Ere I your silken bondage break, + Do you, O brambles, chain me too, + And, courteous briars, nail me through! + + Oh what a pleasure 'tis to hedge + My temples here with heavy sedge, + Abandoning my lazy side, + Stretched as a bank unto the tide, + Or to suspend my sliding foot + On the osier's undermined root, + And in its branches tough to hang, + While at my lines the fishes twang? + But now away, my hooks, my quills, + And angles, idle utensils! + The young MARIA walks to-night; + + 'Tis she that to these gardens gave + That wondrous beauty which they have; + She straightness on the woods bestows; + To her the meadow sweetness owes; + Nothing could make the river be + So crystal pure, but only she, + She yet more pure, sweet, straight, and fair + Than gardens, woods, meads, rivers are. + + This 'tis to have been from the first + In a domestic heaven nursed, + Under the discipline severe + Of FAIRFAX, and the starry VERE; + Where not one object can come nigh + But pure, and spotless as the eye, + And goodness doth itself entail + On females, if there want a male." + +This poem, having a biographical value, I have quoted at, perhaps, too +great length. Other poems of this garden-period of Marvell's life are +better known. His own English version of his Latin poem _Hortus_ +contains lovely stanzas:-- + + "How vainly men themselves amaze + To win the palm, the oak, or bays; + And their uncessant labours see + Crowned from some single herb or tree, + Whose short and narrow-verged shade + Does prudently their toils upbraid; + While all the flowers and trees do close, + To weave the garlands of Repose! + + Fair Quiet, have I found thee here, + And Innocence, thy sister dear? + Mistaken long, I sought you then + In busy companies of men. + Your sacred plants, if here below, + Only among the plants will grow; + Society is all but rude + To this delicious solitude. + + No white nor red was ever seen + So amorous as this lovely green. + + What wond'rous life is this I lead! + Ripe apples drop about my head; + The luscious clusters of the vine + Upon my mouth do crush their wine; + The nectarine, and curious peach, + Into my hands themselves do reach; + Stumbling on melons, as I pass, + Insnared with flowers, I fall on grass. + + Meanwhile the mind, from pleasure less, + Withdraws into its happiness;-- + The mind, that ocean where each kind + Does straight its own resemblance find;-- + Yet it creates, transcending these, + Far other worlds, and other seas, + Annihilating all that's made + To a green thought in a green shade."[46:1] + +Well known as are Marvell's lines to his Coy Mistress, I have not the +heart to omit them, so eminently characteristic are they of his style +and humour:-- + + "Had we but world enough and time, + This coyness, lady, were no crime. + We would sit down and think which way + To walk, and pass our long love's day. + Thou by the Indian Ganges' side + Should'st rubies find: I by the tide + Of Humber would complain. I would + Love you ten years before the Flood, + And you should, if you please, refuse + Till the conversion of the Jews. + My vegetable love should grow + Vaster than empires and more slow. + An hundred years should go to praise + Thine eyes, and on thy forehead gaze; + Two hundred to adore each breast, + But thirty thousand to the rest; + An age at least to every part, + And the last age should show your heart. + For, lady, you deserve this state, + Nor would I love at lower rate. + But at my back I always hear + Time's winged chariot hurrying near, + And yonder all before us lie + Deserts of vast eternity. + Thy beauty shall no more be found, + Nor in thy marble vault shall sound + My echoing song; then worms shall try + That long-preserved virginity, + And your quaint honour turn to dust, + And into ashes all my lust. + The grave's a fine and private place, + But none, I think, do there embrace. + Now, therefore, while the youthful hue + Sits on thy skin like morning dew, + And while thy willing soul transpires + At every pore with instant fires, + Now, let us sport us while we may; + And now, like amorous birds of prey, + Rather at once our time devour, + Than languish in his slow-chapt power! + Let us roll all our strength, and all + Our sweetness up into one ball; + And tear our pleasures with rough strife, + Through the iron gates of life! + Thus, though we cannot make our sun + Stand still, yet we will make him run." + +Mr. Aitken's valuable edition of Marvell's poems and satires can now be +had of all booksellers for two shillings,[47:1] and with these volumes +in his possession the judicious reader will be able to supply his own +reflections whilst life beneath the sun is still his. Poetry is a +personal matter. The very canons of criticism are themselves literature. +If we like the _Ars Poetica_, it is because we enjoy reading Horace. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[20:1] For an account of Flecknoe, see Southey's _Omniana_, i. 105. Lamb +placed some fine lines of Flecknoe's at the beginning of the Essay _A +Quakers' Meeting_. + +[24:1] Grosart, vol. iii. p. 175. + +[24:2] _See_ preface to _Religio Laici_, Scott's _Dryden_, vol. x. p. +27. + +[24:3] Jeremy Collier in his _Historical Dictionary_ (1705) describes +Marvell, to whom he allows more space (though it is but a few lines) +than he does to Shakespeare, "as to his opinion he was a dissenter." In +Collier's opinion Marvell may have been no better than a dissenter, but +in fact he was a Churchman all his life, and it was Collier who lived to +become a non-juror and a dissenter, and a schismatical bishop to boot. + +[31:1] _Life of Lord Fairfax_, by C.R. Markham (1870), p. 365. + +[35:1] The fifth edition is dated 1703. + +[46:1] Many a reader has made his first acquaintance with Marvell on +reading these lines in the _Essays of Elia_ (_The Old Benchers of the +Inner Temple_). + +[47:1] _Poems and Satires of Andrew Marvell_, 2 vols. Routledge, 1905. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +A CIVIL SERVANT IN THE TIME OF THE COMMONWEALTH + + +When Andrew Marvell first made John Milton's acquaintance is not known. +They must both have had common friends at or belonging to Cambridge. +Fairfax may have made the two men known to each other, although it is +just as likely that Milton introduced Marvell to Fairfax. All we know is +that when the engagement at Nunappleton House came to an end, Marvell, +being then minded to serve the State in some civil capacity, applied to +the Secretary for Foreign Tongues for what would now be called a +testimonial, which he was fortunate enough to obtain in the form of a +letter to the Lord-President of the Council, John Bradshaw. Milton seems +always to have liked Bradshaw, who was not generally popular even on his +own side, and in the _Defensio Secunda pro populo Anglicano_ extols his +character and attainments in sonorous latinity. Bradshaw had become in +February 1649 the first President of the new Council of State, which, +after the disappearance of the king and the abolition of the House of +Lords, took over the burden of the executive, and claimed the right to +scrape men's consciences by administering to anybody it chose an oath +requiring them to approve of what the House of Commons had done against +the king, and of their abolition of kingly government and of the House +of Peers, and that the legislative and supreme power was wholly in the +House of Commons. + +Before the creation of this Council the duties of Latin Secretary to the +Parliament had been discharged by Georg Rudolph Weckherlin, a German +diplomat who had married an Englishwoman. He retired in bad health at +this time, and Milton was appointed to his place in 1649. When, later +on, the sight of the most illustrious of all our civil servants failed +him, Weckherlin returned to the office as Milton's assistant. In +December 1652 ill-health again compelled Weckherlin's retirement.[49:1] + +Milton's letter to Bradshaw, who had made his home at Eton, is dated +February 21, 1653, and is as follows:-- + + "MY LORD,--But that it would be an interruption to the + public wherein your studies are perpetually employed, I should now + and then venture to supply thus my enforced absence with a line or + two, though it were onely my business, and that would be no slight + one, to make my due acknowledgments of your many favours; which I + both do at this time and ever shall; and have this farther, which I + thought my part to let you know of, that there will be with you + to-morrow upon some occasion of business a gentleman whose name is + Mr. Marvile, a man whom both by report and the converse I have had + with him of singular desert for the State to make use of, who also + offers himself, if there be any employment for him. His father was + the Minister of Hull, and he hath spent four years abroad in Holland, + France, Italy, and Spain to very good purpose, as I believe, and the + gaining of these four languages, besides he is a scholer and + well-read in the Latin and Greek authors, and no doubt of an approved + conversation, for he now comes lately out of the house of the Lord + Fairfax, who was Generall, where he was intrusted to give some + instructions in the languages to the Lady, his daughter. If upon the + death of Mr. Weckerlyn the Councell shall think that I shall need any + assistance in the performance of my place (though for my part I find + no encumbrance of that which belongs to me, except it be in point of + attendance at Conferences with Ambassadors, which I must confess in + my condition I am not fit for) it would be hard for them to find a + man so fit every way for that purpose as this gentleman: one who, I + believe, in a short time would be able to do them as much service as + Mr. Ascan. This, my Lord, I write sincerely without any other end + than to perform my duty to the publick in helping them to an humble + servant; laying aside those jealousies and that emulation which mine + own condition might suggest to me by bringing in such a coadjutor; + and remain, my Lord, your most obliged and faithful servant, + JOHN MILTON. + + "_Feb. 21, 1652_ (O.S.)." + + Addressed: "For the Honourable the Lord Bradshawe." + +No handsomer testimonial than this was ever penned. It was unsuccessful. +When Milton wrote to Bradshaw, Weckherlin was in fact dead, and on his +retirement in the previous December, John Thurloe, the very handy +Secretary of the Council, had for the time assumed Weckherlin's duties, +and obtained on that score an addition to his salary. No actual vacancy, +therefore, occurred on Weckherlin's death. None the less, shortly +afterwards, Philip Meadows, also a Cambridge man, was appointed Milton's +assistant, and Marvell had to wait four years longer for his place. + +When Marvell's connection with Eton first began is not to be +ascertained. His friend, John Oxenbridge, who had been driven from his +tutorship at Magdalen Hall, Oxford, by Laud in 1634 to + + "Where the remote Bermudas ride," + +but had returned home, became in 1652 a Fellow of Eton College. Oliver +St. John, who at this time was Chancellor of the University of +Cambridge, and had married Oxenbridge's sister, was known to Marvell, +and may have introduced him to his brother-in-law. At all events Marvell +frequently visited Eton, where, however, he had the good sense to +frequent not merely the cloisters, but the poor lodgings where the "ever +memorable" John Hales, ejected from his fellowship, spent the last years +of his life. + + "I account it no small honour to have grown up into some part of his + acquaintance and conversed awhile with the living remains of one of + the clearest heads and best prepared breasts in Christendom."[51:1] + +Hales died in 1656, and his _Golden Remains_ were first published three +years later. Marvell's words of panegyric are singularly well chosen. It +is a curious commentary upon the confused times of the Civil War and +Restoration that perhaps never before, and seldom, if ever, since, has +England contained so many clear heads and well-prepared breasts as it +did then. Small indeed is the influence of men of thought upon their +immediate surroundings. + +The Lord Bradshaw, we know, had a home in Eton, and on the occasion of +one of Marvell's evidently frequent visits to the Oxenbridges, Milton +entrusted him with a letter to Bradshaw and a presentation copy of the +_Secunda defensio_. Marvell delivered both letter and book, and seems at +once to have informed the distinguished author that he had done so. But +alas for the vanity of the writing man! The sublime poet, who in his +early manhood had composed _Lycidas_, and was in his old age to write +_Paradise Lost_, demanded further and better particulars as to the +precise manner in which the chief of his office received, not only the +book, but the letter which accompanied it. Nobody is now left to think +much of Bradshaw, but in 1654 he was an excellent representative of the +class Carlyle was fond of describing as the _alors celebre_. Prompted by +this desire, Milton must have written to Marvell hinting, as he well +knew how to do, his surprise at the curtness of his friend's former +communication, and Marvell's reply to this letter has come down to us. +It is Marvell's glory that long before _Paradise Lost_ he recognised the +essential greatness of the blind secretary, and his letter is a fine +example of the mode of humouring a great man. Be it remembered, as we +read, that this letter was not addressed to one of the greatest names in +literature, but to a petulant and often peevish scholar, living of +necessity in great retirement, whose name is never once mentioned by +Clarendon, and about whom the voluminous Thurloe, who must have seen him +hundreds of times, has nothing to say except that he was "a blind man +who wrote Latin letters." Odder still, perhaps, Richard Baxter, whose +history of his own life and times is one of the most informing books in +the world, never so much as mentions the one and only man whose name +can, without any violent sense of unfitness, be given to the age about +which Baxter was writing so laboriously. + + "HONOURED SIR,--I did not satisfie my self in the account I + gave you of presentinge your Book to my Lord, although it seemed to + me that I writ to you all which the messenger's speedy returne the + same night from Eaton would permit me; and I perceive that, by reason + of that hast, I did not give you satisfaction neither concerninge the + delivery of your Letter at the same time. Be pleased therefore to + pardon me and know that I tendered them both together. But my Lord + read not the Letter while I was with him, which I attributed to our + despatch, and some other businesse tendinge thereto, which I + therefore wished ill to, so farr as it hindred an affaire much better + and of greater importance, I mean that of reading your Letter. And to + tell you truly mine own imagination, I thought that he would not open + it while I was there, because he might suspect that I, delivering it + just upon my departure, might have brought in it some second + proposition like to that which you had before made to him by your + Letter to my advantage. However, I assure myself that he has since + read it, and you, that he did then witnesse all respecte to your + person, and as much satisfaction concerninge your work as could be + expected from so cursory a review and so sudden an account as he + could then have of it from me. Mr. Oxenbridge, at his returne from + London, will, I know, give you thanks for his book, as I do with all + acknowledgement and humility for that you have sent me. I shall now + studie it even to the getting of it by heart; esteeming it, according + to my poore judgment (which yet I wish it were so right in all things + else), as the most compendious scale for so much to the height of the + Roman Eloquence, when I consider how equally it turnes and rises with + so many figures it seems to me a Trajan's columne, in whose winding + ascent we see imboss'd the severall monuments of your learned + victoryes: And Salmatius and Morus make up as great a triumph as that + of Decebalus, whom too, for ought I know, you shall have forced, as + Trajan the other, to make themselves away out of a just desperation. + I have an affectionate curiousity to know what becomes of Colonell + Overton's businesse. And am exceeding glad that Mr. Skynner is got + near you, the happinesse which I at the same time congratulate to him + and envie, there being none who doth, if I may so say, more jealously + honour you then, Honoured Sir, Your most affectionate humble servant, + ANDREW MARVELL. + + "Eaton, _June 2, 1654._" + + Addressed: "For my most honoured friend, + John Milton, Esquire, Secretarye + for the Forrain affaires + at his house in Petty France, + Westminster." + +To conclude Marvell's Eton experiences; in 1657, and very shortly before +his obtaining his appointment as Milton's assistant in the place of +Philip Meadows, who was sent on a mission to Lisbon, Marvell was chosen +by the Lord-Protector to be tutor at Eton to Cromwell's ward, Mr. +Dutton, and took up his residence with his pupil with the Oxenbridges. +The following letter, addressed by Marvell to Oliver, will be read with +interest:-- + + "May it please your Excellence,--It might, perhaps, seem fit for me + to seek out words to give your Excellence thanks for myself. But, + indeed, the only civility which it is proper for me to practice with + so eminent a person is to obey you, and to perform honestly the work + that you have set me about. Therefore I shall use the time that your + Lordship is pleased to allow me for writing, onely for that purpose + for which you have given me it; that is, to render you an account of + Mr. Dutton. I have taken care to examine him several times in the + presence of Mr. Oxenbridge, as those who weigh and tell over money + before some witnesse ere they take charge of it; for I thought that + there might be possibly some lightness in the coyn, or errour in the + telling, which hereafter I should be bound to make good. Therefore, + Mr. Oxenbridge is the best to make your Excellency an impartial + relation thereof: I shall only say, that I shall strive according to + my best understanding (that is, according to those rules your + Lordship hath given me) to increase whatsoever talent he may have + already. Truly, he is of gentle and waxen disposition; and God be + praised, I cannot say he hath brought with him any evil impression; + and I shall hope to set nothing into his spirit but what may be of a + good sculpture. He hath in him two things that make youth most easy + to be managed,--modesty, which is the bridle to vice; and emulation, + which is the spur to virtue. And the care which your Excellence is + pleased to take of him is no small encouragement and shall be so + represented to him; but, above all, I shall labour to make him + sensible of his duty to God; for then we begin to serve faithfully, + when we consider He is our master. And in this, both he and I owe + infinitely to your Lordship, for having placed us in so godly a + family as that of Mr. Oxenbridge, whose doctrine and example are like + a book and a map, not only instructing the ear, but demonstrating to + the eye, which way we ought to travell; and Mrs. Oxenbridge has + looked so well to him, that he hath already much mended his + complexion; and now she is ordering his chamber, that he may delight + to be in it as often as his studys require. For the rest, most of + this time hath been spent in acquainting ourselves with him; and + truly he is chearfull, and I hope thinks us to be good company. I + shall, upon occasion, henceforward inform your Excellence of any + particularities in our little affairs, for so I esteem it to be my + duty. I have no more at present, but to give thanks to God for your + Lordship, and to beg grace of Him, that I may approve myself, Your + Excellency's most humble and faithful servant, + ANDREW MARVELL. + + "Windsor, _July 28, 1653_. + + "Mr. Dutton[55:1] presents his most humble service to your + Excellence." + +Something must now be said of Marvell's literary productions during this +period, 1652-1657. It was in 1653 that he began his stormy career as an +anonymous political poet and satirist. The Dutch were his first victims, +good Protestants though they were. Marvell never liked the Dutch, and +had he lived to see the Revolution must have undergone some qualms. + +In 1652 the Commonwealth was at war with the United Provinces. Trade +jealousy made the war what politicians call "inevitable." This jealousy +of the Dutch dates back to Elizabeth, and to the first stirring in the +womb of time of the British navy. This may be readily perceived if we +read Dr. John Dee's "Petty Navy Royal," 1577, and "A Politic Plat (plan) +for the Honour of the Prince," 1580, and, somewhat later in date, +"England's Way to Win Wealth," 1614.[56:1] + +These short tracts make two things quite plain--first, the desire to get +our share of the foreign fishing trade, then wholly in the hands of the +Dutch; and second, the recognition that England was a sea-empire, +dependent for its existence upon a great navy manned by the seafaring +inhabitants of our coasts. + +The enormous fishing trade done in our own waters by the Dutch, the +splendid fleet of fishing craft with twenty thousand handy sailors on +board, ready by every 1st of June to sail out of the Maas, the Texel, +and the Vlie, to catch herring in the North Sea, excited admiration, +envy, and almost despair. + + "O, slothful England and careless countrymen! look but on these + fellows that we call the plump Hollanders! Behold their diligence in + fishing and our most careless negligence! Six hundred of these + fisherships and more be great Busses, some six score tons, most of + them be a hundred tons, and the rest three score tons and fifty tons; + the biggest of them having four and twenty men, some twenty men, and + some eighteen or sixteen men apiece. So there cannot be in this fleet + of People no less than twenty thousand sailors.... No king upon the + earth did ever see such a fleet of his own subjects at any time, and + yet this fleet is there and then yearly to be seen. A most worthy + sight it were, if they were my own countrymen, yet have I taken + pleasure in being amongst them, to behold the neatness of their ships + and fishermen, how every man knoweth his own place, and all labouring + merrily together.[57:1] + + "Now, in our sum of fishermen, let us see what vent have we for our + fish in other countries, and what commodities and corn is brought + into this Kingdom? And what ships are set in work by them whereby + mariners are best employed. Not one. It is pitiful! ... This last + year at Yarmouth there were three hundred idle men that could get + nothing to do, living very poor for lack of employment, which most + gladly would have gone to sea in Pinks if there had been any for them + to go in.... And this last year the Hollanders did lade 12 sail of + Holland ships with red herrings at Yarmouth for Civita Vecchia, + Leghorn and Genoa and Marseilles and Toulon. Most of these being + laden by the English merchants. So that if this be suffered the + English owners of ships shall have but small employment for + them."[57:2] + +Nor was the other aspect of the case lost sight of. How can a great navy +necessary for our sea-empire be manned otherwise than by a race of brave +sea-faring men, accustomed from their infancy to handle boats? + + "Fourthly, how many thousands of soldiers of all degrees would be by + these means not only hardened well to brook all rage and disturbance + of sea, but also would be well practised and trained to great + perfection of understanding all manner of fight and service of sea, + so that in time of great need that expert and hardy crew of some + thousands of sea-soldiers would be to this realm a treasure + incomparable.[58:1] + + "We see the Hollanders being well fed in fishing affairs and stronger + and lustier than the sailors who use the long Southern voyages, but + these courageous, young, lusty, strong-fed younkers that shall be + bred in the Busses, when His Majesty shall have occasion for their + service in war against the enemy, will be fellows for the nonce! and + will put more strength to an iron crow at a piece of great ordnance + in training of a cannon, or culvining with the direction of the + experimented master Gunner, then two or three of the forenamed + surfeited sailors. And in distress of wind-grown sea and foul + winter's weather, for flying forward to their labour, for pulling in + a top-sail or a sprit-sail, or shaking off a bonnet in a dark night! + for wet or cold cannot make them shrink nor stain, that the North + Seas and the Busses and Pinks have dyed in the grain for such + purposes."[58:2] + +The years, as they went by, only served to increase English jealousy of +the Dutch, who not only fished our water but did the carrying trade of +the world. It was no rare sight to see Yarmouth full of Dutch bottoms, +and Dutch sailors loading them with English goods. + +In the early days of the Commonwealth the painfulness of the situation +was accentuated by the fact that some of our colonies or plantations, as +they were then called--Virginia and the Barbadoes, for example--stuck to +the king and gave a commercial preference to the Dutch, shipping their +produce to all parts of the world exclusively in Dutch bottoms. This was +found intolerable, and in October 1651 the Long Parliament, nearing its +violent end, passed the first Navigation Act, of which Ranke says: "Of +all the acts ever passed in Parliament, it is perhaps the one which +brought about the most important results for England and the +world."[59:1] + +The Navigation Act provided "that all goods from countries beyond Europe +should be imported into England in English ships only; and all European +goods either in English ships or in ships belonging to the countries +from which these articles originally came." + +This was a challenge indeed. + +Another perpetual source of irritation was the Right of Search, that is, +the right of stopping neutral ships and searching their cargoes for +contraband. England asserted this right as against the Dutch, who, as +the world's carriers, were most subject to the right, and not +unnaturally denied its existence. + +War was declared in 1652, and made the fame of two great admirals, Blake +and Van Tromp. Oliver's spirit was felt on the seas, and before many +months were over England had captured more than a thousand Dutch trading +vessels, and brought business to a standstill in Amsterdam--then the +great centre of commercial interests. When six short years afterwards +the news of Cromwell's death reached that city, its inhabitants greatly +rejoiced, crowding the streets and crying "the Devil is dead." + +Andrew Marvell was impregnated with the new ideas about sea-power. A +great reader and converser with the best intellects of his time, and a +Hull man, he had probably early grasped the significance of Bacon's +illuminating saying in the famous essay on the _True Greatness of +Kingdoms and Estates_ (first printed in 1612), "that he that commands +the sea is at great liberty and may take as much and as little of the +war as he will." Cromwell, though not the creator of our navy, was its +strongest inspiration until Nelson, and no feature of his great +administration so excited Marvell's patriotic admiration as the +Lord-Protector's sleepless energy in securing and maintaining the +command of the sea. + +In Marvell's poem, first published as a broadsheet in 1655, entitled +_The First Anniversary of the Government under His Highness the +Lord-Protector_, he describes foreign princes soundly rating their +ambassadors for having misinformed them as to the energies of the new +Commonwealth:-- + + "'Is this,' saith one, 'the nation that we read + Spent with both wars, under a Captain dead! + Yet rig a navy while we dress us late + And ere we dine rase and rebuild a state? + What oaken forests, and what golden mines, + What mints of men--what union of designs! + ... + Needs must we all their tributaries be + Whose navies hold the sluices of the sea! + _The ocean is the fountain of command_, + But that once took, we captives are on land; + And those that have the waters for their share + Can quickly leave us neither earth nor air.'" + +Marvell's aversion to the Dutch was first displayed in the rough lines +called _The Character of Holland_, published in 1653 during the first +Dutch War. As poetry the lines have no great merit; they do not even +jingle agreeably--but they are full of the spirit of the time, and +breathe forth that "envy, hatred, malice, and all uncharitableness" +which are apt to be such large ingredients in the compound we call +"patriotism." They begin thus:-- + + "Holland, that scarce deserves the name of land, + As but the off-scouring of the British sand, + And so much earth as was contributed + By English pilots when they heaved the lead, + Or what by the ocean's slow alluvion feel + Of shipwrecked cockle and the muscle-shell,-- + This indigested vomit of the sea + Fell to the Dutch by just propriety." + +The gallant struggle to secure their country from the sea is made the +subject of curious banter:-- + + "How did they rivet with gigantic piles, + Thorough the centre their new-catched miles, + And to the stake a struggling country bound, + Where barking waves still bait the forced ground, + Building their watery Babel far more high, + To reach the sea, than those to scale the sky! + Yet still his claim the injured ocean laid, + And oft at leap-frog o'er their steeples played, + As if on purpose it on land had come + To show them what's their _mare liberum_. + A daily deluge over them does boil; + The earth and water play at level coil. + The fish ofttimes the burgher dispossessed, + And sat, not as a meat, but as a guest." + +This final conceit greatly tickled the fancy of Charles Lamb, who was +perhaps the first of the moderns to rediscover both the rare merits and +the curiosities of our author. Hazlitt thought poorly of the jest.[61:1] + +Marvell proceeds with his ridicule to attack the magistrates:-- + + "For, as with pygmies, who best kills the crane; + Among the hungry, he that treasures grain; + Among the blind, the one-eyed blinkard reigns; + So rules among the drowned, he that drains: + Not who first see the rising sun, commands, + But who could first discern the rising lands; + Who best could know to pump an earth so leak, + Him they their Lord, and Country's Father, speak; + To make a bank, was a great plot of state; + Invent a shovel, and be a magistrate."[62:1] + +When the war-fever was raging such humour as this may well have passed +muster with the crowd. + +The incident--there is always an "incident"--which served as the actual +excuse for hostilities, is referred to as follows:-- + + "Let this one courtesy witness all the rest, + When their whole navy they together pressed, + Not Christian captives to redeem from bands, + Or intercept the western golden sands, + No, but all ancient rights and leagues must fail, + _Rather than to the English strike their sail_; + To whom their weather-beaten province owes + Itself." + +Two spirited lines describe the discomfiture of Van Tromp:-- + + "And the torn navy staggered with him home + While the sea laughed itself into a foam." + +This first Dutch War came to an end in 1654, when Holland was compelled +to acknowledge the supremacy of the English flag in the home waters, and +to acquiesce in the Navigation Act. It is a curious commentary upon the +black darkness that conceals the future, that Cromwell, dreading as he +did the House of Orange and the youthful grandson of Charles the First, +who at the appointed hour was destined to deal the House of Stuart a far +deadlier stroke than Cromwell had been able to do, either on the field +of battle or in front of Whitehall, refused to ratify the Treaty of +Peace with the Dutch until John De Witt had obtained an Act excluding +the Prince of Orange from ever filling the office of Stadtholder of the +Province of Holland. + +The contrast between the glory of Oliver's Dutch War and the shame of +Charles the Second's sank deep into Marvell's heart, and lent bitterness +to many of his later satirical lines. + +Marvell's famous _Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland_ in +1650 has a curious bibliographical interest. So far as we can tell, it +was first published in 1776. When it was composed we do not know. At +Nunappleton House Oliver was not a _persona grata_ in 1650, for he had +no sooner come back from Ireland than he had stepped into the shoes of +the Lord-General Fairfax; and there were those, Lady Fairfax, I doubt +not, among the number, who believed that the new Lord-General thought it +was high time he should be where Fairfax's "scruple" at last put him. We +may be sure Cromwell's character was dissected even more than it was +extolled at Nunappleton. The famous Ode is by no means a panegyric, and +its true hero is the "Royal actor," whom Cromwell, so the poem suggests, +lured to his doom. It is not likely that the Ode was composed after +Marvell had left Nunappleton, though it may have been so before he went +there. There is an old untraceable tradition that Marvell was among the +crowd that saw the king die. What deaths have been witnessed, and with +what strange apparent apathy, by the London crowd! But for this +tradition one's imagination would trace to Lady Fairfax the most famous +of the stanzas. + +But to return to the history of the Ode. In 1776 Captain Edward +Thompson, a connection of the Marvell family and a versatile sailor with +a passion for print, which had taken some odd forms of expression, +produced by subscription in three quarto volumes the first collected +edition of Andrew Marvell's works, both verse and prose. Such an edition +had been long premeditated by Thomas Hollis, one of the best friends +literature had in the eighteenth century. It was Hollis who gave to +Sidney Sussex College the finest portrait in existence of Oliver +Cromwell. Hollis collected material for an edition of Marvell with the +aid of Richard Barron, an early editor of Milton's prose works, and of +Algernon Sidney's _Discourse concerning Government_. Barron, however, +lost zeal as the task proceeded, and complained justly enough "of a want +of anecdotes," and as the printer, the well-known and accomplished +Bowyer, doubted the wisdom of the undertaking, it was allowed to drop. +Barron died in 1766, and Hollis in 1774, but the collections made by the +latter passed into the hands of Captain Thompson, who, with the +assistance of Mr. Robert Nettleton, a grandson of one of Marvell's +sisters, at once began to get his edition ready. On Nettleton's death +his "Marvell" papers came into Thompson's hands, and among them was, to +quote the captain's own words, "a volume of Mr. Marvell's poems, some +written with his own hand and the rest copied by his order." + +The _Horatian Ode_ was in this volume, and was printed from it in +Thompson's edition of 1776. + +What has become of this manuscript book? It has disappeared--destroyed, +so we are led to believe, in a fit of temper by the angry and uncritical +sea-captain. + +This precious volume undoubtedly contained some poems by Marvell, and as +his handwriting was both well known from many examples, and is highly +characteristic, we may also be certain that the captain was not mistaken +in his assertion that some of these poems were in Marvell's own +handwriting. But, as ill-luck would have it, the volume also contained +poems written at a later period and in quite another hand. Among these +latter pieces were Addison's verses, _The Spacious Firmament on High_ +and _When all thy Mercies, O my God_; Dr. Watts' paraphrase _When Israel +freed from Pharaoh's Hand_; and Mallet's ballad _William and Margaret_. +The two Addison pieces and the Watts paraphrase appeared for the first +time in the _Spectator_, Nos. 453, 465, and 461, in 1712, and Mallet's +ballad was first printed in 1724. + +Still there these pieces were, in manuscript, in this volume, and as +there were circumstances of mystification attendant upon their prior +publication, what does the captain do but claim them all, _Songs of +Zion_ and sentimental ballad alike, as Marvell's. This of course brought +the critics, ever anxious to air their erudition, down upon his head, +raised his anger, and occasioned the destruction of the book. + +Mr. Grosart says that Captain Thompson states that the _Horatian Ode_ +was in Marvell's handwriting. I cannot discover where this statement is +made, though it is made of other poems in the volume, also published for +the first time by the captain. + +All, therefore, we know is that the Ode was first published in 1776 by +an editor who says he found it copied in a book, subsequently destroyed, +which contained (among other things) some poems written in Marvell's +handwriting, and that this book was given to the editor by a +grand-nephew of the poet. + +Yet I imagine, poor as this evidence may seem to be, no student of +Marvell's life and character (so far as his life reveals his character), +and of his verse (so much of it as is positively known), wants more +evidence to satisfy him that the _Horatian Ode_ is as surely Marvell's +as the lines upon _Appleton House_, the _Bermudas_, _To his Coy +Mistress_, and _The Garden_. + +The great popularity of this Ode undoubtedly rests on the three +stanzas:-- + + "That thence the royal actor borne, + The tragic scaffold might adorn, + While round the armed bands; + Did clap their bloody hands: + + He nothing common did, or mean, + Upon that memorable scene, + But with his keener eye + The axe's edge did try; + + Nor called the gods with vulgar spite + To vindicate his helpless right, + But bowed his comely head + Down, as upon a bed." + +It is strange that the death of the king should be so nobly sung in an +Ode bearing Cromwell's name and dedicate to his genius:-- + + "So restless Cromwell could not cease + In the inglorious arts of peace, + But through adventurous war + Urged his active star; + + ... + + Then burning through the air he went, + And palaces and temples rent; + And Caesar's head at last + Did through his laurels blast. + + 'Tis madness to resist or blame + The force of angry Heaven's flame; + And if we would speak true, + Much to the man is due, + + Who, from his private gardens, where + He lived reserved and austere, + (As if his highest plot + To plant the bergamot), + + Could by industrious valour climb + To ruin the great work of time, + And cast the kingdoms old + Into another mould." + +The last stanzas of all have much pith and meaning in them:-- + + "But thou, the war's and fortune's son, + March indefatigably on! + And for the last effect, + Still keep the sword erect. + + Besides the force it has to fright + The spirits of the shady night, + The same arts that did gain + A power, must it maintain."[67:1] + +It is not surprising that this Ode was not published in 1650--if indeed +it was the work of that, and not of a later year. There is nothing +either of the courtier or of the partisan about its stately +versification and sober, solemn thought. Entire self-possession, +dignity, criticism of a great man and a strange career by one well +entitled to criticise, are among the chief characteristics of this noble +poem. It is infinitely refreshing, when reading and thinking about +Cromwell, to get as far away as possible from the fanatic's scream and +the fury of the bigot, whether of the school of Laud or Hobbes. Andrew +Marvell knew Oliver Cromwell alive, and gazed on his features as he lay +dead--he knew his ambition, his greatness, his power, and where that +power lay. How much might we unwittingly have lost, if Captain Thompson +had not printed a poem which for more than a century of years had +remained unknown, and exposed to all the risks of a single manuscript +copy! + +When Cromwell sent his picture to Queen Christina of Sweden to +commemorate the peace he concluded with her in 1654, Marvell, though not +then attached to the public service, was employed to write the Latin +couplet that accompanied the picture. He discharged his task as +follows:-- + + _In effigiem Oliveri Cromwell_. + + "Haec est quae toties inimicos umbra fugavit + At sub qua cives otia lenta terunt." + +The authorship of these lines is often attributed to Milton, but there +is little doubt they are of Marvell's composition. They might easily +have been better. + +Marvell became Milton's assistant in September 1657, and the friendship +between the two men was thus consolidated by the strong ties of a +common duty. Milton's blindness making him unfit to attend the reception +of foreign embassies, Marvell took his place and joined in respectfully +greeting the Dutch ambassadors. After all he was but a junior clerk, +still he doubtless rejoiced that his lines on Holland had been published +anonymously. Literature was strongly represented in this department of +State just then, for Cromwell's Chamberlain, Sir Gilbert Pickering, who +represented Northamptonshire in Parliament, had taken occasion to +introduce his nephew, John Dryden, to the public service, and he was +attached to the same office as Andrew Marvell. Poets, like pigeons, have +often taken shelter under our public roofs, but Milton, Marvell, and +Dryden, all at the same time, form a remarkable constellation. Old Noll, +we may be sure, had nothing to do with it. Marvell must have known +Cromwell personally; but there is nothing to show that Milton and +Cromwell ever met. The popular engraving which represents a theatrical +Lord-Protector dictating despatches to a meek Milton is highly +ludicrous. Cromwell could have as easily dictated a book of _Paradise +Lost_, on the composition of which Milton began to be engaged during the +last year of the Protectorate, as one of Milton's despatches. + +In April 1657 Admiral Blake, the first great name in the annals of our +navy, performed his last feat of arms by destroying the Spanish West +Indian fleet at Santa Cruz without the loss of an English vessel. The +gallant sailor died of fever on his way home, and was buried according +to his deserts in the Abbey. His body, with that of his master, was by a +vote of Parliament, December 4, 1660, taken from the grave and drawn to +the gallows-tree, and there hanged and buried under it. Pepys, who was +to know something of naval administration under the second Charles, has +his reflections on this unpleasing incident. + +Marvell's lines on Blake's victory over the Spaniards are not worthy of +so glorious an occasion, but our great doings by land and sea have +seldom been suitably recorded in verse. Drayton's _Song of Agincourt_ is +imperishable, but was composed nearly two centuries after the battle. +The wail of Flodden Field still floats over the Border; but Miss +Elliot's famous ballad was published in 1765. Even the Spanish Armada +had to wait for Macaulay's spirited fragment. Mr. Addison's _Blenheim_ +stirred no man's blood; no poet sang Chatham's victories.[70:1] Campbell +at a later day did better. We must be content with what we get. + +Marvell's poem contains some vigorous lines, which show he was a good +hater:-- + + "Now does Spain's fleet her spacious wings unfold, + Leaves the new world, and hastens for the old; + But though the wind was fair, they slowly swum, + Freighted with acted guilt, and guilt to come; + For this rich load, of which so proud they are, + Was raised by tyranny, and raised for war. + ... + ... + For now upon the main themselves they saw + That boundless empire, where you give the law." + +The Canary Islands are rapturously described--their delightful climate +and their excellent wine. Obviously they should be annexed:-- + + "The best of lands should have the best of Kings." + +The fight begins. "Bold Stayner leads" and "War turned the temperate to +the torrid zone":-- + + "Fate these two fleets, between both worlds, had brought + Who fight, as if for both those worlds they fought. + ... + ... + The all-seeing sun ne'er gazed on such a sight, + Two dreadful navies there at anchor fight, + And neither have, or power, or will, to fly; + There one must conquer, or there both must die." + +Blake sinks the Spanish ships:-- + + "Their galleons sunk, their wealth the sea does fill, + The only place where it can cause no ill"; + +and the poet concludes:-- + + "Ah! would those treasures which both Indias have + Were buried in as large, and deep a grave! + War's chief support with them would buried be, + And the land owe her peace unto the sea. + Ages to come your conquering arms will bless. + There they destroyed what had destroyed their peace; + And in one war the present age may boast, + The certain seeds of many wars are lost." + +Good politics, if but second-rate poetry. This was the last time the +Spanish war-cry _Santiago, y cierra Espana_ rang in hostility in English +ears. + +Turning for a moment from war to love, on the 19th of November 1657 +Cromwell's third daughter, the Lady Mary Cromwell, was married to +Viscount, afterwards Earl, Fauconberg. The Fauconbergs took revolutions +calmly and, despite the disinterment of their great relative, accepted +the Restoration gladly and lived to chuckle over the Revolution. The +forgetfulness, no less than the vindictiveness, of men is often +surprising. Marvell, who played the part of Laureate during the +Protectorate, produced two songs for the conventionally joyful +occasion. The second of the two is decidedly pretty for a November +wedding:-- + + "_Hobbinol._ PHILLIS, TOMALIN, away! + Never such a merry day, + For the northern shepherd's son + Has MENALCAS' daughter won. + + _Phillis._ Stay till I some flowers have tied + In a garland for the bride. + + _Tomalin._ If thou would'st a garland bring, + PHILLIS, you may wait the spring: + They have chosen such an hour + When she is the only flower. + + _Phillis._ Let's not then, at least, be seen + Without each a sprig of green. + + _Hobbinol._ Fear not; at MENALCAS' hall + There are bays enough for all. + He, when young as we, did graze, + But when old he planted bays. + + _Tomalin._ Here she comes; but with a look + Far more catching than my hook; + 'Twas those eyes, I now dare swear, + Led our lambs we knew not where. + + _Hobbinol._ Not our lambs' own fleeces are + Curled so lovely as her hair, + Nor our sheep new-washed can be + Half so white or sweet as she. + + _Phillis._ He so looks as fit to keep + Somewhat else than silly sheep. + + _Hobbinol._ Come, let's in some carol new + Pay to love and them their due. + + _All._ Joy to that happy pair + Whose hopes united banish our despair. + What shepherd could for love pretend, + Whilst all the nymphs on Damon's choice attend? + What shepherdess could hope to wed + Before Marina's turn were sped? + Now lesser beauties may take place + And meaner virtues come in play; + While they + Looking from high + Shall grace + Our flocks and us with a propitious eye." + +All this merriment came to an end on the 3rd of September 1658, when +Oliver Cromwell died on the anniversary of Dunbar fight and of the field +of Worcester. And yet the end, though it was to be sudden, did not at +once seem likely to be so. There was time for the poets to tune their +lyres. Waller, Dryden, Sprat, and Marvell had no doubt that "Tumbledown +Dick" was to sit on the throne of his father and "still keep the sword +erect," and were ready with their verses. + +Westminster Abbey has never witnessed a statelier, costlier funeral than +that of "the late man who made himself to be called Protector," to quote +words from one of the most impressive passages in English prose, the +opening sentences of Cowley's _Discourse by way of Vision concerning the +Government of Oliver Cromwell_. The representatives of kings, +potentates, and powers crowded the aisles, and all was done that pomp +and ceremony could do. Marvell, arrayed in the six yards of mourning the +Council had voted him on the 7th of September, was, we may be sure, in +the Abbey, and it may well be that his blind colleague, to whom the same +liberal allowance had been made, leant on his arm during the service. +Milton's muse remained silent. The vote of the House of Commons ordering +the undoing of this great ceremony was little more than two years ahead. +_O caeca mens hominum!