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 LettersEdited by John Morley ANDREW MARVELL by AUGUSTINE BIRRELL New YorkThe MacMillan CompanyLondon: MacMillan & Co. , Ltd. 1905All rights reservedCopyright, 1905, By the MacMillan Company. Set up and electrotyped. Published September, 1905. Norwood PressJ. S. Cushing & Co. --Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass. , U. S. A. PREFACE I desire to express my indebtedness to the following editions ofMarvell'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 _TheDictionary of National Biography_ has, I am sure, preserved me fromsome, and possibly from many, blunders. A. B. 3 NEW SQUARE, LINCOLN'S INN, June 3, 1905. CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGEEARLY 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 usewords of Charles Lamb's, a fine relish to the ear. As the author ofpoetry of exquisite quality, where for the last time may be heard thepriceless note of the Elizabethan lyricist, whilst at the same momentutterance is being given to thoughts and feelings which reach farforward to Wordsworth and Shelley, Marvell can never be forgotten in hisnative England. Lines of Marvell's poetry have secured the final honours, and incurredthe peril, of becoming "familiar quotations" ready for use on a greatvariety of occasion. We may, perhaps, have been bidden once or twice toooften 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 worldlinghow he always hears at his back, "Time's wingèd chariot hurrying near. " A true poet can, however, never be defiled by the rough usage of thepopulace. As a politician Marvell lives in the old-fashioned vivacioushistory-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 heroof an anecdote of an unsuccessful attempt made upon his political virtueby a minister of the Crown, as a rare type of an inflexible patriot, andas the last member of the House of Commons who was content to take wagesfrom, instead of contributing to the support of, his constituents. Asthe intimate friend and colleague of Milton, Marvell shares some of theindescribable majesty of that throne. A poet, a scholar, a traveller, adiplomat, a famous wit, an active member of Parliament from theRestoration to his death in 1678, the life of Andrew Marvell might _apriori_ be supposed to be one easy to write, at all events after thefashion 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 tobe found. We know all about him, but very little of him. His parentage, his places of education, many of his friends and acquaintances, are allknown. He wrote nearly four hundred letters to his Hull constituents, carefully preserved by the Corporation, in which he narrates with muchparticularity the course of public business at Westminster. Notwithstanding these materials, the man Andrew Marvell remainsundiscovered. He rarely comes to the surface. Though both an author anda member of Parliament, not a trace of personal vanity is noticeable, and vanity is a quality of great assistance to the biographer. ThatMarvell was a strong, shrewd, capable man of affairs, with enormouspowers of self-repression, his Hull correspondence clearly proves, butwhat more he was it is hard to say. He rarely spoke during his eighteenyears in the House of Commons. It is impossible to doubt that such aman in such a place was, in Mr. Disraeli's phrase, a "personage. " Yetwhen we look for recognition of what we feel sure was the fact, we failto find it. Bishop Burnet, in his delightful history, supplies us withsketches of the leading Parliamentarians of Marvell's day, yet toMarvell himself he refers but once, and then not by name but as "theliveliest droll of the age, " words which mean much but tell little. InClarendon's _Autobiography_, another book which lets the reader into thevery clash and crowd of life, there is no mention of one of the author'smost bitter and cruel enemies. With Prince Rupert, Marvell was creditedby his contemporaries with a great intimacy; he was a friend ofHarrington'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 madea great impression, that he was a central figure in the lobbies of theHouse of Commons and a man of much account; yet no record surviveseither to convince posterity of his social charm or even to convey anyexact notion of his personal character. A somewhat solitary man he would appear to have been, though fond ofoccasional jollity. He lived alone in lodgings, and was much immersed inbusiness, about a good deal of which we know nothing except that it tookhim abroad. His death was sudden, and when three years afterwards thefirst edition of his poems made its appearance, it was prefaced by acertificate signed "Mary Marvell, " to the effect that everything in thebook was printed "according to the copies of my late dear husband. "Until after Marvell's death we never hear of Mrs. Marvell, and with thissigned certificate she disappears. In a series of Lives of Poets' Wivesit would be hard to make much of Mrs. Andrew Marvell. For different butstill cogent reasons it is hard to write a life of her famous husband. Andrew Marvell was born at Winestead in Holdernesse, on Easter Eve, the31st of March 1621, in the Rectory House, the elder Marvell, alsoAndrew, being then the parson of the parish. No fitter birthplace for agarden-poet can be imagined. Roses still riot in Winestead; thefruit-tree roots are as mossy as in the seventeenth century. At theright 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 makethe 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 tohave been mostly Cambridgeshire folk, though the name crops up in othercounties. Whether Cambridge "men" of a studious turn still take longwalks I do not know, but "some vast amount of years ago" it wasconsidered a pleasant excursion, either on foot or on a hired steed, from Cambridge to Meldreth, where the Elizabethan manor-house, longknown as "the Marvells', " agreeably embodied the tradition that here itwas that the poet's father was born in 1586. The Church Registers havedisappeared. Proof is impossible. That there were Marvells in theneighbourhood is certain. The famous Cambridge antiquary, William Cole, perhaps the greatest of all our collectors, has included among hiscopies of early wills those of several Marvells and Mervells of Meldrethand Shepreth, belonging to pre-Reformation times, as their pious giftsto the "High Altar" and to "Our Lady's Light" pleasingly testify. Butour 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 Artsin 1608, he took Orders; and after serving as curate at Flamborough, wasinducted to the living of Winestead in 1614, where he remained till1624, in which year he went to Hull as master of the Grammar School andlecturer, that is preacher, of Trinity Church. The elder Marvellbelonged, from the beginning to the end of his useful and even heroiclife, to the Reformed Church of England, or, as his son puts it, "aconformist to the Rites and Ceremonies of the Church of England, thoughI confess none of the most over-running and eager in them. " The youngerMarvell, with one boyish interval, belonged all through his life to thepaternal 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, thewords may apply, _Tu vero felix non vitæ tantum claritate sed etiamopportunitate mortis_, was married at Cherry Burton, on the 22nd ofOctober 1612, to Anne Pease, a member of a family destined to becomewidely known throughout the north of England. Of this marriage therewere five children, all born at Winestead, viz. Three daughters, Anne, Mary, and Elizabeth, and two sons, Andrew and John, the latter of whomdied a year after his birth, and was buried at Winestead on the 20thSeptember 1624. The three daughters married respectively James Blaydes of Sutton, Yorkshire, on the 29th of December 1633; Edmund Popple, afterwardsSheriff of Hull, on the 18th of August 1636; and Robert More. Anne'seldest son, Joseph Blaydes, was Mayor of Hull in 1702, having marriedthe daughter of a preceding Mayor in 1698. The descendants of thisbranch still flourish. The Popples also had children, one of whom, William Popple, was a correspondent of his uncle the poet's, and amerchant 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 thatBoard, John Locke. A son of this William Popple led a very comfortableeighteenth-century life, which is in strong contrast with that of hisgrand-uncle, for, having entered the Cofferers' Office about 1730, hewas made seven years later Solicitor and Clerk of the Reports to theCommissioners of Trade and Plantations, and in 1745 became insuccession to a relative, one Alured Popple, Governor of the Bermudas, apost 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 wasalmost bound to be a bad poet and worse dramatist, and this WilliamPopple was both. Marvell's third sister, Elizabeth, does not seem to have had issue, acertain 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 ofWinestead, and took up the duties of schoolmaster and lecturer, orpreacher, at Hull. Important duties they were, for the old GrammarSchool of Hull dates back to 1486, and may boast of a long career ofusefulness, never having fallen into that condition of decay anddisrepute from which so many similar endowments have been of late yearsrescued by the beneficent and, of course, abused action of the CharityCommissioners. Andrew Marvell the elder succeeded to and was succeededby eminent headmasters. Trinity Church, where the poet's father preachedon Sundays to crowded and interested congregations, was then what itstill is, though restored by Scott, one of the great churches in thenorth of England. The Rev. Andrew Marvell made his mark upon Hull. Mr. Grosart, who lackednothing but the curb upon a too exuberant vocabulary, a little lessenthusiasm and a great deal more discretion, to be a model editor, tellsus in his invaluable edition of _The Complete Works in Verse and Proseof Andrew Marvell, M. P. _, [8:1] that he had read a number of the elderMarvell'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, AndrewMarvell wrote of the clergy as "the reserve of our Christianity, " hedoubtless 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 Latingrammar, 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 HullGrammar School provided its head-master's only son with the rudiments oflearning, thus