_ + +Among the poems first printed by Captain Thompson from the old +manuscript book was one which was written therein in Marvell's own hand +entitled "A poem upon the Death of his late Highness the Protector." Its +composition was evidently not long delayed:-- + + "We find already what those omens mean, + Earth ne'er more glad nor Heaven more serene. + Cease now our griefs, calm peace succeeds a war, + Rainbows to storms, Richard to Oliver." + +The lines best worth remembering in the poem are the following:-- + + "I saw him dead: a leaden slumber lies, + And mortal sleep over those wakeful eyes; + Those gentle rays under the lids were fled, + Which through his looks that piercing sweetness shed; + That port, which so majestic was and strong, + Loose, and deprived of vigour, stretched along; + All withered, all discoloured, pale and wan, + How much another thing, no more that man! + O, human glory vain! O, Death! O, wings! + O, worthless world! O, transitory things! + Yet dwelt that greatness in his shape decayed, + That still though dead, greater than Death he laid, + And in his altered face you something feign + That threatens Death, he yet will live again." + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[49:1] In 1659 Clarendon, then Sir Edward Hyde, and in Brussels, writing +to Sir Richard Fanshaw, says, "You are the secretary of the Latin tongue +and I will mend the warrant you sent, and have it despatched as soon as +I hear again from you, but I must tell you the place in itself, if it be +not dignified by the person who hath some other qualification, is not to +be valued. There is no signet belongs to it, which can be only kept by a +Secretary of State, from whom the Latin Secretary always receives orders +and prepares no despatches without his direction, and hath only a fee of +a hundred pound a year. And therefore, except it hath been in the hands +of a person who hath had some other employment, it hath fallen to the +fortune of inconsiderable men as Weckerlin was the last" (_Hist. MSS. +Com._, _Heathcote Papers_, 1899, p. 9). + +[51:1] _The Rehearsal Transprosed_.--Grosart, iii. 126. + +[55:1] Even Mr. Firth can tell me nothing about this Ward of Cromwell's. + +[56:1] For reprints of these tracts, see _Social England Illustrated_, +Constable and Co., 1903. + +[57:1] "England's Way to Win Wealth." See _Social England Illustrated_, +p. 253. + +[57:2] _Ibid._ p. 265. + +[58:1] Dr. Dee's "Petty Navy Royal." _Social England Illustrated_, p. +46. + +[58:2] "England's Way to Win Wealth." _Social England Illustrated_, p. +268. + +[59:1] Ranke's _History of England during the Seventeenth Century_, vol. +iii. p. 68. + +[61:1] See Leigh Hunt's _Wit and Humour_ (1846), pp. 38, 237. + +[62:1] Butler's lines, _A Description of Holland_, are very like +Marvell's:-- + + "A Country that draws fifty foot of water + In which men live as in a hold of nature. + ... + ... + They dwell in ships, like swarms of rats, and prey + Upon the goods all nations' fleets convey; + ... + ... + That feed like cannibals on other fishes, + And serve their cousin-germans up in dishes: + A land that rides at anchor and is moor'd, + In which they do not live but go aboard." + +Marvell and Butler were rival wits, but Holland was a common butt; so +powerful a motive is trade jealousy. + +[67:1] "To one unacquainted with Horace, this Ode, not perhaps so +perfect as his are in form, and with occasional obscurities of +expression, which Horace would not have left, will give a truer notion +of the kind of greatness which he achieved than could, so far as I know, +be obtained from any other poem in our language."--_Dean Trench_. + +[70:1] "In the last war, when France was disgraced and overpowered in +every quarter of the globe, when Spain coming to her assistance only +shared her calamities, and the name of an Englishman was reverenced +through Europe, no poet was heard amidst the general acclamation; the +fame of our counsellors and heroes was entrusted to the gazetteer."--Dr. +Johnson's _Life of Prior_. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS + + +Cromwell's death was an epoch in Marvell's history. Up to that date he +had, since he left the University, led the life of a scholar, with a +turn for business, and was known to many as an agreeable companion and a +lively wit. He was keenly interested in public affairs, and personally +acquainted with some men in great place, and for a year before +Cromwell's death he had been in a branch of the Civil Service; but of +the wear and tear, the strife and contention, of what are called +"practical politics" he knew nothing from personal experience. + +Within a year of the Protector's death all this was changed and, for the +rest of his days, with but the shortest of occasional intervals, Andrew +Marvell led the life of an active, eager member of Parliament, knowing +all that was going on in the Chamber and hearing of everything that was +alleged to be going on in the Court; busily occupied with the affairs of +his constituents in Hull, and daily watching, with an increasingly heavy +heart and a bitter humour, the corruption of the times, the declension +of our sea-power, the growing shame of England, and what he believed to +be a dangerous conspiracy afoot for the undoing of the Reformation and +the destruction of the Constitution in both Church and State. + +"Garden-poetry" could not be reared on such a soil as this. The age of +Cromwell and Blake was over. The remainder of Marvell's life (save so +far as personal friendship sweetened it) was spent in politics, public +business, in concocting roughly rhymed and bitter satirical poems, and +in the composition of prose pamphlets. + +Through it all Marvell remained very much the man of letters, though one +with a great natural aptitude for business. His was always the critical +attitude. He was the friend of Milton and Harrington, of the political +philosophers who invented paper constitutions in the "Rota" Club, and of +the new race of men whose thoughts turned to Natural Science, and who +founded the Royal Society. Office he never thought of. He could have had +it had he chosen, for he was a man of mark, even of distinction, from +the first. Clarendon has told us how members of the House of Commons +"got on" in the Long Parliament of Charles the Second. It was full of +the king's friends, who ran out of the House to tell their shrewd master +the gossip of the lobbies, "commended this man and discommended another +who deserved better, and would many times, when His Majesty spoke well +of any man, ask His Majesty if he would give them leave to let that +person know how gracious His Majesty was to him, or bring him to kiss +his hand. To which he commonly consenting, every one of his servants +delivered some message from him to a Parliament man, and invited him to +Court, as if the King would be willing to see him. And by this means the +rooms at Court were always full of the members of the House of Commons. +This man brought to kiss his hand, and the King induced to confer with +that man and to thank him for his affection, which could never conclude +without some general expression of grace or promise, which the poor +gentleman always interpreted to his own advantage, and expected some +fruit from it that it could never yield." + +The suspicious Clarendon, already shaking to his fall, goes on to add, +"all which, being contrary to all former order, did the King no good, +and rendered those unable to do him service who were inclined to +it."[77:1] + +It is a lifelike picture Clarendon draws of the crowded rooms, and of +the witty king moving about fooling vanity, ambition, and corruption to +the top of their bent. That the king chose his own ministers is plain +enough. + +Marvell was at the beginning well disposed towards Charles. They had +some points in common; and among them a quick sense of humour and a turn +for business. But the member for Hull must soon have recognised that +there was no place for an honest quick-witted man in any Stuart +administration. + +Marvell and his great chief remained in their offices until the close of +the year 1659, when the impending Restoration enforced their retirement. +Milton used his leisure to pour forth excited tracts to prove how easy +it would still be to establish a Free Commonwealth. Once again, and for +the last time, he prompted the age to quit its clogs + + "by the known rules of ancient liberty." + +These pamphlets of Milton's prove how little that solitary thinker ever +knew of the real mind and temper of the English people. + +The Lord Richard Cromwell was exactly the sort of eldest son a great +soldier like Oliver, who had put his foot on fortune's neck, was likely +to have. Richard (1626-1712) was not, indeed, born in the purple, but +his early manhood was nurtured in it. Religion, as represented by long +sermons, tiresome treatises, and prayerful exercises, bored him to +death. Of enthusiasm he had not a trace, nor was he bred to arms. He +delighted in hunting, in the open air, and the company of sportsmen. +Whatever came his way easily, and as a matter of right, he was well +content to take. He bore himself well on State occasions, and could make +a better speech than ever his father was able to do. But he was not a +"restless" Cromwell, and had no faith in his destiny. I do not know +whether he had ever read _Don Quixote_, in Shelton's translation, a very +popular book of the time; probably not, for, though Chancellor of the +University of Oxford, Richard was not a reading man, but if he had, he +must have sympathised with Sancho Panza's attitude of mind towards the +famous island. + + "If your highness has no mind that the government you promised should + be given me, God made me of less, and perhaps it may be easier for + Sancho, the Squire, to get to Heaven than for Sancho, the Governor. + _In the dark all cats are gray._" + +The new Protector took up the reins of power with proper forms and +ceremonies, and at once proceeded to summon a Parliament, an Imperial +Cromwellian Parliament, containing representatives both from Scotland +and Ireland. In this Parliament Andrew Marvell sat for the first time as +one of the two members for Kingston-upon-Hull. His election took place +on the 10th of January 1659, being the first county day after the +sheriff had received the writ. Five candidates were nominated: Thomas +Strickland, Andrew Marvell, John Ramsden, Henry Smyth, and Sir Henry +Vane, and a vote being taken in the presence of the mayor, aldermen, and +many of the burgesses, John Ramsden and Andrew Marvell were declared +duly elected. + +Nobody to-day, glancing his eye over a list of the knights and +burgesses who made up Richard Cromwell's first and last Parliament, +would ever guess that it represented an order of things of the most +recent date which was just about to disappear. On paper it has a solid +look. The fine old crusted Parliamentary names with which the clerks +were to remain so long familiar as the members trooped out to divide +were more than well represented.[79:1] The Drakes of Amersham were +there; Boscawens, Bullers, and Trelawneys flocked from Cornwall; Sir +Wilfred Lawson sat for Cumberland, and his son for Cockermouth; a +Knightly represented Northamptonshire, whilst Lucys from Charlecote +looked after Warwick, both town and county. Arthur Onslow came from +Surrey, a Townshend from Norfolk, and, of course, a Bankes from Corfe +Castle;[79:2] Oxford University, contented, as she occasionally is, to +be represented by a great man, had chosen Sir Matthew Hale, whilst the +no less useful and laborious Thurloe sat for the sister University. +Anthony Ashley Cooper was there, but in opposition, snuffing the morrow. +Mildmays, Lawleys, Binghams, Herberts, Pelhams, all travelled up to +London with the Lord-Protector's writs in their pockets. A less +revolutionary assembly never met, though there was a regicide or two +among them. But when the members found themselves alone together there +was some loose talk. + +On the 27th of January 1659 Marvell attended for the first time in his +place, when the new Protector opened Parliament, and made a speech in +the House of Lords, which was pronounced at the time to be "a very +handsome oration." + +The first business of the Commons was to elect a Speaker, nor was their +choice a very lucky one, for it first fell on Chaloner Chute, who +speedily breaking down in health, the Recorder of London was appointed +his substitute, but the Recorder being on his deathbed at the time, and +Chute dying very shortly afterwards, Thomas Bampfield was elected +Speaker, and continued so to be until the Parliament was dissolved by +proclamation on the 22nd of April. This proclamation was Richard +Cromwell's last act of State. + +Marvell's first Parliament was both short and inglorious. One only of +its resolutions is worth quoting:-- + + "That a very considerable navy be forthwith provided, and put to sea + for the safety of the Commonwealth and the preservation of the trade + and commerce thereof." + +It was, however, the army and not the navy that had to be reckoned +with--an army unpaid, angry, suspicious, and happily divided. I must not +trace the history of faction. There is no less exalted page in English +history since the days of Stephen. Monk is its fitting hero, and Charles +the Second its expensive saviour of society. The story how the +Restoration was engineered by General Monk, who, if vulgar, was adroit, +both on land and sea, is best told from Monk's point of view in the +concluding chapter of _Baker's Chronicle_ (Sir Roger de Coverley's +favourite Sunday reading), whilst that old-fashioned remnant, who still +love to read history for fun, may not object to be told that they will +find printed in the Report of the Leyborne-Popham Papers (_Historical +Manuscripts Commission_, 1899, p. 204) a _Narrative of the Restoration_, +by Mr. John Collins, the Chief Butler of the Inner Temple, proving in +great and highly diverting detail how this remarkable event was really +the work not so much of Monk as of the Chief Butler. + +Richard Cromwell having slipped the collar, the officers assumed +command, as they were only too ready to do, and recalled the old, +dishonoured, but pertinacious Rump Parliament, which, though mustering +at first but forty-two members, at once began to talk and keep journals +as if nothing had happened since the day ten years before, when it was +sent about its business. Old Speaker Lenthall was routed out of +obscurity, and much against his will, and despite his protests, clapped +once more into the chair. Dr. John Owen, an old parliamentary preaching +hand, was once again requisitioned to preach before the House, which he +did at enormous length one fine Sunday in May. + +The Rump did not prove a popular favourite. It was worse than Old Noll +himself, who could at least thrash both Dutchman and Spaniard, and be +even more feared abroad than he was hated at home. The City of London, +then almost an Estate of the Realm, declared for a Free Parliament, and +it soon became apparent to every one that the whole country was eager to +return as soon as possible to the old mould. Nothing now stood between +Charles and his own but half a dozen fierce old soldiers and their +dubious, discontented, unpaid men. + +It was once commonly supposed (it is so no longer), that the Restoration +party was exclusively composed of dispossessed Cavaliers, bishops in +hiding, ejected parsons, high-flying _jure divino_ Episcopalians, +talkative toss-pots, and the great pleasure-loving crowd, cruelly +repressed under the rule of the saints. Had it been left to these +ragged regiments, the issue would have been doubtful, and the result +very different. The Presbyterian ministers who occupied the rectories +and vicarages of the Church of England and their well-to-do flocks in +both town and country were, with but few exceptions, all for King +Charles and a restored monarchy. In this the ministers may have shown a +sound political instinct, for none of them had any more mind than the +Anglican bishops to tolerate Papists, Socinians, Quakers, and Fifth +Monarchy men, but in their management of the business of the Restoration +these divines exposed themselves to the same condemnation that Clarendon +in an often-quoted passage passed upon his own clerical allies. When +read by the light of the Act of "Uniformity," the "Corporation," the +"Five Mile," and the "Conventicle" Acts, the conduct of the +Presbyterians seems recklessness itself, whilst the ignorance their +ministers displayed of the temper of the people they had lived amongst +all their lives, and whom they adjured to cry _God save the King_, but +not to drink his Majesty's health (because health-drinking was forbidden +in the Old Testament), would be startling were it not so eminently +characteristic.[82:1] + +The Rump, amidst the ridicule and contempt of the populace, was again +expelled by military force on the 13th of October 1659. The officers +were divided in opinion, some supporting, others, headed by Lambert, +opposing the Parliament; but _vis major_, or superior cunning, was on +the side of Lambert, who placed his soldiers in the streets leading to +Westminster Hall, and when the Speaker came in his coach, his horses +were turned, and he was conducted very civilly home. The regiments that +should have resisted, "observing that they were exposed to derision," +peaceably returned to their quarters. + +Monk, in the meanwhile, was advancing with his army from Edinburgh, and +affected not to approve of the force put upon Parliament. The feeling +for a Free Parliament increased in strength and violence every day. The +Rump was for a third time restored in December by the section of the +London army that supported its claim. Lenthall was once more in the +chair, and the journals were resumed without the least notice of past +occurrences. Monk, having reached London amidst great excitement, went +down to the House and delivered an ambiguous speech. Up to the last Monk +seems to have remained uncertain what to do. The temper of the City, +which was fiercely anti-Rump, may have decided him. At all events he +invited the secluded, that is the expelled, members of the old Long +Parliament to take their seats along with the others, and in a formal +declaration addressed to Parliament, dated the 21st of February 1660, he +counselled it among other things to dissolve legally "in order to make +way for a succession of Parliaments." In a word, Monk declared for a +Free Parliament. Great indeed were the national rejoicings. + +On the 16th of March 1660 a Bill was read a third time dissolving the +Parliament begun and holden at Westminster, 3rd November 1640, and for +the calling and holding of a Parliament at Westminster on the 25th of +April 1660. This time an end was really made of the Rump, though for +many a long day there were parliamentary pedants to be found in the land +ready to maintain that the Long Parliament had never been legally +dissolved and still _de jure_ existed; so long, I presume, as any +single member of it remained alive. + +Marvell was not a "Rumper," but on the 2nd of April 1660 he was again +elected for Hull to sit in what is usually called the Convention +Parliament. John Ramsden was returned at the head of the poll with 227 +votes, Marvell receiving 141. There were four defeated candidates. + +With this Convention Parliament begins Marvell's remarkable +correspondence, on fine folio sheets of paper, with the corporation of +Hull, whose faithful servant he remained until death parted them in +1678. + +This correspondence, which if we include in it, as we well may, the +letters to the Worshipful Society of Masters and Pilots of the Trinity +House in Hull, numbers upwards of 350 letters, and with but one +considerable gap (from July 1663 to October 1665) covers the whole +period of Marvell's membership, is, I believe, unique in our public +records. The letters are preserved at Hull, where I hope care is taken +to preserve them from the autograph hunter and the autograph thief. +Captain Thompson printed a great part of this correspondence in 1776, +and Mr. Grosart gave the world the whole of it in the second volume of +his edition of Marvell's complete works. + +An admission may as well be made at once. This correspondence is not so +interesting as it might have been expected to prove. Marvell did not +write letters for his biographer, nor to instruct posterity, nor to +serve any party purpose, nor even to exhibit honest emotion, but simply +to tell his employers, whose wages he took, what was happening at +Westminster. He kept his reflections either to himself or for his +political broadsheets, and indeed they were seldom of the kind it would +have been safe to entrust to the post. + +Good Mr. Grosart fusses and frets terribly over Marvell's astonishing +capacity for chronicling in sombre silence every kind of legislative +abomination. It is at times a little hard to understand it, for Hull was +what may be called a Puritan place. No doubt caution dictated some of +the reticence--but the reserve of Marvell's character is one of the few +traits of his personality that has survived. He was a satirist, not an +enthusiast. + +I will give the first letter _in extenso_ to serve as a specimen, and a +very favourable one, of the whole correspondence:-- + + "_Nov. 17, 1660._ + + "GENTLEMEN, MY WORTHY FRIENDS,--Although during the necessary absence + of my partner, Mr. Ramsden, I write with but halfe a penn, and can + scarce perswade myselfe to send you so imperfect an account of your + own and the publick affairs, as I needs must for want of his + assistance; yet I had rather expose mine own defects to your good + interpretation, then excuse thereby a totall neglect of my duty, and + that trust which is divided upon me. At my late absence out of Town I + had taken such order that if you had commanded me any thing, I might + soon haue received it, and so returned on purpose to this place to + haue obeyed you. But hearing nothing of that nature howeuer, I was + present the first day of the Parliament's sitting, and tooke care to + write to Mr. Maior what work we had cut out. Since when, we have had + little new, but onely been making a progresse in those things I then + mentioned. There is yet brought in an Act in which of all others your + corporation is the least concerned: that is, where wives shall refuse + to cohabit with their husbands, that in such case the husband shall + not be liable to pay any debts which she may run into, for clothing, + diet, lodging, or other expenses. I wish with all my heart you were no + more touched in a vote that we haue made for bringing in an Act of a + new Assessment for six moneths, of 70,000li. _per mensem_, to begin + next January. The truth is, the delay ere monyes can be got in, eats + up a great part of all that is levying, and that growing charge of the + Army and Navy doubles upon us. And that is all that can be said for + excuse of ourselues to the Country, to whom we had giuen our own hopes + of no further sessment to be raised, but must now needs incurre the + censure of improvidence before or prodigality now, though it becomes + no private member, the resolution having passed the House, to + interpose further his own judgment in a thing that can not be + remedied; and it will be each man's ingenuity not to grudge an + after-payment for that settlement and freedome from Armyes and Navyes, + which before he would haue been glad to purchase with his whole + fortune. There remain some eight Regiments to be disbanded, but those + all horse in a manner, and some seauenteen shipps to be payd of, that + haue laid so long upon charge in the harbour, beside fourscore shipps + which are reckoned to us for this Winter guard. But after that, all + things are to go upon his Majestye's own purse out of the Tunnage and + Poundage and his other revenues. But there being so great a provision + made for mony, I doubt not but ere we rise, to see the whole army + disbanded, and according to the Act, hope to see your Town once more + ungarrisond, in which I should be glad and happy to be instrumentall + to the uttermost. For I can not but remember, though then a child, + those blessed days when the youth of your own town were trained for + your militia, and did, methought, become their arms much better than + any soldiers that I haue seen there since. And it will not be amisse + if you please (now that we are about a new Act of regulating the + Militia, that it may be as a standing strength, but not as ill as a + perpetuall Army to the Nation) to signify to me any thing in that + matter that were according to your ancient custome and desirable for + you. For though I can promise little, yet I intend all things for your + service. The Act for review of the Poll bill proceeds, and that for + making this Declaration of his Majesty a Law in religious matters. + Order likewise is giuen for drawing up all the votes made during our + last sitting, in the businesse of Sales of Bishops' and Deans' and + Chapters' lands into an Act, which I should be glad to see passed. The + purchasers the other day offerd the house 600,000li. in ready mony, + and to make the Bishops', etc., revenue as good or better then before. + But the House thought it not fit or seasonable to hearken to it. We + are so much the more concernd to see that great interest of the + purchasers satisfyed and quieted, at least in that way which our own + votes haue propounded. On Munday next we are to return to the + consideration of apportioning 100,000li. per annum upon all the lands + in the nation, in lieu of the Court of Wards. The debate among the + Countyes, each thinking it self overrated, makes the successe of that + businesse something casuall, and truly I shall not assist it much for + my part, for it is little reason that your Town should contribute in + that charge. The Excise bill for longer continuance (I wish it proue + not too long) will come in also next weeke. And I foresee we shall be + called upon shortly to effect our vote made the former sitting, of + raising his Majestie's revenue to 1,200,000li. per Annum. I do not + love to write so much of this mony news. But I think you haue observed + that Parliaments have been always made use of to that purpose, and + though we may buy gold too deare, yet we must at any rate be glad of + Peace, Freedom, and a good Conscience. Mr. Maior tells me, your + duplicates of the Poll are coming up. I shall go with them to the + Exchequer and make your excuse, if any be requisite. My long silence + hath made me now trespasse on the other hand in a long letter, but I + doubt not of your good construction of so much familiarity and trouble + from, Gentlemen, your most affectionate friend and servant, + + "ANDR: MARVELL. + + "WESTMINSTER, _Nov. 17, 1660._" + +Although this first letter of the Hull correspondence is dated the 17th +of November 1660, the Convention Parliament began its sittings on the +25th of April. + +In composition this Convention Parliament was very like Richard +Cromwell's, and indeed it contained many of the same members, whose +loyalty, however, was less restrained than in 1659. All the world knew +what brought this Parliament together. It was to make the nation's +peace with its king, either on terms or without terms. "We are all +Royalists now" are words which must often have been on the lips of the +members of this House. One can imagine the smiles, half grim, half +ironical, that would accompany their utterance. Such a right-about-face +could never be dignified. It is impossible not to be reminded of +schoolboys at the inevitable end of "a barring out." The sarcastic +comment of Clarendon has not lost its sting. "From this time there was +such an emulation and impatience in Lords, Commons, and City, and +generally over the Kingdom, who should make the most lively expressions +of their duty and of their joy, that a man could not but wonder where +those people dwelt who had done all the mischief and kept the King so +many years from enjoying the comfort and support of such excellent +subjects."[88:1] + +The most significant sentence in Marvell's first letter to his +constituents is that in which he refers to the Bill for making Charles's +declaration in religious matters the law of the land. Had the passing of +any such Bill been possible, how different the history of England would +have been! + +The declaration Marvell is referring to was contained in the famous +message from Breda, which was addressed by Charles to all his loving +subjects of what degree or quality, and was expressed as follows:-- + + "And because the passion and uncharitableness of the times have + produced several opinions in Religion by which men are engaged in + parties and animosities against each other (which, when they shall + hereafter unite in a freedom of conversation, will be composed or + better understood) we do declare a liberty to tender Consciences, and + that no man shall be disquieted or called in question for differences + of opinion in matters of Religion which do not disturb the peace of + the Kingdom; and that we shall be ready to consent to such an Act of + Parliament as upon mature deliberation shall be offered to us for the + full granting of that indulgence." + +It is only doing the king bare justice to say that he was always ready +and willing to keep this part of his royal word--but it proved an +impossibility. + +A Roman Catholic as a matter of creed, a Hobbist in conversation, a +sensualist in practice, and the shrewdest though most indolent of cynics +in council, Charles, in this matter of religious toleration, would +gladly have kept his word, not indeed because it was his word, for on +the point of honour he was indifferent, but because it jumped with his +humour, and would have mitigated the hard lot of the Catholics. Charles +was not a theorist, all his tastes being eminently practical, not to say +scientific. He was not a tyrant, but a _de facto_ man from head to heel. +For the _jure divino_ of the English Episcopate he cared as little as +Oliver had ever done for the _jure divino_ of the English Crown. Oliver +once said, and he was not given to _braggadocio_, that he would fire his +pistol at the king "as soon as at another if he met him in battle," and +the second Charles would have thought no more of beheading an Anglican +bishop than he did of sending Sir Harry Vane to the scaffold. Honesty +and virtue, on the rare occasions Charles encountered them, he admired +much as a painter admires the colours of a fine sunset. Above everything +else Charles was determined never again, if he could help it, to be sent +on his travels, to be snubbed and starved in foreign courts. + +Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromartie, the first and best translator of +Rabelais, is said to have died of laughing on hearing of the +Restoration; Charles did not die, but he must have laughed inwardly at +the spectacle that met his eyes everywhere as he made his +often-described progress from Dover to London, and examined the gorgeous +beds and quilts, fine linen and carpets, couches, horses and liveries, +his faithful Commons had been at the pains and at the expense of +providing for his comfort. + +A few years afterwards Marvell wrote the following lines:-- + + "Of a tall stature and of sable hue, + Much like the son of Kish, that lofty Jew; + Twelve years complete he suffered in exile + And kept his father's asses all the while. + At length, by wonderful impulse of fate, + The people called him home to help the state, + And what is more they sent him money too + To clothe him all from head to foot anew; + Nor did he such small favours then disdain, + Who in his thirtieth year began his reign."[90:1] + +The "small favours" grew in size year by year. + +Why it was impossible for Charles to keep his word may be read in +Clarendon's _Life_, and in the history of the Savoy Conference, and need +not be restated here. In the opinion of the Anglican clergy, the king's +divine right stood no higher than their own. They too had suffered in +exile. They had been "robbed" of their tithes, and turned out of their +palaces, rectories and vicarages, and excluded from the churches they +still called "theirs." Their Book of Common Prayer was no longer in +common use, having been banished by the "Directory of Public Worship" +since 1645. So late as July 1, 1660, Pepys records attending a service +in the Abbey, and adds "No Common Prayer yet." If we find ourselves +wondering why the Anglican party should have been so powerful in 1660, +our wonder ought not to be greater than is excited by the power of the +Puritan party when Laud was put to death. Both parties were, on each +occasion, in a minority. Though England has never been long +priest-ridden, it has often been priest-led. + +The Convention Parliament did all that was expected of it. It was, +however irregularly summoned, a truly representative assembly. Its +members all swore--what will not members of Parliament swear?--that the +king was supreme in Church and State, the only rightful king of the +realm and of all other his dominions, and that from their hearts they +abhorred, detested, and abjured the damnable doctrine that princes, +excommunicated or deprived of the Pope, might be murdered by their +subjects. They proceeded to pass a very useful Act of Indemnity and +Oblivion, agreeing to let bygones be bygones, except in certain named +cases. They ordered Mr. John Milton to be taken into custody, and +prosecuted (which he never was) by the Attorney-General. Later on the +poet was released from custody, and we find Mr. Marvell complaining to +the House that their sergeant had extracted L150 in fees before he would +let Mr. Milton go. On which Sir Heneage Finch, afterwards Lord +Chancellor, laconically observed that Milton deserved hanging. He +certainly got off easily, but, as he lived to publish _Paradise Lost_, +_Paradise Regained_, and _Samson Agonistes_, he may be said to have +earned his freedom. All his poetry put together never brought him in a +third of the sum the sergeant got for letting him out of prison. General +Monk, the man-midwife, who so skilfully assisted at that great Birth of +Time, the Restoration, was made a duke, and Cromwell's army, so long the +force behind the supreme power, was paid its arrears and (two regiments +excepted) disbanded. "Fifty thousand men," says Macaulay, "accustomed to +the profession of arms, were thrown upon the world ... in a few months +there remained not a trace indicating that the most formidable army in +the world had just been absorbed in the mass of the community."[92:1] + +After this the House of Commons fell to discussing religion, and made +the sad discovery that differences of opinion still existed. In these +circumstances they decided to refer the matter to their pious king, and +to such divines as he might choose. They then voted large sums of money +for the royal establishment, and, it being the very end of August, +adjourned till the 6th of November. As for making constitutional terms +with the king, they never attempted it, though Sir Matthew Hale is +credited with an attempt to induce them to do so. Any proposals of the +kind must have failed. The people were in no mood for making +constitutions. + +Having met again on the 6th of November, Marvell, in a letter to the +Mayor and Aldermen of Hull, dated the 27th of the month, reports that +"the House fell upon the making out of the King's revenue to L1,200,000 +a year." "The Customs are estimated toward L500,000 per annum in the +revenue. His lands and fee farms L250,000. The Excise of Beer and Ale +L300,000, the rest arise out of the Post Office, Wine Licenses, +Stannaries Court, Probate of Wills, Post-fines, Forests, and other +rights of the Crown. The excise of Foreign Commodities is to be +continued apart until satisfaction of public debts and engagements +secured upon the excise." + +This settlement of revenue marks "the beginning of a time." Cromwell, as +Cowley puts it in his _Discourse_, by far the ablest indictment of +Oliver ever penned, "took armes against two hundred thousand pounds a +year, and raised them himself to above two millions." It is true. +Cromwell spent the money honestly and efficiently, and chiefly on a navy +that enabled him to wrest the command of the sea from the Dutch, to +secure the carrying trade, and to challenge the world for supremacy in +the Indies, both East and West. In doing this, he had the instinct of +the whole nation behind him. But it was expensive. + +Had Charles been the most honest and thrifty of men, instead of one of +the most dishonest and extravagant, he must have found his financial +position a very difficult one. He was poorer than Cromwell. The feudal +taxation had fallen into desuetude. To revive wardships, etc., was +impossible, to recover arrears hopeless. There was nothing for it but +scientific taxation. One of his first Acts contains a schedule of taxed +articles extending over fifteen double-columned pages of a quarto +volume. To raise this revenue was difficult--in fact impossible, and the +amount actually obtained was always far below the estimates. + +Marvell's letter concludes thus:-- + + "To-morrow is the Bill for enacting his Majesty's declaration in + religious matters and to have its first reading. It is said that on + Sunday next Doctor Reynolds shall be created Bishop of Norwich." + +The rumour about Reynolds's bishopric proved to be true. The new bishop +was a very "moderate" Anglican indeed, and his appointment was meant as +a sop to the Presbyterians. Richard Baxter and Edmund Calamy refused +similar preferment. + +On the 29th of November Marvell's letter contains the following +passage:-- + + "Yesterday the Bill of the King's Declaration in religious matters + was read for the first time; but upon the question for a second + reading 'twas carried 183 against 157 in the negative, so there is an + end of that Bill and for those excellent things therein. We must + henceforth rely only upon his Majesty's goodness, who, I must needs + say, hath hitherto been more ready to give than we to receive." + +It is a noticeable feature of this correspondence that Marvell seldom +mentions which way he voted himself. + +The letter of the 4th of December contains some interesting matter:-- + + "GENTLEMEN,--Since my last, upon Thursday, the Bill for Vicarages + hath been carryed up to the Lords; and a Message to them from our + House that they would expedite the Bill for confirmation of Magna + Charta, that for confirmation of marriages, and other bills of + publick concernment, which haue laid by them euer since our last + sitting, not returned to us. We had then the Bill for six moneths + assesment in consideration, and read the Bill for taking away Court + of Wards and Purveyance, and establishing the moiety of the Excise + of Beere and ale in perpetuum, about which we sit euery afternoon in + a Grand Committee. Upon Sunday last were consecrated in the Abby at + Westminster, Doctor Cossins, Bishop of Durham, Sterne of Carlile, + Gauden of Exeter, Ironside of Bristow, Loyd of Landaffe, Lucy of St. + Dauids, Lany, the seuenth, whose diocese I remember not at present, + and to-day they keep their feast in Haberdasher's hall, in London. + Dr. Reinolds was not of the number, who is intended for Norwich. A + Congedelire is gone down to Hereford for Dr. Monk, the Generall's + brother, at present Provost of Eaton. 'Tis thought that since our + throwing out the Bill of the King's Declaration, Mr. Calamy, and + other moderate men, will be resolute in refusing of Bishopricks.... + To-day our House was upon the Bill of Attainder of those that haue + been executed, those that are fled, and of Cromwell, Bradshaw, + Ireton, and Pride, and 'tis ordered that the carkasses and coffins + of the four last named, shall be drawn with what expedition + possible, upon an hurdle to Tyburn, there (to) be hanged up for a + while, and then buryed under the gallows.... + + "WESTMINSTER, _Dec. 4, 1660_." + +Marvell's cool reporting of the hideous indignity inflicted upon his old +master, and allowing it to pass _sub silentio_, is one of the many +occasions that stirred Mr. Grosart's wonder. Nerves were tough in those +days. Pepys tells us unconcernedly enough how, after seeing Lord +Southampton sworn in at the Court of Exchequer as Lord Treasurer, he +noticed "the heads of Cromwell, Bradshaw, and Ireton set up at the +further end of Westminster Hall." It is quite possible Lady Fauconberg +may have seen the same sight.[95:1] + +The Convention Parliament was dissolved on the 29th of December 1660. + +On 1st April 1661 Marvell was returned for the third and last time for +Hull, for Charles the Second's first Parliament was of unconscionable +long duration, not being dissolved till January 1679, after Marvell's +death. It is known in history as the Pensionary or Long Parliament. The +election figures were as below:-- + + Colonel Gilbey, 294 + Mr. Andrew Marvell, 240 + Mr. Edward Barnard, 195 + Mr. John Ramsden, 122 + +Marvell was not present at or before the election, for on the 6th of +April he writes:-- + + "I perceive by Mr. Mayor that you have again (as if it were grown a + thing of course) made choice of me now, the third time, to serve for + you in Parliament, which as I cannot attribute to anything but your + constancy, so shall I, God willing, as in gratitude obliged, with no + less constancy and vigour continue to execute your commands and study + your service." + +A word may here be said about payment of borough members. The members' +fee was 6s. 8d. for every day the Parliament lasted. The wages were paid +by the corporation out of the borough funds. It was never a popular +charge. Burgesses in many places cared as little for M.P.'s as do some +of their successors for free libraries. Prynne, perhaps the greatest +parliamentary lawyer that ever lived, told Pepys one day, as they were +driving to the Temple, that the number of burgesses to be returned to +Parliament for any particular borough was not, for aught Prynne could +find, fixed by law, but was at first left to the discretion of the +sheriff, and that several boroughs had complained of the sheriff's +putting them to the charge of sending up burgesses. + +In August 1661 the corporation paid Marvell L28 for his fee as one of +their burgesses, being 6s. 8d. a day for eighty-four days, the length of +the Convention Parliament. Marvell continued to take his wages until the +end of his days; but it is perhaps a mistake to suppose he was the very +last member to do so. It was, however, unusual in Marvell's time.[96:1] + +This Pensionary Parliament, though of a very decided "Church and King" +complexion, was not in its original composition a body lacking character +or independence, but it steadily deteriorated in both respects. +Vacancies, as they occurred, and they occurred very frequently in those +days of short lives, were filled up by courtiers and pensioners. + +In the small tract, entitled _Flagellum Parliamentum_, which is a highly +libellous "Dod," often attributed to Marvell, a record is preserved of +more than two hundred members of this Parliament in 1675. Despite some +humorous touches, this _Flagellum Parliamentum_ is still disagreeable to +read. But the most graphic picture we have of this Parliament is to be +found in one of Lord Shaftesbury's political tracts entitled "A letter +from a Parliament man to his Friend" (1675):-- + + "SIR,--I see you are greatly scandalized at our slow and confused + Proceedings. I confess you have cause enough; but were you but + within these walls for one half day, and saw the strange make and + complexion that this house is of, you would wonder as much that ever + you wondered at it; for we are such a pied Parliament, that none can + say of what colour we are; for we consist of Old Cavaliers, Old + Round-Heads, Indigent-Courtiers, and true Country Gentlemen: the two + latter are most numerous, and would in probability bring things to + some issue were they not clogged with the numerous uncertainties of + the former. For the Old Cavalier, grown aged, and almost past his + vice, is damnable godly and makes his doting piety more a plague to + the world than his debauchery was, for he is so much a by-got to the + B(ishop) that he forces his Loyalty to strike sail to his Religion, + and could be content to pare the nails a little of the Civil + Government, so you would but let him sharpen the Ecclesiastical + Talons: which behaviour of his so exasperates the Round-Head, that + he on the other hand cares not what increases the Interest of the + Crown receives, so he can but diminish that of the miter: so that + the Round-Head had rather enslave the Man than the Conscience: the + Cavalier rather the Conscience than the Man; there being a + sufficient stock of animosity as proper matter to work upon. Upon + these, therefore, the Courtier mutually plays, for if any Ante-court + motion be made he gains the Round-Head either to oppose or absent by + telling them, If they will join him now he will join them for + Liberty of Conscience. And when any affair is started on behalf of + the Country he assures the Cavaliers, If they will then stand by him + he will then join with them in promoting a Bill against the + fanatics. Thus play they on both hands.... Wherefore it were happy + that he had neither Round-Head nor Cavalier in the House, for they + are each of them so prejudicate against the other that their sitting + here signifies nothing but their fostering their old venom and lying + at catch to stop every advantage to bear down each other, though it + be in the destruction of their country. For if the Round-Heads bring + in a good bill the Old Cavalier opposes it, for no other reason but + because they brought it in."