enabling him to become in after years what John Miltonhimself, the author of that terrible _Treatise on Education_ addressedto 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 forits 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 atHull. His clerical foe, Dr. Parker, afterwards Bishop of Oxford, writescontemptuously of "an hunger-starved whelp of a country vicar, " and inanother passage, which undoubtedly refers to Marvell, he speaks of "anunhappy education among Boatswains and Cabin-boys, " whose unsavouryphrases, he goes on to suggest, Marvell picked up in his childhood. Buttruth need not be looked for in controversial pages. The best argumentfor a married clergy is to be found, for Englishmen at all events, inthe sixty-seven volumes of the _Dictionary of National Biography_, whereare 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 anEngland without the sons of her clergy would be shorn of half her glory. Marvell's boyhood seems to have been surrounded with the things thatmost make for a child's happiness. A sensible, affectionate, humorous, religious father, occupying a position of authority, and greatlyrespected, a mother and three elder sisters to make much of his brightwit and early adventures, a comfortable yet simple home, and anatmosphere of piety, learning, and good fellowship. What more is wanted, or can be desired? The "Boatswains" and "Cabin-boys" of Bishop Parker'sfancy were in the neighbourhood, no doubt, and as stray companions for ahalf-holiday must have had their attractions; but it is unnecessary toattribute Andrew Marvell's style in controversy to his earlyacquaintance with a sea-faring population, for he is far more likely tohave 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 hisfather's old college, but to the more splendid foundation of Trinity. About the date of his matriculation there is a doubt. In Wood's _AthenæOxonienses_ there is a note to the effect that Marvell was admitted "inmatriculam Acad. Cant. Coll. Trin. " on the 14th of December 1633, whenthe boy was but twelve years old. Dr. Lort, a famous master of Trinityin his day, writing in November 1765 to Captain Edward Thompson, of whommore later on, told the captain that until 1635 there was no register ofadmissions of ordinary students, or pensioners, as they are called, butonly a register of Fellows and Foundation Scholars, and in thislast-named register Marvell's name appears as a Scholar sworn andadmitted 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 ofpensioners was begun, as a pensioner, becoming a Scholar in 1638, andtaking his degree in 1639. Cambridge undergraduates do not usually keep diaries, nor after theyhave become Masters of Art are they much in the habit of giving detailsas to their academic career. Marvell is no exception to this provokingrule. He nowhere tells us what his University taught him or how. Thelogic of the schools he had no choice but to learn. Molineus, PeterRamus, Seton, Keckerman were text-books of reputation, from one oranother 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, " andthose young men who loved to hear themselves talk were left free todiscuss, much to Hobbes's disgust, "the freedom of the will, incorporealsubstance, everlasting nows, ubiquities, hypostases, which the peopleunderstand not nor will ever care for. " In the life of Matthew Robinson, [11:1] who went up to Cambridge a littlelater than Marvell (June 1645), and was probably a harder reader, we aretold that "the strength of his studies lay in the metaphysics and inthose subtle authors for many years which rendered him an irrefragabledisputant _de quolibet ente_, and whilst he was but senior freshman hewas found in the bachelor schools, disputing ably with the best of thesenior sophisters. " Robinson despised the old-fashioned Ethics andPhysics, but with the new Cartesian or Experimental Philosophy he was_inter primos_. History, particularly the Roman, was in great favour atboth Universities at this time, and young men were taught, so old Hobbesagain grumbles, to despise monarchy "from Cicero, Seneca, Cato and otherpoliticians of Rome, and Aristotle of Athens, who seldom spake of kingsbut as of wolves and other ravenous beasts. "[12:1] The Muses were neverneglected at Cambridge, as the University exercises survive to prove, whilst modern languages, Spanish and Italian for example, were greedilyacquired by such an eager spirit as Richard Crashaw, the poet, who cameinto residence at Pembroke in 1631. There were problems to be "kept" inthe college chapel, lectures to be attended, both public and private, declamations to be delivered, and even in the vacations the scholarswere not exempt from "exercises" either in hall or in their tutors'rooms. Earnest students read their Greek Testaments, and even theirHebrew Bibles, and filled their note-books, working more hours a daythan was good for their health, whilst the idle ones wasted their timeas best they could in an unhealthy, over-crowded town, in an age whichknew nothing of boating, billiards, or cricket. A tennis-court there wasin Marvell's time, for in Dr. Worthington's _Diary_, under date 3rd ofApril 1637, it stands recorded that on that day and in that place thatlearned man received "a dangerous blow on the Eye. "[12:2] The only incident we know of Marvell's undergraduate days is remarkableenough, for, boy though he was, he seems, like the Gibbon of a laterday, to have suddenly become a Roman Catholic. This occurrence may serveto remind us how, during Marvell's time at Trinity, the University ofCambridge (ever the precursor in thought-movements) had a Catholicrevival of her own, akin to that one which two hundred years afterwardshappened at Oxford, and has left so much agreeable literature behind it. Fuller in his history of the University of Cambridge tells us a littleabout 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 anoble east window. "A grave divine, " Fuller tells us, "preaching beforethe University at St. Mary's, had this smart passage in his Sermon--thatas at the Olympian Games he was counted the Conqueror who could drivehis chariot wheels nearest the mark yet so as not to hinder his runningor 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 bethe general complaint of most moderate men that many in the University, both in the schools and pulpits, approached the opinions of the Churchof Rome nearer than ever before. " Archbishop Laud, unlike the bishops of Dr. Newman's day, favoured theCatholic revival, and when Mr. Bernard, the lecturer of St. Sepulchre's, London, preached a "No Popery" sermon at St. Mary's, Cambridge, he wasdragged into the High Commission Court, and, as the hateful practicethen was, a practice dear to the soul of Laud, was bidden to subscribe aformal recantation. This Mr. Bernard refused to do, though professinghis sincere sorrow and penitence for any oversights and hastyexpressions in his sermon. Thereupon he was sent back to prison, wherehe died. "If, " adds Fuller, "he was miserably abused in prison by thekeepers (as some have reported) to the shortening of his life, He thatmaketh inquisition for blood either hath or will be a revengerthereof. "[14:1] By the side of this grim story the much-written-about incidents of theOxford Movement seem trivial enough. Not a few Cambridge scholars of this period, Richard Crashaw among thenumber, 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, aresaid to have persuaded him to leave Cambridge secretly, and to takerefuge in one of their houses in London. Thither the elder Marvellfollowed in pursuit, and after search came across his son in abookseller's shop, where he succeeded both in convincing the boy of hiserrors and in persuading him to return to Trinity. An odd story, andnot, as it stands, very credible; but Mr. Grosart discovered among theMarvell papers at Hull a fragment of a letter without signature, address, or date, which throws some sort of light on the incident. Thisletter was evidently, as Mr. Grosart surmises, sent to the elder Marvellby some similarly afflicted parent. In its fragmentary state the letterreads 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 aclue to the date, for Cosin was chosen Vice-Chancellor on the 4th ofNovember 1639. [15:2] Though we can know nothing of the elder Marvell's methods ofre-conversion, they were more successful than the elder Gibbon's, who, as we know, packed the future historian off to Lausanne and a Swisspastor's house. What Gibbon became on leaving off his Romanism we canguess for ourselves, whereas Marvell, once out of the hands of thesevery shadowy "Jesuits, " remained the staunchest of Christian Protestantsto the end of his days. This strange incident, and two college exercises or poems, one inGreek, the other in Latin, both having reference to an addition to theRoyal Family, and appearing in the _Musa Cantabrigiensis_ for 1637, areall the materials that exist for weaving the story of Marvell, theCambridge undergraduate. The Latin verses, which are Horatian in style, contain one pretty stanza, composed apparently before the sex of thenew-born infant was known at Cambridge. "Sive felici Carolum figurâ Parvulus princeps imitetur almae Sive Mariae decoret puellam Dulcis imago. " After taking his Bachelor's degree in 1639, Marvell, being still aScholar of the college, must have gone away, for the Conclusion Book ofTrinity, 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 outthat this entry contains no reflection on Marvell's morals, but showsthat he was given "notice to quit" for non-residence, "then much morestrictly enjoined than it is now. " The days referred to in the entrywere, so the master obligingly explains, "the certain number allowed bystatute to absentees, " whilst the "acts mean the Exercises also enjoynedby the statutes. " Dr. Lort adds, "It does not appear, by any subsequententry, whether Marvell did or did not comply with this order. " We maynow safely assume he did not. Marvell's Cambridge days were over. The vacations, no inconsiderable part of the year, were probably spentby Marvell under his father's roof at Hull, where his two elder sisterswere married and settled. It is not to be wondered at that AndrewMarvell should, for so many years, have represented Hull in the House ofCommons, for both he and