[98:1] + +Such was the theatre of Marvell's public actions for the rest of his +days, and if at times he may need forgiveness for the savagery of his +satire, it ought to be found easy to forgive him. + +The two members for Hull were soon immersed in matters of much local +importance. They began by quarrelling with one another, Marvell writing +"the bond of civility betwixt Col. Gilby and myself being unhappily +snappt in pieces, and in such manner that I cannot see how it is +possible ever to knit them again." House of Commons quarrels are usually +soon made up, and so was this one. The custom was for _both_ members to +sign these letters, though they are all written in Marvell's hand--but +if this was for any reason inconvenient, Marvell signed alone. No +letters, unless in Marvell's writing, are preserved at Hull, which is a +curious fact. + +One of these bits of local business related to a patent alleged to have +been granted by the Crown to certain persons, authorising them to erect +and maintain _ballast wharfs_ in the various ports, and to make charges +in respect of them. This was resented by the members for the ports, and +on Marvell's motion the matter was referred to the Committee of +Grievances, before whom the patentees were summoned. When they came it +appeared that the patent warranted none of the exactions that had been +demanded, and also that the warrant sent down to Hull naming these +charges was nothing more than a draft framed by the patentees +themselves, and not authorised in any way. The patent was at once +suspended. Marvell, like a true member of Parliament, wishes to get any +little local credit that may be due for such prompt action, and +writes:-- + + "In this thing (although I count all things I can do for your service + to be mere trifles, and not worth taking notice of in respect of what + I owe you) I must do myself that right to let you know that I, and I + alone, have had the happiness to do that little which hitherto is + effected." + +The matter required delicate handling, for a reason Marvell gives: +"Because, if the King's right in placing such impositions should be +weakened, neither should he have power to make a grant of them to you." + +Another much longer business related to a lighthouse, which some +outsiders were anxious to build in the Humber. The corporation of Hull, +acting on Marvell's advice, had petitioned the Privy Council, and were +asked by their business-like member "to send us up a dormant credit for +an hundred pound, which we yet indeed have no use of, but if need be +must have ready at hand to reward such as will not otherwise befriend +your business." Some months later Marvell forwards an account, not of +the L100, but of the legal expenses about the lighthouse. He wishes it +were less, but hopes that the "vigorous resistance" will discourage the +designers from proceeding farther. This it did not do. As a member of +the bar, I find two or three of the items in this old-world Bill of +Costs interesting:-- + + To Mr. Scroggs to attend the Council, L3 6 0 + " " " again for the same, 3 6 0 + Spent on Mr. Scroggs at dinner, 18 0 + To Mr. Scroggs again, 3 0 0 + Fees of the Council Table, 1 10 0 + Fee to Clerk of the Council, 2 0 0 + For dinner for Mr. Scroggs and wine after, 1 0 0 + To Mr. Cresset (the Solicitor), 20 0 0 + To Mr. Scroggs for a dinner, 1 0 0 + +The barrister who was so frequently "refreshed" by Marvell lived to +become "the infamous Lord Chief Justice Scroggs" of all school +histories. + +A week before the prorogation of Parliament, which happened on the 19th +of May 1662, Marvell went to Holland and remained there for nine months, +for he did not return until the very end of March 1663, more than a +month after the reassembling of the House. + +What took him there nobody knows. Writing to the Trinity House about the +lighthouse business on the 8th of May 1662, Marvell says:-- + + "But that which troubles me is that by the interest of some persons + too potent for me to refuse, and who have a great direction and + influence upon my counsels and fortune, I am obliged to go beyond + sea before I have perfected it (_i.e._ the lighthouse business). But + first I do thereby make my Lord Carlisle (who is a member of the + Privy Council and one of them to whom your business is referred) + absolutely yours. And my journey is but into Holland, from whence I + shall weekly correspond as if I were at London with all the rest of + my friends, towards the affecting your business. Then I leave Col. + Gilbey there, whose ability for business and affection to yours is + such that I cannot be wanted though I am missing." + +It is plain from this that Lord Carlisle is one of the powerful persons +referred to--but beyond this we cannot go. + +Whilst in Holland Marvell wrote both to the Trinity House and to the +corporation on business matters. + +In March 1663 Marvell came back in a hurry, some complaints having been +made in Hull about his absence. He begins his first letter after his +return as follows:-- + + "Being newly arrived in town and full of business, yet I could not + neglect to give you notice that this day (2nd April 1663) I have been + in the House and found my place empty, though it seems, as I now + hear, that some persons would have been so courteous as to have + filled it for me." + +In none of these letters is any reference made to the debates in the +House on the unhappy Bill of Uniformity, nor does any record of those +discussions anywhere exist. The Savoy Conference proved a failure, and +no lay reader of Baxter's account of it can profess wonder. Not a single +point in difference was settled. In the meantime the restored Houses of +Convocation, from which the Presbyterian members were excluded, had +completed their revision of the Book of Common Prayer and presented it +to Parliament. + +In considering the Bill for Uniformity, the House of Lords, where +Presbyterianism was powerfully represented, showed more regard for those +"tender consciences" to which the king (by the new Prayer Book called +for the first time "our most religious King") had referred in his Breda +Declaration than did the House of Commons. "The Book, the whole Book, +and nothing but the Book" was, in effect, the cry of the lower House, +and on the 19th of May, ten days after Marvell had left for the +Continent, the Act of Uniformity became law, and by the 24th of August +1662 all beneficed ministers and schoolmasters had to make the +celebrated subscription and profession, or go out into the wilderness. + +There has always been a dispute as to the physical possibility of +perusing the compilation in question before the day fixed by the +Statute. The Book was advertised for sale in London on the 6th of +August, but how many copies were actually available on that day is not +known. + +The Dean and Chapter of Peterborough did not get their copies until the +17th of August. When the new folios reached the lonely parsonages of +Cumberland and Durham--who would care to say? The Act required a verbal +avowal of "unfeigned assent and consent to all and everything contained +and prescribed in and by the Book of Common Prayer, and administrations +of the Sacraments and other rites and ceremonies of the Church according +to the use of the Church of England, together with the Psalter, and the +form of manner of making, ordaining, and consecrating Bishops, Priests, +and Deacons" to be made after the service upon "some Lord's day" before +the Feast of St. Bartholomew, _i.e._ the 24th of August 1662. The Act +also required subscription within the same time-limit to a declaration +of (_inter alia_) uniformity to the Liturgy of the Church of England "as +it is now by law established." + +That this haste was indecent no layman is likely to dispute, but that it +wrought practical wrong is doubtful. The Vicar of Bray needed no time to +read his new Folio to enable him to make whatever avowal concerning it +the law demanded; and as for signing the declaration, all he required +for that purpose was pen and ink. Neither had the incumbent, who was a +good churchman at heart, any doubts to settle. He rejoiced to know that +his side was once more uppermost, and that it would be no longer +necessary for him, in order to retain his living, to pretend to tolerate +a Presbyterian, or to submit to read in his church the Directory of +Public Worship. Convocation had approved the new Prayer Book, which was +in substance the old one, and what more did any churchman require? As +for the Presbyterians and others who were in possession of livings, the +failure of the Savoy Conference must have made it plain to them that the +Church of England had not allowed the king to keep his word, that +compromise and comprehension had failed, and that if they were to remain +where they were, it could only be on terms of completely severing +themselves from all other Protestant bodies in the world, and becoming +thorough Episcopalians. No Presbyterian of any eminence was prepared to +make the statutory avowal. Painful as it always must be to give up any +good thing by a fixed date, it is hard to see what advantage would have +accrued from delay. + +When the day came, some two thousand parsons were turned out of the +Church of England. Among them were included many of the most devout and +some of the most learned of our divines. Their "coming in" had been +irregular, their "going out" was painful. + +Save so far as it turned these men out, the Act was a failure. It did +not procure that uniformity in the public worship of God which it +declared was so desirable; it prevented no scandal; it arrested no +decay; it allayed no distemper, and it certainly did not settle the +peace of the Church. Inside the Church the bishops were supine, the +parochial clergy indifferent, and the worshippers, if such a name can +properly be bestowed upon the congregations, were grossly irreverent. +Nor was any improvement in the conduct of the Church service noticeable +until after the Revolution, and when legislation had conceded a somewhat +shabby measure of toleration to those who by that time had become rigid, +traditional, and hereditary dissenters. Then indeed some attempts began +to be made to secure a real uniformity of ritual in the public worship +of the Church of England.[104:1] How far success has rewarded these +exertions it is not for me to say. + +Marvell did not remain long at home after his return from Holland. A +strange adventure lay before him. He thus introduces it in a letter +dated 20th June 1663:-- + + "GENTLEMEN, MY VERY WORTHY FRIENDS,--The relation I have to your + affairs, and the intimacy of that affection I ow you, do both + incline and oblige me to communicate to you, that there is a + probability I may very shortly have occasion to go beyond sea; for + my Lord of Carlisle being chosen by his Majesty, Embassadour + Extraordinary to Muscovy, Sweden, and Denmarke, hath used his power, + which ought to be very great with me, to make me goe along with him + Secretary in those embassages. It is no new thing for Members of our + House to be dispens'd with for the service of the King and Nation in + forain parts. And you may be sure that I will not stirre without + speciall leave of the House; that so you may be freed from any + possibility of being importuned or tempted to make any other choice, + in my absence. However, I can not but advise also with you, desiring + to take your assent along with me, so much esteeme I have both of + your prudence and friendship. The time allotted for the embassy is + not much above a yeare: probably it may not be much less betwixt our + adjournment and next meeting; and, however, you have Colonell Gilby, + to whom my presence can make litle addition, so that if I cannot + decline this voyage, I shall have the comfort to believe, that, all + things considered, you cannot thereby receive any disservice. I + shall hope to receive herein your speedy answer...." + +What was the "power" Lord Carlisle had over Marvell is not now +discoverable, but the tie, whatever it may have been, was evidently a +close one. + +A month after this letter Marvell started on his way. + + "GENTLEMEN, MY VERY WORTHY FRIENDS,--Being this day taking barge for + Gravesend, there to embark for Archangel, so to Muscow, thence for + Sweden, and last of all Denmarke; all of which I hope, by God's + blessing, to finish within twelve moneths time: I do hereby, with my + last and seriousest thoughts, salute you, rendring you all hearty + thanks for your great kindnesse and friendship to me upon all + occasions, and ardently beseeching God to keep you all in His + gracious protection, to your own honour, and the welfare and + flourishing of your Corporation, to which I am and shall ever + continue a most affectionate and devoted servant. I undertake this + voyage with the order and good liking of his Majesty, and by leave + given me from the House and enterd in the Journal; and having + received moreover your approbation, I go therefore with more ease + and satisfaction of mind, and augurate to myselfe the happier + successe in all my proceedings...." + +It was Marvell's good fortune to be in Lord Carlisle's frigate which +made the voyage to Archangel in less than a month, sailing from +Gravesend on the 22nd of July and arriving at the bar of Archangel on +the 19th of August. The companion frigate took seven weeks to compass +the same distance. + +Nothing of any importance attaches to this Russian embassy. It cost a +great deal of money, took up a great deal of time, exposed the +ambassador and his suite to much rudeness and discomfort, and failed to +effect its main object, which was to secure a renewal of the privileges +formerly enjoyed in Muscovy by British merchants. + +One of the attendants upon the ambassador made a small book out of his +travels, which did not get printed till 1669, when it attracted little +notice. Mr. Grosart was the first of Marvell's many biographers to +discover the existence of this narrative.[106:1] He found it in the +first instance, to use his own language, "in one of good trusty John +Harris' folios of _Travels and Voyages_" (two vols. folio, 1705); but +later on he made the sad discovery that this "good trusty John Harris" +had uplifted what he called his "true and particular account" from the +book of 1669 without any acknowledgment. "For ways that are dark" the +old compiler of travels was not easily excelled, but why should Mr. +Grosart have gone out of his way to call an eighteenth-century +book-maker, about whom he evidently knew nothing, "good and trusty"? +Harris was never either the one or the other, and died a pauper! + +A journey to Moscow in 1663-64 was no joke. Lord Carlisle, who was +accompanied by his wife and eldest son, although ready to start from +Archangel by the end of September, was doomed to spend both the 5th of +November and Christmas Day in the gloomy town of Vologda, which they had +reached, travelling by water, on the 17th of October. Some of this time +was spent in quarrelling as to who was to supply the sledges that were +required to convey the ambassador and all his _impedimenta_ along the +now ice-bound roads to Moscow. It was one of Marvell's many duties to +remonstrate with the authorities for their cruel and disrespectful +indifference; he did so with great freedom, but with no effect, and at +last the ambassador was obliged to hire two hundred sledges at his own +charges. Sixty he sent on ahead, following with one hundred and forty on +the 15th of January 1664. It was an intensely cold journey, and the +accommodation at night, with one happy exception, proved quite infamous. +On the 3rd of February Lord Carlisle and his _cortege_ found themselves +five versts from Moscow. The 5th of February was fixed for their entry +into the city in all their finery. They were ready on the morning of +that day, awaiting the arrival of the Tsar's escort, but it never came. +Lord Carlisle had sent his cooks on to Moscow to prepare the dinner he +expected to eat in his city-quarters. Nightfall approached, and it was +not till "half an hour before night" that the belated messengers +arrived, full of excuses. The ambassador was hungry, cold, and furious, +nor did his anger abate when told he was not to be allowed to enter +Moscow that night, as the Tsar and his ladies were very anxious to +enjoy the spectacle. The return of the cooks from Moscow and the +preparation of dinner, though a mitigation, was no cure for wounded +pride, and Lord Carlisle, calling Marvell to his side, and with his +assistance, concocted a letter in Latin to the Tsar, complaining +bitterly of their ill-treatment _inter fumosi gurgustii sordes et +angustias sine cibo aut potu_, and going so far as to assert that had +anything of the kind happened in England to a foreign ambassador, the +King of England would never have rested until the offence had been +atoned for with the blood of the criminals. When, some forty years +afterwards, Peter the Great asked Queen Anne to chop off the heads of +the rude men who had arrested his ambassador for debt, he had, perhaps, +Marvell's letter before him. + +On the 6th of February Lord Carlisle and his suite made their public +entry into Moscow; but so long a time was occupied over the few versts +they had to travel, that it was dusk before the Kremlin was reached. + +The formal reception of the ambassador was on the 11th of February. +Marvell was in the ambassador's sledge and carried his credentials upon +a yard of red damask. The titles of the Russian Potentate would, if +printed here, fill half a page. All the Russias, Great, Little, and +White, emperies more than one, dukedoms by the dozen, territories, +countries, and dominions--not all easy to identify on the map, and very +hard to pronounce--were read out in a loud voice by Marvell. At the end +of them came the homely title of the Earl and his offices, "his +Majesty's Lieutenant in the Counties of Cumberland and Westmorland." + +The letters read and delivered, the Tsar and his Boyars rose in their +places simultaneously, and their tissue vests made so strange, loud, and +unexpected a noise as to provoke the ever too easily moved risibility +of the Englishmen.[109:1] When Marvell and the rest of them had ceased +from giggling, the Tsar inquired after the health of the king, but the +distance between his Imperial Majesty and Lord Carlisle being too great +for the question to carry, it had to be repeated by those who were +nearer the ambassador, who gravely replied that when he last saw his +master, namely on the 20th of July then last past, he was perfectly +well. To the same question as to the health of "the desolate widow of +Charles the First," Carlisle returned the same cautious answer. He then +read a very long speech in English, which his interpreter turned into +Russian. The same oration was rendered into Latin by Marvell, and +presented. Over Marvell's Latin trouble arose, for the Russians were +bent on taking and giving offence. Marvell had styled the Tsar +_Illustrissimus_ when he ought, so it was alleged, to have called him +_Serenissimus_. Marvell was not a schoolmaster's son, an old scholar of +Trinity, and Milton's assistant as Latin Secretary for nothing. He +prepared a reply which, as it does not lack humour, has a distinct +literary flavour, and is all that came of the embassy, may here be given +at length:-- + + "I reply, saith he, that I sent no such paper into the + Embassy-office, but upon the desire of his Tzarskoy Majesty's + Councellor Evan Offonassy Pronchissof, I delivered it to him, not + being a paper of State, nor written in the English Language wherein I + treat, nor put into the hands of the near Boyars and Councellors of + his Tzarskoy majesty, nor subscribed by my self, nor translated into + Russe by my Interpreter, but only as a piece of curiosity, which is + now restored me, and I am possessed of it; so that herein his + Tzarskoy majestie's near Boyars and Councellors are doubtless ill + grounded. But again I say concerning the value of the words + _Illustrissimus_ and _Serenissimus_ compared together, seeing we must + here from affaires of State, fall into Grammatical contests + concerning the Latin tongue; that the word _Serenus_ signifieth + nothing but still and calm; and, therefore, though of late times + adopted into the Titles of great Princes by reason of that benigne + tranquility which properly dwells in the majestick countenance of + great Princes, and that venerable stillness of all the Attendants + that surround them, of which I have seen an excellent example when I + was in the presence of his Tzarskoy majesty, yet is more properly + used concerning the calmness of the weather, or season. So that even + the night is elegantly called _Serena_ by the best Authors, Cicero in + Arato 12, Lucretius i. l. 29. '_Serena nox_'; and upon perusing again + what I have writ in this paper, I finde that I have out of the + customariness of that expression my self near the beginning said, And + that most serene night, &c. Whereas on the contrary _Illustris_ in + its proper derivation and signification expresseth that which is all + resplendent, lightsome, and glorious, as well without as within, and + that not with a secondary but with a primitive and original light. + For if the Sun be, as he is, the first fountain of light, and Poets + in their expressions (as is well known) are higher by much than those + that write in Prose, what else is it when Ovid in the 2. of the + Metamorphoses saith of Phoebus speaking with Phaethon, _Qui terque + quaterque concutiens Illustre caput_, and the Latin Orators, as + Pliny, Ep. 139, when they would say the highest thing that can be + exprest upon any subject, word it thus, _Nihil Illustrius dicere + possum_. So that hereby may appear to his Tzarskoy Majestie's near + Boyars and Counsellors what diminution there is to his Tzarskoy + Majesty (which farr be it from my thoughts) if I appropriate + _Serenissimus_ to my Master and _Illustrissimus_ to Him than which + _nihil dici potest Illustrius_. But because this was in the time of + the purity of the Latin tongue, when the word _Serenus_ was never + used in the Title of any Prince or Person, I shall go on to deale + with the utmost candor, forasmuch as in this Nation the nicety of + that most eloquent language is not so perfectly understood, which + gives occasion to these mistakes. I confess therefore that indeed in + the declination of the Latin tongue, and when there scarce could be + found out words enough to supply the modern ambition of Titles, + Serenissimus as several other words hath grown in fashion for a + compellation of lesser as well as greater Princes, and yet befits + both the one and the other. So there is _Serenissima Respublica + Veneta_, _Serenitates Electoriae_, _Serenitates Regiae_, even as the + word Highness or _Celsitudo_ befits a Duke, a Prince, a King, or an + Emperour, adjoyning to it the respective quality, and so the word + _Illustris_. But suppose it were by modern use (which I deny) + depressed from the undoubted superiority that it had of _Serenus_ in + the purest antiquity, yet being added in the transcendent degree to + the word Emperour, the highest denomination that a Prince is capable + of, it becomes of the same value. So that to interpret + _Illustrissimus_ unto diminution is to find a positive in a + superlative, and in the most orient light to seek for darkness. And I + would, seeing the near Boyars and Counsellors of his Tzarskoy Majesty + are pleased to mention the Title given to his Tzarskoy Majesty by his + Cesarian Majesty, gladly be satisfied by them, whether ever any + Cesarian Majesty writ formerly hither in High-Dutch, and whether then + they styled his Tzarskoy Majesty Durchluchtigste which is the same + with _Illustrissimus_, and which I believe the Caesar hath kept for + Himself. But to cut short, his Royal Majesty hath used the word to + his Tzarskoy Majesty in his Letter, not out of imitation of others, + although even in the Dutch Letter to his Tzarskoy Majesty of 16 June + 1663, I finde Durchlauchtigste the same (as I said) with + _Illustrissimus_, but out of the constant use of his own Court, + further joyning before it Most High, Most Potent, and adding after it + Great Lord Emperour, which is an higher Title than any Prince in the + World gives his Tzarskoy Majesty, and as high a Title of honour as + can be given to any thing under the Divinity. For the King my Master + who possesses as considerable Dominions, and by as high and + self-dependent a right as any Prince in the Universe, yet contenting + Himself with the easiest Titles, and satisfying Himself in the + essence of things, doth most willingly give to other Princes the + Titles which are appropriated to them, but to the Tzarskoy Majesties + of Russia his Royal Ancestors, and to his present Tzarskoy Majesty + his Royal Majesty himself, have usually and do gladly pay Titles even + to superfluity out of meer kindness. And upon that reason He added + the word most Illustrious, and so did I use it in the Latin of my + speech. Yet, that You may find I did not out of any criticisme of + honor, but for distinction sake use it as I did, You may see in one + place of the same speech _Serenitas_, speaking of his Tzarskoy + Majesty: and I would have used _Serenissimus_ an hundred times + concerning his Tzarskoy Majesty, had I thought it would have pleased + Him better. And I dare promise You that his Majesty will upon the + first information from me stile him _Serenissimus_, and I + (notwithstanding what I have said) shall make little difficulty of + altering the word in that speech, and of delivering it so to You, + with that protestation that I have not in using that word + _Illustrissimus_ erred nor used any diminution (which God forbid) to + his Tzarskoy Majesty, but on the contrary after the example of the + King my Master intended and shewed him all possible honor. And so God + grant all happiness to His most high, most Potent, most Illustrious, + and most Serene Tzarskoy Majesty, and that the friendship may daily + increase betwixt His said Majesty and his most Serene Majesty my + Master." + +On the 19th of February the Tsar invited Lord Carlisle and his suite to +a dinner, which, beginning at two o'clock, lasted till eleven, when it +was prematurely broken up by the Tsar's nose beginning to bleed. Five +hundred dishes were served, but there were no napkins, and the +table-cloths only just covered the boards. There were Spanish wines, +white and red mead, Puaz and strong waters. The English ambassador was +not properly placed at table, not being anywhere near the Tsar, and his +faithful suite shared his resentment. Time went on, but no diplomatic +progress was made. The Tsar would not renew the privileges of the +British merchants; Easter was spent in Moscow, May also--and still +nothing was done. Carlisle, in a huff, determined to go away, and, +somewhat to the distress of his followers, refused to accept the costly +sables sent by the Tzar, not only to the ambassador, Lady Carlisle, and +Lord Morpeth, but to the secretaries and others. The Tzar thereupon +returned the plate which our king had sent him, which plate Lord +Carlisle seems to have appropriated, no doubt with diplomatic +correctness, as his perquisite in lieu of the sables; but the suite got +nothing. + +The embassy left Moscow on the 24th of June for Novgorod and Riga, and +after visiting Stockholm and Copenhagen, Lord Carlisle and Marvell +reached London on the 30th of January 1665. + +During Marvell's absence war had been declared with the Dutch. It was +never difficult to go to war with the Dutch. The king was always in want +of money, and as no proper check existed over war supplies, he took what +he wanted out of them. The merchants on 'Change desired war, saying that +the trade of the world was too little for both England and Holland, and +that one or the other "must down." The English manufacturers, who felt +the sting of their Dutch competitors, were always in favour of war. Then +the growing insolence of the Dutch in the Indies was not to be borne. +Stories were circulated how the Hollanders had proclaimed themselves +"Lords of the Southern Seas," and meant to deny English ships the right +of entry in that quarter of the globe. A baronet called on Pepys and +pulled out of his pocket letters from the East Indies, full of sad tales +of Englishmen having been actually thrashed inside their own factory at +Surat by swaggering Dutchmen, who had insulted the flag of St. George, +and swore they were going to be the masters "out there." Pepys, who +knew a little about the state of the royal navy, listened sorrowfully +and was content to hope that the war would not come until "we are more +ready for it." + +In the House of Commons the prudent men were against the war, and were +at once accused of being in the pay of the Dutch. The king's friends +were all for the war, and nobody doubted that some of the money voted +for it would find its way into their pockets, or at all events that +pensions would reward their fidelity. A third group who favoured the war +were supposed to do so because their disloyalty and fanaticism always +disposed them to trouble the waters in which they wished to fish. + +The war began in November 1664, and on the 24th of that month the king +opened Parliament and demanded money. He got it. Clarendon describes how +Sir Robert Paston from Norfolk, a back-bench man, "who was no frequent +speaker, but delivered what he had a mind to say very clearly," stood up +and proposed a grant of two and a half million pounds, to be spread over +three years. So huge a sum took the House by surprise. Nobody spoke; +"they sat in amazement." Somebody at last found his voice and moved a +much smaller sum, but no one seconded him. Sir Robert Paston ultimately +found supporters, "no man who had any relation to the Court speaking a +word." The Speaker put Sir Robert Paston's motion as the question, "and +the affirmative made a good sound, and very few gave their negative +aloud." But Clarendon adds, "it was notorious very many sat silent." + +The war was not in its early stages unpopular, being for the control of +the sea, for the right of search, for the fishing trade, for mastery of +the "gorgeous East." The Admiralty had been busy, and a hundred +frigates, well gunned, were ready for the blue water by February 1665. +The Duke of York, who took the command, was a keen sailor, though his +unhappy notions as to patronage, and its exercise, were fatal to an +efficient service. On the 3rd of June the duke had his one victory; it +was off the roadstead of Harwich, and the roar of his artillery was +heard in Westminster. It was a fierce fight; the king's great friend, +Charles Berkeley, just made a peer and about to be made a duke, Lord +Muskerry and young Richard Boyle, all on the duke's ship the _Royal +Charles_, were killed by one shot, their blood and brains flying in the +duke's face. The Earls of Marlborough and Portland were killed. The +gallant Lawson, who rose from the ranks in Cromwell's time, an +Anabaptist and a Republican, but still in high command, received on +board his ship, the _Royal Oak_, a fatal wound. On the other side the +Dutch admiral, Opdam, was blown into the air with his ship and crew. The +Dutch fleet was scattered, and fled, after a loss estimated at +twenty-four ships and eight thousand men killed and wounded; England +lost no ship and but six hundred men. + +The victory was not followed up. Some say the duke lost nerve. Tromp was +allowed to lead a great part of the fleet away in safety, and when the +great De Ruyter was recalled from the West Indies he was soon able to +assume the command of a formidable number of fighting craft. + +In less than ten days after this great engagement the plague appeared in +London, a terrible and a solemnising affliction, lasting the rest of the +year. It was at its worst in September, when in one week more than seven +thousand died of it. The total number of its dead is estimated at +sixty-eight thousand five hundred and ninety-six. + +On account of the plague Parliament was summoned to meet at Oxford in +October 1665. + +Marvell must have reached Oxford in good time, for the Admission Book of +the Bodleian records his visit to the library on the last day of +September. His first letter from Oxford is dated 15th October, and in it +he tells the corporation that the House, "upon His Majesty's +representation of the necessity of further supplies in reference to the +Dutch War and probability of the French embracing their interests, hath +voted the King L1,250,000 additional to be levied in two years." The +king, who was the frankest of mortals in speech, though false as Belial +in action, told the House that he had already spent all the money +previously voted and must have more, especially if France was to prefer +the friendship of Holland to his. Amidst loud acclamations the money was +voted. The French ambassadors, who were in Oxford, saw for themselves +the temper of Parliament. + +Notwithstanding the terrible plight of the capital, Oxford was gaiety +itself. The king was accompanied by his consort, who then was hopeful of +an heir, and also by Lady Castlemaine and Miss Stewart. Lady Castlemaine +did not escape the shaft of University wit, for a stinging couplet was +set up during the night on her door, for the discovery of the authorship +of which a reward of L1000 was offered. It may very well have been +Marvell's.[116:1] + +The Duke of Monmouth gave a ball to the queen and her ladies, where, +after the queen's retirement, "Mrs. Stewart was extraordinary merry," +and sang "French songs with great skill."[116:2] + +Ten Acts of Parliament received the royal assent at Oxford, of which +but one is still remembered in certain quarters--the Five Mile Act, +which Marvell briefly describes as an Act "for debarring ejected +Nonconformists from living in or near Corporations (where they had +formerly pursued their callings), unless taking the new Oath and +Declaration." Parliament was prorogued at the end of October. + +Another visitation of Providence was soon to befall the capital. On +Sunday morning, the 2nd of September, Pepys was aroused by one of his +maid-servants at 3 A.M. to look at a fire. He could not make out much +about it and went to bed again, but when he rose at seven o'clock it was +still burning, so he left his house and made his way to the Tower, from +whence he saw London Bridge aflame, and describes how the poor pigeons, +loth to leave their homes, fluttered about the balconies, until with +singed wings they fell into the flames. After gazing his fill he went to +Whitehall and had an interview with the king, who at once ordered his +barge and proceeded downstream to his burning City, and to the +assistance of a distracted Lord Mayor. + +The fire raged four days, and made an end of old London, a picturesque +and even beautiful City. St. Paul's, both the church and the school, the +Royal Exchange, Ludgate, Fleet Street as far as the Inner Temple, were +by the 7th of the month smoking ruins. Four hundred streets, eighty-nine +churches (just a church an hour, so the curious noted), warehouses +unnumbered with all their varied contents, whole editions of books, +valuable and the reverse of valuable, were wiped out of existence. Rents +to an enormous amount ceased to be represented any longer by the houses +that paid them. How was the king to get his chimney-money? How were +merchants to meet their obligations? The parsons on Sunday, the 9th of +September, ought to have had no difficulty in finding texts for their +sermons. Pepys went to church twice, but without edification, and +certainly Dean Harding, whom he heard complaining in the evening "that +the City had been reduced from a folio to a duo decimo," hardly rose to +the dignity of the occasion. + +Strange to say, not a life was actually lost in the fire,[118:1] though +some old Londoners (among them Edmund Calamy's grandfather) died of +grief, and others (and among them Shirley the dramatist and his wife) +from exposure and exhaustion. One hysterical foreigner, who insisted +that he lit the flame, was executed, though no sensible man believed +what he said. It was long the boast of the merchants of London that no +one of their number "broke" in consequence of the great fire. + +Unhappily the belief was widespread, as that "tall bully," the monument, +long testified, that the fire was the work of the Roman Catholics, and +aliens, suspected of belonging to our old religion, found it dangerous +to walk the streets whilst the embers still smoked, which they continued +to do for six months. + +The meeting of Parliament was a little delayed in consequence of this +national disaster, and when it did meet at the end of the month, Marvell +reports the appointment of two Committees, one "about the Fire of +London," and the other "to receive informations of the insolence of the +Popish priests and Jesuits, and of the increase of Popery." The latter +Committee almost at once reported to the House, to quote from Marvell's +letter of the 27th of October, "that his Majesty be desired to issue out +his proclamation that all Popish priests and Jesuits, except such as not +being natural-born subjects, or belong to the Queen Mother and Queen +Consort, be banished in thirty days or else the law be executed upon +them, that all Justices of Peace and officers concerned put the laws in +execution against Papists and suspected Papists in order to their +execution, and that all officers, civil or military, not taking the +Oaths of Supremacy and Allegiance within twenty days be displaced." + +In a very real sense the great fire of London continued to smoke for +many a weary year, and to fill the air with black suspicions and civil +discord. + +Parliament had not sat long before it was discovered that a change had +taken place in its temper and spirit. The plague and the fire had +contributed to this change. The London clergy had not exhibited great +devotion during the former affliction. Many of the incumbents deserted +their flocks, and their empty pulpits had been filled by zealots, who +preached "Woe unto Jerusalem." The profligacy of the Court, and the +general decay of manners, when added to the severity of the legislation +against the Nonconformists, gave the ejected clergy opportunities for a +renewal of their spiritual ministrations, and as usual their labours, +_pro salute animarum_, aroused political dissatisfaction. Some of the +more outrageous supporters of the royal prerogative, the renegade May +among them, professed to see in the fire a punishment upon the spirit of +freedom, for which the City had once been famous, and urged the king not +to suffer it to be rebuilt again "to be a bit in his mouth and a bridle +upon his neck, but to keep it all open," and that his troops might enter +whenever he thought necessary, "there being no other way to govern that +rude multitude but by force." + +Rabid nonsense of this kind had no weight with the king, who never +showed his native good sense more conspicuously than in the pains he +took over the rebuilding of London; but none the less it had its effect +in getting rid once and for ever of that spirit of excessive (besotted +is Hallam's word) loyalty which had characterised the Restoration. + +The king, of course, wanted money, nor was Parliament disposed to refuse +it, we being still at war with Holland; but to the horror of that +elderly pedant, Lord Clarendon, the Commons passed a Bill appointing a +commission of members of both Houses "to inspect"--I am now quoting +Marvell--"and examine thoroughly the former expense of the L2,800,000, +of the L1,250,000 of the Militia money, of the prize goods, etc." In an +earlier letter Marvell attributes the new temper of Parliament, "not to +any want of ardour to supply the public necessities, but out of our +House's sense also of the burden to be laid upon the subject." Clarendon +was so alarmed that he advised a dissolution. Charles was alarmed, too, +knowing well that both Carteret, the Treasurer of the Navy, and Lord +Ashley, the Treasurer of the Prize Money, issued out many sums upon the +king's warrant, for which no accounts could be produced, but he was +still more frightened of a new Parliament. In the present Parliament he +had, so Clarendon admits, "a hundred members of his own menial servants +and their near relations." The bishops were also against a dissolution, +dreading the return of Presbyterian members, so Clarendon's advice was +not followed, and the king very reluctantly consented to the commission, +about which Pepys has so much to say. It did not get appointed at once, +but when it did Pepys rejoices greatly that its secretary, Mr. Jessopp, +was "an old fashioned Cromwell man"; in other words, both honest and +efficient. + +The shrewd Secretary of the Navy Office here puts his finger on the +real plague-spot of the Restoration. Our Puritan historians write rather +loosely about "the floodgates of dissipation," etc., having been flung +open by that event as if it had wrought a sudden change in human nature. +Mr. Pepys, whose frank Diary begins during the Protectorate, underwent +no such change. He was just the same sinner under Cromwell as he was +under Charles. Sober, grave divines may be found deploring the growing +profligacy of the times long before the 29th of May 1660. An era of +extravagance was evidently to be expected. No doubt the king's return +assisted it. No country could be anything but the worse for having +Charles the Second as its "most religious King." The Restoration of the +Stuarts was the best "excuse for a glass" ever offered to an Englishman. +He availed himself of it with even more than his accustomed freedom. But +it cannot be said that the king's debauchery was ever approved of even +in London. Both the mercurial Pepys and the grave Evelyn alike deplore +it. The misfortune clearly attributable to the king's return was the +substitution of a corrupt, inefficient, and unpatriotic administration +for the old-fashioned servants of the public whom Cromwell had gathered +round him. + +Parliament was busy with new taxes. In November 1666 Marvell writes:-- + + "The Committee has prepared these votes. All persons shall pay one + shilling per poll, all aliens two, all Nonconformists and papists + two, all servants one shilling in the pound of their wages, all + personal estates shall pay for so much as is not already taxed by the + land-tax, after twenty shillings in the hundred. Cattle, corn, and + household furniture shall be excepted, and all such stock-in-trade as + is already taxed by the land-tax, but the rest to be liable." + +Stringent work! Later on we read:-- + + "Three shillings in the pound for all offices and public employments, + except military; lawyers and physicians proportionate to their + practice." + +Here is the income-tax long before Mr. Pitt. + +The House of Lords, trembling on the verge of a breach of privilege, +altered this Poll Bill. Marvell writes in January 1667:-- + + "We have not advanced much this week; the alterations of the Lords + upon the Poll Bill have kept us busy. We have disagreed in most. + Aliens we adhere to pay double. Nonconformists we agree with them + _not_ to pay double (126 to 91), to allow no exemptions from patents + to free from paying, we adhere; and we also rejected a long clause + whereby they as well as the Commoners pretend distinctly to give to + the King, and to-day we send up our reasons." + +The Lords agreed, and the Bill passed. + +Ireland supplied a very stormy measure. I am afraid Marvell was on the +wrong side, but owing to his reserve I am not sure. An Irish Cattle Bill +was a measure very popular in the House of Commons, its object being to +prevent Ireland from sending over live beasts to be fattened, killed, +and consumed in England. You can read all about it in Clarendon's _Life_ +(vol. iii. pp. 704-720, 739), and think you are reading about Canadian +cattle to-day. The breeders (in a majority) were on one side, and the +owners of pasture-land on the other. The breeders said the Irish cattle +were bred in Ireland for nothing and transported for little, that they +undersold the English-bred cattle, and consequently "the breed of Cattle +in the Kingdom was totally given over," and rents fell. Other members +contended in their places "that their countries had no land bad enough +to breed, and that their traffic consisted in buying lean cattle and +making them fat, and upon this they paid their rent." Nobody, except the +king, gave a thought to Ireland. He, in this not unworthy of his great +Tudor predecessor, Henry the Eighth, declared he was King of Ireland no +less than of England, and would do nothing to injure one portion of his +dominions for the benefit of another. But as usual he gave way, being in +great straits for money. The House of Lords was better disposed towards +Ireland than the House of Commons, but they too yielded to selfish +clamour, and the Bill, which had excited great fury, became law, and +proved ineffective, owing (as was alleged) to that corruption which +restrictions on trade seem to have the trick of breeding.