his family were well known in the town. Theelder Marvell added to his reputation as a teacher and preacher thecharacter of a devoted servant of his flock in the hour of danger. Theplague twice visited Hull during the time of the elder Marvell, first in1635 and again in 1638. In those days men might well pray to bedelivered from "plague, pestilence, and famine. " Hull suffered terriblyon both occasions. We have seen, in comparatively recent times, theeffect of the cholera upon large towns, and the plague was worse thanthe cholera many times over. The Hull preacher, despite the stigma of_facetiousness_, which still clings to him, stuck to his post, visitingthe sick, burying the dead, and even, which seems a little superfluous, preaching and afterwards printing "by request" their funeral sermons. Abrave man, indeed, and one reserved for a tragic end. In April 1638 the poet's mother died. In the following November theelder 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. AndrewMarvell, Lecturer of Hull, sailing over the Humber in company withMadame Skinner of Thornton College and a young beautiful couple who weregoing to be wedded; a speedy Fate prevented the designed happy unionthro' a violent storm which overset the boat and put a period to alltheir lives, nor were there any remains of them or the vessel ever afterfound, tho' earnestly sought for on distant shores. " Thus died by drowning a brave man, a good Christian, and an excellentclergyman of the Reformed Church of England. The plain narrative justquoted has been embroidered by many long-subsequent writers in theinterests of those who love presentiments and ghostly intimations ofimpending events, and in one of these versions it is recorded, thatthough the morning was clear, the breeze fair, and the company gay, yetwhen stepping into the boat "the reverend man exclaimed, 'Ho forHeaven, ' and threw his staff ashore and left it to Providence to fulfilits awful warning. " So melancholy an occurrence naturally excited great attention, and longlingered in local memories. Everybody in Hull knew who was theirmember's father. There is an obstinate tradition quite unverifiable that Mrs. Skinner, the mother of the beautiful young lady who was drowned with the elderMarvell, adopted the young Marvell as a son, sending to Cambridge forhim after his father's death, and providing him with the means oftravel, and that afterwards she bequeathed him her estate. Whether thereis any truth in this story cannot now be ascertained. The Skinners werea well-known Hull family, one of them, a brother of that Cyriac Skinnerwho was urged by Milton in immortal verse to enjoy himself whilst themood was on him, having been Mayor of Hull. The lady, doubtless, hadmoney, and Andrew Marvell was in need of money, and appears to have beensupplied 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 referredto 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 educatedEnglishmen--of long, leisurely travel. Milton's famous Italian tourlasted fifteen months. John Evelyn's _Wander-Jahre_ occupied four years. Andrew Marvell lived abroad in France, Spain, Holland, and Italy from1642 to 1646, and we have Milton's word for it that when the travellerreturned he was well acquainted with the French, Dutch, Spanish, andItalian languages. Andrew Marvell was a highly cultivated man, living ina highly cultivated age, in daily converse with scholars, poets, philosophers, and men of very considerable scientific attainments. Inreading Clarendon and Burnet, and whilst turning over Aubrey'sdelightful gossip, it is impossible not to be struck with the width andvariety 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 downhis writings the careful reader will come across pleasant references toforeign manners and customs, betokening the keen humorous observer, andthe possession of that wide-eyed faculty that takes a pleasure, halfcontemplative, half the result of animal spirits, in watching the way ofthe world wherever you may chance to be. Of another and an earliertraveller, 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 graspedthe sense of the famous sentence given by Wotton to Milton, when thelatter was starting on his travels: "_I pensieri stretti ed il visosciolto. _" Marvell was in Rome about 1645. I can give no other date during thewhole four years. This, our only date, rests upon an assumption. InMarvell's earliest satirical poem he gives an account of a visit he paidin Rome to the unlucky poetaster Flecknoe, who was not in Rome until1645. If, therefore, the poem records an actual visit, it follows thatthe author of the poem was in Rome at the same time. It is not verynear, but it is as near as we can get. Richard Flecknoe was an Irish priest of blameless life, with a passionfor scribbling and for printing. His exquisite reason for both thesesuperfluous 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 anotherthis amiable man came to be regarded as the type of a dull author, andhis name passed into a proverb for stupidity, so much so that whenDryden in 1682 was casting about how best to give pain to Shadwell, hedevised the plan of his famous satire, "MacFlecknoe, " where in bitingverse 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 Marvellvisited in his Roman garret in 1645, bears a name ever memorable inliterature. Marvell's own poem, though eclipsed by the splendour of Glorious John'sresounding lines, has an interest of its own as being, in its roughlyhumorous way, a forerunner of the "Dunciad" and "Grub Street"literature, by which in sundry moods 'tis "pleasure to be bound. " Itdescribes seeking out the poetaster in his lodging "three staircaseshigh, " at the sign of the Pelican, in a room so small that it seemed "acoffin set in the stair's head. " No sooner was the rhymer unearthed thanstraightway he began to recite his poetry in dismal tones, much to hisvisitor'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 preparèd 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 scarecrowto dinner, and waits while he dresses. As they turn to leave, for theroom is so small that the man who comes in last must be the first to goout, they meet a friend of the poet on the stairs, who makes a third atdinner. After dinner Flecknoe produces ten quires of paper, from whichthe friend proceeds to read, but so infamously as to excite theirauthor'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. Thefaithful friend is in despair. What is he to do to make peace? "Whowould 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 fromboredom, went off to St. Peter's to return thanks. This poem is but an unsatisfactory _souvenir de voyage_, but it is allthere is. What Marvell was doing during the stirring years 1646-1650 is notknown. Even in the most troubled times men go about their business, andour poet was always a man of affairs. As for his opinions during theseyears, we can only guess at them from those to which he afterwards gaveexpression. Marvell was neither a Republican nor a Puritan. Like hisfather before him, he was a Protestant and a member of the ReformedChurch of England. He stood for both King and Parliament. ArchbishopLaud he distrusted, and it may well be detested, but good churchmen haveoften distrusted and even detested their archbishops. Mr. Gladstone hadno great regard for Archbishop Tait. Before the Act of Uniformity andthe repressive legislation that followed upon its heels had drivenEnglish dissent into its final moulds, it was not doctrine butceremonies that disturbed men's minds; and Marvell belonged to thatschool of English churchmen, by no means the least distinguished school, which was not disposed to quarrel with their fellow-Christians overwhite surplices, the ring in matrimony, or the attitude during HolyCommunion. He shared the belief of a contemporary that no system is badenough 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 devouredby 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 ispuzzling to find such a man, for example, as Thomas Baker, the ejectednon-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 withthose of Martin Marprelate, or at all events speaking of MartinMarprelate as "the Marvell of those times. "[24:2] A somewhatanti-prelatical note runs through Marvell's writings, but it is afamiliar enough note in the works of the English laity, and by no meansdissevers its possessor from the Anglican Church. But there are someheated expressions in the satires which probably gave rise to the beliefthat Marvell was a Republican. [24:3] During the Commonwealth Marvell was content to be a civil servant. Heentertained for the Lord-Protector the same kind of admiration that sucha loyalist as Chateaubriand could not help feeling for Napoleon. EvenClarendon's pedantic soul occasionally vibrates as he writes of Oliver, and compares his reputation in foreign courts with that of his ownroyal master. When the Restoration came Marvell rejoiced. Twoold-established things had been destroyed by Cromwell--Kings andParliaments, and Marvell was glad to see them both back again inEngland. Some verses of Marvell's attributable to this period (1646-1650) showhim keeping what may be called Royalist company. With a dozen otherfriends of Richard Lovelace, the Cavalier poet and the author of two ofthe most famous stanzas in English verse, Marvell contributed somecommendatory lines addressed to his "noble friend, Mr. Richard Lovelace, upon his Poems, " which appeared with the poems themselves in that yearof fate, 1649. "After the murder of the King, " says Anthony Wood, "Lovelace was set at liberty, and having by that time consumed all hisestate, grew very melancholy, became very poor in body and purse, wasthe object of charity, went in ragged clothes (whereas when he was inglory he wore cloth of gold and silver), and mostly lodged in obscureand dirty places, more befitting the worst of beggars and poorest ofservants. " Then it was that _Lucasta_ made its first appearance. When the fortunesof the gallant poet were at their lowest and never to revive, Marvellseizes the occasion to deplore the degeneracy of the times, a familiartheme 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 thepress:-- "The barbèd 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 hadbeen imprisoned by order