[123:1] + +It is always agreeable to be reminded that however large a part of our +history is composed of the record of passion, greed, delusion, and +stupidity, yet common-sense, the love of order and of justice (in +matters of business), have usually been the predominant factors in our +national life, despite priest, merchant, and party. + +Nowhere is this better illustrated than by two measures to which Marvell +refers as Bills "for the prevention of lawsuits between landlord and +tenant" and for "the Rebuilding of London." Both these Bills became law +in February 1668, within five months of the great catastrophe that was +their occasion. Two more sensible, well-planned, well-drawn, courageous +measures were never piloted through both Houses. King, Lords and +Commons, all put their heads together to face a great emergency and to +provide an immediate remedy. + +The Bill to prevent lawsuits is best appreciated if we read its +preamble:-- + + "Whereas the greatest part of the houses in the City of London having + been burnt by the dreadful and dismal fire which happened in + September last, many of the Tenants, under-tenants, and late + occupiers are liable unto suits and actions to compel them to repair + and to rebuild the same, and to pay their rents as if the same had + not been burnt, and are not relievable therefor in any ordinary + course of law; and great differences are likely to arise concerning + the Repairs and rebuilding the said houses, and payment of rents + which, if they should not be determined with speed and without + charge, would much obstruct the rebuilding of the s^d City. And for + that it is just that everyone concerned should bear a proportionate + share of this loss according to their several interests wherein in + respect of the multitude of cases, varying in their circumstances, no + certain general rule can be prescribed." + +After this recital it was enacted that the judges of the King's Bench +and Common Pleas and the Barons of the Exchequer, or any three or more +of them, should form a Court of Record to hear and determine every +possible dispute or difference arising out of the great fire, whether +relating to liability to repair, and rebuild, or to pay rent, or for +arrears of rent (other than arrears which had accrued due before the 1st +of September) or otherwise howsoever. The proceedings were to be by +summary process, _sine forma et figura judicii_ and without court fees. +The judges were to be bound by no rules either of law or equity, and +might call for what evidence they chose, including that of the +interested parties, and try the case as it best could be tried. Their +orders were to be final and not (save in a single excepted case) subject +to any appeal. All persons in remainder and reversion were to be bound +by these orders, although infants, married women, idiots, beyond seas, +or under any other disability. A special power was given to order the +surrender of existing leases, and to grant new ones for terms not +exceeding forty years. The judges gave their services for nothing, and, +for once, released from all their own trammels, set to work to do +substantial justice between landlord and tenant, personalty and realty, +the life interest and the remainder, covenantor and covenantee, after a +fashion which excited the admiration and won the confidence of the whole +City. The ordinary suitor, still left exposed to the pitfalls of the +special pleader, the risks (owing to the exclusion of evidence) of a +non-suit and the costly cumbersomeness of the Court of Chancery, must +often have wished that the subject-matter of his litigation had perished +in the flames of the great fire. + +This court sat in Clifford's Inn, and was usually presided over by Sir +Matthew Hale, whose skill both as an arithmetician and an architect +completed his fitness for so responsible a position. Within a year the +work was done. + +The Act for rebuilding the City is an elaborate measure of more than +forty clauses, and aimed at securing "the regularity, safety, +conveniency and beauty" of the new London that was to be. The buildings +were classified according to their position and character, and had to +maintain a prescribed level of quality. The materials to be employed +were named. New streets were to be of certain widths, and so on. This is +the Act that contains the first Betterment Clause: "And forasmuch as the +Houses now remaining and to be rebuilt will receive more or less +advantage in the value of the rents by the liberty of air and free +recourse for trade," it was enacted that a jury might be sworn to +assess upon the owners and others interested of and in the said houses, +such sum or sums of money with respect of their several interests "in +consideration of such improvement and melioration as in reason and good +conscience they shall think fit." + +It takes nothing short of a catastrophe to suspend in England, even for +a few months, those rules of evidence that often make justice +impossible, and those rights of landlords which for centuries have +appropriated public expenditure to private gain.[126:1] + +The moneys required to pay for the land taken under the Act to widen +streets and to accomplish the other authorised works were raised, as +Marvell informs his constituents, by a tax of twelve pence on every +chaldron of coal coming as far as Gravesend. Few taxes have had so +useful and so harmless a life. + +All this time the Dutch War was going on, but the heart was out of it. +Nothing in England is so popular as war, except the peace that comes +after it. The king now wanted peace, and the merchants on 'Change had +glutted their ire. In February 1667 the king told the Houses of +Parliament that all "sober" men would be glad to see peace. Unluckily, +it seems to have been assumed that we could have peace whenever we +wanted it, and the fatal error was committed of at once "laying up" the +first-and second-rate ships. It thus came about that, whilst still at +war, England had no fleet to put to sea. It did not at first seem likely +that the overtures for peace would present much difficulty, when +suddenly arose the question of Poleroone. It is amazing how few +Englishmen have ever heard of Poleroone, or even of the Banda Islands, +of which group it is one. Indeed, a more insignificant speck in the +ocean it would be hard to find. To discover it on an atlas is no easy +task. Yet, but for Poleroone, the Dutch would never have taken +Sheerness, or broken the chain at Gillingham, or carried away with them +to the Texel the proud vessel that had brought back Charles the Second +to an excited population. + +Poleroone is a small nutmeg-growing island in the Indian Archipelago, +not far from the eastern extremity of New Guinea. King James the First +imagined he had some right to it, and, at any rate, Oliver Cromwell, +when he made peace with the Dutch, made a great point of Poleroone. Have +it he would for the East India Company. The Dutch objected, but gave +way, and by an article in the treaty with Oliver bound themselves to +give up Poleroone to the Company. All, in fact, that they did do, was to +cut down the nutmeg trees, and so make the island good for nothing for +many a long year. Physical possession was never taken. For some +unaccountable reason Charles, who had sold Oliver's Dunkirk to the +French for half a million of money, stuck out for Poleroone. What +Cromwell had taken he was not going to give up! On the other hand, +neither would the Dutch give up Poleroone. This dispute, about a barren +island, delayed the settlement of the peace preliminaries; but +eventually the British plenipotentiaries did get out to Breda, in May +1667. Our sanguine king expected an immediate cessation of hostilities, +and that his unpreparedness would thus be huddled up. All of a sudden, +at the beginning of June, De Ruyter led out his fleet, and with a fair +wind behind him stood for the Thames. All is fair in war. England was +caught napping. The doleful history reads like that of a sudden +piratical onslaught, and reveals the fatal inefficiency of the +administration. Sheerness was practically defenceless. "There were a +Company or two of very good soldiers there under excellent officers, but +the fortifications were so weak and unfinished, and all other provisions +so entirely wanting, that the Dutch Fleet no sooner approached within a +distance but with their cannon they beat all the works flat and drove +all the men from the ground, which, as soon as they had done with their +Boats, they landed men and seemed resolved to fortify and keep +it."[128:1] Capture of Sheerness by the Dutch! No need of a halfpenny +press to spread this news through a London still in ruins. What made +matters worse, the sailors were more than half-mutinous, being paid with +tickets not readily convertible into cash. Many of them actually +deserted to the Dutch fleet, which made its leisurely way upstream, +passing Upnor Castle, which had guns but no ammunition, till it was +almost within reach of Chatham, where lay the royal navy. General Monk, +who was the handy man of the period, and whose authority was always +invoked when the king he had restored was in greater trouble than usual, +had hastily collected what troops he could muster, and marched to +protect Chatham; but what were wanted were ships, not troops. The Dutch +had no mind to land, and after firing three warships (the _Royal James_, +the _Royal Oak_, and the _London_), and capturing the _Royal Charles_, +"they thought they had done enough, and made use of the ebb to carry +them back again."[129:1] These events occupied the tenth to the +fifteenth of June, and for the impression they produced on Marvell's +mind we are not dependent upon his restrained letters to his +constituents, but can turn to his longest rhymed satire, which is +believed to have been first printed, anonymously of course, as a +broadsheet in August 1667. + +This poem is called _The Last Instructions to a Painter about the Dutch +Wars_, 1667. The title was derived from Waller's panegyric poem on the +occasion of the Duke of York's victory over the Dutch on the 3rd of June +1665, when Opdam, the Dutch admiral, was blown up with his ship.[129:2] +Sir John Denham, a brother satirist of Marvell's, and with as good an +excuse for hating the Duke of York as this world affords, had seized +upon the same idea and published four satirical poems on these same +Dutch Wars, entitled _Directions to a Painter_ (see _Poems on Affairs of +State_, 1703, vol. i.). + +Marvell's satire, which runs to 900 lines, is essentially a House of +Commons poem, and could only have been written by a member. It is +intensely "lobbyish" and "occasional." To understand its allusions, to +appreciate its "pain-giving" capacity to the full, is now impossible. +Still, the reader of Clarendon's _Life_, Pepys's _Diary_, and Burnet's +_History_, to name only popular books, will have no difficulty in +entering into the spirit of the performance. As a poem it is rough in +execution, careless, breathless. A rugged style was then in vogue. Even +Milton could write his lines to the Cambridge Carrier somewhat in this +manner. Marvell has nothing of the magnificence of Dryden, or of the +finished malice of Pope. He plays the part, and it is sincerely played, +of the old, honest member of Parliament who loves his country and hates +rogues and speaks right out, calling spades spades and the king's women +what they ought to be called. He is conversational, and therefore +coarse. The whole history of the events that resulted in the national +disgrace is told. + + "The close cabal marked how the Navy eats + And thought all lost that goes not to the cheats; + So therefore secretly for peace decrees, + Yet for a War the Parliament would squeeze, + And fix to the revenue such a sum + Should Goodricke silence and make Paston dumb. + ... + Meantime through all the yards their orders were + To lay the ships up, cease the keels begun. + The timber rots, the useless axe does rust, + The unpractised saw lies buried in the dust, + The busy hammer sleeps, the ropes untwine." + +Parliament is got rid of to the joy of Clarendon. + + "Blither than hare that hath escaped the hounds, + The house prorogued, the chancellor rebounds. + What frosts to fruits, what arsenic to the rat, + What to fair Denham mortal chocolate,[130:1] + What an account to Carteret, that and more, + A parliament is to the chancellor." + +De Ruyter makes his appearance, and Monk + + "in his shirt against the Dutch is pressed. + Often, dear Painter, have I sat and mused + Why he should be on all adventures used. + Whether his valour they so much admire, + Or that for cowardice they all retire, + As heaven in storms, they call, in gusts of state, + On Monk and Parliament--yet both do hate. + ... + Ruyter, the while, that had our ocean curbed, + Sailed now amongst our rivers undisturbed; + Surveyed their crystal streams and banks so green, + And beauties ere this never naked seen." + +His flags fly from the topmasts of his ships, but where is the enemy? + + "So up the stream the Belgic navy glides, + And at Sheerness unloads its stormy sides." + +Chatham was but a few miles further up. + + "There our sick ships unrigged in summer lay, + Like moulting fowl, a weak and easy prey, + For whose strong bulk earth scarce could timber find, + The ocean water, or the heavens wind. + Those oaken giants of the ancient race, + That ruled all seas, and did our channel grace; + The conscious stag, though once the forest's dread, + Flies to the wood, and hides his armless head. + Ruyter forthwith a squadron doth untack; + They sail securely through the river's track. + An English pilot too (O, shame! O, sin!) + Cheated of 's pay, was he that showed them in." + +The chain at Gillingham is broken, to the dismay of Monk, who + + "from the bank that dismal sight does view; + Our feather gallants, who came down that day + To be spectators safe of the new play, + Leave him alone when first they hear the gun, + (Cornbury,[131:1] the fleetest) and to London run. + Our seamen, whom no danger's shape could fright, + Unpaid, refuse to mount their ships for spite, + Or to their fellows swim on board the Dutch, + Who show the tempting metal in their clutch." + +Upnor Castle avails nought. + + "And Upnor's Castle's ill-deserted wall + Now needful does for ammunition call." + +The _Royal Charles_ is captured before Monk's face. + + "That sacred Keel that had, as he, restored + Its excited sovereign on its happy board, + Now a cheap spoil and the mean victor's slave + Taught the Dutch colours from its top to wave." + +Horrors accumulate. + + "Each doleful day still with fresh loss returns, + The loyal _London_ now a third time burns, + And the true _Royal Oak_ and _Royal James_, + Allied in fate, increase with theirs her flames. + Of all our navy none shall now survive, + But that the ships themselves were taught to dive, + And the kind river in its creek them hides. + Freighting their pierced keels with oozy tides." + +The situation was indeed serious enough. One wiseacre in command in +London declared his belief that the Tower was no longer "tenable." + + "And were not Ruyter's maw with ravage cloyed, + Even London's ashes had been then destroyed." + +But the Dutch admiral returns the way he came. + + "Now nothing more at Chatham's left to burn, + The Holland squadron leisurely return; + And spite of Ruperts and of Albemarles, + To Ruyter's triumph led the captive _Charles_. + The pleasing sight he often does prolong, + Her mast erect, tough cordage, timber strong, + Her moving shape, all these he doth survey, + And all admires, but most his easy prey. + The seamen search her all within, without; + Viewing her strength, they yet their conquest doubt; + Then with rude shouts, secure, the air they vex, + With gamesome joy insulting on her decks. + Such the feared Hebrew captive, blinded, shorn, + Was led about in sport, the public scorn." + +The poet then indulges himself in an emotional outburst. + + "Black day, accursed! on thee let no man hail + Out of the port, or dare to hoist a sail, + Or row a boat in thy unlucky hour! + Thee, the year's monster, let thy dam devour, + And constant Time, to keep his course yet right, + Fill up thy space with a redoubled night. + When aged Thames was bound with fetters base, + And Medway chaste ravished before his face, + And their dear offspring murdered in their sight, + Thou and thy fellows saw the odious light. + Sad change, since first that happy pair was wed, + When all the rivers graced their nuptial bed; + And father Neptune promised to resign + His empire old to their immortal line; + Now with vain grief their vainer hopes they rue, + Themselves dishonoured, and the gods untrue; + And to each other, helpless couple, moan, + As the sad tortoise for the sea does groan: + But most they for their darling Charles complain, + And were it burned, yet less would be their pain. + To see that fatal pledge of sea-command, + Now in the ravisher De Ruyter's hand, + The Thames roared, swooning Medway turned her tide, + And were they mortal, both for grief had died." + +A scapegoat had, of course, to be at once provided. He was found in Mr. +Commissioner Pett, the most skilful shipbuilder of the age. + + "After this loss, to relish discontent, + Some one must be accused by Parliament. + All our miscarriages on Pett must fall, + His name alone seems fit to answer all. + Whose counsel first did this mad war beget? + Who all commands sold through the navy? Pett. + Who would not follow when the Dutch were beat? + Who treated out the time at Bergen? Pett. + Who the Dutch fleet with storms disabled met? + And, rifling prizes, them neglect? Pett. + Who with false news prevented the Gazette? + The fleet divided? writ for Rupert? Pett. + Who all our seamen cheated of their debt, + And all our prizes who did swallow? Pett. + Who did advise no navy out to set? + And who the forts left unprepared? Pett. + Who to supply with powder did forget + Languard, Sheerness, Gravesend, and Upnor? Pett. + Who all our ships exposed in Chatham net? + Who should it be but the fanatic Pett?" + +This outburst can hardly fail to remind the reader of a famous outburst +of Mr. Micawber's on the subject of Uriah Heep. + +The satire concludes with the picture of the king in the dead shades of +night, alone in his room, startled by loud noises of cannons, trumpets, +and drums, and then visited by the ghost of his father. + + "And ghastly Charles, turning his collar low, + The purple thread about his neck does show." + +The pensive king resolves on Clarendon's disgrace, and on rising next +morning seeks out Lady Castlemaine, Bennet, and Coventry, who give him +the same advice. He knows them all three to be false to one another and +to him, but is for the moment content to do what they wish. + +I have omitted, in this review of a long poem, the earlier lines which +deal with the composition of the House of Commons. All its parties are +described, one after another--the old courtiers, the pension-hunters, +the king's procurers, then almost a department of State. + + "Then the Procurers under Prodgers filed + Gentlest of men, and his lieutenant mild + Bronkard, love's squire; through all the field arrayed, + No troop was better clad, nor so well paid." + +Clarendon had his friends, soon sorely to be needed, and after them, + + "Next to the lawyers, sordid band, appear, + Finch in the front and Thurland in the rear." + +Some thirty-three members are mentioned by their names and habits. The +Speaker, Sir Edward Turner, is somewhat unkindly described. Honest men +are usually to be found everywhere, and they existed even in Charles the +Second's pensionary Parliament:-- + + "Nor could all these the field have long maintained + But for the unknown reserve that still remained; + A gross of English gentry, nobly born, + Of clear estates, and to no faction sworn, + Dear lovers of their king, and death to meet + For country's cause, that glorious thing and sweet; + To speak not forward, but in action brave, + In giving generous, but in council grave; + Candidly credulous for once, nay twice; + But sure the devil cannot cheat them thrice." + +No member of Parliament's library is complete without Marvell, who did +not forget the House of Commons smoking-room:-- + + "Even iron Strangways chafing yet gave back + Spent with fatigue, to breathe awhile tabac." + +Charles hastened to make peace with Holland. He was not the man to +insist on vengeance or to mourn over lost prestige. De Ruyter had gone +after suffering repulses at Portsmouth, Plymouth, and Torbay. Peace was +concluded at Breda on the 21st of July. We gave up Poleroone. _Per +contra_ we gained a more famous place, New Amsterdam, rechristened New +York in honour of the duke. All prisoners were to be liberated, and the +Dutch, despite Sheerness and the _Royal Charles_, agreed to lower their +flag to all British ships of war. + +The fall, long pending, of Clarendon immediately followed the peace. +Men's tempers were furious or sullen. Hyde had no more bitter, no more +cruel enemy than Marvell. Why this was has not been discovered, but +there was nothing too bad for Marvell not to believe of any member of +Clarendon's household. All the scandals, and they were many and +horrible, relating to Clarendon and his daughter, the Duchess of York, +find a place in Marvell's satires and epigrams. To us Lord Clarendon is +a grave and thoughtful figure, the statesman-author of _The History of +the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England_, that famous, large book, +loftily planned, finely executed, full of life and character and the +philosophy of human existence; and of his own _Autobiography_, a +production which, though it must, like Burnet's _History_, be read with +caution, unveils to the reader a portion of that past which usually is +as deeply shrouded from us as the future. If at times we are reminded in +reading Clarendon's _Life_ of the old steward in Hogarth's plate, who +lifts up his hands in horror over the extravagance of his master, if his +pedantry often irritates, and his love of place displeases, we recognise +these but as the shades of the character of a distinguished and +accomplished public servant. But to Marvell Clarendon was rapacious, +ambitious, and corrupt, a man who had sold Oliver's Dunkirk to the +French, and shared the price; who had selected for the king's consort a +barren woman, so that his own damaged daughter might at least chance to +become Queen of England, who hated Parliaments and hankered after a +standing army, who took money for patents, who sold public offices, who +was bribed by the Dutch about the terms of peace, who swindled the +ruined cavaliers of the funds subscribed for their benefit, and had by +these methods heaped together great wealth which he ostentatiously +displayed. Even darker crimes than these are hinted at. That Marvell was +wrong in his estimate of Clarendon's character now seems certain; +Clarendon did not get a penny of the Dunkirk money. The case made +against him by the House of Commons in their articles of impeachment was +felt even at the time to be flimsy and incapable of proof, and in the +many records that have come to light since Clarendon's day nothing has +been discovered to give them support. And yet Marvell was a singularly +well-informed member of Parliament, a shrewd, level-headed man of +affairs, who knew Lord Clarendon in the way we know men we have to see +on business matters, whose speeches we can listen to, and whose conduct +we discuss and criticise. "Gently scan your brother-man" is a precept +Marvell never took to heart; nor is the House of Commons a place where +it is either preached or practised. + +When Clarendon was well nigh at the height of his great unpopularity, he +built himself a fine big house on a site given him by the king where now +is Albemarle Street. Where did he get the money from? He employed, in +building it, the stones of St. Paul's Cathedral. True, he bought the +stones from the Dean and Chapter, but if the man you hate builds a great +house out of the ruins of a church, is it likely that so trivial a fact +as a cash payment for the materials is going to be mentioned? Splendid +furniture and noble pictures were to be seen going into the new +palace--the gifts, so it was alleged, of foreign ambassadors. What was +the consideration for these donations? England's honour! Clarendon House +was at once named Dunkirk House, Holland House, Tangiers House. + +Here is Marvell upon it:-- + + UPON HIS HOUSE + + "Here lie the sacred bones + Of Paul beguiled of his stones: + Here lie golden briberies, + The price of ruined families; + The cavalier's debenture wall, + Fixed on an eccentric basis: + Here's Dunkirk-Town and Tangier-Hull, + The Queen's marriage and all, + The Dutchman's _templum pacis_." + +Clarendon's fall was rapid. He knew the house of Stuart too well to +place any reliance upon the king. Evelyn visited him on the 27th of +August 1667 after the seals had been taken away from him, and found him +"in his bed-chamber very sad." His enemies were numerous and powerful, +both in the House of Commons and at Court, where all the buffoons and +ladies of pleasure hated him, because--so Evelyn says--"he thwarted some +of them and stood in their way." In November Evelyn called again and +found the late Lord-Chancellor in the garden of his new-built palace, +sitting in his gout wheel-chair and watching the new gates setting up +towards the north and the fields. "He looked and spoke very +disconsolately. After some while deploring his condition to me, I took +my leave. Next morning I heard he was gone."[139:1] + +The news was true; on Saturday, the 29th of November, he drove to Erith, +and after a terrible tossing on the nobly impartial Channel the weary +man reached Calais, and died seven years later in Rouen, having well +employed his leisure in completing his history. His palace was sold for +half what it cost to the inevitable Monk, Duke of Albemarle. + +On the 3rd of December Marvell writes that the House, having heard that +Lord Clarendon had "withdrawn," forthwith ordered an address to his +Majesty "that care might be taken for securing all the sea ports lest he +should pass there." Marvell adds grimly, "I suppose he will not trouble +you at Hull." The king took good care that his late Lord-Chancellor +should escape. An act of perpetual banishment was at once passed, +receiving the royal assent on the 19th of December. + +Marvell was kept very busy during the early months of 1668, inquiring, +as our English fashion is, into the "miscarriages of the late war." The +House more than once sat from nine in the morning till eight at night, +finding out all it could. "What money, arising by the poll money, had +been applied to the use of the war?" This was an awkward inquiry. The +House voted that the not prosecuting the first victory of June 1665 was +a miscarriage, and one of the greatest: a snub to the Duke of York. The +not furnishing the Medway with a sufficient guard of ships, though the +king had then 18,000 men in his pay, was another great miscarriage. The +paying of the fleet with tickets, without money, was a third great +miscarriage. All this time Oliver Cromwell's skull was grinning on its +perch in Westminster Hall. + +Besides the honour of England, that of Hull had to be defended by its +member. A young Lieutenant Wise, one of the Hull garrison, had in some +boisterous fashion affronted the corporation and the mayor. On this +correspondence ensues; and Marvell waits upon the Duke of Albemarle, the +head of the army, to obtain reparation. + + "I waited yesterday upon my Lord General--and first presented your + usual fee which the General accepted, but saying that it was + unnecessary and that you might have bin pleased to spare it, and he + should be so much more at liberty to show how voluntary and + affectionate he was toward your corporation. I returned the civilest + words I could coin on for the present, and rendered him your humble + thanks for his continued patronage of you ... and told him that you + had further sent him up a small tribute of your Hull liquor. He + thanked you again for all these things which you might--he said--have + spared, and added that if the greatest of your military officers + should demean himself ill towards you, he would take a course with + him." + +A mealy-mouthed Lord-General drawing near his end.[140:1] + +Wise was removed from the Hull garrison. The affronted corporation was +not satisfied, and Marvell had to argue the point. + + "And I hope, Sir, you will incline the Bench to consider whether I am + able or whether it be fit for me to urge it beyond that point. Yet it + is not all his (Wise's) Parliament men and relations that have + wrought me in the least, but what I simply conceive as the state of + things now to be possible and satisfactory. What would you have more + of a soldier than to run away and have him cashiered as to any + command in your garrison? The first he hath done and the second he + must submit to. And I assure you whatsoever he was among you, he is + here a kind of decrepit young gentleman and terribly crest-fallen." + +The letter concludes thus:-- + + "For I assure you they use all the civility imaginable to you, and as + we sat there drinking a cup of sack with the General, Colonel + Legge[141:1] chancing to be present, there were twenty good things + said on all hands tending to the good fame, reputation, and advantage + of the Town, an occasion that I was heartily glad of." + +Corporations may not have souls to save and bodies to kill, but +evidently they have vanities to tickle. + +In November 1669 the House is still busy over the accounts. Sir George +Carteret was Treasurer of the Navy. Marvell refers to him in _The Last +Instructions to a Painter_ as:-- + + "Carteret the rich did the accountants guide + And in ill English all the world defied." + +The following letter of Marvell's gives an excellent account of House of +Commons business, both how it is conducted, and how often it gets +accidentally interrupted by other business unexpectedly cropping up:-- + + "_November 20, 1669._ + + "GENTLEMEN, MY VERY WORTHY FRIENDS,--Returning after our adjournment + to sit upon Wednesday, the House having heard what Sir G. Cartaret + could say for himselfe, and he then commended to withdraw, after a + considerable debate, put it to the question, whether he were guilty + of misdemeanour upon the Commissioners first observation, the words + of which were, That all monyes received by him out of His Majesty's + Exchequer are by the privy seales assigned for particular services, + but no such thing observed or specified in his payments, whereby he + hath assumed to himselfe a liberty to make use of the King's + treasure for other uses then is directed. The House dividing upon + the question, the ayes went out, and wondered why they were kept out + so extraordinary a time. The ayes proved 138 and the noes 129; and + the reason of the long stay then appeared; the tellers for the ayes + chanced to be very ill reckoners, so that they were forced to tell + severall times over in the House, and when at last the tellers for + the ayes would have agreed the noes to be 142, the noes would needs + say that they were 143, whereupon those for the ayes would tell once + more and then found the noes to be indeed but 129; and the ayes then + coming in proved to be 138; whereas if the noes had been content + with the first error of the tellers, Sir George had been quit upon + that observation. This I have told you so minutely because it is the + second fatall and ominous accident that hath fain out in the + divisions about Sir G. Cartaret. Thursday was ordered for the second + observation, the words of which are, Two hundred and thirty thousand + seven hundred thirty and one thousand pounds thirteen shillings and + ninepence, claimed as payd, and deposited for security of interest, + and yet no distinct specification of time appeares either on his + receits or payments, whereby no judgment can be made how interest + accrues; so that we cannot yet allow the same. But this day was + diverted and wholy taken up by a speciall report orderd by the + Committee for the Bill of Conventicles, that the House be informed + of severall Conventicles in Westminster which might be of dangerous + consequences. From hence arose much discourse; also of a report that + Ludlow was in England, that Commonwealths-men flock about the town, + and there were meetings said to be, where they talkt of New Modells + of Government; so that the House ordered a Committee to receive + informations both concerning Conventicles and these other dangerous + meetings; and then entered a resolution upon their books without + putting it to the question, That this House will adhere to His + Majesty, and the Government of Church and State as now established, + against all its enemyes. Friday having bin appointed, as I told you + in my former letter, for the House to sit in a grand Committee upon + the motion for the King's supply, was spent wholy in debate, whether + they should do so or no, and concluded at last in a consent, that + the sitting in a grand Committee upon the motion for the King's + supply should be put of till Friday next, and so it was ordered. The + reason of which kind of proceeding, lest you should thinke to arise + from an indisposition of the House, I shall tell you as they appeare + to me, to have been the expectation of what Bill will come from the + Lords in stead of that of ours which they threw out, and a desire to + redresse and see thoroughly into the miscarriages of mony before any + more should be granted. To-day the House hath bin upon the second + observation, and after a debate till foure a'clock, have voted him + guilty also of misdemeanor in that particular. The Commissioners are + ordered to attend the House again on Munday, which is done + constantly for the illustration of any matter in their report, + wherein the House is not cleare. And to say the truth, the House + receives great satisfaction from them, and shows them extraordinary + respect. These are the things of principall notice since my last." + +Carteret eventually was censured and suspended and dismissed. + +The sudden incursion of religion during a financial debate is highly +characteristic of the House of Commons. + +Whilst Queen Elizabeth and her advisers did succeed in making some sort +of a settlement of religion having regard to the questions of her time, +the Restoration bishops, an inferior set of men, wholly failed. The +repressive legislation that followed upon the Act of Uniformity, +succeeded in establishing and endowing (with voluntary contributions) +what is sometimes called, absurdly enough, Political Dissent. On +points, not of doctrine, but of ceremony, and of church government, one +half of the religiously-minded community were by oaths and declarations, +and by employing the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper as "a picklock to a +place," drawn out of the service of the State. Excluded from Parliament +and from all corporate bodies, from grammar-schools and universities, +English Dissent learned to live its own life, remote from the army, the +navy, and the civil service, quite outside of what perhaps may be fairly +called the main currents of the national life. Nonconformists venerated +their own divines, were reared in their own academies and colleges, read +their own books, went, when the modified law permitted it, to their own +conventicles in back streets, and made it their boast that they had +never entered their parish churches, for the upkeep of which they were +compelled to subscribe--save for the purpose of being married. The +nation suffered by reason of this complete severance. Trade excepted, +there was no community of interest between Church and Dissent. Sobriety, +gravity, a decent way of life, the sense of religious obligation (even +when united with the habit of _extempore_ prayer, and a hereditary +disrespect for bishops' aprons), are national assets, as the expression +now goes, which cannot be disregarded with impunity. + +The Conventicle Act Marvell refers to was a stringent measure, imposing +pecuniary fines upon any persons of sixteen years of age or upwards who +"under pretence of religion" should be present at any meeting of more +than five persons, or more than those of the household, "in other manner +than allowed by the Liturgy and practice of the Church of England." +Heavier fines were imposed upon the preachers. The poet Waller, who was +"nursed in Parliaments," having been first returned from Amersham in +1621, made a very sensible remark on the second reading: "Let them alone +and they will preach against each other; by this Bill they will +incorporate as being all under one calamity."[145:1] But by 144 to 78 +the Bill was read, though it did not become law until the following +session. An indignant Member of Parliament once told Cromwell that he +would take the "sense" of the House against some proposal. "Very well," +said Cromwell, "you shall take the 'sense' of the House, and I will take +the 'nonsense,' and we will see who tells the most votes." + +In February 1670 the king opened a new session, and in March Marvell +wrote a private letter to a relative at Bordeaux, in which he "lends his +mind out," after a fashion forbidden him in his correspondence with his +constituents:-- + + "DEAR COUSIN,-- ... You know that we having voted the King, before + Christmas, four hundred thousand pounds, and no more; and enquiring + severely into ill management, and being ready to adjourn ourselves + till February, his Majesty, fortified by some undertakers of the + meanest of our House, threw up all as nothing, and prorogued us from + the first of December till the fourteenth of February. All that + interval there was great and numerous caballing among the courtiers. + The King also all the while examined at council the reports from the + Commissioners of Accounts, where they were continually + discountenanced, and treated rather as offenders than judges. In + this posture we met, and the King, being exceedingly necessitous for + money, spoke to us _stylo minaci et imperatorio_; and told us the + inconveniences which would fall on the nation by want of a supply, + should not ly at his door; that we must not revive any discord + betwixt the Lords and us; that he himself had examined the accounts, + and found every penny to have been employed in the war; and he + recommended the Scotch union. The Garroway party appeared with the + usual vigour, but the country gentlemen appeared not in their true + number the first day: so, for want of seven voices, the first blow + was against them. When we began to talk of the Lords, the King sent + for us alone, and recommended a rasure of all proceedings. The same + thing you know that we proposed at first. We presently ordered it, + and went to tell him so the same day, and to thank him. At coming + down, (a pretty ridiculous thing!) Sir Thomas Clifford carryed + Speaker and Mace, and all members there, into the King's cellar, to + drink his health. The King sent to the Lords more peremptoryly, and + they, with much grumbling, agreed to the rasure. When the + Commissioners of Accounts came before us, sometimes we heard them + _pro forma_, but all falls to dirt. The terrible Bill against + Conventicles is sent up to the Lords; and we and the Lords, as to + the Scotch busyness, have desired the King to name English + Commissioners to treat, but nothing they do to be valid, but on a + report to Parliament, and an act to confirm. We are now, as we + think, within a week of rising. They are making mighty alterations + in the Conventicle Bill (which, as we sent up, is the quintessence + of arbitrary malice), and sit whole days, and yet proceed but by + inches, and will, at the end, probably affix a Scotch clause of the + King's power in externals. So the fate of the Bill is uncertain, but + must probably pass, being the price of money. The King told some + eminent citizens, who applyed to him against it, that they must + address themselves to the Houses, that he must not disoblige his + friends; and if it had been in the power of their friends, he had + gone without money. There is a Bill in the Lords to encourage people + to buy all the King's fee-farm rents; so he is resolved once more to + have money enough in his pocket, and live on the common for the + future. The great Bill begun in the Lords, and which makes more ado + than ever any Act in this Parliament did, is for enabling Lord Ros, + long since divorced in the spiritual court, and his children + declared illegitimate by Act of Parliament, to marry again. Anglesey + and Ashly, who study and know their interests as well as any + gentlemen at court, and whose sons have marryed two sisters of Ros, + inheritrixes if he has no issue, yet they also drive on the Bill + with the greatest vigour. The King is for the Bill: the Duke of + York, and all the Papist Lords, and all the Bishops, except Cosins, + Reynolds, and Wilkins, are against it. They sat all Thursday last, + without once rising, till almost ten at night, in most solemn and + memorable debate, whether it should be read the second time, or + thrown out. At last, at the question, there were forty-two persons + and six proxys against it, and forty-one persons and fifteen proxys + for it. If it had not gone for it, the Lord Arlington had a power in + his pocket from the King to have nulled the proxys, if it had been + to the purpose. It was read the second time yesterday, and, on a + long debate whether it should be committed, it went for the Bill by + twelve odds, in persons and proxys. The Duke of York, the bishops, + and the rest of the party, have entered their protests, on the first + day's debate, against it. Is not this fine work? This Bill must come + down to us. It is my opinion that Lauderdale at one ear talks to the + King of Monmouth, and Buckingham at the other of a new Queen. It is + also my opinion that the King was never since his coming in, nay, + all things considered, no King since the Conquest, so absolutely + powerful at home, as he is at the present; nor any Parliament, or + places, so certainly and constantly supplyed with men of the same + temper. In such a conjuncture, dear Will, what probability is there + of my doing any thing to the purpose? The King would needs take the + Duke of Albemarle out of his son's hand to bury him at his own + charges. It is almost three months, and he yet lys in the dark + unburyed, and no talk of him. He left twelve thousand pounds a year, + and near two hundred thousand pounds in money. His wife dyed some + twenty days after him; she layed in state, and was buryed, at her + son's expence, in Queen Elizabeth's Chapel. And now, + + "Disce, puer, virtutem ex me verumque laborem, + Fortunam ex aliis. + + "_March 21, 1670._" + +This remarkable letter lets us into many secrets. + +The Conventicle Bill is "the price of money." The king's interest in +the Roos divorce case was believed to be due to his own desire to be +quit of a barren and deserted wife.[148:1] Our most religious king had +nineteen bastards, but no lawful issue. It may seem strange that so high +a churchman as Bishop Cosin should have taken the view he did, but Cosin +had a strong dash of the layman in his constitution, and was always an +advocate of divorce, with permission to re-marry, in cases of adultery. + +A further and amending Bill for rebuilding the city was before the +House--one of eighty-four clauses, "the longest Bill, perhaps, that ever +past in Parliament," says Marvell; but the Roos Divorce Bill and the +Conventicle Bill proved so exciting in the House of Lords that they had +little time for anything else. Union with Scotland, much desired by the +king, but regarded with great suspicion by all Parliamentarians, fell +flat, though Commissioners were appointed. + +The Conventicle Bill passed the Lords, who tagged on to it a proviso +Marvell refers to in his next letter, which the Lower House somewhat +modified by the omission of certain words. Lord Roos was allowed to +re-marry. The big London Bill got through. + +Another private letter of Marvell's, of this date, is worth reading:-- + + "DEAREST WILL,--I wrote to you two letters, and payd for them from + the posthouse here at Westminster; to which I have had no answer. + Perhaps they miscarryed. I sent on an answer to the only letter I + received from Bourdeaux, and having put it into Mr. Nelthorp's hand, + I doubt not but it came to your's. To proceed. The same day (March + 26th letter) my letter bore date, there was an extraordinary thing + done. The King, about ten o'clock, took boat, with Lauderdale only, + and two ordinary attendants, and rowed awhile as towards the bridge, + and soon turned back to the Parliament stairs, and so went up into + the House of Lords, and took his seat. Almost all of them were + amazed, but all seemed so; and the Duke of York especially was very + much surprized. Being sat, he told them it was a privilege he + claimed from his ancestors to be present at their deliberations. + That therefore, they should not, for his coming, interrupt their + debates, but proceed, and be covered. They did so. It is true that + this has been done long ago, but it is now so old, that it is new, + and so disused, that at any other but so bewitched a time as this, + it would have been looked on as an high usurpation, and breach of + privilege. He indeed sat still, for the most part, and interposed + very little; sometimes a word or two. But the most discerning + opinion was, that he did herein as he rowed for having had his face + first to the Conventicle Bill, he turned short to the Lord Ross's. + So that, indeed, it is credible, the King, in prospect of diminishing + the Duke of York's influence in the Lord's House, in this, or any + future matter, resolved, and wisely enough at present, to weigh up + and lighten the Duke's efficacy, by coming himself in person. After + three or four days continuance, the Lords were very well used to the + King's presence, and sent the Lord Steward and Lord Chamberlain, to + him, when they might wait, as an House on him, to render their + humble thanks for the honour he did them. The hour was appointed + them, and they thanked him, and he took it well. So this matter, of + such importance on all great occasions, seems riveted to them, and + us, for the future, and to all posterity. Now the Lord Ross's Bill + came in order to another debate, and the King present. Nevertheless + the debate lasted an entire day; and it passed by very few voices. + The King has ever since continued his session among them, and says + it is better than going to a play. In this session the Lords sent + down to us a proviso[149:1] for the King, that would have restored + him to all civil or ecclesiastical prerogatives which his ancestors + had enjoyed at any time since the Conquest. There was never so + compendious a piece of absolute universal tyranny. But the Commons + made them ashamed of it, and retrenched it. The Parliament was never + embarrassed, beyond recovery. We are all venal cowards, except some + few. What plots of State will go on this interval I know not. There + is a new set of justices of peace framing through the whole kingdom. + The governing cabal, since Ross's busyness, are Buckingham, + Lauderdale, Ashly, Orrery, and Trevor. Not but the other cabal too + have seemingly sometimes their turn. Madam,[150:1] our King's + sister, during the King of France's progress in Flanders, is to come + as far as Canterbury. There will doubtless be family counsels then. + Some talk of a French Queen to be then invented for our King. Some + talk of a sister of Denmark; others of a good virtuous Protestant + here at home. The King disavows it; yet he has sayed in publick, he + knew not why a woman may not be divorced for barrenness, as a man + for impotency. The Lord Barclay went on Monday last for Ireland, the + King to Newmarket. God keep, and increase you, in all + things.--Yours, etc. + + "_April 14, 1670._" + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[77:1] Clarendon's _Life_, vol. ii. p. 442. + +[79:1] The clerks, however, only _counted_ the members who voted, and +kept no record of their _names_. Mr. Gladstone remembered the alteration +being made in 1836, and how unpopular it was. The change was a greater +revolution than the Reform Bill. See _The Unreformed House of Commons_ +by Edward Posselt, vol. i. p. 587. + +[79:2] + + "And a Parliament had lately met + Without a single Bankes."--_Praed_. + +[82:1] See Dr. Halley's _Lancashire--its Puritanism and Nonconformity_, +vol. ii. pp. 1-140, a most informing book. + +[88:1] Clarendon's _History_, vol. vi. p. 249. + +[90:1] An Historical Poem.--Grosart, vol. i. p. 343. + +[92:1] Macaulay's _History_, vol. i. p. 154. + +[95:1] I am acquainted with the romantic story which would have us +believe that Lady Fauconberg, foretelling the time to come, had caused +some other body than her father's to be buried in the Abbey (see _Notes +and Queries_, 5th October 1878, and Waylen's _House of Cromwell_, p. +341). + +[96:1] See _The Unreformed House of Commons_, by Edward Porritt, vol. i. +p. 51. Marvell's old enemy, Parker, Bishop of Oxford, in his _History of +his own Time_, composed after Marvell's death, reviles his dead +antagonist for having taken this payment which, the bishop says, was +made by a custom which "had a long time been antiquated and out of +date." "Gentlemen," says the bishop, "despised so vile a stipend," yet +Marvell required it "for the sake of a bare subsistence, although in +this mean poverty he was nevertheless haughty and insolent." In Parker's +opinion poor men should be humble. + +[98:1] _Parliamentary History_, vol. iv., App. No. III. + +[104:1] Mr. Gladstone's testimony is that no real improvement was +effected until within the period of his own memory. 'Our services were +probably without a parallel in the world for their debasement.' (See +_Gleanings_, vi. p. 119.) + +[106:1] There is a copy in the library of the _Athenaeum_, London: "A +Relation of Three Embassies from his sacred Majestie Charles II. to the +Great Duke of Muscovie, the King of Sweden, and the King of Denmark. +Performed by the Right Ho^ble the Earle of Carlisle in the Years 1663 +and 1664. Written by an Attendant on the Embassies, and published with +his Lordship's approbation. London. Printed for John Starkie at the +Miter in Fleet Street, near Temple Barr, 1669." + +[109:1] "I have mentioned the dignity of his manners.... He was at his +very best on occasion of Durbars, investitures, and the like.... It +irritated him to see men giggling or jeering instead of acting their +parts properly."--_Life of Lord Dufferin_, vol. ii. p. 317. + +[116:1] _Hist. MSS. Com., Portland Papers_, vol. iii. p. 296. + +[116:2] See above, vol. iii. p. 294. + +[118:1] Sir Walter Besant doubted this. See his _London_. + +[123:1] Mr. Goldwin Smith says this was the first pitched battle between +Protection and Free Trade in England.--_The United Kingdom_, vol. ii. p. +25. + +[126:1] Being curious to discover whether no "property" man raised his +voice against these measures, I turned to that true "home of lost +causes," the Protests of the House of Lords; and there, sure enough, I +found one solitary peer, Henry Carey, Earl of Dover, entering his +dissent to both Bills--to the Judicature Bill because of the unlimited +power given to the judges, to the Rebuilding Bill because of the +exorbitant powers entrusted to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen to give away +or dispose of the property of landlords. + +[128:1] Clarendon's _Life_, vol. iii. p. 796. + +[129:1] Clarendon's _Life_, vol. iii. p. 798. + +[129:2] "Instructions to a Painter for the drawing of the Posture and +Progress of His Majesty's forces at Sea under the command of His +Highness Royal: together with the Battel and Victory obtained over the +Dutch, June 3, 1665."--Waller's _Works_, 1730, p. 161. + +[130:1] Sir John Denham's wife was reported to have been poisoned by a +dish of chocolate, at the bidding of the Duchess of York. + +[131:1] Clarendon's eldest son. + +[139:1] It is disconcerting to find Evelyn recording this, his last +visit to Clarendon, in his Diary under date of the 9th December, by +which time the late Chancellor was in Rouen. One likes notes in a diary +to be made contemporaneously and not "written-up" afterwards. Evelyn +makes the same kind of mistake about Cromwell's funeral, misdating it a +month. + +[140:1] The duke died in 1670 and had a magnificent funeral on the 30th +of April. See _Hist. MSS. Com., Duke of Portland's Papers_, vol. iii. p. +314. His laundress-Duchess did not long survive him. + +[141:1] Afterwards Lord Dartmouth, a great friend of James the Second, +but one who played a dubious part at the Revolution. + +[145:1] The poet Waller was one of the wittiest speakers the House of +Commons has ever known. + +[148:1] For a full account of this remarkable case, see Clarendon's +_Life_, iii. 733-9. + +[149:1] "Provided, etc., that neither this Act nor anything therein +contained shall extend to invalidate or avoid his Majesty's supremacy in +ecclesiastical affairs [or to destroy any of his Majesty's rights powers +or prerogatives belonging to the Imperial Crown of this realm or at any +time exercised by himself or any of his predecessors Kings or Queens of +England] but that his Majesty his heirs and successors may from time to +time and at all times hereafter exercise and enjoy all such powers and +authorities aforesaid as fully and amply as himself or any of his +predecessors have or might have done the same anything in this Act (or +any other law statute or usage to the contrary) notwithstanding." The +words in brackets were rejected by the Commons. See _Parliamentary +History_, iv. 446-7. + +[150:1] Madame's business is now well known. The secret Treaty of Dover +was the result of this visit. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +"THE REHEARSAL TRANSPROSED" + + +It is never easy for ecclesiastical controversy to force its way into +literature. The importance of the theme will be questioned by few. The +ability displayed in its illumination can be denied by none. It is the +temper that usually spoils all. A collection in any way approaching +completeness, of the pamphlets this contention has produced in England, +would contain tens of thousands of volumes; full of curious learning and +anecdotes, of wide reading and conjecture, of shrewdness and wit; yet +these books are certainly the last we would seek to save from fire or +water. Could they be piled into scales of moral measurement a single +copy of the _Imitatio_, of the _Holy Dying_, of the _Saint's Rest_, +would outweigh them all. Man may not be a religious animal, but he +recognises and venerates the spirit of religion whenever he perceives +it, and it is a spirit which is apt to evaporate amidst the strife of +rival wits. Who can doubt the sincerity of Milton, when he exclaimed +with the sad prophet Jeremy, "Woe is me my Mother that thou hast borne +me a man of strife and contention." + +Marvell's chief prose work, the two parts of _The Rehearsal +Transprosed_, is a very long pamphlet indeed, composed by way of reply +to certain publications of Samuel Parker, afterwards Bishop of Oxford. +Controversially Marvell's book was a great success.[152:1] It amused the +king, delighted the wits, was welcomed, if not read, by the pious folk +whose side it espoused, whilst its literary excellence was sufficient to +win, in after years, the critical approval of Swift, whose style, though +emphatically his own, bears traces of its master having given, I will +not say his days and nights, but certainly some profitable hours, to the +study of Marvell's prose. + +Biographers of controversialists seldom do justice to the other side. +Possibly they do not read it, and Parker has been severely handled by my +predecessors. He was not an honour to his profession, being, perhaps, as +good or as bad a representative of the seamy side of State Churchism as +there is to be found. He was the son of a Puritan father, and whilst at +Wadham lived by rule, fasting and praying. He took his degree in the +early part of 1659, and migrating to Trinity came under the influence of +Dr. Bathurst, then Senior Fellow, to whom, so he says in one of his +dedications, "I owe my first rescue from the chains and fetters of an +unhappy education."[152:2] Anything Parker did he did completely, and +we next hear of him in London in 1665, a nobleman's chaplain, setting +the table in a roar by making fun of his former friends, "a mimical way +of drolling upon the puritans." "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 preparing than most of +the auditory." In 1667 the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Sheldon, a very +mundane person indeed, made Parker his chaplain, and three years later +Archdeacon of Canterbury. He reached many preferments, so that, says +Marvell, "his head swell'd like any bladder with wind and vapour." He +had an active pen and a considerable range of subject. In 1670 he +produced "A Discourse of Ecclesiastical Politie wherein the Authority of +the Civil Magistrate over the Consciences of Subjects in Matters of +External Religion is Asserted; The Mischiefs and Inconveniences of +Toleration are represented and all Pretenses pleaded in behalf of +_Liberty of Conscience_ are fully answered." Some one instantly took up +the cudgels in a pamphlet entitled _Insolence and Impudence Triumphant_, +and the famous Dr. Owen also protested in _Truth and Innocence +Vindicated_. Parker replied to Owen in _A Defence and Continuation of +Ecclesiastical Politie_, and in the following year, 1672, reprinted a +treatise of Bishop Bramholl's with a preface "shewing what grounds there +are of Fears and Jealousies of Popery." + +This was the state of the controversy when Marvell entered upon it with +his _Rehearsal Transprosed_, a fantastic title he borrowed for no very +good reasons from the farce of the hour, and a very good farce too, the +Duke of Buckingham's _Rehearsal_, which was performed for the first time +at the Theatre Royal on the 7th of November 1671, and printed early in +1672. Most of us have read Sheridan's _Critic_ before we read +Buckingham's _Rehearsal_, which is not the way to do justice to the +earlier piece. It is a matter of literary tradition that the duke had +much help in the composition of a farce it took ten years to make. +Butler, Sprat, and Clifford, the Master of Charterhouse, are said to be +co-authors. However this may be, the piece was a great success, and both +Marvell and Parker, I have no doubt, greatly enjoyed it, but I cannot +think the former was wise to stuff his plea for Liberty of Conscience so +full as he did with the details of a farce. His doing so should, at all +events, acquit him of the charge of being a sour Puritan. In the +_Rehearsal_ Bayes (Dryden), who is turned by Sheridan in his adaptation +of the piece into Mr. Puff, is made to produce out of his pocket his +book of _Drama Commonplaces_, and the play proceeds (_Johnson_ and +_Smith_ being _Sheridan's_ Dangle and Sneer): + + "_Johnson._ _Drama Commonplaces_! pray what's that? + + _Bayes._ Why, Sir, some certain helps, that we men of Art have found + it convenient to make use of. + + _Johnson._ How, Sir, help for Wit? + + _Bayes._ I, Sir, that's my position. And I do here averr, that no man + yet the Sun e'er shone upon, has parts sufficient to furnish out a + Stage, except it be with the help of these my rules. + + _Johnson._ What are those Rules, I pray? + + _Bayes._ Why, Sir, my first Rule is the Rule of Transversion, or + _Regula Duplex_, changing Verse into Prose, or Prose into Verse, + _alternative_ as you please. + + _Smith._ How's that, Sir, by a Rule, I pray? + + _Bayes._ Why, thus, Sir; nothing more easy when understood: I take a + Book in my hand, either at home, or elsewhere, for that's all one, + if there be any Wit in 't, as there is no Book but has some, I + Transverse it; that is, if it be Prose, put it into Verse (but + that takes up some time), if it be Verse, put it into Prose. + + _Johnson._ Methinks, Mr. _Bayes_, that putting Verse into Prose + should be called Transprosing. + + _Bayes_. By my troth, a very good Notion, and hereafter it shall be + so." + +Marvell must be taken to have meant by his title that he saw some +resemblance between Parker and Bayes, and, indeed, he says he does, and +gives that as one of his excuses for calling Parker Bayes all through:-- + + "But before I commit myself to the dangerous depths of his Discourse + which I am now upon the brink of, I would with his leave, make a + motion; that instead of Author I may henceforth indifferently well + call him Mr. Bayes as oft as I shall see occasion. And that first + because he has no name, or at least will not own it, though he + himself writes under the greatest security, and gives us the first + letters of other men's names before he be asked them. Secondly, + because he is, I perceive, a lover of elegancy of style and can + endure no man's tautologies but his own; and therefore I would not + distaste him with too frequent repetition of one word. But chiefly + because Mr. Bayes and he do very much symbolise, in their + understandings, in their expressions, in their humour, in their + contempt and quarrelling of all others, though of their own + profession." + +But justice must be done even to Parker before handing him over to the +Tormentor. What were his positions? He was a coarse-fibred, essentially +irreligious fellow, the accredited author of the reply to the question +"What is the best body of Divinity?" "That which would help a man to +keep a Coach and six horses," but he is a lucid and vigorous writer, +knowing very well that he had to steer his ship through a narrow and +dangerous channel, avoiding Hobbism on the one side and tender +consciences on the other. Each generation of State Churchmen has the +same task. The channel remains to-day just as it ever did, with Scylla +and Charybdis presiding over their rocks as of old. Hobbes's _Leviathan_ +appeared in 1651, and in 1670 both his philosophy and his statecraft +were fashionable doctrine. All really pious people called Hobbes an +Atheist. Technically he was nothing of the sort, but it matters little +what he was technically, since no plain man who can read can doubt that +Hobbes's enthronement of the State was the dethronement of God:-- + + "Seeing then that in every Christian commonwealth the civil sovereign + is the supreme factor to whose charge the whole flock of his subjects + is commuted, and consequently that it is by his authority that all + other pastors are made and have power to teach and perform all other + pastoral offices, it followeth also that it is from the civil + sovereign that all other pastors derive their right of teaching, + preaching and other functions pertaining to that office, and that + they are but his ministers in the same way as the magistrates of + towns, judges in Court of Justice and commanders of assizes are all + but ministers of him that is the magistrate of the whole + commonwealth, judge of all causes and commander of the whole militia, + which is always the Civil Sovereign. And the reason hereof is not + because they that teach, but because they that are to learn, are his + subjects."--(_The Leviathan_, Hobbes's _English Works_ (Molesworth's + Edition), vol. iii. p. 539.) + +Hobbes shirks nothing, and asks himself the question, What if a king, or +a senate or other sovereign person forbid us to believe in Christ? The +answer given is, "such forbidding is of no effect; because belief and +unbelief never follow men's commands." But suppose "we be commanded by +our lawful prince to say with our tongue we believe not, must we obey +such command?" Here Hobbes a little hesitates to say outright "Yes, you +must"; but he does say "whatsoever a subject is compelled to do in +obedience to his own Sovereign, and doth it not in order to his own +mind, but in order to the laws of his country, that action is not his, +but his Sovereign's--nor is it that he in this case denieth Christ +before men, but his Governor and the law of his country." Hobbes then +puts the case of a Mahomedan subject of a Christian Commonwealth who is +required under pain of death to be present at the Divine Service of the +Christian Church--what is he to do? If, says Hobbes, you say he ought +to die, then you authorise all private men to disobey their princes in +maintenance of their religion, true or false, and if you say the +Mahomedan ought to obey, you admit Hobbes's proposition and ought to +consent to be yourself bound by it. (See Hobbes's _English Works_, iii. +493.) + +The Church of England, though anxious both to support the king and +suppress the Dissenters, could not stomach Hobbes; but if it could not, +how was it to deal with Hobbes's question, "if it is _ever_ right to +disobey your lawful prince, who is to determine _when_ it is right?" + +Parker seeks to grapple with this difficulty. He disowns Hobbes. + + "When men have once swallowed this principle, that Mankind is free + from all obligations antecedent to the laws of the Commonwealth, and + that the Will of the Sovereign Power is the only measure of Good and + Evil, they proceed suitably to its consequences to believe that no + Religion can obtain the force of law till it is established as such + by supreme authority, that the Holy Scriptures were not laws to any + man till they were enjoyn'd by the Christian Magistrate, and that if + the Sovereign Power would declare the Alcoran to be Canonical + Scripture, it would be as much the Word of God as the Four Gospels. + (See _Hobbes_, vol. iii. p. 366.) So that all Religions are in + reality nothing but Cheats and impostures to awe the common people to + obedience. And therefore although Princes may wisely make use of the + foibles of Religion to serve their own turns upon the silly + multitude, yet 'tis below their wisdom to be seriously concerned + themselves for such fooleries." (Parker's _Ecc. Politie_, p. 137.) + +As against this fashionable Hobbism, Parker pleads Conscience. + + "When anything that is apparently and intrinsically evil is the + Matter of a Human Law, whether it be of a Civil or Ecclesiastical + concern, here God is to be obeyed rather than Man." + +He forcibly adds:-- + + "Those who would take off from the Consciences of Men all obligations + antecedent to those of Human Laws, instead of making the power of + Princes Supreme, Absolute and Uncontrollable, they utterly enervate + all their authority, and set their subjects at perfect liberty from + all their commands. For if we once remove all the antecedent + obligations of Conscience and Religion, Men will no further be bound + to submit to their laws than only as themselves shall see convenient, + and if they are under no other restraint it will be their wisdom to + rebel as oft as it is their interest." (_Ecc. Politie_, pp. 112-113.) + +But though when dealing with Hobbes, Parker thinks fit to assert the +claims of conscience so strongly, when he has to grapple with those who, +like the immortal author of _The Pilgrim's Progress_, "devilishly and +perniciously abstained from coming to Church," and upheld "unlawful +Meetings and Conventicles," his tone alters, and it is hard to +distinguish his position from that of the philosopher of Malmesbury. + +Parker's argument briefly stated, and as much as possible in his own +vigorous language, comes to this: + +There is and always must be a competition between the prerogative of +the Prince or State and that of Conscience, which on this occasion is +defined as "every private man's own judgment and persuasion of things." +"Do subjects rebel against their Sovereign? 'Tis Conscience that takes +up arms. Do they murder Kings? 'Tis under the conduct of Conscience. Do +they separate from the communion of the Church? 'Tis Conscience that is +the Schismatick. Everything that a man has a mind to is his Conscience." +(_Ecc. Politie_, p. 6.) + +How is this competition to be resolved? Parker answers in exact language +which would have met with John Austin's warm approval. + + "The Supreme Government of every Commonwealth, wherever it is lodged, + must of necessity be universal, absolute and uncontrollable. For if + it be limited, it may be controlled, but 'tis a thick and palpable + contradiction to call such a power supreme in that whatever controls + it must as to that case be its Superior. And therefore affairs of + Religion being so strongly influential upon affairs of State, they + must be as uncontrollably subject to the Supreme Power as all other + Civil concerns." (_Ecc. Politie_, p. 27.) + +If the magistrate may make penal laws against swearing and blasphemy, +why not as to rites and ceremonies of public worship? (39.) Devotion +towards God is a virtue akin to gratitude to man; religion is a branch +of morality. The Puritans' talk about grace is a mere imposture, (76) +which extracts from Parker vehement language. What is there to make such +a fuss about? he cries. Why cannot you come to Church? You are left free +to _think_ what you like. Your secret thoughts are your own, but living +as you do in society, and knowing as you must how, unless the law +interferes, "every opinion must make a sect, and every sect a faction, +and every faction when it is able, a war, and every war is the cause of +God, and the cause of God can never be prosecuted with too much +violence" (16), why cannot you conform to a form of worship which, +though it does not profess to be prescribed in all particulars, contains +nothing actually forbidden in the Scriptures? What authority have +Dissenters for singing psalms in metre? "Where has our Saviour or his +Apostles enjoined a directory for public worship? What Scripture command +is there for the _three_ significant ceremonies of the Solemn League and +Covenant, viz. that the whole congregation should take it (1) uncovered, +(2) standing, (3) with their right hand lift up bare" (184), and so on. + +In answer to the objection that the civil magistrate might establish a +worship in its own nature sinful and sensual, Parker replies it is not +in the least likely, and the risk must be run. "Our enquiry is to find +out the best way of settling the world that the state of things admit +of--if indeed mankind were infallible, this controversy were at an end, +but seeing that all men are liable to errors and mistakes, and seeing +that there is an absolute necessity of a supreme power in all public +affairs, our question (I say) is, What is the most prudent and expedient +way of settling them, not that possibly might be, but that really is. +And this (as I have already sufficiently proved) is to devolve their +management on the supreme civil power which, though it may be imperfect +and liable to errors and mistakes, yet 'tis the least so, and is a much +better way to attain public peace and tranquillity than if they were +left to the ignorance and folly of every private man" (212). + +I now feel that at least I have done Parker full justice, but as so far +I have hardly given an example of his familiar style, I must find room +for two or three final quotations. The thing Parker hated most in the +world was a _Tender Conscience_. He protests against the weakness which +is content with passing penal laws, but does not see them carried out +for fear of wounding these trumpery tender consciences. "Most men's +minds or consciences are weak, silly and ignorant things, acted by fond +and absurd principles and imposed upon by their vices and their +passions." (7.) "However, if the obligation of laws must yield to that +of a tender conscience, how impregnably is every man that has a mind to +disobey armed against all the commands of his superiors. No authority +shall be able to govern him farther than he himself pleases, and if he +dislike the law he is sufficiently excused (268). A weak conscience is +the product of a weak understanding, and he is a very subtil man that +can find the difference between a tender head and a tender conscience +(269). It is a glorious thing to suffer for a tender conscience, and +therefore it is easy and natural for some people to affect some little +scruples against the commands of authority, thereby to make themselves +obnoxious to some little penalties, and then what godly men are they +that are so ready to be punished for a good conscience" (278). "The +voice of the publick law cannot but drown the uncertain whispers of a +tender conscience; all its scruples are hushed and silenced by the +commands of authority. It dares not whimper when that forbids, and the +nod of a prince awes it into silence and submission. But if they dare to +murmur, and their proud stomachs will swell against the rebukes of their +superiors, then there is no remedy but the rod and correction. They must +be chastised out of their peevishness and lashed into obedience (305). +The doctor concludes his treatise with the words always dear to men of +fluctuating opinions, 'What I have written, I have written'" (326). + +Whilst Parker was writing this book in his snug quarters in the +Archbishop's palace at Lambeth, Bunyan was in prison in Bedford for +refusing to take the communion on his knees in his parish church; and +Dr. Manton, who had been offered the Deanery of Rochester, was in the +Gate House Prison under the Five Mile Act. + +The first part of _The Rehearsal Transprosed_, though its sub-title is +"Animadversions upon a late book intituled a Preface shewing what +grounds there are of Fears and Jealousies of Popery," deals after +Marvell's own fashion with all three of Parker's books, the +_Ecclesiastical Politie_, the _Bramhall Preface_, and the _Defence of +the Ecclesiastical Politie_. It is by no means so easy to give a fair +notion of the _Rehearsal Transprosed_ in a short compass, as it was of +Parker's line of argument. The parson wrote more closely than the Member +of Parliament. I cannot give a better description of Marvell's method +than in Parker's own words in his preface to his _Reproof to the +Rehearsal Transprosed_, which appeared in 1673 and gave rise to +Marvell's second part:-- + + "When," writes Parker, "I first condemned myself to the drudgery of + this Reply, I intended nothing but a serious prosecution of my + Argument, and to let the World see that it is not reading Histories + or Plays or Gazettes, nor going on pilgrimage to Geneva, nor learning + French and Italian, nor passing the Alps, nor being a cunning + Gamester that can qualify a man to discourse of Conscience and + Ecclesiastical Policy; in that it is not capping our Argument with a + story that will answer it, nor clapping an apothegm upon an assertion + that will prove it, nor stringing up Proverbs and Similitudes upon + one another that will make up a Coherent Discourse." + +Allowing for bias this is no unfair account of Marvell's method, and it +was just because this was Marvell's method that he succeeded so well in +amusing the king and in pleasing the town, and that he may still be read +by those who love reading with a fair measure of interest and enjoyment. + +Witty and humorous men are always at a disadvantage except on the stage. +The hum-drum is the style for Englishmen. Bishop Burnet calls Marvell "a +droll," Parker, who was to be a bishop, calls him "a buffoon." Marvell +is occasionally humorous and not infrequently carries a jest beyond the +limits of becoming mirth; but he is more often grave. Yet when he is, +his gravity was treated either as one of his feebler jokes or as an +impertinence. But as it is his wit alone that has kept him alive he need +not be pitied overmuch. + +The substance of Marvell's reply to Parker, apart altogether from its +by-play, is to be found in passages like the following:-- + + "Here it is that after so great an excess of wit, he thinks fit to + take a julep and re-settle his brain and the government. He grows as + serious as 'tis possible for a madman, and pretends to sum-up the + whole state of the controversy with the Nonconformists. And to be + sure he will make the story as plausible for himself as he may; but + therefore it was that I have before so particularly quoted and bound + him up with his own words as fast as such a Proteus could be + pinion'd. For he is as waxen as the first matter, and no form comes + amiss to him. Every change of posture does either alter his opinion + or vary the expression by which we should judge of it; and sitting he + is of one mind, and standing of another. Therefore I take myself the + less concern'd to fight with a windmill like Quixote; or to whip a + gig as boyes do; or with the lacqueys at Charing-Cross or + Lincoln's-Inn-Fields to play at the Wheel of Fortune; lest I should + fall into the hands of my Lord Chief-Justice, or Sir Edmond Godfrey. + The truth is, in short, and let Bayes make more or less of it if he + can, Bayes had at first built-up such a stupendous magistrate as + never was of God's making. He had put all princes upon the rack to + stretch them to his dimension. And as a straight line continued grows + a circle, he had given them so infinite a power, that it was extended + unto impotency. For though he found it not till it was too late in + the cause, yet he felt it all along (which is the understanding of + brutes) in the effect. For hence it is that he so often complains + that princes know not aright that supremacy over consciences, to + which they were so lately, since their deserting the Church of Rome, + restored; that in most Nations government was not rightly understood, + and many expressions of that nature: whereas indeed the matter is, + that princes have always found that uncontroulable government over + _conscience_ to be both unsafe and impracticable. He had run himself + here to a stand, and perceived that there was a God, there was + Scripture; the magistrate himself had a conscience, and must 'take + care that he did not enjoyn things apparently evil.' But after all, + he finds himself again at the same stand here, and is run up to the + wall by an angel. God, and Scripture, and conscience will not let him + go further; but he owns, that if the magistrate enjoyns things + apparently evil, the subject may have liberty to remonstrate. What + shall he do, then? for it is too glorious an enterprize to be + abandoned at the first rebuffe. Why, he gives us a new translation of + the Bible, and a new commentary! He saith, that tenderness of + conscience might be allowed in a Church to be constituted, not in a + Church constituted already. That tenderness of conscience and scandal + are ignorance, pride, and obstinacy. He saith, the Nonconformists + should communicate with him till they have clear evidence that it is + evil. This is a civil way indeed of gaining the question, to perswade + men that are unsatisfied, to be satisfied till they be dissatisfied. + He threatens, he rails, he jeers them, if it were possible, out of + all their consciences and honesty; and finding that will not do, he + calls out the magistrate, tells him these men are not fit to live; + there can be no security of government while they are in being. Bring + out the pillories, whipping-posts, gallies (=galleys), rods, and + axes (which are _ratio ultima cleri_, a clergyman's last argument, ay + and his first too), and pull in pieces all the Trading Corporations, + those nests of Faction and Sedition. This is a faithful account of + the sum and intention of all his undertaking, for which, I confess, + he was as pick'd a man as could have been employed or found out in a + whole kingdome; but it is so much too hard a task for any man to + atchieve, that no goose but would grow giddy with it."[165:1] + +In reply to what Parker had written about the unreasonable fuss made by +the Dissenters over the "two or three symbolical ceremonies" called +sacraments, Marvell says:-- + + "They (the Nonconformists) complain that these things should be + imposed on them with so high a penalty as want nothing of a + sacramental nature but divine institution. And because a human + institution is herein made of equal force to a divine institution + therefore it is that they are aggrieved.... For without the sign of + the Cross our Church will not receive any one in Baptism; as also + without kneeling no man is suffered to come to the Communion.... But + here, I say, then is their (the Nonconformists') main exception that + things indifferent and that have no proper signature or significancy + to that purpose should by command be made conditions of + Church-communion. I have many times wished for peaceableness' sake + that they had a greater latitude, but if, unless they should stretch + their consciences till they tear again, they cannot conform, what + remedy? For I must confess that Christians have a better right and + title to the Church and to the ordinances of God there, than the + Author hath to his surplice.... Bishop Bramhall saith, 'I do profess + to all the world that the transforming of indifferent opinions into + necessary articles of faith hath been that _insana laurus_ or cursed + bay tree, the cause of all our brawling and contention.' That which + he saw in matter of doctrine, he would not discern in discipline.... + It is true and very piously done that our Church doth declare that + the kneeling at the Lord's Supper is not enjoined for adoration of + those elements and concerning the other ceremonies as before. But + the Romanists (from whom we have them and who said of old we would + come to feed on their meat as well as eat of their porridge) do offer + us here many a fair declaration and distinction in very weighty + matters to which nevertheless the conscience of our Church hath not + complyed. But in this particular matter of kneeling which came in + first with the doctrine of transubstantiation, the Romish Church do + reproach us with flat idolatry, in that we, not believing the real + presence in the bread and wine, yet do pay to something or other the + same adoration. Suppose the ancient pagans had declared to the + primitive Christians that the offerings of some grains of incense was + only to perfume the room--do you think the Christians would have + palliated so far and colluded with their consciences? Therefore + although the Church do consider herself so much as not to alter her + mode unto the fashion of others, yet I cannot see why she ought to + exclude those from communion whose weaker consciences cannot, for + fear of scandal, step further."[166:1] + +With Parker's thunders and threats of the authority of princes and +states, Marvell deals more in the mood of a statesman than of a +philosopher, more as a man of affairs than as a jurist. He deplores the +ferocity of Parker's tone and that of a certain number of the clergy. + + "Why is it," he asks, "that this kind of clergy should always be and + have been for the most precipitate, brutish, and sanguinary counsels? + The former Civil War cannot make them wise, nor his Majesty's happy + return good-natured, but they are still for running things up unto + the same extremes. The softness of the Universities where they have + been bred, the gentleness of Christianity, in which they have been + nurtured, hath but exasperated their nature, and they seem to have + contracted no idea of wisdom but what they learnt at school--the + pedantry of Whipping. For whether it be or no that the clergy are not + so well fitted by education as others for political affairs I know + not, though I should rather think they have advantage above others, + and even if they would but keep to their Bibles, might make the best + Ministers of State in the world; yet it is generally observed that + things miscarry under their government. If there be any council more + precipitate, more violent, more extreme than other, it is theirs. + Truly, I think the reason that God does not bless them in affairs of + State is because he never intended them for that employment."[167:1] + +Of Archbishop Laud and Charles the First, Marvell says:-- + + "I am confident the Bishop studied to do both God and his Majesty + good service; but alas, how utterly was he mistaken. Though so + learned, so pious, so wise a man, he seem'd to know nothing beyond + Ceremonies, Armenianism, and Mainwaring. With that he begun, with + that ended, and thereby deform'd the whole reign of the best prince + that ever wielded the English sceptre. For his late Majesty, being a + prince truly pious and religious, was therefore the more inclined to + esteem and favour the clergy. And thence, though himself of a most + exquisite understanding, yet he could not trust it better than in + their treatment. Whereas every man is best at his own post, and so + the preacher in the pulpit."[167:2] + +Kings, Marvell points out to Parker, must take wider views than parsons. + + "'Tis not with them as with you. You have but one cure of souls, or + perhaps two as being a nobleman's chaplain, to look after, and if you + made conscience of discharging them as you ought, you would find you + had work sufficient without writing your 'Ecclesiastical Policies.' + But they are the incumbents of whole kingdoms, and the rectorship of + the common people, the nobility, and even of the clergy. The care I + say of all this rests on them, so that they are fain to condescend to + many things for peace sake and the quiet of mankind that your proud + heart would break before it would bend to. They do not think fit to + require any thing that is impossible, unnecessary or wanton of their + people, but are fain to consider the very temper of the climate in + which they live, the constitution and laws under which they have been + formerly bred, and upon all occasions to give them good words and + humour them like children. They reflect upon the histories of former + times and the present transactions to regulate themselves by in every + circumstance.... They (Kings) do not think fit to command things + unnecessary."[168:1] + +These extracts, however fatal to Marvell's traditional reputation in the +eighteenth century as a Puritan and a Republican, call for no apology. + +An example of Marvell's Interludes ought to be given. There are many to +choose from. + + "There was a worthy divine, not many years dead, who in his younger + time, being of a facetious and unlucky humour, was commonly known by + the name of Tom Triplet; he was brought up at Paul's school under a + severe master, Dr. Gill, and from thence he went to the University. + There he took liberty (as 'tis usual with those that are emancipated + from School) to tel tales and make the discipline ridiculous under + which he was bred. But not suspecting the doctor's intelligence, + coming once to town he went in full school to give him a visite and + expected no less than to get a play day for his former acquaintances. + But instead of that he found himself hors'd up in a trice, though he + appeal'd in vain to the priviledges of the University, pleaded + _adultus_ and invoked the mercy of the spectators. Nor was he let + down till the master had planted a grove of birch in his back-side + for the terrour and publick example of all waggs that divulge the + secrets of Priscian and make merry with their teachers. This stuck so + with Triplet that all his life-time he never forgave the doctor, but + sent him every New Year's tide an anniversary ballad to a new tune, + and so in his turn avenged himself of his jerking pedagogue."[168:2] + +Marvell's game of picquet with a parson plays such a part in Parker's +_Reproof_ to the _Rehearsal Transprosed_ that it deserves to be +mentioned:-- + + "'Tis not very many years ago that I used to play at picket; there + was a gentleman of your robe, a dignitory of Lincoln, very well + known and remembered in the ordinaries, but being not long since + dead, I will save his name. Now I used to play pieces, and this + gentleman would always go half-a-crown with me; and so all the while + he sate on my hand he very honestly '_gave the sign_' so that I was + always sure to lose. I afterwards discovered it, but of all the money + that ever I was cheated of in my life, none ever vexed me so as what + I lost by his occasion."[169:1] + +There is no need to pursue the controversy further. It is still +unsettled. + +Parker's _Reproof_, published in 1673, is less argumentative and +naturally enough more personal than the _Ecclesiastical Politie_. Any +use I now make of it will be purely biographical. Let us see Andrew +Marvell depicted by an angry parson--not in passages of mere abuse, as +_e.g._ "Thou dastard Craven, thou Swad, thou Mushroom, thou coward in +heart, word and deed, thou Judas, thou Crocodile"; for epithets such as +these are of no use to a biographer--but in places where Marvell is at +least made to sit for the portrait, however ill-natured. + + "And if I would study revenge I could easily have requited you with + the Novels of a certain Jack Gentleman, that was born of pure parents + and bred among cabin-boys, and sent from school to the University and + from the University to the Gaming Ordinaries, but the young man, + being easily rooked by the old Gamesters, he was sent abroad to gain + courage and experience, and beyond sea saw the Bears of Berne and the + large race of Capons at Geneva, and a great many fine sights beside, + and so returned home as accomplished as he went out, tries his + fortune once more at the Ordinaries, plays too high for a gentleman + of his private condition, and so is at length cheated of all at + Picquet." ... "And now to conclude; is it not a sad thing that a + well-bred and fashionable gentleman that has frequented Ordinaries, + that has worn Perukes and Muffs and Pantaloons and was once Master of + a Watch, that has travelled abroad and seen as many men and + countries as the famous Vertuosi, Sorbier and Coriat, that has heard + the City Lions roar, that has past the Alps and seen all the + Tredescin rarities and old stones of Italy, that has sat in the + Porphyric Chair at Rome, that can describe the methods of the + Elections of Popes and tell stories of the tricks of Cardinals, that + has been employed in Embassies abroad and acquainted with Intrigues + of State at home, that has read Plays and Histories and Gazettes; + that I say a Gentleman thus accomplished and embellished within and + without and all over, should ever live to that unhappy dotage as at + last to dishonour his grey hairs and his venerable age with such + childish and impotent endeavours at wit and buffoonery."--(_Reproof_, + pp. 270, 274-5.)[170:1] + +Marvell was very little over fifty years of his age at this time, nor is +Parker's portrait to be regarded as truthful in any other +particular--yet something of a man's character may be discovered by +noticing the way he is abused by those who want to abuse him. + +Marvell, though no orator, or even debater, was the stuff of which +controversialists are made. In a letter, printed in the Duke of +Portland's papers, and dated May 3, 1673, he writes:-- + + "Dr. Parker will be out the next week. I have seen it--already three + hundred and thirty pages and it will be much more. (It was five + hundred twenty-eight pages.) I perceive by what I have read that it + is the rudest book, one or other, that ever was published, I may say + since the first invention of printing. Although it handles me so + roughly, yet I am not at all amated by it. But I must desire the + advice of some few friends to tell me whether it will be proper for + me and in what way to answer it. However I will for mine own private + satisfaction forthwith draw up an answer that shall have as much of + spirit and solidity in it as my ability will afford and the age we + live in will endure. I am, if I may say it with reverence, drawn in I + hope by a good Providence to intermeddle on a noble and high + argument. But I desire that all the discourse of my friends may run + as if no answer ought to be expected to so scurrilous a + book."