of the House of Commons for presenting apetition from Kent which prayed for the restoration of the Book ofCommon Prayer. This danger is, however, overcome by the ladies, who risein 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 congealèd 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 thepoet'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 lodgingnear 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 theintroductory pages of Lovelace's _Lucasta_ occasionally enlivened thesolitude and relieved the distress of the poet whose praises they hadonce sung with so much vigour. As Marvell was undoubtedly a friendlyman, and one who loved to be alone with his friends, and had never anyhouse 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 inhis poverty and depression of spirit. In 1649 thirty-three poets combined to weep over the early grave of theLord Henry Hastings, the eldest son of the sixth Earl of Huntingdon, whodied of the smallpox in the twentieth year of his age. Not even thisplentiful discharge of poets' tears should rob the young nobleman of hisclaim to be regarded as a fine example of the great learning, accomplishments, and high spirits of the age. We can still produce thethirty-three poets, but what young nobleman is there who can boast sucherudition as had rewarded the scorned delights and the laborious days ofthis Lord Hastings? We have at least the satisfaction of knowing thatdid such a one exist he probably would not die of the smallpox. Amongthe poets who wept on this occasion were Herrick, Sir John Denham, Andrew Marvell, and John Dryden, then a Westminster schoolboy, whosedescription of the smallpox is as bad as the disease. Marvell's verses begin very prettily and soon introduce a characteristictouch:-- "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 LordFairfax at Nunappleton House in Yorkshire, as tutor to the only childand daughter of the house, Mary Fairfax, aged twelve years (born 30thJuly 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 famousParliamentarian general "Whose name in arms through Europe rings. " Lord Fairfax, though he had countenanced, if not approved, the trialand deposition of the king, had resolutely held himself aloof from theproceedings which, beginning on Saturday the 20th of January 1649, terminated so dismally on Tuesday the 30th. The strange part played byLady Fairfax on the first day of the so-called trial (though it was nogreater a travesty of justice than many a real trial both before andafter) is one of the best-known stories in English history. There areseveral versions of it. Having provided herself with a seat in a smallgallery in Westminster Hall, just above the heads of the judges, whenher husband's name was called out as one of the commissioners, theintrepid lady (no Cavalier's dame, be it remembered, but a true bluePresbyterian), a brave soldier's daughter, cried out, "Lord Fairfax isnot here; he will never sit among you. You do wrong to name him as asitting Commissioner. " This is Rushworth's version, and he was present. Clarendon, who was not present, being abroad at the time, reports thewords as, "He has more wit than to be here. " Later on in the day, when the President Bradshaw interrupted the kingand peremptorily bade him to answer the charges exhibited against him"in the name of the Commons of England assembled, and of the people ofEngland, " Lady Fairfax again rose to her feet and exclaimed, "It's alie! Not half the people. Where are they and their consents? OliverCromwell is a traitor. " Lieutenant-Colonel Axtell, who during the trial was in command of aregiment in Westminster and charged by his military superior, LordFairfax himself, with the duty of maintaining order, hearing thisdisturbance, went forward and told Lady Fairfax to hold her tongue, sound advice which she appears to have taken. After the RestorationAxtell 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 hisgeneral, Lord Fairfax, was not listened to, and he was sentenced todeath, a fate which he met like the brave man he was. Although Fairfax did not immediately resign his command after the king'sdeath, from that moment he lost heart in the cause. Lady Fairfax, whoseloyalty to Charles may have been quickened by her dislike of Oliver, hadgreat influence with him, and it may well be that his conscience prickedhim. The rupture came in June 1650, when Charles's son made hisappearance in Scotland and his peace with the Presbyterians, subscribingwith inward emotions it would be unkind to attempt to describe theSolemn League and Covenant, and attending services and listening tosermons the length of which, at least, he never forgot. War was plainlyimminent between the two countries. The question was, who should begin?Cromwell, who had hurried home from Ireland, Lambert, and Harrison wereall keen to strike the first blow. Fairfax felt a scruple, and in thosedays scruples counted. Was there, he asked, a just cause for an invasionof Scotland? A committee was appointed, consisting of the three warriorsabove-named with St. John and Whitelock, to confer with the Lord-Generaland satisfy him of the lawfulness of the undertaking. The six met, andhaving first prayed--Oliver praying first--they proceeded to adiscussion which may be read at length in Whitelock's _Memorials_, vol. Iii. P. 207. The substance of their talk was as follows: Fairfax'sscruple proved to be that both they and the Scots had joined in theSolemn League and Covenant, and that, therefore, until Scotland assumedthe 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'sown? In one or other it must be. " Fairfax's scruple, however, withstoodthis battery, though it was strongly enforced by Harrison, who, in replyto the Lord-General's question, "What was the warrant for the assumptionthat Scotland meant to fall upon England?" inquired, if Scotland did notmean to invade England, for whose benefit were levies being made andsoldiers enlisted. Fairfax proved immovable. "Every man, " said he, "must stand or fall byhis own conscience"; and as he offered to lay down his command, therewas nothing for it but to accept the resignation and appoint hissuccessor. This was speedily done, and on the 28th of June 1650 "OliverCromwell, Esquire, " was appointed Captain-General and Commander-in-chiefof all the forces. On 16th July Cromwell crossed the Tweed, and on the3rd of September the Lord delivered Leslie into his hands at Dunbar. It was in these circumstances that Lord Fairfax and his energetic ladyand only child went back to their Yorkshire home in the midsummer of1650, taking Marvell with them to instruct the Lady Mary in the tongues. Nunappleton House is in the Ainstey of York, a pleasant bit of countrybounded by the rivers Ouse, Wharfe, and Nidd. The modern traveller, ashis train rushes north, whilst shut up in his corridor-carriage with hisrug, his pipe, and his novel, passes at no great distance from the houseon the way between Selby and York. The old house, as it was in Marvell'stime, is thus described by Captain Markham, who had a print to helphim, 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 thecherry-tree. Lord Fairfax, though furious in war, and badly wounded in many a fierceengagement, was, when otherwise occupied, a man of quiet literarytastes, and a good bit of a collector and _virtuoso_. Some of the rarebooks and manuscripts he had around him at Nunappleton are now in theBodleian, the treasures of which he had protected in troubled times. Heloved to handle medals and coins, and knew the points of oldengravings. He wrote a history of the Christian Church down to our ownill-conducted Reformation, and composed a complete metrical version ofthe Psalms of David and of the Song of Solomon. These and many otherproductions, which he characterised as "The Employment of my Solitude, "still remain in his own handwriting. Amongst them, Yorkshire men willhear 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 ofthe four daughters of Lord Vere of Tilbury, who came of a fine fightingfamily, and whose daughters had a roughish bringing-up, chiefly in theNetherlands. None of the daughters were reckoned beautiful, either inface or figure, and it may well be that Lady Fairfax had something abouther of the old campaigner; but of her courage, sincerity, and goodnessthere can be no question. Her loyalty was no sickly fruit of "ChurchPrinciples, " for her strong intelligence rejected scornfully the slavishdoctrines, alien to our political constitution, of divine right andpassive obedience; but a loyalty, none the less, it was, of a veryvaluable kind. She was fond of argument, and with Lady Fairfax atNunappleton there was never likely to be any dearth of sensible talk andlively reminiscence. The tragedy of the 30th of January could never beforgotten, and it is possible that Marvell's most famous verses, sonobly descriptive of the demeanour of the king on that memorableoccasion, derived their inspiration from discourse at Nunappleton. Of the Lady Mary, aged twelve, we have no direct testimony. When shegrew up and had her portrait painted she stands revealed as a stoutyoung woman with a plain good-natured face. The poor soul needed allthe good-nature heaven had bestowed upon her, for she had to bear themisery and disgrace which were the inevitable marriage-portion of thewoman 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 onewho had sorrow but no grievance. The duke died in 1688; she lived ontill 1704. She was ever a good friend to another ill-used solitary wife, Catherine of Braganza. Marvell had every reason to be proud of hispupil. Beside the actual inmates of the great house, the whole countrysideswarmed with Fairfaxes. At the Rectory of Bolton Percy was the lateLord-General's uncle, Henry Fairfax, and his two sons, Henry, whosucceeded to the title, and the better-known Brian, the biographer ofthe Duke of Buckingham. At Stenton, four miles off, lived the widow ofthe gallant Sir William Fairfax, who died, covered with wounds, in 1644before Montgomery Castle. There were two sons and two daughters atStenton, whilst Charles Fairfax, another uncle, and the lawyer andgenealogist of the family, lived at no great distance with no less thanfourteen children. There were also sisters of Lord Fairfax, withfamilies 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 upthe picture, for excepting the poems, which we may safely assume werewritten at Nunappleton House, and--who can doubt it?--read aloud to itsinmates, there is nothing more to be said. Before considering the Nunappleton poetry, a word must be got in ofbibliography. College exercises and complimentary verses excepted, Marvell printed none of his verse under his own name in his lifetime. Sofar as his themes were political there is no need to wonder at this. Indeed, the wonder is how, despite their anonymity, their author kepthis ears; but why the Nunappleton verse should have remained inmanuscript for more than thirty years is hard to explain. Until Pope took his muse to market, poetry, apart from the drama, had nodirect commercial value, or one too small to be ranked as a motive forpublication. None the less, the age loved distinction and appreciatedwit, and to be known as a poet whose verses "numbered good intellects"was to gain the _entrée_ to the society of men both of intellect andfashion, and also, not infrequently, snug berths in the public service, and secretaryships to foreign missions and embassies. Thus there wasalways, in addition to natural vanity, a strong motive for aseventeenth-century poet to publish his poems. To-day one would hesitateto recommend a young man who wanted to get on in the world to publish avolume of verse; but the age of "wit" and "parts" is over. It was not till 1681--three years after Marvell's death--that the smallfolio appeared with a fine portrait, still dear to the collector, whichcontains for the first time what may be called the "garden-poetry" ofour author, together with some specimens of his political and satiricalversification. Marvell's most famous poem--_The Ode upon Cromwell's Return fromIreland_--is not included in the 1681 volume, and remained in manuscriptuntil 1776, as also did the poem upon Cromwell's death. The remainder of the political poems, which had made their firstappearance as broadsheets, were reprinted after the Revolution in thewell-known _Collection of Poems on Affairs of State_. [35:1] These verseswere 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 togo by. In the case of political satires, squibs, epigrams, rough popularoccasional rhymes flung off both in haste and heat to be sold with oldballads in the market-place, we need not seek for better evidence thantradition, which indeed is often the only external evidence we have forthe 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 charmsof the house which Lord Fairfax built for himself during the war, and towhich, as just narrated, he retired in the summer of 1650. The story isonly too familiar a one, being writ large over many a fine property. Appleton House was Church loot. In the time of Henry, "the majestic lordthat burst the bonds of Rome, " the old house at Nunappleton was aCistercian nunnery, a religious house. In 1542 the community wassuppressed and its property appropriated by the great-grandfather of theLord-General--one Sir Thomas Fairfax. The religious buildings werepulled down and a new secular house rose in their place. In these bareand sordid facts there is not much room for poetry, but there is a storythrown in. Shortly before 1518 a Yorkshire heiress, bearing theunromantic name of Isabella Thwaites, was living in the Cistercianabbey, under the guardianship of the abbess, the Lady Anna Langton. Property under the care of the Church is always supposed to be indanger, and the Lady Anna was freely credited with the desire to make anun of her ward, and so keep her broad acres in Wharfedale and hermessuages in York for the use of Mother Church. None the less, the younglady was allowed to go about and visit her neighbours, and whilst sodoing she fell in love with Sir William Fairfax, or he fell in love withher or with her estates. Thereupon, so the story proceeds, the abbesskept her ward a close prisoner within the nunnery walls. Legalproceedings were taken, but in the end the privacy of the nunnery wasinvaded, and Miss Thwaites was abducted and married to Sir WilliamFairfax 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 tosee the nunnery itself despoiled, and the fair domains she had during along life preserved and maintained for religious uses handed over to theson of her former ward, Isabella Thwaites. Our poet begins by referring to the modest dimensions of the house, andthe 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, callèd 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 perfumèd 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 prayèd 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 belovèd 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 astill more seductive hue, the poet does not tell, but turns to the eagerlover who asks, What should he do? He hints that a nunnery is no placefor a virtuous maid, and that the nuns (unlike himself, I hope) are onlythinking of her property. He complains that though the Court hasauthorised him to use either peace or force, the nuns still stand upontheir 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 thatthis 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 veryheroic 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 todescribe happy days spent at Nunappleton by the descendants of IsabellaThwaites. "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 remainèd 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 retirèd 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 belovèd 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 wingèd quires Echo about their tunèd 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 underminèd 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, toogreat length. Other poems of this garden-period of Marvell's life arebetter 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-vergèd 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 theheart to omit them, so eminently characteristic are they of his styleand 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 wingèd 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 behad of all booksellers for two shillings, [47:1] and with these volumesin his possession the judicious reader will be able to supply his ownreflections whilst life beneath the sun is still his. Poetry is apersonal 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. Lambplaced some fine lines of Flecknoe's at the beginning of the Essay _AQuakers' 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) describesMarvell, 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. " InCollier's opinion Marvell may have been no better than a dissenter, butin fact he was a Churchman all his life, and it was Collier who lived tobecome 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 onreading these lines in the _Essays of Elia_ (_The Old Benchers of theInner 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 isjust as likely that Milton introduced Marvell to Fairfax. All we know isthat when the engagement at Nunappleton House came to an end, Marvell, being then minded to serve the State in some civil capacity, applied tothe Secretary for Foreign Tongues for what would now be called atestimonial, which he was fortunate enough to obtain in the form of aletter to the Lord-President of the Council, John Bradshaw. Milton seemsalways to have liked Bradshaw, who was not generally popular even on hisown side, and in the _Defensio Secunda pro populo Anglicano_ extols hischaracter and attainments in sonorous latinity. Bradshaw had become inFebruary 1649 the first President of the new Council of State, which, after the disappearance of the king and the abolition of the House ofLords, took over the burden of the executive, and claimed the right toscrape men's consciences by administering to anybody it chose an oathrequiring them to approve of what the House of Commons had done againstthe king, and of their abolition of kingly government and of the Houseof Peers, and that the legislative and supreme power was wholly in theHouse of Commons. Before the creation of this Council the duties of Latin Secretary to theParliament had been discharged by Georg Rudolph Weckherlin, a Germandiplomat who had married an Englishwoman. He retired in bad health atthis time, and Milton was appointed to his place in 1649. When, lateron, the sight of the most illustrious of all our civil servants failedhim, Weckherlin returned to the office as Milton's assistant. InDecember 1652 ill-health again compelled Weckherlin's retirement. [49:1] Milton's letter to Bradshaw, who had made his home at Eton, is datedFebruary 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 hisretirement in the previous December, John Thurloe, the very handySecretary 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, shortlyafterwards, Philip Meadows, also a Cambridge man, was appointed Milton'sassistant, and Marvell had to wait four years longer for his place. When Marvell's connection with Eton first began is not to beascertained. His friend, John Oxenbridge, who had been driven from histutorship 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. OliverSt. John, who at this time was Chancellor of the University ofCambridge, and had married Oxenbridge's sister, was known to Marvell, and may have introduced him to his brother-in-law. At all events Marvellfrequently visited Eton, where, however, he had the good sense tofrequent not merely the cloisters, but the poor lodgings where the "evermemorable" John Hales, ejected from his fellowship, spent the last yearsof 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 threeyears later. Marvell's words of panegyric are singularly well chosen. Itis a curious commentary upon the confused times of the Civil War andRestoration that perhaps never before, and seldom, if ever, since, hasEngland contained so many clear heads and well-prepared breasts as itdid then. Small indeed is the influence of men of thought upon theirimmediate surroundings. The Lord Bradshaw, we know, had a home in Eton, and on the occasion ofone of Marvell's evidently frequent visits to the Oxenbridges, Miltonentrusted him with a letter to Bradshaw and a presentation copy of the_Secunda defensio_. Marvell delivered both letter and book, and seems atonce to