--(_Hist. MSS. Comm., Portland Papers_, iii. 337.) + +The title-page of the Second Part of the _Rehearsal Transprosed_ is a +curiosity:-- + + THE + REHEARSALL + TRANSPROS'D: + + * * * * * + + THE SECOND PART. + + * * * * * + + Occasioned by Two Letters: The first Printed + by a nameless Author, Intituled, A + Reproof, etc. + + The Second Letter left for me at a Friends + House, Dated Nov. 3, 1673. Subscribed + J.G. and concluding with these words; + If thou darest to Print or Publish any + Lie or Libel against Doctor Parker, By + the Eternal God I will cut thy Throat. + + * * * * * + + Answered by ANDREW MARVEL. + + * * * * * + + LONDON, + + Printed for Nathaniel Ponder at the Peacock + in Chancery Lane near Fleet-Street, 1673. + +The _Second Part_ is an exceedingly witty though too lengthy a +performance. Marvell's "companion picture" of Parker is full of matter, +and of the very spirit of the times. Some of it must be given:-- + + "But though he came of a good mother, he had a very ill sire. He was + a man bred toward the Law, and betook himself, as his best practice, + to be a sub-committee-man, or, as the stile ran, one of the Assistant + Committee in Northamptonshire. In the rapine of that employment, and + what he got by picking the teeth of his masters, he sustain'd himself + till he had raked together some little estate. And then, being a man + for the purpose, and that had begun his fortune out of the + sequestration of the estates of the King's Party, he, to perfect it + the more, proceeded to take away their lives; not in the hot and + military way (which diminishes always the offence), but in the cooler + blood and sedentary execution of an High Court of Justice. + Accordingly he was preferr'd to be one of that number that gave + sentence against the three Lords, Capel, Holland, and Hamilton, who + were beheaded. By this learning in the Law he became worthy of the + degree of a serjeant, and sometimes to go the Circuit, till for + misdemeanor he was petition'd against. But for a taste of his + abilities, and the more to reingratiate himself, he printed, in the + year 1650, a very remarkable Book, called 'The Government of the + People of England, precedent and present the same. _Ad subscribentes + confirmandum, Dubitantes informandum, Opponentes convincendum_; and + underneath _Multa videntur quae non sunt, multa sunt quae non + videntur_. Under that ingraven two hands joyn'd, with the motto, _Ut + uniamur_; and beneath a sheaf of arrows, with this device, _Vis unita + fortior_; and to conclude, _Concordia parvae res crescunt discordia + dilabuntur_.' A most hieroglyphical title, and sufficient to have + supplied the mantlings and atchievements of the family! By these + parents he was sent to Oxford, with intention to breed him up to the + ministry. There in a short time he enter'd himself into the company + of some young students who were used to fast and pray weekly + together; but for their refection fed sometimes on broth, from whence + they were commonly called Grewellers; only it was observed that he + was wont still to put more graves than all the rest in his porridge. + And after that he pick'd acquaintance not only with the brotherhood + at Wadham Colledge, but with the sisterhood too, at another old + Elsibeth's, one Elizabeth Hampton's, a plain devout woman, where he + train'd himself up in hearing their sermons and prayers, receiving + also the Sacrament in the house, till he had gain'd such proficience, + that he too began to exercise in that Meeting, and was esteem'd one + of the preciousest young men in the University. But when thus, after + several years' approbation, he was even ready to have taken the + charge, not of an 'admiring drove or heard,' as he now calls them, + but of a flock upon him, by great misfortune the King came in by the + miraculous providence of God, influencing the distractions of some, + the good affections of others, and the weariness of all towards that + happy Restauration, after so many sufferings, to his regal crown and + dignity. Nevertheless he broke not off yet from his former habitudes; + and though it were now too late to obviate this inconvenience, yet he + persisted as far as in him was--that is, by praying, caballing, and + discoursing--to obstruct the restoring of the episcopal government, + revenues, and authority. Insomuch that, finding himself + discountenanced on those accounts by the then Warden of Wadham, he + shifted colledges to Trinity, and, when there, went away without his + degree, scrupling, forsooth, the Subscription then required. From + thence he came to London, where he spent a considerable time in + creeping into all corners and companies, horoscoping up and down + concerning the duration of the Government; not considering anything + as best, but as most lasting and most profitable. And after having + many times cast a figure, he at last satisfyed himself that the + Episcopal Government would endure as long as this King lived; and + from thence forward cast about how to be admitted into the Church of + England, and find the highway to her preferments. In order to this he + daily enlarged, not only his conversation, but his conscience, and + was made free of some of the town-vices; imagining, like Muleasses + King of Tunis (for I take witness that on all occasions I treat him + rather above his quality than otherwise), that by hiding himself + among the onions, he should escape being traced by his perfumes. + Ignorant and mistaken man, that thought it necessary to part with any + virtue to get a living; or that the Church of England did not require + and incourage more sobriety than he could ever be guilty of; whereas + it hath alwayes been fruitful of men who, together with obedience to + that discipline, have lived to the envy of the Nonconformists in + their conversation, and without such could never either have been + preserved so long, or after so long a dissipation have ever + recover'd. But neither was this yet, in his opinion, sufficient; and + therefore he resolv'd to try a shorter path, which some few men had + trod not unsuccessfully; that is, to print a Book; if that would not + do, a second; if not that, a third of an higher extraction, and so + forward, to give experiment against their former party of a keen + stile and a ductile judgment. His first proof-piece was in the year + 1665, the _Tentamina Physico-Theologica_; a tedious transcript of his + common-place book, wherein there is very little of his own, but the + arrogance and the unparalleled censoriousness that he exercises over + all other Writers. When he had cook'd up these musty collections, he + makes his first invitation to his 'old acquaintance' my lord + Archbishop of Canterbury, who had never seen before nor heard of him. + But I must confess he furbishes-up his Grace in so glorious an + Epistle, that had not my Lord been long since proof against the most + spiritual flattery, the Dedication only, without ever reading the + Book, might have serv'd to have fix'd him from that instant as his + favourite. Yet all this I perceive did not his work, but his Grace + was so unmindful, or rather so prudent, that the gentleman thought it + necessary to spur-up again the next year with another new Book, to + show more plainly what he would be at. This he dedicates to Doctor + Bathurst; and to evidence from the very Epistle that he was ready to + renounce that very education, the civility of which he is so tender + of as to blame me for disordering it, he picks occasion to tell him: + 'to your prevailing advice, Sir, do I owe my first rescue from the + chains and fetters of an unhappy education.' But in the Book, which + he calls 'A free and impartial Censure of the Platonick Philosophy' + (censure 'tis sure to be, whatsoever he writes), he speaks out, and + demonstrates himself ready and equipp'd to surrender not only the + Cause, but betray his Party without making any conditions for them, + and to appear forthwith himself in the head of the contrary interest. + Which, supposing the dispute to be just, yet in him was so mercenary, + that none would have descended to act his part but a divine of + fortune. And even lawyers take themselves excused from being of + counsel for the King himself, in a cause where they have been + entertain'd and instructed by their client. But so flippant he was + and forward in this book, that in despight of all chronology, he + could introduce Plato to inveigh against Calvin, and from the + Platoniques he could miraculously hook-in a Discourse against the + Nonconformists. (_Cens. Plat. Phil._, pp. 26, 27, 28, etc.) After + this feat of activity he was ready to leap over the moon; no scruple + of conscience could stand in his way, and no preferment seemed too + high for him; for about this time, I find that having taken a turn at + Cambridge to qualifie himself, he was received within doors to be my + Lord Archbishop's other chaplain, and into some degree of favour; + which, considering the difference of their humours and ages, was + somewhat surprizing. But whether indeed, in times of heat and + faction, the most temperate spirits may sometimes chance to take + delight in one that is spightful, and make some use of him; or + whether it be that even the most grave and serious persons do for + relaxation divert themselves willingly by whiles with a creature that + is unlucky, inimical, and gamesome,--so it was. And thenceforward the + nimble gentleman danced upon bell-ropes, vaulted from steeple to + steeple, and cut capers out of one dignity to another. Having thus + dexterously stuck his groat in Lambeth wainscot, it may easily be + conceived he would be unwilling to lose it; and therefore he + concern'd himself highly, and even to jealousie, in upholding now + that palace, which, if falling, he would out of instinct be the first + should leave it. His Majesty about that time labouring to effect his + constant promises of Indulgence to his people, the Author therefore + walking with his own shadow in the evening, took a great fright lest + all were agoe. And in this conceit being resolv'd to make good his + figure, and that one government should not last any longer than the + other, he set himself to write those dangerous Books which I have now + to do with; wherein he first makes all that he will to be Law, and + then whatsoever is Law to be Divinity."[176:1] + +The Second Part is not all raillery. There is much wisdom in it and a +trace of Machiavelli:-- + + "But because you are subject to misconstrue even true English, I will + explain my self as distinctly as I can, and as close as possible, + what is mine own opinion in this matter of the magistrate and + government; that, seeing I have blamed you where I thought you + blame-worthy, you may have as fair hold of me too, if you can find + where to fix your accusation. + + "The power of the magistrate does most certainly issue from the + divine authority. The obedience due to that power is by divine + command; and subjects are bound, both as men and as Christians, to + obey the magistrate actively in all things where their duty to God + intercedes not, and however passively, that is, either by leaving + their countrey, or if they cannot do that (the magistrate, or the + reason of their own occasions hindring them), then by suffering + patiently at home, without giving the least publick disturbance. But + the dispute concerning the magistrate's power ought to be + superfluous; for that it is certainly founded upon his commission + from God, and for the most part sufficiently fortified with all + humane advantages. There are few soveraign princes so abridged, but + that, if they be not contented, they may envy their own fortune. But + the modester question (if men will needs be medling with matters + above them) would be, how far it is advisable for a prince to exert + and push the rigour of that power which no man can deny him; for + princes, as they derive the right of succession from their ancestors, + so they inherit from that ancient and illustrious extraction a + generosity that runs in the blood above the allay of the rest of + mankind. And being moreover at so much ease of honour and fortune, + that they are free from the gripes of avarice and twinges of + ambition, they are the more disposed to an universal benignity + toward their subjects. What prince that sees so many millions of men, + either labouring industriously toward his revenue, or adventuring + their lives in his service, and all of them performing his commands + with a religious obedience, but conceives at the same time a + relenting tenderness over them, whereof others out of the narrowness + of their minds cannot be capable? But whoever shall cast his eye + thorow the history of all ages, will find that nothing has alwayes + succeeded better with princes then the clemency of government; and + that those, on the contrary, who have taken the sanguinary course, + have been unfortunate to themselves and the people, the consequences + not being separable. For whether that royal and magnanimous + gentleness spring from a propensity of their nature, or be acquired + and confirmed by good and prudent consideration, it draws along with + it all the effects of Policy. The wealth of a shepherd depends upon + the multitude of his flock, the goodness of their pasture, and the + quietness of their feeding; and princes, whose dominion over mankind + resembles in some measure that of men over other creatures, cannot + expect any considerable increase to themselves, if by continual + terrour they amaze, shatter, and hare their people, driving them into + woods, and running them upon precipices. If men do but compute how + charming an efficacy one word, and more, one good action has from a + superior upon those under him, it can scarce be reckon'd how powerful + a magick there is in a prince who shall, by a constant tenour of + humanity in government, go on daily gaining upon the affections of + his people. There is not any privilege so dear, but it may be + extorted from subjects by good usage, and by keeping them alwayes up + in their good humour. I will not say what one prince may compass + within his own time, or what a second, though surely much may be + done; but it is enough if a great and durable design be accomplish'd + in the third life; and supposing an hereditary succession of any + three taking up still where the other left, and dealing still in that + fair and tender way of management, it is impossible but that, even + without reach or intention upon the prince's part, all should fall + into his hand, and in so short a time the very memory or thoughts of + any such thing as publick liberty would, as it were by consent, + expire and be for ever extinguish'd. So that whatever the power of + the magistrate be in the institution, it is much safer for them not + to do that with the left hand which they may do with the right, nor + by an extraordinary, what they may effect by the ordinary, way of + government. A prince that goes to the top of his power is like him + that shall go to the bottom of his treasure."[178:1] + +And as for the "common people" he has this to say:-- + + "Yet neither do they want the use of reason, and perhaps their + aggregated judgment discerns most truly the errours of government, + forasmuch as they are the first, to be sure, that smart under them. + In this only they come to be short-sighted, that though they know the + diseases, they understand not the remedies; and though good patients, + they are ill physicians. The magistrate only is authorized, + qualified, and capable to make a just and effectual Reformation, and + especially among the Ecclesiasticks. For in all experience, as far as + I can remember, they have never been forward to save the prince that + labour. If they had, there would have been no Wickliffe, no Husse, no + Luther in history. Or at least, upon so notable an emergency as the + last, the Church of Rome would then in the Council of Trent have + thought of rectifying itself in good earnest, that it might have + recover'd its ancient character; whereas it left the same divisions + much wider, and the Christian people of the world to suffer, + Protestants under Popish governors, Popish under Protestants, rather + than let go any point of interested ambition."[178:2] + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[152:1] "But the most virulent of all that writ against the sect was +Parker, afterwards made Bishop of Oxford by King James: who was full of +satirical vivacity and was considerably learned, but was a man of no +judgment and of as little virtue, and as to religion rather impious: +after he had for some years entertained the nation with several virulent +books writ with much life, he was attacked by the liveliest droll of the +age, who writ 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."--Burnet's _History of his Own Time_. + +[152:2] See the dedication to _A Free and Impartial Censure of the +Plutonick Philosophy_, by Sam Parker, A.M., Oxford 1666. Parker was a +man of some taste, and I have in my small collection a beautifully bound +copy of this treatise presented by the author to Seth Ward, then Bishop +of Exeter, and afterwards of Salisbury. + +[165:1] Grosart, vol. iii. pp. 145-8. + +[166:1] Grosart, vol. iii. pp. 155-9. + +[167:1] Grosart, vol. iii. pp. 170, 210-1. + +[167:2] Grosart, vol. iii. p. 211. + +[168:1] Grosart, vol. iii. p. 171. + +[168:2] Grosart, vol. iii. p. 63. + +[169:1] Grosart, vol. iii. p. 198. + +[170:1] For a still more unfriendly sketch of Andrew Marvell by the same +spiteful hand, see Parker's _History of his Own Time_, a posthumous +work, first published in Latin in 1726, and in an English Translation by +_Thomas Newlin_ in 1727. This book contains an interesting enumeration +of the numerous conspiracies against the life and throne of Charles the +Second during the earlier part of his reign, a panegyric upon Archbishop +Sheldon and plentiful abuse of Andrew Marvell. Parker died in unhappy +circumstances (see Macaulay's _History_, vol. ii. p. 205), but he left +behind him a pious nonjuring son, and his grandson founded the famous +publishing firm at Oxford. + +[176:1] Grosart, vol. iii. p. 284. + +[178:1] Grosart, vol. iii. p. 370. + +[178:2] _Ibid._, p. 382. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +LAST YEARS IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS + + +Marvell's last ten years in the House of Commons were made miserable by +the passionate conviction that there existed in high quarters of the +State a deep, dangerous, and well-considered plot to subvert the +Protestant faith and to destroy by armed force Parliamentary Government +in England. Marvell was not the victim of a delusion. Such a plot, plan, +or purpose undoubtedly existed, though, as it failed, it is now easy to +consider the alarm it created to have been exaggerated. + +Marvell was, of all public men then living, the one most deeply imbued +with the spirit of our free constitution. Its checks and balances jumped +with his humour. His nature was without any taint of fanaticism, nor was +he anything of the doctrinaire. He was neither a Richard Baxter nor a +John Locke. He had none of the pure Erastianism of Selden, who tells us +in his inimitable, cold-blooded way that "a King is a King men have made +for their own sakes, for quietness' sake." "Just as in a family one man +is appointed to buy the meat," and that "there is no such thing as +spiritual jurisdiction; all is civil, the Church's is the same with the +Lord Mayor's. The Pope he challenges jurisdiction over all; the Bishops +they pretend to it as well as he; the Presbyterians they would have it +to themselves, but over whom is all this, the poor layman" (see Selden's +_Table Talk_). + +This may be excellent good sense but it does not represent Marvell's +way of looking at things. He thought more nobly of both church and king. + +In Marvell's last book, his famous pamphlet "_An Account of the Growth +of Popery and Arbitrary Government in England," printed at Amsterdam and +recommended to the reading of all English Protestants_, 1678, which made +a prodigious stir and (it is sad to think) paved the way for the "Popish +Plot," Marvell sets forth his view of our constitution in language as +lofty as it is precise. I know no passage in any of our institutional +writers of equal merit. + + "For if first we consider the State, the kings of England rule not + upon the same terms with those of our neighbour nations, who, having + by force or by address usurped that due share which their people had + in the government, are now for some ages in the possession of an + arbitrary power (which yet no prescription can make legal) and + exercise it over their persons and estates in a most tyrannical + manner. But here the subjects retain their proportion in the + Legislature; the very meanest commoner of England is represented in + Parliament, and is a party to those laws by which the Prince is sworn + to govern himself and his people. No money is to be levied but by the + common consent. No man is for life, limb, goods, or liberty, at the + Sovereign's discretion: but we have the same right (modestly + understood) in our propriety that the prince hath in his regality: + and in all cases where the King is concerned, we have our just remedy + as against any private person of the neighbourhood, in the Courts of + Westminster Hall or in the High Court of Parliament. His very + Prerogative is no more than what the Law has determined. His Broad + Seal, which is the legitimate stamp of his pleasure, yet is no longer + currant, than upon the trial it is found to be legal. He cannot + commit any person by his particular warrant. He cannot himself be + witness in any cause: the balance of publick justice being so + delicate, that not the hand only but even the breath of the Prince + would turn the scale. Nothing is left to the King's will, but all is + subjected to his authority: by which means it follows that he can do + no wrong, nor can he receive wrong; and a King of England keeping to + these measures, may without arrogance, be said to remain the onely + intelligent Ruler over a rational People. In recompense therefore and + acknowledgment of so good a Government under his influence, his + person is most sacred and inviolable; and whatsoever excesses are + committed against so high a trust, nothing of them is imputed to him, + as being free from the necessity or temptation; but his ministers + only are accountable for all, and must answer it at their perils. He + hath a vast revenue constantly arising from the hearth of the + Householder, the sweat of the Labourer, the rent of the Farmer, the + industry of the Merchant, and consequently out of the estate of the + Gentleman: a large competence to defray the ordinary expense of the + Crown, and maintain its lustre. And if any extraordinary occasion + happen, or be but with any probable decency pretended, the whole Land + at whatsoever season of the year does yield him a plentiful harvest. + So forward are his people's affections to give even to superfluity, + that a forainer (or Englishman that hath been long abroad) would + think they could neither will nor chuse, but that the asking of a + supply were a meer formality, it is so readily granted. He is the + fountain of all honours, and has moreover the distribution of so many + profitable offices of the Household, of the Revenue, of State, of + Law, of Religion, of the Navy and (since his present Majestie's time) + of the Army, that it seems as if the Nation could scarce furnish + honest men enow to supply all those imployments. So that the Kings of + England are in nothing inferiour to other Princes, save in being more + abridged from injuring their own subjects: but have as large a field + as any of external felicity, wherein to exercise their own virtue, + and so reward and incourage it in others. In short, there is nothing + that comes nearer in Government to the Divine Perfection, than where + the Monarch, as with us, injoys a capacity of doing all the good + imaginable to mankind, under a disability to all that is + evil."[181:1] + +This was the constitution which Marvell, whose means of information +were great and whose curiosity was insatiable, believed to be in danger. +No wonder he was agitated. + +The politics in which Marvell was immersed during his last years are +difficult to unravel and still more difficult to illuminate, for they +had their dim origin in the secret thoughts and wavering purposes of the +king. + +Charles the Second, like many another Englishman guiltless of Stuart +blood in his veins, was mainly governed by his dislikes, his pleasures, +and his financial necessities. To suppose, as some hasty moralisers have +done, that Charles cared for nothing but his women is to misread his +character. He had many qualifications to be the chief magistrate of a +nation of shopkeepers. He was ever alive to the supreme importance of +English trade upon the high seas. His thoughts were often turned in the +direction of the Indies, east and west. He took a constant, though not +always an honest, interest in the navy. He hated Holland for more +reasons than one, but among these reasons was his hatred of England's +most formidable and malicious trade competitor. He also disliked her +arid and ugly Protestantism, and blood being thicker than water, he +hated Holland for what he considered her shabby treatment of his +youthful nephew, whose ultimate destiny was happily hidden from +Whitehall. Among Charles's many dislikes must be included the Anglican +bishops, who had prevented him from keeping his word, and foiled his +purpose of a wide toleration. He envied his brother of France the wide +culture, the literature and art of Catholicism. He regretted the +Reformation, and would have been best pleased to see the English Church +in communion with Rome and in possession of "Anglican liberties" akin +to those enjoyed by the Gallican Church. Charles was also jealous of +Louis the Fourteenth, and in many moods had no mind to play perpetually +a second fiddle. He longed for a navy to sweep the seas, for an army +strong enough to keep his Parliament in check, and for liberty for +himself and for all those of his subjects who were so minded, to hear +Mass on Sundays. Behind, and above, and always surrounding these desires +and dislikes, was an ever-present, ever-pressing need for money. Like a +royal Becky Sharp, Charles might have found it easy to be a patriotic +king on five millions a year. + +The king was his own Foreign Minister, and being what he was, and swayed +by the considerations I have imperfectly described, his foreign policy +was necessarily tortuous and perplexing. As Ranke says, "Charles was +capable of proposing offensive alliances to the three neighbouring +powers, to the Dutch against France, to the French against Spain and +Holland, to the Spaniards against France to the detriment of Holland, +but in these propositions two fundamental views always recur--demands +for money, and assurance of world-wide commerce for England."[183:1] + +Charles first allowed Sir William Temple, a cool, prudent man, to form, +in a famous five days' negotiation, the defensive treaty with Holland, +which, after Sweden had joined it, became known as the Triple Alliance +(1668). This alliance had for its objects mutual promises between the +contracting parties to come to each other's assistance by sea and land +if attacked by any power (France being here intended), to force Spain to +make peace with France on the terms already offered, and to compel +France to keep those terms when agreed to by Spain. + +The Triple Alliance was not only very popular in England, but was good +diplomacy, for it was quite within the range of practical politics that +France and Holland might have combined against England; nor could it +easily be maintained that the alliance was hostile to France, as it +provided that Spain should be forced to accept the terms France had +already proposed. + +What wrecked the Triple Alliance and prepared the way for the secret +Treaty of Dover (1670), was the impossibility of settling those +religious difficulties which, despite the Act of Uniformity, were more +rampant than ever. The king wanted to patch up peace, and to secure some +working plan of comprehension or composure, under cover of which the +Catholic religion should be tolerated and Presbyterianism formally +recognised. But, king though he was, he could not get his way. The +Church and the House of Commons, full as the latter was of his pimps and +pensioners, were as obstinate as mules in this matter of toleration. +They would neither favour Papists nor Dissenters, protested against +Indulgences as unconstitutional, and clamoured for a rigorous +administration of that penal legislation against Nonconformists which +they had purchased with so many and such lavish supplies. As a matter of +fact, these penal laws were very fitfully enforced. In London they were +often totally disregarded, and we read of congregations numbering two +thousand openly attending Presbyterian services. The Lord Mayor for the +time being took his orders direct from the king. + +What was Charles to do? After the fall of Clarendon, the king's +favourite privy councillors, called the "Cabal," because the initial +letters of their names formed a word which for some time previously had +been in common use, represent only too faithfully the confusion and +corruption of the times. Clifford was a zealous Roman, Arlington a +cautious one, Buckingham a free-thinker and mocker, friendly to France +and on good terms with the more advanced English sectaries; Ashley made +no pretence to be a Christian, but favoured philosophic toleration; +whilst Lauderdale, one of the most learned ministers that ever sat in +council (so Ranke says[185:1]), was, as a matter of profession, a +Presbyterian, but in reality a man wholly and slavishly devoted to the +king's interests, and prepared at any moment to pour into the kingdom +soldiers from Scotland to purge or suppress all Free Institutions. + +Irritated, disgusted, thwarted, and annoyed, the king, acting, it well +may be, under the influence of his accomplished sister, the beautiful +and ill-fated Duchess of Orleans, struck up, to use Marvell's own words, +"an invisible league with France." The negotiations were either by word +of mouth or by letters which have been burnt. Dr. Lingard in his history +gives an interesting account of this mysterious transaction. Two things +are apparent as the objects of the Treaty of Dover. The Dutch Republic +is to be destroyed, and the cause of Catholicism in England is to be +promoted and maintained. It was this latter object that seems most to +have excited the hopes of the Duchess of Orleans. A woman's hand is +traceable throughout. Charles promised to profess himself openly a Roman +Catholic at the time that should appear to be most expedient, and +subsequently to that profession he was to join with Louis in making war +upon the Dutch Republic. At the date of this bewildering agreement, it +was high treason by statute even to _say_ that Charles was a Roman +Catholic. In case the king's public conversion should lead to +disturbances, Louis promised an "aid" of two millions of _livres_ and an +armed force of six thousand men. He also agreed to pay the whole cost of +the Dutch War _on land_, and to contribute thirty men-of-war to the +English fleet. Holland once crushed, England's share of the plunder was +to be Walcheren, Sluys, and Cadsand. A remarkable conversion! It is +difficult to suppose that either Charles or Louis were quite serious +over this part of the business. Yet there it is. The Catholic provisions +of the secret Treaty of Dover were only known to Clifford, whose soul +was fired by them, and to Arlington, who did not share the confident +hopes of his co-religionist. Clifford thought there were thousands of +Englishmen "of light and leading" among the English Catholics who would +be both willing and able to assume the burdens of the State and to rally +round a Catholic king. Arlington thought otherwise. + +The king's public conversion never took place. No hint was given of any +such impending event. Parliament met on the 24th of October 1670, and +after hearing a good deal about the Triple Alliance and voting large +sums of money, was prorogued in April 1671, and did not meet again till +February 1673. + +To pick a quarrel with the Dutch was never difficult. Marvell tells us +how it was done. "A sorry yacht, but bearing the English Jack, in August +1671 sails into the midst of the Dutch fleet, singles out the Admiral, +shooting twice as they call it, sharp upon him. Which must sure have +appeared as ridiculous and unnatural as for a lark to dare the hobby." +The Dutch admiral asking "Why," was told "because he and his whole fleet +had failed to strike sail to his small craft." The Dutch commander then +"civilly excused it as a matter of the first instance, and in which he +could have no instruction, therefore proper to be referred to their +masters, and so they parted. The yacht having thus acquitted itself, +returned fraught with the quarrel she was sent for."[187:1] Surinam was +a perpetual _casus belli_. Some offence against the law of nations was +always happening there. A third matter, very full of gunpowder, was made +great use of by the promoters of the war already agreed upon. A picture +had been hung at Dort representing De Witt sailing up the Medway very +much in the manner described in Marvell's poem. Medals also had been +struck and distributed in commemoration of the same event. War was +declared against Holland by England and France in March 1672. The +Declaration of War was preceded by the Declaration of Indulgence, +whereby, wrote Marvell, "all the penal laws against Papists for which +former Parliaments had given so many supplies, and against +Nonconformists for which this Parliament had paid more largely, were at +one instant suspended in order to defraud the nation of all that +religion which they had so dearly purchased, and for which they ought at +least, the bargain being broke, to have been reimbursed."[187:2] + +The unconstitutional suspension of bad laws put lovers of freedom in a +predicament. Marvell was what he calls a "composure," that is a +"comprehension," man. In the _Growth of Popery_ he sorrowfully admits +that it is the gravest reproach of human wisdom that no man seems able +or willing to find out the due temper of Government in divine matters. + + "Insomuch that it is no great adventure to say, that the world was + better ordered under the ancient monarchies and commonwealths, that + the number of virtuous men was then greater, and that the Christians + found fairer quarter under those than among themselves, nor hath + there any advantage accrued unto mankind from that most perfect and + practical model of humane society, except the speculation of a better + way to future happiness, concerning which the very guides disagree, + and of those few that follow, it will suffer no man to pass without + paying at their turnpikes." (Vol. iv. p. 280.) + +The French Alliance made the war, though with Holland, unpopular. +Writers had to be hired to defend it. France was supposed to look on +with much composure as her two maritime competitors battered each +other's fleets. At sea the honours were divided between the Dutch and +the English. On land Louis had it all his own way. Besides, rumours got +abroad of an uncomfortable plot to restore Popery. Jesuits seemed to +abound. Roman Catholics asserted themselves, the laws being suspended. +An army was collected at Blackheath. The Treasury was closed. Charles +had been badly bled by the goldsmiths or bankers, who had charged him +L12 per cent.; but in commercial centres Acts of Bankruptcy are seldom +popular, and though the bankers were compelled to be content with L6 per +cent., the closing of the Treasury brought ruin into many homes. + +When Parliament met in February 1673, its temper was bad. It would have +nothing to do with the Declaration of Indulgence, and though the king +had told them, in the round set terms he could so well command, that he +was resolved to stick to his declaration, he had to give way and to see +the House busy itself with a Test Bill that drove all Roman Catholics, +from the Duke of York (who had "gone over" in the spring of 1672) +downwards, out of office. The only effect of Charles's policy was to +mitigate the hostility of the House of Commons to Protestant Dissenters, +and to drive it to concentrate its jealousy upon the Catholics. Any +lurking idea of the king declaring himself a Romanist had to be +abandoned. His hatred of Parliament increased. He lost all sense of +shame, and frankly became a pensioner of France. In 1676 he concluded a +second secret treaty, whereby both Louis and himself bound themselves to +enter into no engagements with other powers without consent, and in case +of rebellion within their realms to come to each other's assistance. +Louis agreed to make Charles an annual allowance of a hundred thousand, +afterwards increased to two hundred thousand _livres_. This money was +largely spent in bribing the House of Commons. The French ambassador was +allowed an extra grant of a thousand crowns a month to keep a table for +hungry legislators.[189:1] Did not Marvell do well to be angry? + +Some of Marvell's letters belonging to this gloomy period are full of +interest. + + + _To William Ramsden, Esq._ + "_Nov. 28, 1670._ + + "DEAR WILL,--I need not tell you I am always thinking of you. All + that has happened, which is remarkable, since I wrote, is as + follows: The Lieutenancy of London, chiefly Sterlin the Mayor, and + Sir J. Robinson, alarmed the King continually with the Conventicles + there. So the King sent them strict and large powers. The Duke of + York every Sunday would come over thence to look to the peace. To + say truth, they met in numerous open assemblys, without any dread of + government. But the train bands in the city, and soldiery in + Southwark and suburbs, harassed and abused them continually; they + wounded many, and killed some Quakers especially, while they took + all patiently. Hence arose two things of great remark. The + Lieutenancy, having got orders to their mind, pick out Hays and + Jekill, the innocentist of the whole party, to show their power on. + They offer them illegal bonds of five thousand pounds a man, which + if they would not enter into, they must go to prison. So they were + committed, and at last (but it is a very long story) got free. Some + friends engaged for them. The other was the tryal of Pen and Mead, + quakers, at the Old Baily. The jury not finding them guilty, as the + Recorder and Mayor would have had them, they were kept without meat + or drink some three days, till almost starved, but would not alter + their verdict; so fined and imprisoned. There is a book out which + relates all the passages, which were very pertinent, of the + prisoners, but prodigiously barbarous by the Mayor and Recorder. The + Recorder, among the rest, commended the Spanish Inquisition, saying + it would never be well till we had something like it. The King had + occasion for sixty thousand pounds. Sent to borrow it of the city. + Sterlin, Robinson, and all the rest of that faction, were at it many + a week, and could not get above ten thousand. The fanatics under + persecution, served his Majesty. The other party, both in court and + city, would have prevented it. But the King protested mony would be + acceptable. So the King patched up, out of the Chamber, and other + ways, twenty thousand pounds. The fanatics, of all sorts, forty + thousand. The King, though against many of his council, would have + the Parliament sit this twenty-fourth of October. He, and the Keeper + spoke of nothing but to have mony. Some one million three hundred + thousand pounds, to pay off the debts at interest; and eight hundred + thousand for a brave navy next Spring. Both speeches forbid to be + printed, for the King said very little, and the Keeper, it was + thought, too much in his politic simple discourse of foreign + affairs. The House was thin and obsequious. They voted at first they + would supply him according to his occasions, _Nemine_, as it was + remarked, _contradicente_; but few affirmatives, rather a silence as + of men ashamed and unwilling. Sir R. Howard, Seymour, Temple, Car, + and Hollis, openly took leave of their former party, and fell to + head the King's busyness. There is like to be a terrible Act of + Conventicles. The Prince of Orange here is much made of. The King + owes him a great deal of mony. The Paper is full.--I am yours," etc. + +The trial of William Penn and William Mead at the Old Bailey for a +tumultuous assembly, written by themselves, may be read in the _State +Trials_, vol. vi. The trial was the occasion of Penn's famous remark to +the Recorder of London, who, driven wellnigh distracted by Penn's +dialectics, exclaimed, "If I should suffer you to ask questions till +to-morrow morning you would never be the wiser." "That," replied Penn, +"would be according as the answers are." + + + _To William Ramsden, Esq._ + (Undated.) + + "DEAR WILL,--The Parliament are still proceeding, but not much + advanced on their eight hundred thousand pounds Bill on money at + interest, offices, and lands; and the Excise Bills valued at four + hundred thousand pounds a year. The first for the navy, which scarce + will be set out. The last to be for paying one million three hundred + thousand pounds, which the King owes at interest, and perhaps may be + given for four, five, or six years, as the House chances to be in + humour. But an accident happened which liked to have spoiled all: + Sir John Coventry having moved for an imposition on the playhouses, + Sir John Berkenhead, to excuse them, sayed they had been of great + service to the King. Upon which Sir John Coventry desired that + gentleman to explain whether he meant the men or the women players. + Hereupon it is imagined, that, the House adjourning from Tuesday + before till Thursday after Christmas-day, on the very Tuesday night + of the adjournment, twenty-five of the Duke of Monmouth's troop, and + some few foot, layed in wait from ten at night till two in the + morning, by Suffolk-street, and as he returned from the Cock, where + he supped, to his own house, they threw him down, and with a knife + cut off almost the end of his nose; but company coming made them + fearful to finish it, so they marched off. Sir Thomas Sands, + lieutenant of the troop, commanded the party; and O'Brian, the Earl + of Inchequin's son, was a principal actor. The Court hereupon + sometimes thought to carry it with a high hand, and question Sir + John for his words, and maintain the action. Sometimes they flagged + in their counsels. However, the King commanded Sir Thomas Clarges, + and Sir W. Pultney, to release Wroth and Lake, who were two of the + actors, and taken. But the night before the House met they + surrendered them again. The House being but sullen the next day, the + Court did not oppose adjourning for some days longer till it was + filled. Then the House went upon Coventry's busyness, and voted that + they would go upon nothing else whatever till they had passed a + Bill, as they did, for Sands, O'Brian, Parry, and Reeves, to come in + by the sixteenth of February, or else be condemned, and never to be + pardoned, but by an express Act of Parliament, and their names + therein inserted, for fear of being pardoned in some general act of + grace. Farther of all such actions, for the future on any man, + felony, without clergy; and who shall otherwise strike or wound any + parliament-man, during his attendance, or going or coming, + imprisonment for a year, treble damages, and incapacity. This Bill + having in some few days been dispatched to the Lords, the House has + since gone on in grand Committee upon the first eight hundred + thousand pounds Bill, but are not yet half way. But now the Lords, + instead of the sixteenth of February, put twenty-five days after the + King's royal assent, and that registered in their journal; they + disagree in several other things, but adhere in that first, which is + most material. Adhere, in this place, signifies not to be retracted, + and excludes a free conference. So that this week the Houses will be + in danger of splitting, without much wisdom or force. For + considering that Sir Thomas Sands was the very person sent to + Clarges and Pultney, that O'Brian was concealed in the Duke of + Monmouth's lodgings, that Wroth and Lake were bayled at the sessions + by order from Mr. Attorney, and that all persons and things are + perfectly discovered, that act will not be passed without great + consequence. George's father obliges you much in Tangier. Prince + Edgar is dying. The Court is at the highest pitch of want and + luxury, and the people full of discontent, Remember me to + yourselves." + + + _To William Ramsden, Esq._ + (Undated.) + + "DEAR WILL,--I think I have not told you that, on our Bill of + Subsidy, the Lord Lucas made a fervent bold speech against our + prodigality in giving, and the weak looseness of the government, the + King being present; and the Lord Clare another to persuade the King + that he ought not to be present. But all this had little + encouragement, not being seconded. Copys going about everywhere, one + of them was brought into the Lords' House, and Lord Lucas was asked + whether it was his. He sayd part was, and part was not. Thereupon + they took advantage, and sayed it was a libel even against Lucas + himself. On this they voted it a libel, and to be burned by the + hangman. Which was done; but the sport was, the hangman burned the + Lords' order with it. I take the last quarrel betwixt us and the + Lords to be as the ashes of that speech. Doubtless you have heard, + before this time, how Monmouth, Albemarle, Dunbane, and seven or + eight gentlemen, fought with the watch, and killed a poor bedle. + They have all got their pardons, for Monmouth's sake; but it is an + act of great scandal. The King of France is at Dunkirke. We have no + fleet out, though we gave the Subsidy Bill, valued at eight hundred + thousand pounds, for that purpose. I believe, indeed, he will + attempt nothing on us, but leave us to dy a natural death. For + indeed never had poor nation so many complicated, mortal, incurable, + diseases. You know the Dutchess of York is dead. All gave her for a + Papist. I think it will be my lot to go on an honest fair employment + into Ireland. Some have smelt the court of Rome at that distance. + There I hope I shall be out of the smell of our.... --Yours," etc. + + + _To a Friend in Persia._ + "_August 9, 1671._ + + "DEAR SIR,--I have yours of the 12th of October 1670, which was in + all respects most welcome to me, except when I considered that to + write it you endured some pain, for you say your hand is not yet + recovered. If I could say any thing to you towards the advancement + of your affairs, I could, with a better conscience, admit you should + spend so much of your precious time, as you do, upon me. But you + know how far those things are out of my road, tho', otherwise, most + desirous in all things to be serviceable to you. God's good + providence, which hath through so dangerous a disease and so many + difficultys preserved and restored you, will, I doubt not, conduct + you to a prosperous issue, and the perfection of your so laudable + undertakings. And, under that, your own good genius, in conjunction + with your brother here, will, I hope, though at the distance of + England and Persia, in good time operate extraordinary effects; for + the magnetism of two souls, rightly touched, works beyond all + natural limits, and it would be indeed too unequal, if good nature + should not have at least as large a sphere of activity, as malice, + envy, and detraction, which are, it seems, part of the returns from + Gombroon and Surat. All I can say to you in that matter is, that you + must, seeing it will not be better, stand upon your guard; for in + this world a good cause signifys little, unless it be as well + defended. A man may starve at the feast of good conscience. My + fencing master in Spain, after he had instructed me all he could, + told me, I remember, there was yet one secret, against which there + was no defence, and that was, to give the first blow. I know your + maxim, _Qui festinat ditescere, non erit innocens_. Indeed while you + preserve that mind, you will have the blessing both of God and man. + In general I perceive, and am very glad of it, that by your good + management, your friends here get ground, and the flint in your + adversarys' hearts begins to be mollifyed. Now after my usual + method, leaving to others what relates to busyness, I address + myself, which is all I am good for, to be your gazettier. I am sorry + to perceive that mine by the Armenian miscarryed. Tho' there was + nothing material in it, the thoughts of friends are too valuable to + fall into the hands of a stranger. I wrote the last February at + large, and wish it a better passage. In this perhaps I may interfere + something with that, chusing rather to repeat than omit. The King + having, upon pretence of the great preparations of his neighbours, + demanded three hundred thousand pounds for his navy (though in + conclusion he hath not set out any) and that the Parliament should + pay his debts, which the ministers would never particularize to the + House of Commons, our House gave several bills. You see how far + things were stretched, though beyond reason, there being no + satisfaction how those debts were contracted, and all men foreseeing + that what was given would not be applyed to discharge the debts, + which I hear are at this day risen to four millions, but diverted as + formerly. Nevertheless such was the number of the constant courtiers + increased by the apostate patriots, who were bought off, for that + turn, some at six, others ten, one at fifteen thousand pounds in + money, besides what offices, lands, and reversions, to others, that + it is a mercy they gave not away the whole land, and liberty, of + England. The Earl of Clare made a very bold and rational harangue, + the King being present, against the King's sitting among the Lords, + contrary to former precedents, during their debates; but he was not + seconded. The King had this April prorogued, upon the Houses + cavilling, and their harsh conferences concerning some bills, the + Parliament from this April till the 16th of April 1672. Sir John + Coventry's Bill against Cutting Noses passed, and O'Brian and Sir + Thomas Sands, not appearing at the Old Baily by the time limited, + stand attainted and outlawed, without possibility of pardon. The + Duke of Buckingham is again one hundred and forty thousand pounds in + debt, and, by this prorogation, his creditors have time to tear all + his lands in pieces. The House of Commons has run almost to the end + of their line, and are grown extreme chargeable to the King, and + odious to the people. Lord St. John, Marquess of Westminster's son, + one of the House of Commons, Sir Robert Howard, Sir John Benet, Lord + Arlington's brother, Sir William Bucknoll, the brewer, all of the + House, in fellowship with some others of the city, have farmed the + old customs, with the new act of Imposition upon Wines, and the Wine + Licenses, at six hundred thousand pounds a year, to begin this + Michaelmas. You may be sure they have covenants not to be losers. + They have signed and sealed ten thousand pounds a year more to the + Duchess of Cleveland, who has likewise near ten thousand pounds a + year out of the new farm of the country excise of Beer and Ale, five + thousand pounds a year out of the Post Office, and, they say, the + reversion of all the King's leases, the reversion of places all in + the Custom House, the green wax, and indeed, what not? All + promotions, spiritual and temporal, pass under her cognizance. + Buckingham runs out of all with the Lady Shrewsbury, by whom he + believes he had a son, to whom the King stood godfather; it dyed, + young Earl of Coventry, and was buryed in the sepulchre of his + fathers. The King of France made a warlike progresse this summer + through his conquests of Flanders, but kept the peace there, and + detains still the Dutchy of Lorain, and has stired up the German + Princes against the free towns. The Duke of Brunswick has taken the + town of Brunswick; and now the Bishop of Cullen is attacking the + city of Colen. We truckle to France in all things, to the prejudice + of our honour. Barclay is still Lieutenant of Ireland; but he was + forced to come over to pay ten thousand pounds rent to his Landlady + Cleveland. My Lord Angier, who bought of Sir George Carteret for + eleven thousand pounds, the Vice-treasurership of Ireland, worth + five thousand pounds a year, is, betwixt knavery and foolery, turned + out. Dutchess of York and Prince Edgar, dead. None left but + daughters. One Blud, outlawed for a plot to take Dublin Castle, and + who seized on the Duke of Ormond here last year, and might have + killed him, a most bold, and yet sober fellow, some months ago + seized the crown and sceptre in the Tower, took them away, and if he + had killed the keeper, might have carried them clear off. He, being + taken, astonished the King and Court, with the generosity, and + wisdom, of his answers. He, and all his accomplices, for his sake, + are discharged by the King, to the wonder of all.