have informed the distinguished author that he had done so. Butalas for the vanity of the writing man! The sublime poet, who in hisearly manhood had composed _Lycidas_, and was in his old age to write_Paradise Lost_, demanded further and better particulars as to theprecise manner in which the chief of his office received, not only thebook, but the letter which accompanied it. Nobody is now left to thinkmuch of Bradshaw, but in 1654 he was an excellent representative of theclass Carlyle was fond of describing as the _alors célèbre_. Prompted bythis desire, Milton must have written to Marvell hinting, as he wellknew how to do, his surprise at the curtness of his friend's formercommunication, and Marvell's reply to this letter has come down to us. It is Marvell's glory that long before _Paradise Lost_ he recognised theessential greatness of the blind secretary, and his letter is a fineexample of the mode of humouring a great man. Be it remembered, as weread, that this letter was not addressed to one of the greatest names inliterature, but to a petulant and often peevish scholar, living ofnecessity in great retirement, whose name is never once mentioned byClarendon, and about whom the voluminous Thurloe, who must have seen himhundreds of times, has nothing to say except that he was "a blind manwho wrote Latin letters. " Odder still, perhaps, Richard Baxter, whosehistory of his own life and times is one of the most informing books inthe world, never so much as mentions the one and only man whose namecan, without any violent sense of unfitness, be given to the age aboutwhich 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 beforehis obtaining his appointment as Milton's assistant in the place ofPhilip Meadows, who was sent on a mission to Lisbon, Marvell was chosenby 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 withinterest:-- "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 thisperiod, 1652-1657. It was in 1653 that he began his stormy career as ananonymous political poet and satirist. The Dutch were his first victims, good Protestants though they were. Marvell never liked the Dutch, andhad he lived to see the Revolution must have undergone some qualms. In 1652 the Commonwealth was at war with the United Provinces. Tradejealousy made the war what politicians call "inevitable. " This jealousyof the Dutch dates back to Elizabeth, and to the first stirring in thewomb of time of the British navy. This may be readily perceived if weread 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 getour share of the foreign fishing trade, then wholly in the hands of theDutch; and second, the recognition that England was a sea-empire, dependent for its existence upon a great navy manned by the seafaringinhabitants of our coasts. The enormous fishing trade done in our own waters by the Dutch, thesplendid fleet of fishing craft with twenty thousand handy sailors onboard, 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 navynecessary for our sea-empire be manned otherwise than by a race of bravesea-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 ofthe Dutch, who not only fished our water but did the carrying trade ofthe 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 situationwas accentuated by the fact that some of our colonies or plantations, asthey were then called--Virginia and the Barbadoes, for example--stuck tothe king and gave a commercial preference to the Dutch, shipping theirproduce to all parts of the world exclusively in Dutch bottoms. This wasfound intolerable, and in October 1651 the Long Parliament, nearing itsviolent end, passed the first Navigation Act, of which Ranke says: "Ofall the acts ever passed in Parliament, it is perhaps the one whichbrought about the most important results for England and theworld. "[59:1] The Navigation Act provided "that all goods from countries beyond Europeshould be imported into England in English ships only; and all Europeangoods either in English ships or in ships belonging to the countriesfrom 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 forcontraband. England asserted this right as against the Dutch, who, asthe world's carriers, were most subject to the right, and notunnaturally denied its existence. War was declared in 1652, and made the fame of two great admirals, Blakeand Van Tromp. Oliver's spirit was felt on the seas, and before manymonths were over England had captured more than a thousand Dutch tradingvessels, and brought business to a standstill in Amsterdam--then thegreat centre of commercial interests. When six short years afterwardsthe news of Cromwell's death reached that city, its inhabitants greatlyrejoiced, crowding the streets and crying "the Devil is dead. " Andrew Marvell was impregnated with the new ideas about sea-power. Agreat reader and converser with the best intellects of his time, and aHull man, he had probably early grasped the significance of Bacon'silluminating saying in the famous essay on the _True Greatness ofKingdoms and Estates_ (first printed in 1612), "that he that commandsthe sea is at great liberty and may take as much and as little of thewar as he will. " Cromwell, though not the creator of our navy, was itsstrongest inspiration until Nelson, and no feature of his greatadministration so excited Marvell's patriotic admiration as theLord-Protector's sleepless energy in securing and maintaining thecommand of the sea. In Marvell's poem, first published as a broadsheet in 1655, entitled_The First Anniversary of the Government under His Highness theLord-Protector_, he describes foreign princes soundly rating theirambassadors for having misinformed them as to the energies of the newCommonwealth:-- "'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 linescalled _The Character of Holland_, published in 1653 during the firstDutch War. As poetry the lines have no great merit; they do not evenjingle agreeably--but they are full of the spirit of the time, andbreathe 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 thesubject 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 wasperhaps the first of the moderns to rediscover both the rare merits andthe 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 passedmuster with the crowd. The incident--there is always an "incident"--which served as the actualexcuse 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 compelledto acknowledge the supremacy of the English flag in the home waters, andto acquiesce in the Navigation Act. It is a curious commentary upon theblack darkness that conceals the future, that Cromwell, dreading as hedid 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 fardeadlier stroke than Cromwell had been able to do, either on the fieldof battle or in front of Whitehall, refused to ratify the Treaty ofPeace with the Dutch until John De Witt had obtained an Act excludingthe Prince of Orange from ever filling the office of Stadtholder of theProvince of Holland. The contrast between the glory of Oliver's Dutch War and the shame ofCharles the Second's sank deep into Marvell's heart, and lent bitternessto many of his later satirical lines. Marvell's famous _Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland_ in1650 has a curious bibliographical interest. So far as we can tell, itwas first published in 1776. When it was composed we do not know. AtNunappleton House Oliver was not a _persona grata_ in 1650, for he hadno sooner come back from Ireland than he had stepped into the shoes ofthe Lord-General Fairfax; and there were those, Lady Fairfax, I doubtnot, among the number, who believed that the new Lord-General thought itwas high time he should be where Fairfax's "scruple" at last put him. Wemay be sure Cromwell's character was dissected even more than it wasextolled at Nunappleton. The famous Ode is by no means a panegyric, andits 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 afterMarvell had left Nunappleton, though it may have been so before he wentthere. There is an old untraceable tradition that Marvell was among thecrowd that saw the king die. What deaths have been witnessed, and withwhat strange apparent apathy, by the London crowd! But for thistradition one's imagination would trace to Lady Fairfax the most famousof the stanzas. But to return to the history of the Ode. In 1776 Captain EdwardThompson, a connection of the Marvell family and a versatile sailor witha passion for print, which had taken some odd forms of expression, produced by subscription in three quarto volumes the first collectededition of Andrew Marvell's works, both verse and prose. Such an editionhad been long premeditated by Thomas Hollis, one of the best friendsliterature had in the eighteenth century. It was Hollis who gave toSidney Sussex College the finest portrait in existence of OliverCromwell. Hollis collected material for an edition of Marvell with theaid of Richard Barron, an early editor of Milton's prose works, and ofAlgernon Sidney's _Discourse concerning Government_. Barron, however, lost zeal as the task proceeded, and complained justly enough "of a wantof anecdotes, " and as the printer, the well-known and accomplishedBowyer, doubted the wisdom of the undertaking, it was allowed to drop. Barron died in 1766, and Hollis in 1774, but the collections made by thelatter passed into the hands of Captain Thompson, who, with theassistance of Mr. Robert Nettleton, a grandson of one of Marvell'ssisters, at once began to get his edition ready. On Nettleton's deathhis "Marvell" papers came into Thompson's hands, and among them was, toquote the captain's own words, "a volume of Mr. Marvell's poems, somewritten with his own hand and the rest copied by his order. " The _Horatian Ode_ was in this volume, and was printed from it inThompson'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 uncriticalsea-captain. This precious volume undoubtedly contained some poems by Marvell, and ashis handwriting was both well known from many examples, and is highlycharacteristic, we may also be certain that the captain was not mistakenin his assertion that some of these poems were in Marvell's ownhandwriting. But, as ill-luck would have it, the volume also containedpoems written at a later period and in quite another hand. Among theselatter pieces were Addison's verses, _The Spacious Firmament on High_and _When all thy Mercies, O my God_; Dr. Watts' paraphrase _When Israelfreed from Pharaoh's Hand_; and Mallet's ballad _William and Margaret_. The two Addison pieces and the Watts paraphrase appeared for the firsttime in the _Spectator_, Nos. 453, 465, and 461, in 1712, and Mallet'sballad was first printed in 1724. Still there these pieces were, in manuscript, in this volume, and asthere were circumstances of mystification attendant upon their priorpublication, what does the captain do but claim them all, _Songs ofZion_ and sentimental ballad alike, as Marvell's. This of course broughtthe 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 ismade, though it is made of other poems in the volume, also published forthe first time by the captain. All, therefore, we know is that the Ode was first published in 1776 byan editor who says he found it copied in a book, subsequently destroyed, which contained (among other things) some poems written in Marvell'shandwriting, and that this book was given to the editor by agrand-nephew of the poet. Yet I imagine, poor as this evidence may seem to be, no student ofMarvell'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 moreevidence to satisfy him that the _Horatian Ode_ is as surely Marvell'sas the lines upon _Appleton House_, the _Bermudas_, _To his CoyMistress_, and _The Garden_. The great popularity of this Ode undoubtedly rests on the threestanzas:-- "That thence the royal actor borne, The tragic scaffold might adorn, While round the armèd 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 anOde 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 Urgèd his active star; . .. Then burning through the air he went, And palaces and temples rent; And Cæsar'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 reservèd 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 indeedit was the work of that, and not of a later year. There is nothingeither of the courtier or of the partisan about its statelyversification and sober, solemn thought. Entire self-possession, dignity, criticism of a great man and a strange career by one wellentitled to criticise, are among the chief characteristics of this noblepoem. It is infinitely refreshing, when reading and thinking aboutCromwell, to get as far away as possible from the fanatic's scream andthe fury of the bigot, whether of the school of Laud or Hobbes. AndrewMarvell knew Oliver Cromwell alive, and gazed on his features as he laydead--he knew his ambition, his greatness, his power, and where thatpower lay. How much might we unwittingly have lost, if Captain Thompsonhad not printed a poem which for more than a century of years hadremained unknown, and exposed to all the risks of a single manuscriptcopy! When Cromwell sent his picture to Queen Christina of Sweden tocommemorate the peace he concluded with her in 1654, Marvell, though notthen attached to the public service, was employed to write the Latincouplet that accompanied the picture. He discharged his task asfollows:-- _In effigiem Oliveri Cromwell_. "Hæc est quæ toties inimicos umbra fugavit At sub quâ cives otia lenta terunt. " The authorship of these lines is often attributed to Milton, but thereis little doubt they are of Marvell's composition. They might easilyhave been better. Marvell became Milton's assistant in September 1657, and the friendshipbetween the two men was thus consolidated by the strong ties of acommon duty. Milton's blindness making him unfit to attend the receptionof foreign embassies, Marvell took his place and joined in respectfullygreeting the Dutch ambassadors. After all he was but a junior clerk, still he doubtless rejoiced that his lines on Holland had been publishedanonymously. Literature was strongly represented in this department ofState just then, for Cromwell's Chamberlain, Sir Gilbert Pickering, whorepresented Northamptonshire in Parliament, had taken occasion tointroduce his nephew, John Dryden, to the public service, and he wasattached to the same office as Andrew Marvell. Poets, like pigeons, haveoften taken shelter under our public roofs, but Milton, Marvell, andDryden, all at the same time, form a remarkable constellation. Old Noll, we may be sure, had nothing to do with it. Marvell must have knownCromwell personally; but there is nothing to show that Milton andCromwell ever met. The popular engraving which represents a theatricalLord-Protector dictating despatches to a meek Milton is highlyludicrous. Cromwell could have as easily dictated a book of _ParadiseLost_, on the composition of which Milton began to be engaged during thelast year of the Protectorate, as one of Milton's despatches. In April 1657 Admiral Blake, the first great name in the annals of ournavy, performed his last feat of arms by destroying the Spanish WestIndian fleet at Santa Cruz without the loss of an English vessel. Thegallant sailor died of fever on his way home, and was buried accordingto his deserts in the Abbey. His body, with that of his master, was by avote of Parliament, December 4, 1660, taken from the grave and drawn tothe gallows-tree, and there hanged and buried under it. Pepys, who wasto know something of naval administration under the second Charles, hashis reflections on this unpleasing incident. Marvell's lines on Blake's victory over the Spaniards are not worthy ofso glorious an occasion, but our great doings by land and sea haveseldom been suitably recorded in verse. Drayton's _Song of Agincourt_ isimperishable, but was composed nearly two centuries after the battle. The wail of Flodden Field still floats over the Border; but MissElliot's famous ballad was published in 1765. Even the Spanish Armadahad to wait for Macaulay's spirited fragment. Mr. Addison's _Blenheim_stirred no man's blood; no poet sang Chatham's victories. [70:1] Campbellat 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 goodhater:-- "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 climateand 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 tothe 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 theSpanish war-cry _Santiago, y cierra España_ rang in hostility in Englishears. Turning for a moment from war to love, on the 19th of November 1657Cromwell's third daughter, the Lady Mary Cromwell, was married toViscount, afterwards Earl, Fauconberg. The Fauconbergs took revolutionscalmly and, despite the disinterment of their great relative, acceptedthe Restoration gladly and lived to chuckle over the Revolution. Theforgetfulness, no less than the vindictiveness, of men is oftensurprising. Marvell, who played the part of Laureate during theProtectorate, produced two songs for the conventionally joyfuloccasion. The second of the two is decidedly pretty for a Novemberwedding:-- "_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, whenOliver Cromwell died on the anniversary of Dunbar fight and of the fieldof Worcester. And yet the end, though it was to be sudden, did not atonce seem likely to be so. There was time for the poets to tune theirlyres. Waller, Dryden, Sprat, and Marvell had no doubt that "TumbledownDick" was to sit on the throne of his father and "still keep the sworderect, " and were ready with their verses. Westminster Abbey has never witnessed a statelier, costlier funeral thanthat of "the late man who made himself to be called Protector, " to quotewords from one of the most impressive passages in English prose, theopening sentences of Cowley's _Discourse by way of Vision concerning theGovernment of Oliver Cromwell_. The representatives of kings, potentates, and powers crowded the aisles, and all was done that pompand ceremony could do. Marvell, arrayed in the six yards of mourning theCouncil had voted him on the 7th of September, was, we may be sure, inthe Abbey, and it may well be that his blind colleague, to whom the sameliberal allowance had been made, leant on his arm during the service. Milton's muse remained silent. The vote of the House of Commons orderingthe 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 oldmanuscript book was one which was written therein in Marvell's own handentitled "A poem upon the Death of his late Highness the Protector. " Itscomposition 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, writingto Sir Richard Fanshaw, says, "You are the secretary of the Latin tongueand I will mend the warrant you sent, and have it despatched as soon asI hear again from you, but I must tell you the place in itself, if it benot dignified by the person who hath some other qualification, is not tobe valued. There is no signet belongs to it, which can be only kept by aSecretary of State, from whom the Latin Secretary always receives ordersand prepares no despatches without his direction, and hath only a fee ofa hundred pound a year. And therefore, except it hath been in the handsof a person who hath had some other employment, it hath fallen to thefortune 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 likeMarvell'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; sopowerful a motive is trade jealousy. [67:1] "To one unacquainted with Horace, this Ode, not perhaps soperfect as his are in form, and with occasional obscurities ofexpression, which Horace would not have left, will give a truer notionof 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 inevery quarter of the globe, when Spain coming to her assistance onlyshared her calamities, and the name of an Englishman was reverencedthrough Europe, no poet was heard amidst the general acclamation; thefame 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 hehad, since he left the University, led the life of a scholar, with aturn for business, and was known to many as an agreeable companion and alively wit. He was keenly interested in public affairs, and personallyacquainted with some men in great place, and for a year beforeCromwell's death he had been in a branch of the Civil Service; but ofthe 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 therest of his days, with but the shortest of occasional intervals, AndrewMarvell led the life of an active, eager member of Parliament, knowingall that was going on in the Chamber and hearing of everything that wasalleged to be going on in the Court; busily occupied with the affairs ofhis constituents in Hull, and