--Yours," etc. + + + _To William Ramsden, Esq._ + "_June 1672._ + + "DEAR WILL,--Affairs begin to alter, and men talk of a peace with + Holland, and taking them into our protection; and it is my opinion + it will be before Michaelmas, for some reasons, not fit to write. We + cannot have a peace with France and Holland both. The Dutch are now + brought very low; but Amsterdam, and some other provinces, are + resolved to stand out till the last. De-wit is stabbed, and dead of + his wounds. It was at twelve a clock at night, the 11th of this + month, as he came from the council at the Hague. Four men wounded + him with their swords. But his own letter next morning to the States + says nothing appeared mortal. The whole Province of Utrecht is + yielding up. No man can conceive the condition of the State of + Holland, in this juncture, unless he can at the same time conceive + an earthquake, an hurricane, and the deluge. France is potent and + subtle. Here have been several fires of late. One at St. + Catherine's, which burned about six score or two hundred houses, and + some seven or eight ships. Another in Bishopsgate-street. Another in + Crichet Fryars. Another in Southwark; and some elsewhere. You may be + sure all the old talk is hereupon revived. There was the other day, + though not on this occasion, a severe proclamation issued out + against all who shall vent false news, or discourse ill concerning + affairs of state. So that in writing to you I run the risque of + making a breech in the commandment.--Yours," etc. + +The following letter deals with another matter of human concern than +politics, for it seeks to condole with a father who has lost an only +son. + + + _To Sir John Trott_ + (Undated.) + + "HONOURED SIR,--I have not that vanity to believe, if you weigh your + late loss by the common ballance, that any thing I can write to you + should lighten your resentments: nor if you measure things by the + rules of christianity, do I think it needful to comfort you in your + duty and your son's happyness. Only having a great esteem and + affection for you, and the grateful memory of him that is departed + being still green and fresh upon my spirit, I cannot forbear to + inquire, how you have stood the second shock at your sad meeting of + friends in the country. I know that the very sight of those who have + been witnesses of our better fortune, doth but serve to reinforce a + calamity. I know the contagion of grief and infection of tears, and + especially when it runs in a blood. And I myself could sooner imitate + than blame those innocent relentings of nature, so that they spring + from tenderness only and humanity, not from an implacable sorrow. The + tears of a family may flow together like those little drops that + compact the rainbow, and if they be placed with the same advantage + towards Heaven as those are to the sun, they too have their + splendour; and like that bow, while they unbend into seasonable + showers, yet they promise, that there shall not be a second flood. + But the dissoluteness of grief, the prodigality of sorrow, is neither + to be indulged in a man's self, nor complyed with in others. If that + were allowable in these cases, Eli's was the readyest way and highest + compliment of mourning, who fell back from his seat and broke his + neck. But neither does that precedent hold. For though he had been + Chancellor, and in effect King of Israel, for so many years (and such + men value, as themselves, their losses at an higher rate than + others), yet, when he heard that Israel was overcome, that his two + sons Hophni and Phineas were slain in one day, and saw himself so + without hope of issue, and which imbittered it farther, without + succession to the government, yet he fell not till the news that the + ark of God was taken. I pray God that we may never have the same + parallel perfected in our publick concernments. Then we shall need + all the strength of grace and nature to support us. But on a private + loss, and sweetened with so many circumstances as yours, to be + impatient, to be uncomfortable would be to dispute with God. Though + an only son be inestimable, yet it is like Jonah's sin, to be angry + at God for the withering of his shadow. Zipporah, though the delay + had almost cost her husband his life, yet, when he did but circumcise + her son, in a womanish peevishness reproached Moses as a bloody + husband. But if God take the son himself, but spare the father, shall + we say that He is a bloody God? He that gave His own son, may He not + take ours? It is pride that makes a rebel; and nothing but the + over-weening of ourselves and our own things that raises us against + Divine Providence. Whereas Abraham's obedience was better than + sacrifice. And if God please to accept both, it is indeed a farther + tryal, but a greater honour. I could say over upon this beaten + occasion most of those lessons of morality and religion which have + been so often repeated, and are as soon forgotten. We abound with + precept, but we want examples. You, sir, that have all these things + in your memory, and the clearness of whose judgment is not to be + obscured by any greater interposition, should be exemplary to others + in your own practice. 'Tis true, it is an hard task to learn and + teach at the same time. And, where yourselves are the experiment, it + is as if a man should dissect his own body, and read the anatomy + lecture. But I will not heighten the difficulty while I advise the + attempt. Only, as in difficult things, you would do well to make use + of all that may strengthen and assist you; the word of God; the + society of good men; and the books of the ancients; there is one way + more, which is by diversion, business, and activity; which are also + necessary to be used in their season. But I myself, who live to so + little purpose, can have little authority or ability to advise you in + it, who are a person that are and may be much more so, generally + useful. All that I have been able to do since, hath been to write + this sorry Elogy of your son, which if it be as good as I could wish, + it is as yet no indecent employment. However, I know you will take + any thing kindly from your very affectionate friend, and most humble + servant." + +Milton died on the 8th of November 1674. Marvell remained among the +poet's intimate friends until the end, and intended to write his life. +It is idle to mourn the loss of an unwritten book, but Marvell's life of +Milton would have been a treasure.[199:1] + +When Parliament met on the 13th of April 1675, members found in their +places a mock-speech from the throne. They _knew_ the hand that had +penned it. It was a daring production and ran as follows:-- + + _His Majesty's Most Gracious Speech to Both Houses of Parliament_. + + "MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN,--I told you at our last meeting, the winter + was the fittest time for business, and truly I thought so, till my + Lord Treasurer assured me the spring was the best season for sallads + and subsidies. I hope therefore that April will not prove so + unnatural a month, as not to afford some kind showers on my parched + exchequer, which gapes for want of them. Some of you, perhaps, will + think it dangerous to make me too rich; but I do not fear it; for I + promise you faithfully, whatever you give me I will always want; and + although in other things my word may be thought a slender authority, + yet in that, you may rely on me, I will never break it. + + "MY LORDS AND GENTLEMEN,--I can bear my straits with patience; but my + Lord Treasurer does protest to me, that the revenue, as it now + stands, will not serve him and me too. One of us must pinch for it, + if you do not help me. I must speak freely to you: I am under bad + circumstances, for besides my harlots in service, my reformado + concubines lye heavy upon me. I have a passable good estate, I + confess, but, God's-fish, I have a great charge upon 't. Here's my + Lord Treasurer can tell, that all the money designed for next + summer's guards must, of necessity, be applyed to the next year's + cradles and swadling-cloths. What shall we do for ships then? I hint + this only to you, it being your busyness, not mine. I know, by + experience, I can live without ships. I lived ten years abroad + without, and never had my health better in my life; but how you will + be without, I leave to yourselves to judge, and therefore hint this + only by the bye: I do not insist upon it. There's another thing I + must press more earnestly, and that is this:--It seems a good part of + my revenue will expire in two or three years, except you will be + pleased to continue it. I have to say for 't, pray, why did you give + me so much as you have done, unless you resolve to give on as fast as + I call for it? The nation hates you already for giving so much, and + I'll hate you too, if you do not give me more. So that if you stick + not to me, you must not have a friend in England. On the other hand, + if you will give me the revenue I desire, I shall be able to do those + things for your religion and liberty, that I have had long in my + thoughts, but cannot effect them without a little more money to carry + me through. Therefore look to 't and take notice that if you do not + make me rich enough to undo you, it shall lie at your doors. For my + part I wash my hands on 't. But that I may gain your good opinion, + the best way is to acquaint you what I have done to deserve it, out + of my royal care for your religion and your property. For the first, + my proclamation is a true picture of my mind, He that cannot, as in a + glass, see my zeal for the Church of England, does not deserve any + farther satisfaction, for I declare him wilful, abominable, and not + good. Some may, perhaps, be startled, and cry, how comes this sudden + change? To which I answer, I am a changling, and that's sufficient, I + think. But to convince men farther, that I mean what I say, there are + these arguments:-- + + "First, I tell you so, and you know I never break my word. + + "Secondly, My Lord Treasurer says so, and he never told a lye in + his life. + + "Thirdly, My Lord Lauderdale will undertake it for me; and I + should be loath, by any act of mine, he should forfeit the + credit he has with you. + + "If you desire more instances of my zeal, I have them for you. For + example, I have converted my natural sons from Popery; and I may say, + without vanity, it was my own work, so much the more peculiarly mine + than the begetting them. 'Twould do one's heart good to hear how + prettily George can read already in the Psalter. They are all fine + children, God bless 'em, and so like me in their understandings. But, + as I was saying, I have, to please you, given a pension to your + favourite my Lord Lauderdale; not so much that I thought he wanted + it, as that you would take it kindly. I have made Carwell dutchess of + Portsmouth, and marryed her sister to the Earl of Pembroke. I have, + at my brother's request, sent my Lord Inchequin into Barbary, to + settle the Protestant Religion among the Moors, and an English + Interest at Tangier. I have made Crew Bishop of Durham, and, at the + first word of my Lady Portsmouth, Prideaux Bishop of Chichester. I + know not, for my part, what factious men would have; but this I am + sure of, my predecessors never did anything like this, to gain the + good will of their subjects. So much for your religion, and now for + your property. My behaviour to the Bankers is a publick instance; and + the proceedings between Mrs. Hyde and Mrs. Sutton for private ones, + are such convincing evidences, that it will be needless to say any + more to 't. + + "I must now acquaint you, that, by my Lord Treasurer's advice, I have + made a considerable retrenchment upon my expenses in candles and + charcoal, and do not intend to stop there, but will, with your help, + look into the late embezzlements of my dripping-pans and + kitchen-stuff; of which, by the way, upon my conscience, neither my + Lord Treasurer nor my Lord Lauderdale are guilty. I tell you my + opinion; but if you should find them dabling in that busyness, I tell + you plainly, I leave 'em to you; for, I would have the world to know, + I am not a man to be cheated. + + "My Lords and Gentlemen, I desire you to believe me as you have found + me; and I do solemnly promise you, that whatsoever you give me shall + be specially managed with the same conduct, trust, sincerity, and + prudence, that I have ever practised, since my happy + restoration."[202:1] + +Mock King's Speeches have often been made, but this is the first, and I +think still the best of them all. + +There was no shaking off religion from the debates of those days. A new +Oaths Bill suddenly appeared in the House of Lords, where it gave rise +to one of the greatest debates that assembly has ever witnessed, +lasting seventeen days. The bishops were baited by the peers with great +spirit, and the report of the proceedings may still be read with gusto. + +Marvell, in his _Growth of Popery_, thus describes what happened:-- + + "While these things were upon the anvil, the 10th of November was + come for the Parliament's sitting, but that was put off till the 13th + of April 1675. And in the meantime, which fell out most opportune for + the conspirators, these counsels were matured, and something further + to be contrived, that was yet wanting; the Parliament accordingly + meeting, and the House of Lords, as well as that of the Commons, + being in deliberation of several wholesome bills, such as the present + state of the nation required, the great design came out in a bill + unexpectedly offered one morning in the House of Lords, whereby all + such as injoyed any beneficial office, or imployment, ecclesiastical, + civil, or military, to which was added privy counsellors, justices of + the peace, and members of Parliament, were under a penalty to take + the oath, and make the declaration, and abhorrence, insuring:-- + + 'I A.B. do declare, that it is not lawful upon any pretence + whatsoever to take up arms against the King, and that I do + abhor that traiterous position of taking arms by his authority + against his person, or against those that are commissioned by + him in pursuance of such commission. And I do swear, that I + will not at any time indeavour the alteration of the government + either in Church or State. So help me God.' + + "This same oath had been brought into the House of Commons in the + plague year at Oxford, to have been imposed upon the nation, but + there, by the assistance of those very same persons that now + introduce it, 'twas thrown out, for fear of a general infection of + the vitals of this kingdom; and though it passed then in a particular + bill, known by the name of the Five Mile Act, because it only + concerned the non-conformist preachers, yet even in that, it was + thoroughly opposed by the late Earl of Southampton, whose judgement + might well have been reckoned for the standard of prudence and + loyalty."[204:1] + +Of the proposed oath Marvell says, "No Conveyancer could ever in more +compendious or binding terms have drawn a dissettlement of the whole +birthright of England." + +This was no mere legal quibbling. + + "These things are no niceties, or remote considerations (though in + making of laws, and which must come afterwards under construction of + judges, _durante bene placito_, all cases are to be put and imagined) + but there being an act in Scotland for 20,000 men to march into + England upon call, and so great a body of English soldiery in France, + within summons, besides what foreigners may be obliged by treaty to + furnish, and it being so fresh in memory, what sort of persons had + lately been in commission among us, to which add the many books then + printed by license, writ, some by men of the black, one of the green + cloth, wherein the absoluteness of the English monarchy is against + all law asserted. + + "All these considerations put together were sufficient to make any + honest and well advised man to conceive indeed, that upon the passing + of this oath and declaration, the whole sum of affairs depended. + + "It grew therefore to the greatest contest, that has perhaps ever + been in Parliament, wherein those Lords, that were against this oath, + being assured of their own loyalty and merit, stood up now for the + English liberties with the same genius, virtue, and courage, that + their noble ancestors had formerly defended the great Charter of + England, but with so much greater commendation, in that they had here + a fairer field and a more civil way of decision; they fought it out + under all the disadvantages imaginable; they were overlaid by + numbers; the noise of the House, like the wind, was against them, and + if not the sun, the fireside was always in their faces; nor being so + few, could they, as their adversaries, withdraw to refresh themselves + in a whole day's ingagement: yet never was there a clearer + demonstration how dull a thing is humane eloquence, and greatness + how little, when the bright truth discovers all things in their + proper colours and dimensions, and shining, shoots its beams thorow + all their fallacies. It might be injurious, where all of them did so + excellently well, to attribute more to any one of those Lords than + another, unless because the Duke of Buckingham and the Earl of + Shaftesbury, have been the more reproached for this brave action, it + be requisite by a double proportion of praise to set them two on + equal terms with the rest of their companions in honour. The + particular relation in this debate, which lasted many days, with + great eagerness on both sides, and the reasons but on one, was in the + next Session burnt by order of the Lords, but the sparks of it will + eternally fly in their adversaries' faces."[205:1] + +In a letter to his constituents, dated April 22, 1675, Marvell was +content to say: "The Lords sate the whole day yesterday till ten at +night without rising (and the King all the while but of our addresses +present) upon their Bill of Test in both houses and are not yet come to +the question of committing it." + +After prolonged discussion the Oath Bill was sent to the Commons, where +doubtless it must have passed, had not a furious privilege quarrel over +Sir John Fagg's case made prorogation in June almost a necessity. In +October Parliament met again, and at once resolved itself into a +Committee upon Religion to prevent the growth of Popery. This time the +king made almost an end of the Parliament by a prorogation which lasted +from November 1675 until February 1677--a period of fifteen months. + +On the re-assembling of Parliament the Duke of Buckingham fathered the +argument much used during the long recess, that a prorogation extending +beyond twelve months was in construction of law a dissolution. + +For the expression of this opinion and the refusal to recant it the +Duke of Buckingham and three other lords were ordered to the Tower, the +king being greatly angered by the duke's request that his cook might be +allowed to wait on him. On this incident Marvell remarks: "Thus a +prorogation without precedent was to be warranted by an imprisonment +without example. A sad instance! Whereby the dignity of Parliament and +especially of the House of Peers did at present much suffer and may +probably more for the future, _for nothing but Parliament can destroy +Parliament_. If a House shall once be felon of itself and stop its own +breath, taking away that liberty of speech which the King verbally, and +of course, allows them (as now they had done in both houses) to what +purpose is it coming thither?"[206:1] + +The character of this House of Commons did not improve with age. + +Marvell writes in the _Growth of Popery_:-- + + "In matters of money they seem at first difficult, but having been + discoursed with in private, they are set right, and begin to + understand it better themselves, and to convert their brethren: for + they are all of them to be bought and sold, only their number makes + them cheaper, and each of them doth so overvalue himself, that + sometimes they outstand or let slip their own market. + + "It is not to be imagined, how small things, in this case, even + members of great estates will stoop at, and most of them will do as + much for hopes as others for fruition, but if their patience be tired + out, they grow at last mutinous, and revolt to the country, till some + better occasion offer. + + "Among these are some men of the best understanding were they of + equal integrity, who affect to ingross all business, to be able to + quash any good motion by parliamentary skill, unless themselves be + the authors, and to be the leading men of the House, and for their + natural lives to continue so. But these are men that have been once + fooled, most of them, and discovered, and slighted at Court, so that + till some turn of State shall let them in their adversaries' place, + in the mean time they look sullen, make big motions, and contrive + specious bills for the subject, yet only wait the opportunity to be + the instruments of the same counsels which they oppose in others. + + "There is a third part still remaining, but as contrary in themselves + as light and darkness; those are either the worst, or the best of + men; the first are most profligate persons, they have neither + estates, consciences, nor good manners, yet are therefore picked out + as the necessary men, and whose votes will go furthest; the charges + of their elections are defrayed, whatever they amount to, tables are + kept for them at Whitehall, and through Westminster, that they may be + ready at hand, within call of a question: all of them are received + into pension, and know their pay-day, which they never fail of: + insomuch that a great officer was pleased to say, 'That they came + about him like so many jack-daws for cheese at the end of every + Session.' If they be not in Parliament, they must be in prison, and + as they are protected themselves, by privilege, so they sell their + protections to others, to the obstruction so many years together of + the law of the land, and the publick justice; for these it is, that + the long and frequent adjournments are calculated, but all whether + the court, or the monopolizers of the country party, or those that + profane the title of old cavaliers, do equally, though upon differing + reasons, like death apprehend a dissolution. But notwithstanding + these, there is an handful of salt, a sparkle of soul, that hath + hitherto preserved this gross body from putrefaction, some gentlemen + that are constant, invariable, indeed Englishmen; such as are above + hopes, or fears, or dissimulation, that can neither flatter, nor + betray their king or country: but being conscious of their own + loyalty and integrity, proceed throw good and bad report, to acquit + themselves in their duty to God, their prince, and their nation; + although so small a scantling in number, that men can scarce reckon + of them more than a _quorum_; insomuch that it is less difficult to + conceive how fire was first brought to light in the world than how + any good thing could ever be produced out of an House of Commons so + constituted, unless as that is imagined to have come from the rushing + of trees, or battering of rocks together, by accident, so these, by + their clashing with one another, have struck out an useful effect + from so unlikely causes. But whatsoever casual good hath been wrought + at any time by the assimilation of ambitious, factious and + disappointed members, to the little, but solid, and unbiassed party, + the more frequent ill effects, and consequences of so unequal a + mixture, so long continued, are demonstrable and apparent. For while + scarce any man comes thither with respect to the publick service, but + in design to make and raise his fortune, it is not to be expressed, + the debauchery, and lewdness, which, upon occasion of election to + Parliaments, are now grown habitual thorow the nation. So that the + vice, and the expence, are risen to such a prodigious height, that + few sober men can indure to stand to be chosen on such conditions. + From whence also arise feuds, and perpetual animosities, over most of + the counties and corporations, while gentlemen of worth, spirit, and + ancient estates and dependances, see themselves overpowered in their + own neighbourhood by the drunkness and bribery, of their competitors. + But if nevertheless any worthy person chance to carry the election, + some mercenary or corrupt sheriff makes a double return, and so the + cause is handed to the Committee of elections, who ask no better, but + are ready to adopt his adversary into the House if he be not + legitimate. And if the gentleman agrieved seek his remedy against the + sheriff in Westminster-Hall, and the proofs be so palpable, that the + King's Bench cannot invent how to do him injustice, yet the major + part of the twelve judges shall upon better consideration vacate the + sheriff's fine and reverse the judgement; but those of them that dare + dissent from their brethren are in danger to be turned off the bench + without any cause assigned. While men therefore care not thus how + they get into the House of Commons, neither can it be expected that + they should make any conscience of what they do there, but they are + only intent how to reimburse themselves (if their elections were at + their own charge) or how to bargain their votes for a place or a + pension. They list themselves straightways into some Court faction, + and it is as well-known among them, to what Lord each of them + retain, as when formerly they wore coats and badges. By this long + haunting so together, they are grown too so familiar among + themselves, that all reverence of their own Assembly is lost, that + they live together not like Parliament men, but like so many good + fellows met together in a publick house to make merry. And which is + yet worse, by being so thoroughly acquainted, they understand their + number and party, so that the use of so publick a counsel is + frustrated, there is no place for deliberation, no perswading by + reason, but they can see one another's votes through both throats and + cravats before they hear them. + + "Where the cards are so well known, they are only fit for a cheat, + and no fair gamester but would throw them under the table."[209:1] + +It is a melancholy picture. + +Here, perhaps, may be best inserted the story about the proffered bribe. +The story is entitled to small credit, but as helping to swell and +maintain a tradition concerning an historical character about whom +little is positively known, it can hardly escape mention in any +biography of Marvell. A pamphlet printed in Ireland (1754) supplies an +easy flowing version of the tale. + + "The borough of Hull, in the reign of Charles II., chose Andrew + Marvell, a young gentleman of little or no fortune, and maintained + him in London for the service of the public. His understanding, + integrity, and spirit, were dreadful to the then infamous + administration. Persuaded that he would be theirs for properly + asking, they sent his old school-fellow, the Lord Treasurer Danby, to + renew acquaintance with him in his garret. At parting, the Lord + Treasurer, out of _pure affection_, slipped into his hand an order + upon the treasury for L1000, and then went to his chariot. Marvell, + looking at the paper, calls after the Treasurer, 'My Lord, I request + another moment.' They went up again to the garret, and Jack, the + servant boy, was called. 'Jack, child, what had I for dinner + yesterday?' 'Don't you remember, sir? you had the little shoulder of + mutton that you ordered me to bring from a woman in the market.' + 'Very right, child.' 'What have I for dinner to-day?' 'Don't you + know, sir, that you bid me lay by the _blade-bone to broil_.' ''Tis + so, very right, child, go away.' 'My Lord, do you hear that? Andrew + Marvell's dinner is provided; there's your piece of paper. I want it + not. I knew the sort of kindness you intended. I live here to serve + my constituents: the ministry may seek men for their purpose; _I am + not one_.'"[210:1] + +One more letter remains to be quoted:-- + + + _To William Ramsden, Esq._ + "_June 10, 1678._ + + "DEAR WILL,--I have time to tell you thus much of publick matters. + The patience of the Scots, under their oppressions, is not to be + paralleled in any history. They still continue their extraordinary + and numerous, but peaceable, field conventicles. One Mr. Welch is + their arch-minister, and the last letter I saw tells, people were + going forty miles to hear him. There came out, about Christmas last, + here, a 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 escaped being questioned in + Parliament or some other place. My good wishes attend you." + +The last letter Andrew Marvell wrote to his constituents is dated July +6, 1678. The member for Hull died in August 1678. The Parliament in +which he had sat continuously for eighteen years was at last dissolved +on the 30th of December in the year of his death. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[181:1] Grosart, vol. iv. p. 248. + +[183:1] Ranke's _History of England_, vol. iii. p. 471. + +[185:1] Ranke, vol. iii. p. 520. + +[187:1] Grosart, vol. iv. (_Growth of Popery_), p. 275. + +[187:2] _Ibid._, p. 279. + +[189:1] See note to Dr. Airy's edition of Burnet's _History_, vol. ii. +p. 73. + +[199:1] Marvell's commendatory verses on "Mr. Milton's Paradise Lost" +(so entitled in the volume of 1681) were first printed in the Second +Edition (1674) of Milton's great poem. Marvell did not agree with Dryden +in thinking that _Paradise Lost_ would be improved by rhyme, and says so +in these verses. + +[202:1] Printed in Captain Thompson's edition, vol. i. p. 432. + +[204:1] Grosart, vol. iv. p. 304. + +[205:1] Grosart, vol. iv. p. 308. + +[206:1] Grosart, vol. iv. p. 322. + +[209:1] Grosart, vol. iv. p. 327. + +[210:1] This story is first told in a balder form by Cooke in his +edition of 1726. It may be read as Cooke tells it in the _Dictionary of +National Biography_, xxxvi., p. 329. There was probably some foundation +for it. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +FINAL SATIRES AND DEATH + + +Marvell was no orator or debater, and though a member of Parliament for +nearly eighteen years, but rarely opened his mouth in the House of +Commons. His old enemy, Samuel Parker, whilst venting his posthumous +spite upon the author of the _Rehearsal Transprosed_, would have us +believe "that our Poet could not speak without a sound basting: +whereupon having frequently undergone this discipline, he learnt at +length to hold his tongue." There is no good reason for believing the +Bishop of Oxford, but it is the fact that, however taught, Marvell had +learnt to hold his tongue. His longest reported speech will be found in +the _Parliamentary History_, vol. iv. p. 855.[211:1] When we remember +how frequently in those days Marvell's pet subjects were under fierce +discussion, we must recognise how fixed was his habit of +self-repression. + +On one occasion only are we enabled to catch a glimpse of Marvell +"before the Speaker." It was in March 1677, and is thus reported in the +_Parliamentary History_, though no mention of the incident is made in +the Journals of the House:-- + + "_Debate on Mr. Andrew Marvell's striking Sir Philip Harcourt, March + 29._--Mr. Marvell, coming up the house to his place, stumbling at Sir + Philip Harcourt's foot, in recovering himself, seemed to give Sir + Philip a box on the ear. The Speaker acquainting the house 'That he + saw a box on the ear given, and it was his duty to inform the house + of it,' this debate ensued. + + "Mr. _Marvell_. What passed was through great acquaintance and + familiarity betwixt us. He neither gave him an affront, nor intended + him any. But the Speaker cast a severe reflection upon him yesterday, + when he was out of the house, and he hopes that, as the Speaker keeps + us in order, he will keep himself in order for the future. + + "Sir _John Ernly_. What the Speaker said yesterday was in Marvell's + vindication. If these two gentlemen are friends already, he would not + make them friends, and would let the matter go no further. + + "Sir _Job. Charlton_ is sorry a thing of this nature has happened, + and no more sense of it. You in the Chair, and a stroke struck! + Marvell deserves for his reflection on you, Mr. Speaker, to be called + in question. You cannot do right to the house unless you question it; + and moves to have Marvell sent to the Tower. + + "The _Speaker_. I saw a blow on one side, and a stroke on the other. + + "Sir _Philip Harcourt_. Marvell had some kind of a stumble, and mine + was only a thrust; and the thing was accidental. + + "Sir _H. Goodrick_. The persons have declared the thing to be + accidental, but if done in jest, not fit to be done here. He believes + it an accident, and hopes the house thinks so too. + + "Mr. Sec. _Williamson_. This does appear, that the action for that + time was in some heat. He cannot excuse Marvell who made a very + severe reflection on the Speaker, and since it is so enquired, + whether you have done your duty, he would have Marvell withdraw, that + you may consider of it. + + "Col. _Sandys_. Marvell has given you trouble, and instead of + excusing himself, reflects upon the Speaker: a strange confidence, if + not an impudence! + + "Mr. _Marvell_. Has so great a respect to the privilege, order, and + decency, of the house, that he is content to be a sacrifice for it. + As to the casualty that happened, he saw a seat empty, and going to + sit in it, his friend put him by, in a jocular manner, and what he + did was of the same nature. So much familiarity has ever been between + them, that there was no heat in the thing. He is sorry he gave an + offence to the house. He seldom speaks to the house, and if he commit + an error, in the manner of his speech, being not so well tuned, he + hopes it is not an offence. Whether out or in the house, he has a + respect to the Speaker. But he has been informed that the Speaker + resumed something he had said, with reflection. He did not think fit + to complain of Mr. Seymour to Mr. Speaker. He believes that is not + reflective. He desires to comport himself with all respect to the + house. This passage with Harcourt was a perfect casualty, and if you + think fit, he will withdraw, and sacrifice himself to the censure of + the house. + + "Sir _Henry Capel_. The blow given Harcourt was with his hat; the + Speaker cast his eye upon both of them, and both respected him. He + would not aggravate the thing. Marvell submits, and he would have you + leave the thing as it is. + + "_Sir Robert Holmes_ saw the whole action. Marvell flung about three + or four times with his hat, and then gave Harcourt a box on the ear. + + "Sir _Henry Capel_ desires, now that his honour is concerned, that + Holmes may explain, whether he saw not Marvell with his hat only give + Harcourt the stroke 'at that time.' Possibly 'at another time' it + might be. + + "The _Speaker_. Both Holmes and Capel are in the right. But Marvell + struck Harcourt so home, that his fist, as well as his hat, hit him. + + "Sir _R. Howard_ hopes the house will not have Harcourt say he + received a blow, when he has not. He thinks what has been said by + them both sufficient. + + "Mr. _Garraway_ hopes, that by the debate we shall not make the thing + greater than it is. Would have them both reprimanded for it. + + "Mr. Sec. _Williamson_ submits the honour of the house to the house. + Would have them made friends, and give that necessary assurance to + the house, and he, for his part, remains satisfied. + + "Sir _Tho. Meres_. By our long sitting together, we lose, by our + familiarity and acquaintance, the decencies of the house. He has seen + 500 in the house, and people very orderly; not so much as to read a + letter, or set up a foot. One could scarce know anybody in the house, + but him that spoke. He would have the Speaker declare that order + ought to be kept; but as to that gentleman (Marvell) to rest + satisfied." + +The general impression left upon the mind is that of a friendly-familiar +but choleric gentleman, full of likes and dislikes, readier with his +tongue in the lobby than with "set" speeches in the Chamber. A solitary +politician with a biting pen. Satirists must not complain if they have +enemies. + +Marvell's vein of satire was never worked out, and the political poems +of his last decade are fuller than ever of a savage humour. How he kept +his ears is a repeated wonder. He is said to have been on terms of +intimate friendship with Prince Rupert, and it is a steady tradition +that the king was one of his amused readers. It is hard to believe that +even Charles the Second could have seen any humour, good or bad, in such +a couplet:-- + + "The poor Priapus King, led by the nose, + Looks as a thing set up to scare the crows." + +Nor can the following verses have been read with much pleasure, either +at Whitehall or in a punt whilst fishing at Windsor. Their occasion was +the setting up in the stocks-market in the City of London of a statue of +the king by Sir Robert Viner, a city knight, to whom Charles was very +heavily in debt. Sir Robert, having a frugal mind, had acquired a statue +of John Sobieski trampling on the Turk, which, judiciously altered, was +made to pass muster so as to represent the Pensioner of Louis the +Fourteenth and the Vendor of Dunkirk trampling on Oliver Cromwell. + + "As cities that to the fierce conqueror yield + Do at their own charges their citadels build; + So Sir Robert advanced the King's statue in token + Of bankers defeated, and Lombard Street broken. + + Some thought it a knightly and generous deed, + Obliging the city with a King and a steed; + When with honour he might from his word have gone back; + He that vows in a calm is absolved by a wrack. + + But now it appears, from the first to the last, + To be a revenge and a malice forecast; + Upon the King's birthday to set up a thing + That shows him a monkey much more than a King. + + When each one that passes finds fault with the horse, + Yet all do affirm that the King is much worse; + And some by the likeness Sir Robert suspect + That he did for the King his own statue erect. + + Thus to see him disfigured--the herb-women chid, + Who up on their panniers more gracefully rid; + And so loose in his seat--that all persons agree, + E'en Sir William Peak[215:1] sits much firmer than he. + + But Sir Robert affirms that we do him much wrong; + 'Tis the 'graver at work, to reform him, so long; + But, alas! he will never arrive at his end, + For it is such a King as no chisel can mend. + + But with all his errors restore us our King, + If ever you hope in December for spring; + For though all the world cannot show such another, + Yet we'd rather have him than his bigoted brother." + +Of a more exalted vein of satire the following extract may serve as an +example:-- + + BRITANNIA AND RALEIGH + + "_Brit._ Ah! Raleigh, when thou didst thy breath resign + To trembling James, would I had quitted mine. + Cubs didst thou call them? Hadst thou seen this brood + Of earls, and dukes, and princes of the blood, + No more of Scottish race thou would'st complain, + Those would be blessings in this spurious reign. + Awake, arise from thy long blessed repose, + Once more with me partake of mortal woes! + + _Ral._ What mighty power has forced me from my rest? + Oh! mighty queen, why so untimely dressed? + + _Brit._ Favoured by night, concealed in this disguise, + Whilst the lewd court in drunken slumber lies, + I stole away, and never will return, + Till England knows who did her city burn; + Till cavaliers shall favourites be deemed, + And loyal sufferers by the court esteemed; + Till Leigh and Galloway shall bribes reject; + Thus Osborne's golden cheat I shall detect: + Till atheist Lauderdale shall leave this land, + And Commons' votes shall cut-nose guards disband: + Till Kate a happy mother shall become, + Till Charles loves parliaments, and James hates Rome. + + _Ral._ What fatal crimes make you for ever fly + Your once loved court, and martyr's progeny? + + _Brit._ A colony of French possess the Court, + Pimps, priests, buffoons, i' the privy-chamber sport. + Such slimy monsters ne'er approached the throne + Since Pharaoh's reign, nor so defiled a crown. + I' the sacred ear tyrannic arts they croak, + Pervert his mind, his good intentions choke; + Tell him of golden Indies, fairy lands, + Leviathan, and absolute commands. + Thus, fairy-like, the King they steal away, + And in his room a Lewis changeling lay. + How oft have I him to himself restored. + In's left the scale, in 's right hand placed the sword? + Taught him their use, what dangers would ensue + To those that tried to separate these two? + The bloody Scottish chronicle turned o'er, + Showed him how many kings, in purple gore, + Were hurled to hell, by learning tyrant lore? + The other day famed Spenser I did bring, + In lofty notes Tudor's blest reign to sing; + How Spain's proud powers her virgin arms controlled, + And golden days in peaceful order rolled; + How like ripe fruit she dropped from off her throne, + Full of grey hairs, good deeds, and great renown. + ... + + _Ral._ Once more, great queen, thy darling strive to save, + Snatch him again from scandal and the grave; + Present to 's thoughts his long-scorned parliament, + The basis of his throne and government. + In his deaf ears sound his dead father's name: + Perhaps that spell may 's erring soul reclaim: + Who knows what good effects from thence may spring? + 'Tis godlike good to save a falling king. + + _Brit._ Raleigh, no more, for long in vain I've tried + The Stuart from the tyrant to divide; + As easily learned virtuosos may + With the dog's blood his gentle kind convey + Into the wolf, and make his guardian turn + To the bleating flock, by him so lately torn: + If this imperial juice once taint his blood, + 'Tis by no potent antidote withstood. + Tyrants, like lep'rous kings, for public weal + Should be immured, lest the contagion steal + Over the whole. The elect of the Jessean line + To this firm law their sceptre did resign; + And shall this base tyrannic brood invade + Eternal laws, by God for mankind made? + + To the serene Venetian state I'll go, + From her sage mouth famed principles to know; + With her the prudence of the ancients read, + To teach my people in their steps to tread; + By their great pattern such a state I'll frame, + Shall eternize a glorious lasting name. + Till then, my Raleigh, teach our noble youth + To love sobriety, and holy truth; + Watch and preside over their tender age, + Lest court corruption should their souls engage; + Teach them how arts, and arms, in thy young days, + Employed our youth--not taverns, stews, and plays; + Tell them the generous scorn their race does owe + To flattery, pimping, and a gaudy show; + Teach them to scorn the Carwells, Portsmouths, Nells, + The Clevelands, Osbornes, Berties, Lauderdales: + Poppaea, Tigelline, and Arteria's name, + All yield to these in lewdness, lust, and fame. + Make them admire the Talbots, Sydneys, Veres, + Drake, Cavendish, Blake, men void of slavish fears, + True sons of glory, pillars of the state, + On whose famed deeds all tongues and writers wait. + When with fierce ardour their bright souls do burn, + Back to my dearest country I'll return." + +The dialogue between the two horses, which bore upon their respective +backs the stone effigies of Charles the First at Charing Cross and +Charles the Second at Wool-Church, is, in its own rough way, masterly +satire for the popular ear. + + "If the Roman Church, good Christians, oblige ye + To believe man and beast have spoken in effigy, + Why should we not credit the public discourses, + In a dialogue between two inanimate horses? + The horses I mean of Wool-Church and Charing, + Who told many truths worth any man's hearing, + Since Viner and Osborn did buy and provide 'em + For the two mighty monarchs who now do bestride 'em. + The stately brass stallion, and the white marble steed, + The night came together, by all 'tis agreed; + When both kings were weary of sitting all day, + They stole off, incognito, each his own way; + And then the two jades, after mutual salutes, + Not only discoursed, but fell to disputes." + +The dialogue is too long to be quoted. Charles the Second's steed +boldly declares:-- + + "De Witt and Cromwell had each a brave soul, + I freely declare it, I am for old Noll; + Though his government did a tyrant resemble, + He made England great, and his enemies tremble." + +Mr. Hollis, when he sent the picture of Cromwell by Cooper to Sidney +Sussex College, is said to have written beneath it the lines just +quoted. + +The satire ends thus:-- + + "_Charing Cross._ But canst them devise when things will be mended? + + _Wool-Church._ When the reign of the line of the Stuarts is ended. + + _Charing Cross._ Then England, rejoice, thy redemption draws nigh; + Thy oppression together with kingship shall die. + + _Chorus._ A Commonwealth, a Commonwealth we proclaim to the nation, + For the gods have repented the King's restoration." + +These probably are the lines which spread the popular, but mistaken, +belief that Marvell was a Republican. + +Andrew Marvell died in his lodgings in London on the 16th of August +1678. Colonel Grosvenor, writing to George Treby, M.P. (afterwards Chief +of the Common Pleas), on the 17th of August, reports "Andrew Marvell +died yesterday of apoplexy." Parliament was not sitting at the time. +What was said of the elder Andrew may also be said of the younger: he +was happy in the moment of his death. The one just escaped the Civil +War, the other the Popish Plot. + +Marvell was thought to have been poisoned. Such a suspicion in those bad +times was not far-fetched. His satires, rough but moving, had been +widely read, and his fears for the Constitution, his dread of + + "The grim Monster, Arbitrary Power, + The ugliest Giant ever trod the earth," + +infested many breasts, and bred terror. + + "Marvell, the Island's watchful sentinel, + Stood in the gap and bravely kept his post." + +The post was one of obvious danger, and + + "Whether Fate or Art untwin'd his thread + Remains in doubt."[220:1] + +The doubt has now been dissipated by the research of an accomplished +physician, Dr. Gee, who in 1874 communicated to the _Athenaeum_ (March 7, +1874) an extract from Richard Morton's {Greek: Pyretologia} (1692), +containing a full account of Marvell's sickness and death. Art "untwin'd +his thread," but it was the doctor's art. Dr. Gee's translation of +Morton's medical Latin is as follows:-- + + "In this manner was that most famous man Andrew Marvell carried off + from amongst the living before his time, to the great loss of the + republic, and especially the republic of letters; through the + ignorance of an old conceited doctor, who was in the habit on all + occasions of raving excessively against Peruvian bark, as if it were + a common plague. Howbeit, without any clear indication, in the + interval after a third fit of regular tertian ague, and by way of + preparation (so that all things might seem to be done most + methodically), blood was copiously drawn from the patient, who was + advanced in years." [Here follow more details of treatment, which I + pass over.] "The way having been made ready after this fashion, at + the beginning of the next fit, a great febrifuge was given, a + draught, that is to say, of Venice treacle, etc. By the doctor's + orders, the patient was covered up close with blankets, say rather, + was buried under them; and composed himself to sleep and sweat, so + that he might escape the cold shivers which are wont to accompany the + onset of the ague-fit. He was seized with the deepest sleep and + colliquative sweats, and in the short space of twenty-four hours from + the time of the ague-fit, he died comatose. He died, who, had a + single ounce of Peruvian bark been properly given, might easily have + escaped, in twenty-four hours, from the jaws of the grave and the + disease: and so burning with anger, I informed the doctor, when he + told me this story without any sense of shame." + +Marvell was buried on the 18th of August, "under the pews in the south +side of St. Giles's Church in the Fields, under the window wherein is +painted on glass a red lion." So writes the invaluable Aubrey, who tells +us he had the account from the sexton who made the grave. + +In 1678 St. Giles's Church was a brick structure built by Laud. The +present imposing church was built on the site of the old one in 1730-34. + +In 1774 Captain Thompson, so he tells us, "visited the grand mausoleum +under the church of St. Giles, to search for the coffin in which Mr. +Marvell was placed: in this vault were deposited upwards of a thousand +bodies, but I could find no plate of an earlier date than 1722; I do +therefore suppose the new church is built upon the former burial place." + +The poet's grand-nephew, Mr. Robert Nettleton, in 1764 placed on the +north side of the present church, upon a black marble slab, a long +epitaph, still to be seen, recording the fact that "near to this place +lyeth the body of Andrew Marvell, Esquire." At no great distance from +this slab is the tombstone, recently brought in from the graveyard +outside, of _Georgius Chapman, Poeta_, a fine Roman monument, prepared +by the care and at the cost of the poet's friend, Inigo Jones. Still +left exposed, in what is now a doleful garden (not at all Marvellian), +is the tombstone of Richard Penderel of Boscobel, one of the five yeomen +brothers who helped Charles to escape after Worcester. Lord Herbert of +Cherbury, in 1648, and Shirley the dramatist, in 1666, had been carried +to the same place of sepulture. + +Aubrey describes Marvell "as of middling stature, pretty strong-set, +roundish faced, cherry-cheeked, hazell eye, brown hair. He was, in his +conversation, very modest, and of very few words. Though he loved wine, +he would never drink hard in company, and was wont to say that he would +not play the good fellow in any man's company in whose hands he would +not trust his life. He kept bottles of wine at his lodgings, and many +times he would drink liberally by himself and to refresh his spirit and +exalt his muse. James Harrington (author of _Oceana_) was his intimate +friend; J. Pell, D.D., was one of his acquaintances. He had not a +general acquaintance." + +Dr. Pell, one may remark, was a great friend of Hobbes. + +In March 1679 joint administration was granted by the Prerogative Court +of Canterbury, _Mariae Marvell relictae et Johni Greni Creditori_. This is +the first time we hear of there being any wife in the case. A creditor +of a deceased person could not obtain administration without citing the +next of kin, but a widow was entitled, under a statute of Henry +VIII., as of right, to administration, and it may be that Mr. +Green thought the quickest way of being paid his debt was to invent a +widow. The practice of the court required an affidavit from the widow +deposing that she was the lawful relict of the deceased, but this +assertion on oath seems in ordinary cases to have been sufficient, if +the customary fees were forthcoming. Captain Thompson roundly asserts +that the alleged Mary Marvell was a cheat, and no more than the +lodging-house keeper where he had last lived--and Marvell was a +migratory man.[223:1] Mary Marvell's name appears once again, in the +forefront of the first edition of Marvell's _Poems_ (1681), where she +certifies all the contents to be her husband's works. This may have been +a publisher's, as the affidavit may have been a creditor's, artifice. As +against this, Mr. Grosart, who believed in Mary Marvell, reminds us that +Mr. Robert Boulter, the publisher of the poems, was a most respectable +man, and a friend both of Milton's and Marvell's, and not at all likely +either to cheat the public with a falsely signed certificate, or to be +cheated by a London lodging-house keeper. Whatever "Mary Marvell" may +have been, "widow, wife, or maid," she is heard of no more. + +Hull was not wholly unmindful of her late and (William Wilberforce +notwithstanding) her most famous member. "On Thursday the 26th of +September 1678, in consideration of the kindness the Town and Borough +had for Andrew Marvell, Esq., one of the Burgesses of Parliament for the +same Borough (lately deceased), and for his great merits from the +Corporation. It is this day ordered by the Court that Fifty pounds be +paid out of the Town's Chest towards the discharge of his funerals +(_sic_), and to perpetuate his memory by a gravestone" (_Bench Books of +Hull_). + +The incumbent of Trinity Church is said to have objected to the erection +of any monument. At all events there is none. Marvell had many enemies +in the Church. Sharp, afterwards Archbishop of York, was a Yorkshire +man, and had been domestic chaplain to Sir Heneage Finch, a +lawyer-member, much lashed by Marvell's bitter pen. Sharp had also taken +part in the quarrel with the Dissenters, and is reported to have been +very much opposed to any Hull monument to Marvell. Captain Thompson says +"the Epitaph which the Town of Hull caused to be erected to Marvell's +memory was torn down by the Zealots of the King's party." There is no +record of this occurrence. + +There are several portraits of Marvell in existence--one now being in +the National Portrait Gallery. A modern statue in marble adorns the Town +Hall of Hull. + + +FOOTNOTES: + +[211:1] In reading the early volumes of the _Parliamentary History_ the +question has to be asked, What authority is there for the reports of +speeches? In Charles the Second's time some of the speakers, both in the +Lords and Commons, evidently communicated their orations to the press. + +[215:1] Lord Mayor, 1667. + +[220:1] See _Marvell's Ghost_, in _Poems on Affairs of State_. + +[223:1] The cottage at Highgate, long called 'Marvell's Cottage,' has +now disappeared. Several of Marvell's letters were written from +Highgate. + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +WORK AS A MAN OF LETTERS + + +Marvell's work as a man of letters easily divides itself into the +inevitable three parts. _First_, as a poet properly so called; _Second_, +as a political satirist using rhyme; and _Third_, as a writer of prose. + +Upon Marvell's work as a poet properly so called that curious, floating, +ever-changing population to whom it is convenient to refer as "the +reading public," had no opportunity of forming any real opinion until +after the poet's death, namely, when the small folio of 1681 made its +appearance. This volume, although not containing the _Horatian Ode upon +Cromwell's Return from Ireland_ or the lines upon Cromwell's death, did +contain, saving these exceptions, all the best of Marvell's verse. + +How this poetry was received, to whom and to how many it gave pleasure, +we have not the means of knowing. The book, like all other good books, +had to take its chance. Good poetry is never exactly unpopular--its +difficulty is to get a hearing, to secure a _vogue_. I feel certain that +from 1681 onwards many ingenuous souls read _Eyes and Tears_, _The +Bermudas_, _The Nymph complaining for the Death of her Fawn_, _To his +Coy Mistress_, _Young Love_, and _The Garden_ with pure delight. In 1699 +the poet Pomfret, of whose _Choice_ Dr. Johnson said in 1780, "perhaps +no composition in our language has been oftener perused," and who +Southey in 1807 declared to be "the most popular of English poets"; in +1699, I say, this poet Pomfret says in a preface, sensibly enough, "to +please everyone would be a New Thing, and to write so as to please no +Body would be as New, for even Quarles and Wythers (_sic_) have their +Admirers." So liable is the public taste to fluctuations and reversals, +that to-day, though Quarles and Wither are not popular authors, they +certainly number many more readers than Pomfret, Southey's "most popular +of English poets," who has now, it is to be feared, finally disappeared +even from the Anthologies. But if Quarles and Wither had their admirers +even in 1699, the poet Marvell, we may be sure, had his also. + +Marvell had many poetical contemporaries--five-and-twenty at +least--poets of mark and interest, to most of whom, as well as to some +of his immediate predecessors, he stood, as I must suppose, in some +degree of poetical relationship. With Milton and Dryden no comparison +will suggest itself, but with Donne and Cowley, with Waller and Denham, +with Butler and the now wellnigh forgotten Cleveland, with Walker and +Charles Cotton, with Rochester and Dorset, some resemblances, certain +influences, may be found and traced. From the order of his mind and his +prose style, I should judge Marvell to have been both a reader and a +critic of his contemporaries in verse and prose--though of his +criticisms little remains. Of Butler he twice speaks with great respect, +and his sole reference to the dead Cleveland is kindly. Of Milton we +know what he thought, whilst Aubrey tells us that he once heard Marvell +say that the Earl of Rochester was the only man in England that had the +true vein of satire. + +Be these influences what they may or must have been, to us Marvell +occupies, as a poet, a niche by himself. A finished master of his art he +never was. He could not write verses like his friend Lovelace, or like +Cowley's _Chronicle_ or Waller's lines "On a Girdle." He had not the +inexhaustible, astonishing (though tiresome) wit of Butler. He is often +clumsy and sometimes almost babyish. One has frequently occasion to +wonder how a man of business could allow himself to be tickled by such +obvious straws as are too many of the conceits which give him pleasure. +To attribute all the conceits of this period to the influence of Dr. +Donne is but a poor excuse after all. The worst thing that can be said +against poetry is that there is so much tedium in it. The glorious +moments are all too few. It is his honest recognition of this woeful +fact that makes Dr. Johnson, with all his faults lying thick about him, +the most consolatory of our critics to the ordinary reading man. +"Tediousness is the most fatal of all faults.... Unhappily this +pernicious failure is that which an author is least able to discover. We +are seldom tiresome to ourselves.... Perhaps no man ever thought a line +superfluous when he wrote it" (_Lives of the Poets_. Under _Prior_--see +also under _Butler_). + +That Marvell is never tiresome I will not assert. But he too has his +glorious moments, and they are all his own. In the whole compass of our +poetry there is nothing quite like Marvell's love of gardens and woods, +of meads and rivers and birds. It is a love not learnt from books, not +borrowed from brother-poets. It is not indulged in to prove anything. It +is all sheer enjoyment. + + "Bind me, ye woodbines, in your twines, + Curb me about, ye gadding vines, + And oh, so close your circles lace, + That I may never leave this place! + But, lest your fetters prove too weak, + Ere I your silken bondage break, + Do you, O brambles, chain me too, + And, courteous briars, nail me through. + ... + Here at the fountain's sliding foot, + Or at some fruit-tree's mossy root, + Casting the body's vest aside, + My soul into the boughs does glide; + There, like a bird, it sits and sings." + +No poet is happier than Marvell in creating the impression that he made +his verses out of doors. + + "He saw the partridge drum in the woods; + He heard the woodcock's evening hymn; + He found the tawny thrush's broods, + And the shy hawk did wait for him. + What others did at distance hear + And guessed within the thicket's gloom + Was shown to this philosopher, + And at his bidding seemed to come." + + (From Emerson's _Wood Notes_.) + +Marvell's immediate fame as a true poet was, I dare say, obscured for a +good while both by its original note (for originality is always +forbidding at first sight) and by its author's fame as a satirist, and +his reputation as a lover of "liberty's glorious feast." It was as one +of the poets encountered in the _Poems on Affairs of State_ (fifth +edition, 1703) that Marvell was best known during the greater part of +the eighteenth century. As Milton's friend Marvell had, as it were, a +side-chapel in the great Miltonic temple. The patriotic member of +Parliament, who refused in his poverty the Lord-Treasurer Danby's +proffered bribe, became a character in history before the exquisite +quality of his garden-poetry was recognised. There was a cult for +Liberty in the middle of the eighteenth century, and Marvell's name was +on the list of its professors. Wordsworth's sonnet has preserved this +tradition for us. + + "Great men have been among us; hands that penn'd + And tongues that utter'd wisdom, better none: + The later Sydney, Marvell, Harrington." + +In 1726 Thomas Cooke printed an edition of Marvell's works which +contains the poetry that was in the folio of 1681, and in 1772 Cooke's +edition was reprinted by T. Davies. It was probably Davies's edition +that Charles Lamb, writing to Godwin on Sunday, 14th December 1800, says +he "was just going to possess": a notable addition to Lamb's library, +and an event in the history of the progress of Marvell's poetical +reputation. Captain Thompson's edition, containing the _Horatian Ode_ +and other pieces, followed in 1776. In the great Poetical Collection of +the Booksellers (1779-1781) which they improperly[229:1] called +"Johnson's _Poets_" (improperly, because the poets were, with four +exceptions, the choice not of the biographer but of the booksellers, +anxious to retain their imaginary copyright), Marvell has no place. Mr. +George Ellis, in his _Specimens_ of the early English poets first +published in 1803, printed from Marvell _Daphne and Chloe_ (in part) and +_Young Love_. When Mr. Bowles, that once famous sonneteer, edited Pope +in 1806, he, by way of belittling Pope, quoted two lines from Marvell, +now well known, but unfamiliar in 1806:-- + + "And through the hazels thick espy + The hatching throstle's shining eye." + +He remarked upon them, "the last circumstance is new, highly poetical, +and could only have been described by one who was a real lover of +nature and a witness of her beauties in her most solitary retirement." +On this Mark Pattison makes the comment that the lines only prove that +Marvell when a boy went bird-nesting (_Essays_, vol. ii. p. 374), a +pursuit denied to Pope by his manifold infirmities. The poet Campbell, +in his _Specimens_ (1819), gave an excellent sketch of Marvell's life, +and selected _The Bermudas_, _The Nymph and Fawn_, and _Young Love_. +Then came, fresh from talk with Charles Lamb, Hazlitt, with his _Select +Poets_ (1825), which contains the _Horatian Ode_, _Bermudas_, _To his +Coy Mistress_, _The Nymph and Fawn_, _A Drop of Dew_, _The Garden_, _The +Gallery_, _Upon the Hill and Grove at Billborow_. In this choice we may +see the hand of Charles Lamb, as Tennyson's may be noticed in the +selection made in Palgrave's _Golden Treasury_ (1863). Dean Trench in +his _Household Book of English Poetry_ (1869) gives _Eyes and Tears_, +the _Horatian Ode_, and _A Drop of Dew_. In Mr. Ward's _English Poets_ +(1880) Marvell is represented by _The Garden_, _A Drop of Dew_, _The +Bermudas_, _Young Love_, the _Horatian Ode_, and the _Lines on Paradise +Lost_. Thanks to these later Anthologies and to the quotations from _The +Garden_ and _Upon Appleton House_ in the _Essays of Elia_, Marvell's +fame as a true poet has of recent years become widespread, and is now, +whatever vicissitudes it may have endured, well established. + +As a satirist in rhyme Marvell has shared the usual and not undeserved +fate of almost all satirists of their age and fellow-men. The authors of +lines written in heat to give expression to the anger of the hour may +well be content if their effusions give the pain or teach the lesson +they were intended to give or teach. If you lash the age, you do so +presumably for the benefit of the age. It is very hard to transmit even +a fierce and genuine indignation from one age to another. Marvell's +satires were too hastily composed, too roughly constructed, too redolent +of the occasion, to enter into the kingdom of poetry. To the careful and +character-loving reader of history, particularly if he chance to have a +feeling for the House of Commons, not merely as an institution, but as a +place of resort, Marvell's satirical poems must always be intensely +interesting. They strike me as honest in their main intention, and never +very wide of the mark. Hallam says, in his lofty way, "We read with +nothing but disgust the satirical poetry of Cleveland, Butler, Oldham, +Marvell," and he adds, "Marvell's satires are gross and stupid."[231:1] +Gross they certainly occasionally are, but stupid they never are. +Marvell was far too well-informed a politician and too shrewd a man ever +to be stupid. + +As a satirist Marvell had, if he wanted them, many models of style, but +he really needed none, for he just wrote down in rough-and-ready rhyme +whatever his head or his spleen suggested to his fancy. Every now and +again there is a noble outburst of feeling, and a couplet of great +felicity. I confess to taking great pleasure in Marvell's satires. + +As a prose writer Marvell has many merits and one great fault. He has +fire and fancy and was the owner and master of a precise vocabulary well +fitted to clothe and set forth a well-reasoned and lofty argument. He +knew how to be both terse and diffuse, and can compress himself into a +line or expand over a paragraph. He has touches of a grave irony as well +as of a boisterous humour. He can tell an anecdote and elaborate a +parable. Swift, we know, had not only Butler's _Hudibras_ by heart, but +was also (we may be sure) a close student of Marvell's prose. His great +fault is a very common one. He is too long. He forgets how quickly a +reader grows tired. He is so interested in the evolutions of his own +mind that he forgets his audience. His interest at times seems as if it +were going to prove endless. It is the first business of an author to +arrest and then to retain the attention of the reader. To do this +requires great artifice. + +Among the masters of English prose it would be rash to rank Marvell, who +was neither a Hooker nor a Taylor. None the less he was the owner of a +prose style which some people think the best prose style of all--that of +honest men who have something to say. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[229:1] "Indecently" is the doctor's own expression. + +[231:1] See Hallam's _History of Literature_, vol. iv. pp. 433, 439. + + + + +INDEX + + +A + +"_Account of the Growth of Popery and Arbitrary Government in England_," +180-1, 187; + quoted, 188. + +Act of Uniformity, 143, 184. + +Addison, 65. + +Aitken, Mr., 47. + +Amersham, 145. + +Amsterdam, 59, 197. + +Angier, Lord, 196. + +_Appleton House_, 66. + +Arlington, 185, 186. + +_Ars Poetica_, 47. + +Ashley, Lord, 120, 150, 185. + +_Athenae Oxonienses_, 10. + +Aubrey, 222. + +Austin, John, 159. + +_Autobiography_ (Clarendon), 136. + +_Autobiography of Matthew Robinson_, 11 _n._ + +Axtell, Lieut.-Colonel, 28, 29. + + +B + +_Baker's Chronicle_, 80. + +Baker, Thomas, 24. + +Bampfield, Thomas, 80. + +Banda Islands, 127. + +Barbadoes, 58. + +Barnard, Edward, 95. + +Barron, Richard, 64. + +Baxter, Richard, 52, 93, 179. + +Bedford, 162. + +Bench Books of Hull, 223. + +Bennet, Sir John, 195. + +Berkeley, Charles, 115. + +Berkenhead, Sir John, 191. + +_Bermudas, The_, 66, 225, 230. + +Besant, Sir Walter, 118 _n._ + +Bill for "the Rebuilding of London," 123, 124, 125, 126 _n._; + amended, 148. + +Bill of Conventicles, 142, 146, 147, 148. + +Bill of Subsidy, 193. + +Bill of Test, 205. + +Bill of Uniformity, 101. + +"_Bind me, ye woodbines_," 227. + +Blackheath, 188. + +Blake, Admiral, 59, 69, 71, 75. + +Blaydes, James, 6. + +---- Joseph, 6. + +_Blenheim_ (Addison), 70. + +Blood, Colonel, 196. + +Bodleian Library, 31, 116. + +Boulter, Robert, 223. + +Bowles, 229. + +Bowyer, 64. + +Boyle, Richard, 115. + +Bradshaw, John, Lord-President of the Council, 28, 48, 52, 94, 95. + +Braganza, Catherine of, 33. + +_Bramhall Preface_, 162. + +Breda, 88; + Declaration, 102, 127, 136. + +"_Britannia and Raleigh_," 216 _seq._ + +Brunswick, Duke of, 196. + +Buckingham, Duke of, 150, 185, 196, 205, 206. + +Bucknoll, Sir William, 195. + +Bunyan, 162. + +Burnet, Bishop, 3, 163. + +Butler, 62 _n._, 154, 226. + + +C + +"Cabal," 184. + +Cadsand, 186. + +Calamy, Edmund, 93, 94. + +Cambridge, 48, 175. + +Canary Islands, 70. + +Canterbury, Prerogative Court of, 222. + +Capel, 172. + +Carey, Henry, 126 _n._ + +Carlisle, Lady, 113. + +---- Lord, 101, 108, 113. + +Carteret, Sir George (Treasurer of Navy), 120, 141, 143. + +Castlemaine, Lady, 134. + +_Character of Holland, The_, 60. + +Charles I., 29, 167. + +Charles II., 76, 80, 81, 90, 93, 95, 127, 182, 184, 185, 186, 188, 189, +195, 196, 203, 205, 206, 214, 222. + +Chateaubriand, 24. + +Chatham, 128. + +Cherry Burton, 6. + +_Choice_ (Pomfret), 225. + +_Chronicle_ (Cowley), 227. + +Chute, Chaloner, 80. + +Civil War, 23, 219. + +Clare, Lord, 193, 195. + +Clarendon, Earl of, 28, 52, 77, 82; + _History_, 88, 114, 120; + _Life_, 129, 134, 135, 136, 138, 148 _n._ + +Cleveland, Duke of, 226. + +---- Duchess of, 196. + +Clifford, 154, 185, 186. + +Clifford's Inn, 125. + +Cole, William, 5. + +_Collection of Poems on Affairs of State_, 35. + +_Complete Works in Verse and Prose of Andrew Marvell, M.P., The_, 8. + +Conventicle Act, 144. + +Convention Parliament, 87, 91, 95. + +Cooke, Thomas, 229. + +Cooper, 219. + +Copenhagen, 113. + +Cosin, Dr., Bishop of Durham, 94, 148. + +Cotton, Charles, 226. + +Council of Trent, 178. + +Court of Chancery, 125. + +Coventry, Sir John, 191. + +Cowley, 226. + +Crew, Bishop of Durham, 202. + +_Critic_ (Sheridan), 154. + +Cromwell, Oliver, 24, 25, 28, 29, 30, 59, 60, 63, 64, 68, 73, 75, 77, +89, 92, 93, 94, 95, 127, 137, 140, 145, 215, 219. + +---- Lord Richard, 77, 79, 80, 81. + +---- the Lady Mary, 71. + + +D + +Danby, Lord-Treasurer, 209, 228. + +_Daphne and Chloe_, 229. + +Dartmouth, Lord (Colonel Legge), 141 _n._ + +Davies, T., 229. + +"_Debate on Mr. Andrew Marvell's striking Sir Philip Harcourt, +March 29_," etc., 212. + +Declaration of Indulgence, 187, 188. + +Declaration of War, The, 187. + +_Defence and Continuation of Ecclesiastical Politie, A_ (Parker), 153. + +_Defensio Secunda pro populo Anglicano_ (Milton), 48. + +Denham, Sir John, 27, 129, 226. + +De Ruyter, 115, 128, 136. + +"_Description of Holland, A_" (Butler), 62. + +De Witt, John, 63, 187, 197. + +_Dialogue between two horses, Charles I. at Charing Cross, and +Charles II. at Wool Church_, 218, 219. + +_Dictionary of National Biography_, 9, 210 _n._ + +_Directions to a Painter_ (Denham), 129. + +Directory of Public Worship, 90, 103. + +_Discourse by Way of Vision concerning the Government of Oliver +Cromwell_ (quoted), 73, 92. + +_Discourse concerning Government_ (Sidney), 64. + +"_Discourse of Ecclesiastical Politie wherein the Authority of the +Civil Magistrate over the Consciences of Subjects in matters of +external Religion is asserted_," etc., 153. + +Donne, Dr., 226, 227. + +_Don Quixote_ (Shelton's translation), 78. + +Dorset, 226. + +Dort, 187. + +Dover, 90. + +_Drama Commonplaces_, 154. + +_Drop of Dew, A_, 230. + +Dryden, John, 20, 24, 27, 69, 130. + +Dublin Castle, 196. + +_Dunciad_, 21. + +Dunkirk, 127, 137, 193, 215. + +Dutch War, 126. + +Dutton, Mr. (Cromwell's ward), 54. + + +E + +East India Company, 127. + +_Ecclesiastical Politie_ (quoted), 157-8, 159-60. + +Edgar, Prince, 196. + +Elizabeth (Queen), 143. + +"Employment of my Solitude, The" (Fairfax), 32. + +"England's Way to Win Wealth," 56; + quoted, 56, 57, 58. + +Erith, 139. + +_Essays of Elia_, 230. + +Eton College, 51. + +Evelyn, John, 19, 121, 138, 139 _n._ + +_Eyes and Tears_, 225, 230. + + +F + +Fagg, Sir John, 205. + +Fairfax, Lady Mary, 27, 28, 32, 63. + +---- Lord, 27, 28, 29, 30, 31, 48, 50, 63. + +---- Sir William, 33, 36. + +Fanshaw, Sir Richard, 49 _n._ + +Fauconberg, Lady, 95. + +---- Viscount (afterwards Earl), 71. + +Finch, Sir Heneage, 91, 224. + +_First Anniversary of the Government under His Highness the +Lord-Protector, The_, 60. + +Five Mile Act, 117, 162, 203. + +_Flagellum Parliamentum_, 97. + +Flanders, 196. + +Flecknoe, Richard, 20, 21. + +France, 183, 184, 197, 204. + +"_Free Impartial Censure of the Platonick Philosophy, A_" +(Parker), 152 _n._, 174. + +French Alliance, 188. + + +G + +_Gallery, The_, 230. + +"Garden Poetry," 75. + +_Garden, The_, 66, 225. + +Gee, Dr., 220. + +Gilbey. Colonel, 95, 98, 101. + +Gillingham, 127. + +Gladstone, 23, 104 _n._ + +_Golden Remains_ (Hales), 51. + +_Golden Treasury_ (1863), (Palgrave), 230. + +Gombroon, 194. + +_Government of the People of England_, etc. (Parker), 172. + +Green, Mr., 222. + +Grosart, Mr., 7, 65, 84, 85, 106, 165-9 _n._, 176 _n._, 178 _n._, +181 _n._, 187 _n._, 204-6 _n._, 209 _n._, 223. + +Grosvenor, Colonel, 219. + +_Growth of Popery_ (quoted), 203, 206. + + +H + +Hague, The, 197. + +Hale, Sir Matthew, 92, 125. + +Hales, John, 51. + +Hallam, 231. + +Hamilton, 172. + +Harding, Dean, 118. + +Harrington, James, 76, 222. + +Harrison, 29, 30. + +Harwich, 115. + +Hastings, Lord Henry, 27. + +Hazlitt, 61, 239. + +Herrick, 27. + +_His Majesty's most Gracious Speech to Both Houses of Parliament_, 200. + +_Historical Dictionary_ (Jeremy Collier), 24 _n._ + +_History of England_ (Ranke), 59, 183, 185 _n._ + +_History of His Own Time_ (Burnet), 129, 136, 152 _n._, 189 _n._ + +_History of His Own Time_ (Parker), 96 _n._, 170 _n._ + +_History of Literature_ (Hallam), 231 _n._ + +_History of the Rebellion and Civil Wars in England, The_, 136. + +Hobbes, 11, 12, 156, 157. + +Holland, 120, 135, 182-4, 186, 197. + +---- Lord, 172. + +Hollis, Thomas, 64, 219. + +_Holy Dying_, 151. + +_Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland_, 63, 66, 225, 229, 230. + +_Hortus_ (quoted), 45-6. + +_Household Book of English Poetry_ (1809) (Dean Trench), 230. + +Houses of Convocation, 101. + +Howard, Sir Robert, 195. + +_Hudibras_ (Butler), 231. + +Hull, 2, 5, 8, 17, 18, 50, 59, 84, 95, 98, 99, 101, 209, 223, 224; + Town Hall, 224. + +_Hull, History of_ (Gent), 17. + +Humber, The, 99. + +Hyde, Mrs., 202. + +---- Sir Edward (Earl of Clarendon), 49 _n._ + + +I + +Imposition upon wines, 196. + +Indies, East and West, 93. + +Inigo Jones, 221-2. + +_Insolence and Impudence Triumphant_, 153. + +Ireland, 122, 196, 209. + +Irish Cattle Bill, 122. + + +J + +Jessopp, Mr., 120. + +Johnson, Dr., 225, 227. + +"Johnson's _Poets_," 229. + + +K + +Kremlin, 108. + + +L + +Lamb, William, 20, 61. + +Lambert, General, 29, 31, 82. + +Lambeth, 175. + +_Last Instructions to a Painter about the Dutch Wars, The_, 129; + quoted, 130 _seq._, 135. + +Laud, Archbishop, 91, 167, 221. + +Lauderdale, Lord, 150, 185, 201, 202. + +Lawson, Admiral, 115. + +Lenthall, Speaker, 81, 83. + +"Letter from a Parliament Man to his Friend" (Shaftesbury), 97. + +_Leviathan_ (Hobbes), 156. + +_Life of the Great Lord Fairfax_ (Markham) (quoted), 31. + +_Lines on Paradise Lost_, 230. + +Locke, John, 6, 179. + +London, 90; + Great Fire of, 17, 119, 209; + Great Plague of, 115, 116, 119. + +Lort, Dr. (Master of Trinity), 10. + +Louis XIV., 183, 185, 186, 188, 189, 193, 196, 215. + +Lovelace, Richard, 25, 26, 227. + +_Lucasta_, 25, 26. + + +M + +Macaulay, 70, 92. + +"MacFlecknoe" (quoted), 21. + +Manton, Dr., 162. + +_Mariae Marvell relictae et Johni Greni Creditori_, 222. + +Marlborough, Earl of, 115. + +Martin Marprelate, 24. + +Marvell, Andrew, born 1621, 4; + ancestry, 4-5; + Hull Grammar School, 8; + school days, 8-9; + goes to Trinity College, Cambridge, 10; + life at Cambridge, 11-12; + becomes a Roman Catholic, 12; + recantation and return to Trinity, 14; + life at Cambridge ends, 17; + death of mother, 17; + abroad in France, Spain, Holland, and Italy, 19; + acquainted with French, Dutch, and Spanish languages, 19; + poet, parliamentarian, and controversialist, 20; + in Rome (1645), 20; + invites Flecknoe to dinner, 22; + neither a Republican nor a Puritan, 23; + a Protestant and a member of the Reformed Church of England, 23; + stood for both King and Parliament, 23; + considered by Collier a dissenter, 24 _n._; + civil servant during Commonwealth, 24; + rejoices at Restoration, 25; + keeps Royalist company (1646-50), 25; + contributes commendatory lines to Richard Lovelace in poems published + 1649, 25; + defends Lovelace, 26; + loved to be alone with his friends, lived for the most part in a hired + lodging, 26; + one of thirty-three poets who wept for the early death of Lord H. + Hastings, 27; + went to live with Lord Fairfax at Nunappleton House as tutor to only + child and daughter of the house (1650), 27; + anonymity of verses, 34; + small volume containing "The Garden Poetry" (1681), 34; + tells story of Nunappleton House, 36-45; + applies to Secretary for Foreign Tongues for a testimonial, 48; + recommended by Milton to Bradshaw for post of Latin Secretary, 50; + appointed four years later, 51: + frequently visits Eton, 51; + Milton intrusts him with a letter and copy of _Secunda defensio_ to + Bradshaw, 52; + appointed by the Lord-Protector tutor to Mr. Dutton, 54; + resides with Oxenbridges, 54; + letters, 53, 54-5, 85-7, 92-3, 94-6, 99, 100-1, 104, 105, 109-12, 121, + 122, 140, 141-3, 145-7, 148-50, 189-91, 191 _seq._, 210; + begins his career as anonymous political poet and satirist (1653), 56; + dislike of the Dutch, 56; + impregnated with the new ideas about sea power, 59; + reported to have been among crowd which witnessed Charles I.'s death, 64; + first collected edition of works, verse and prose, produced by + subscription in three volumes, 64; + became Milton's assistant (1657), 68; + friendship with Milton, 69; + takes Milton's place in receptions at foreign embassies, 69; + plays part of Laureate during Protector's life, 71; + produces two songs on marriage of Lady Mary Cromwell, 72-3; + attends Cromwell's funeral, 73; + is keenly interested in public affairs, 75; + becomes a civil servant for a year, 75; + M.P. for Hull, 75; + friend of Milton and Harrington, 76; + well disposed towards Charles II., 77; + remains in office till end of year (1659), 77; + elected with Ramsden M.P. for Kingston-upon-Hull, 78; + attended opening of Parliament (1659), 80; + is not a "Rumper," 84; + again elected for Hull (1660), 84; + begins his remarkable correspondence with the Corporation of Hull, 84; + a satirist, not an enthusiast, 85; + lines on Restoration, 90; + complains to House of exaction of L150 for release of Milton, 91; + elected for third, and last, time member for Hull, 95; + receives fee from Corporation of Hull for attendance at House, 96; + reviled by Parker for taking this payment, 96; + _Flagellum Parliamentum_ attributed to, 97; + goes to Holland, 100; + is recalled, 101; + while in Holland writes to Trinity House and to the Corporation of Hull + on business matters, 101; + goes as secretary to Lord Carlisle on an embassy to Sweden and + Denmark, 106; + public entry into Moscow, 108; + assists at formal reception of Lord Carlisle as English ambassador, 109; + renders oration to Czar into Latin, 109; + Russians object to terms of oration, 109; + replies, 109-12; + returns from embassy, 113; + reaches London, 113; + attends Parliament at Oxford, 116; + _The Last Instructions to a Painter about the Dutch Wars_, 129-35; + bitter enemy of Hyde, 136; + lines upon Clarendon House, 138; + inquires into "miscarriages of the late war," 139; + _The Rehearsal Transprosed_, 151; + its great success, 152; + literary method described by Parker, 162; + called "a droll," "a buffoon," 163; + replies to Parker, 163 _seq._; + intercedes, 168; + abused by Parker in _History of His Own Time_, 170 _n._; + _The Rehearsall Transpros'd_ (second part), 171-2; + pictures Parker, 172 _seq._; + latterly fears subversion of Protestant faith, 179; + his famous pamphlet, _An Account of the Growth of Popery and Arbitrary + Government in England_, 180-1, 203-5, 206-8; + gives account of quarrel with Dutch, 186-7; + commendatory verses on "_Mr. Milton's Paradise Lost_" (1674), 199 _n._; + mock speech, _His Majesty's Most Gracious Speech to Both Houses of + Parliament_, 200-2; + story of proffered bribe, 209-10; + last letter to constituents, 210; + rarely speaks in the House of Commons, 211; + longest reported speech, 211; + speech reported in _Parliamentary History_ (1677), 211; + "_Debate on Mr. Andrew Marvell's striking Sir Philip Harcourt_," + etc., 212-14; + friend of Prince Rupert, 214; + lines on setting up of king's statue, 214-15; + "Britannia and Raleigh," 216-19; + dies, 219; + thought to have been poisoned, 219; + this suspicion dissipated, 220; + account of sickness and death, 220-1; + burial, 221; + obsequies, 223; + epitaph, 221; + humour and wit, 163; + not a fanatic, 179; + insatiable curiosity, 182; + power of self-repression, 211; + as poet, 225-30; + as satirist, 228, 230-1; + as prose writer, 231-2; + love of gardens, 227; + appearance described, 232; + Hull's most famous member, 223; + enemies, 224; + portraits of, 224; + statue of, 224; + editions of works, 229. + +Marvell, Rev. Andrew (father), 7. + +---- Mary (wife), 3, 222-3. + +"Marvell's Cottage," 223 _n._ + +_Marvell's Ghost_ (in _Poems on Affairs of State_), 220 _n._ + +May, 119. + +Mead, William, 191. + +Meadows, Philip, 51, 54. + +Medway, 139, 187. + +_Memorials_ (Whitelock), 29. + +Milton, John, 2, 19, 20, 21, 48, 49, 52, 64, 68, 69, 73, 76, 77, 91, +129, 151, 199, 223, 226, 228. + +Monk, General, Duke of Albemarle, 80, 83, 91, 128, 139, 140. + +---- Dr., Provost of Eton. 94. + +Monmouth, Duke of, 116, 191. + +Monument ("tall bully"), 118. + +More (Moore), Thomas, 7. + +More, Robert, 6. + +Morpeth, Lord, 113. + +Moscow, 105, 107. + +"Mr. Milton's Paradise Lost" (Marvell), 199 _n._ + +_Musa Cantabrigiensis_, 16. + +Muskerry, Lord, 115. + + +N + +Napoleon, 24. + +_Narrative of the Restoration_ (Collins), 81. + +National Portrait Gallery, 224. + +Navigation Act, 59, 63. + +Nettleton, Robert, 64; + (Marvell's grand-nephew), 221. + +New Amsterdam, 136. + +New Guinea, 127. + +Novgorod, 113. + +Nunappleton House, 63. + +_Nymph and Fawn, The_, 230. + +_Nymph complaining for the Death of her Fawn, The_, 225. + + +O + +Oaths Bill, 202, 205. + +_Oceana_ (James Harrington), 222. + +_Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland, The_, 34. + +_Omniana_ (Southey), 20 _n._ + +Opdam, Admiral, 115, 129. + +Orleans, Duchess of, 185. + +Ormond, Duke of, 196. + +Orrery, 150. + +Owen, Dr. John, 81. + +Oxenbridge, John, 51. + +Oxford, 116. + + +P + +_Paradise Lost_, 10, 52, 69, 91. + +_Paradise Regained_, 91. + +Parker, Dr. Samuel, 9, 151-3, 155, 157, 159-60, 162-3, 167, 171-2, 211. + +_Parliamentary History_, 211. + +Paston, Sir Robert, 114. + +Pattison, Mark, _Essays_, 230. + +Peak, Sir William, 215. + +Pease, Anne, 6. + +Pelican (Inn), 21. + +Pell, J., D.D., 222. + +Pembroke, Earl of, 202. + +Penderel, Richard, 222. + +Penn, William, 191. + +Pensionary or Long Parliament, 95, 96, 135. + +Pepys, Samuel, 69, 90, 95, 96, 113, 117, 118, 120, 121; + _Diary_, 129. + +Pett, Mr. Commissioner, 133. + +"Petty Navy Royal" (Dee), 56; + (quoted), 57, 58. + +Pickering, Sir Gilbert, 69. + +_Pilgrim's Progress, The_, 158. + +Plymouth, 136. + +"_Poem upon the Death of his late Highness the Protector, A_," 74. + +_Poems_ (1081), 223. + +_Poems and Satires of Andrew Marvell_, 47 _n._ + +_Poems on Affairs of State_, 228. + +Poleroone, 127, 136. + +"_Politic Plat (plan) for the Honour of the Prince, A_," 56. + +Poll Bill, 122. + +Ponder, Nathaniel, 171. + +Pope, 34, 130, 229. + +Popish Plot, 219. + +Popple, Edmund, 6. + +---- William, 6. + +_Portland Papers_, 116 _n._ + +Portsmouth, 136. + +Pride, Colonel, 94. + +Prince of Orange, 63. + +Prynne, 96. + +{Greek: Pyretologia} (Richard Morton), 220. + + +Q + +Quarles, 226. + + +R + +Ramsden, John, 78, 84, 95. + +---- William. 189, 210. + +_Rehearsal_ (Duke of Buckingham), 154; + quoted, 154-5. + +_Rehearsal Transprosed, The_ (quoted), 23-4, 51 _n._, 151, 152n., 162; + (second part), 171; + quoted, 172-8, 211. + +_Religio Laici_, 24 _n._ + +_Reproof to the Rehearsal Transprosed_ (quoted), 162, 168, 169 _seq._ + +Reynolds, Dr., Bishop of Norwich, 93. + +Riga, 113. + +Robinson, Matthew, 11. + +Rochester, Earl of, 226. + +Rome, 193. + +Roos Divorce Bill, 148, 149. + +"Rota" Club, 3, 76. + +Rouen, 139, 139 _n._ + +_Royal Charles, The_, 115, 136. + +Rump Parliament, 81, 82, 83. + +Rupert, Prince, 3, 214. + +Rushworth, 28. + + +S + +St. Giles's Church in the Fields, 221. + +St. John, Oliver, 51. + +_Saint's Rest_ (Baxter), 151. + +_Samson Agonistes_, 91. + +Santa Cruz, 69. + +Savoy Conference, 90, 101, 103, 104. + +Scotland, 204. + +Scroggs, Lord Chief Justice, 100. + +_Secunda defensio_, 52. + +_Select Poets_ (Hazlitt), 230. + +Shadwell, 20, 21. + +Shaftesbury, Earl of, 205. + +Sharp, Archbishop, 224. + +Sheerness, 127, 128, 136. + +Sheldon, Dr., Archbishop of Canterbury, 153. + +Shirley (dramatist), 118, 222. + +Shrewsbury, Lady, 196. + +Sidney Sussex College, 219. + +Skinner, Mrs., 18. + +Skynner, Mr., 54. + +Sluys, 186. + +Smith, Mr. Goldwin, 123 _n._ + +Sobieski, John, 214. + +_Social England Illustrated_, 56 _n._ + +Solemn League and Covenant, 29. + +_Song of Agincourt_ (Drayton), 70. + +Southampton, Lord, 95, 203. + +Southey, 226. + +Spain, 183, 184. + +Specimens (Campbell), 230. + +_Specimens_ of Early English Poets (Mr. George Ellis), 229. + +_State Trials_, 191. + +Sterne, Bishop of Carlisle, 94. + +Stockholm, 113. + +Surat, 113, 194. + +Surinam, 187. + +Sutton, Mrs., 202. + +Swift, Benjamin, 152, 231. {Transcriber's note: Referred to by surname + only in the text. Probably means Jonathan.} + + +T + +_Table Talk_ (Selden), 179. + +Tait, Archbishop, 23. + +Temple, Sir William, 183. + +_Tender Conscience_, 161; + quoted, 161-2. + +_Tentamina Physico-Theologica_ (Parker), 174. + +Test Bill, 188. + +Texel, 127. + +Thompson, Captain Edward, 10, 64, 68, 73, 84, 202 _n._, 221, 223, 224, 229. + +Thurloe, John, 50, 52. + +_To his Coy Mistress_, 66, 225, 230. + +Torbay, 136. + +Tower, The, 206. + +_Travels and Voyages_ (Harris), 106. + +_Treatise on Education_ (Milton), 9. + +"Treatise on the breeding of the Horse," 32. + +Treaty of Dover, 184, 150 _n._, 186. + +Treby, George, M.P., 219. + +Trench, Dean, 67 _n._ + +Trevor, 150. + +Trinity Church, Hull, 223. + +---- College, Cambridge, 10. + +---- House, 100. + +Triple Alliance, The, 183, 184, 186. + +Trot, Sir John, 197. + +_True Greatness of Kingdoms and Estates, The_ (Bacon), 60. + +_Truth and Innocence Vindicated_ (Owen), 153. + +Turner, Sir Edward, 135. + + +U + +_Unreformed House of Commons, The_ (Porritt), 96 _n._ + +Upnor Castle, 128. + +"Upon His House," 138. + +_Upon Appleton House_, 230. + +_Upon the Hill and Grove of Billborow_, 230. + +Urquhart, Sir Thomas, 89. + + +V + +Vane, Sir Harry, 89. + +Van Tromp, 59, 61, 63, 115. + +Vere, Lord, 32. + +Villiers, George, Duke of Buckingham, 33. + +Viner, Sir Robert, 214, 215. + +Virginia, 58. + + +W + +Walcheren, 186. + +Walker, 226. + +Waller, 73, 144, 145 _n._, 226. + +"Walton's _Life_" (Wotton), 19; + quoted, 20. + +Ward, Seth, 153 _n._ {Transcriber's Note: 152} + +Watts, Dr., 65. + +Weckerlin, Georg Rudolph, 49; + Latin Secretary to Parliament, 49 _n._, 50. + +Welch, Mr., 210. + +Westminster Hall, 140. + +---- Parliament of, 83. + +White, Bishop of Ely, 13. + +Whitehall, 117. + +Whitelock's _Memorials_, 29. + +_William and Margaret_ (Mallet), 65. + +Wine Licenses, 196. + +Winestead, 4. + +Wise, Lieutenant, 140. + +Wither, 226. + +Wood, Anthony, 25. + +Wordsworth, 229. + +Worshipful Society of Masters and Pilots of Trinity House, 84. + + +Y + +Yarmouth, 58. + +York, Duchess of, 193, 196. + +---- Duke of, 115, 188, 189. + +_Young Love_, 225, 229, 230. + + + + +ENGLISH MEN OF LETTERS + + +Edited by JOHN MORLEY +Cloth 12mo 75 cents net, each + + * * * * * + +GEORGE ELIOT. 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