daily watching, with an increasingly heavyheart and a bitter humour, the corruption of the times, the declensionof our sea-power, the growing shame of England, and what he believed tobe a dangerous conspiracy afoot for the undoing of the Reformation andthe destruction of the Constitution in both Church and State. "Garden-poetry" could not be reared on such a soil as this. The age ofCromwell and Blake was over. The remainder of Marvell's life (save sofar as personal friendship sweetened it) was spent in politics, publicbusiness, in concocting roughly rhymed and bitter satirical poems, andin the composition of prose pamphlets. Through it all Marvell remained very much the man of letters, though onewith a great natural aptitude for business. His was always the criticalattitude. He was the friend of Milton and Harrington, of the politicalphilosophers who invented paper constitutions in the "Rota" Club, and ofthe new race of men whose thoughts turned to Natural Science, and whofounded the Royal Society. Office he never thought of. He could have hadit had he chosen, for he was a man of mark, even of distinction, fromthe 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 ofthe king's friends, who ran out of the House to tell their shrewd masterthe gossip of the lobbies, "commended this man and discommended anotherwho deserved better, and would many times, when His Majesty spoke wellof any man, ask His Majesty if he would give them leave to let thatperson know how gracious His Majesty was to him, or bring him to kisshis hand. To which he commonly consenting, every one of his servantsdelivered some message from him to a Parliament man, and invited him toCourt, as if the King would be willing to see him. And by this means therooms 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 withthat man and to thank him for his affection, which could never concludewithout some general expression of grace or promise, which the poorgentleman always interpreted to his own advantage, and expected somefruit 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 toit. "[77:1] It is a lifelike picture Clarendon draws of the crowded rooms, and ofthe witty king moving about fooling vanity, ambition, and corruption tothe top of their bent. That the king chose his own ministers is plainenough. Marvell was at the beginning well disposed towards Charles. They hadsome points in common; and among them a quick sense of humour and a turnfor business. But the member for Hull must soon have recognised thatthere was no place for an honest quick-witted man in any Stuartadministration. Marvell and his great chief remained in their offices until the close ofthe year 1659, when the impending Restoration enforced their retirement. Milton used his leisure to pour forth excited tracts to prove how easyit would still be to establish a Free Commonwealth. Once again, and forthe 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 everknew of the real mind and temper of the English people. The Lord Richard Cromwell was exactly the sort of eldest son a greatsoldier like Oliver, who had put his foot on fortune's neck, was likelyto have. Richard (1626-1712) was not, indeed, born in the purple, buthis early manhood was nurtured in it. Religion, as represented by longsermons, tiresome treatises, and prayerful exercises, bored him todeath. Of enthusiasm he had not a trace, nor was he bred to arms. Hedelighted in hunting, in the open air, and the company of sportsmen. Whatever came his way easily, and as a matter of right, he was wellcontent to take. He bore himself well on State occasions, and could makea 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 knowwhether he had ever read _Don Quixote_, in Shelton's translation, a verypopular book of the time; probably not, for, though Chancellor of theUniversity of Oxford, Richard was not a reading man, but if he had, hemust have sympathised with Sancho Panza's attitude of mind towards thefamous 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 andceremonies, and at once proceeded to summon a Parliament, an ImperialCromwellian Parliament, containing representatives both from Scotlandand Ireland. In this Parliament Andrew Marvell sat for the first time asone of the two members for Kingston-upon-Hull. His election took placeon the 10th of January 1659, being the first county day after thesheriff had received the writ. Five candidates were nominated: ThomasStrickland, Andrew Marvell, John Ramsden, Henry Smyth, and Sir HenryVane, and a vote being taken in the presence of the mayor, aldermen, andmany of the burgesses, John Ramsden and Andrew Marvell were declaredduly elected. Nobody to-day, glancing his eye over a list of the knights andburgesses who made up Richard Cromwell's first and last Parliament, would ever guess that it represented an order of things of the mostrecent date which was just about to disappear. On paper it has a solidlook. The fine old crusted Parliamentary names with which the clerkswere to remain so long familiar as the members trooped out to dividewere more than well represented. [79:1] The Drakes of Amersham werethere; Boscawens, Bullers, and Trelawneys flocked from Cornwall; SirWilfred Lawson sat for Cumberland, and his son for Cockermouth; aKnightly represented Northamptonshire, whilst Lucys from Charlecotelooked after Warwick, both town and county. Arthur Onslow came fromSurrey, a Townshend from Norfolk, and, of course, a Bankes from CorfeCastle;[79:2] Oxford University, contented, as she occasionally is, tobe represented by a great man, had chosen Sir Matthew Hale, whilst theno 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 toLondon with the Lord-Protector's writs in their pockets. A lessrevolutionary assembly never met, though there was a regicide or twoamong them. But when the members found themselves alone together therewas some loose talk. On the 27th of January 1659 Marvell attended for the first time in hisplace, when the new Protector opened Parliament, and made a speech inthe House of Lords, which was pronounced at the time to be "a veryhandsome oration. " The first business of the Commons was to elect a Speaker, nor was theirchoice a very lucky one, for it first fell on Chaloner Chute, whospeedily breaking down in health, the Recorder of London was appointedhis substitute, but the Recorder being on his deathbed at the time, andChute dying very shortly afterwards, Thomas Bampfield was electedSpeaker, and continued so to be until the Parliament was dissolved byproclamation on the 22nd of April. This proclamation was RichardCromwell's last act of State. Marvell's first Parliament was both short and inglorious. One only ofits 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 reckonedwith--an army unpaid, angry, suspicious, and happily divided. I must nottrace the history of faction. There is no less exalted page in Englishhistory since the days of Stephen. Monk is its fitting hero, and Charlesthe Second its expensive saviour of society. The story how theRestoration 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 theconcluding chapter of _Baker's Chronicle_ (Sir Roger de Coverley'sfavourite Sunday reading), whilst that old-fashioned remnant, who stilllove to read history for fun, may not object to be told that they willfind printed in the Report of the Leyborne-Popham Papers (_HistoricalManuscripts Commission_, 1899, p. 204) a _Narrative of the Restoration_, by Mr. John Collins, the Chief Butler of the Inner Temple, proving ingreat and highly diverting detail how this remarkable event was reallythe work not so much of Monk as of the Chief Butler. Richard Cromwell having slipped the collar, the officers assumedcommand, as they were only too ready to do, and recalled the old, dishonoured, but pertinacious Rump Parliament, which, though musteringat first but forty-two members, at once began to talk and keep journalsas if nothing had happened since the day ten years before, when it wassent about its business. Old Speaker Lenthall was routed out ofobscurity, and much against his will, and despite his protests, clappedonce more into the chair. Dr. John Owen, an old parliamentary preachinghand, was once again requisitioned to preach before the House, which hedid at enormous length one fine Sunday in May. The Rump did not prove a popular favourite. It was worse than Old Nollhimself, who could at least thrash both Dutchman and Spaniard, and beeven 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, andit soon became apparent to every one that the whole country was eager toreturn as soon as possible to the old mould. Nothing now stood betweenCharles and his own but half a dozen fierce old soldiers and theirdubious, discontented, unpaid men. It was once commonly supposed (it is so no longer), that the Restorationparty was exclusively composed of dispossessed Cavaliers, bishops inhiding, ejected parsons, high-flying _jure divino_ Episcopalians, talkative toss-pots, and the great pleasure-loving crowd, cruellyrepressed under the rule of the saints. Had it been left to theseragged regiments, the issue would have been doubtful, and the resultvery different. The Presbyterian ministers who occupied the rectoriesand vicarages of the Church of England and their well-to-do flocks inboth town and country were, with but few exceptions, all for KingCharles and a restored monarchy. In this the ministers may have shown asound political instinct, for none of them had any more mind than theAnglican bishops to tolerate Papists, Socinians, Quakers, and FifthMonarchy men, but in their management of the business of the Restorationthese divines exposed themselves to the same condemnation that Clarendonin an often-quoted passage passed upon his own clerical allies. Whenread by the light of the Act of "Uniformity, " the "Corporation, " the"Five Mile, " and the "Conventicle" Acts, the conduct of thePresbyterians seems recklessness itself, whilst the ignorance theirministers displayed of the temper of the people they had lived amongstall their lives, and whom they adjured to cry _God save the King_, butnot to drink his Majesty's health (because health-drinking was forbiddenin the Old Testament), would be startling were it not so eminentlycharacteristic. [82:1] The Rump, amidst the ridicule and contempt of the populace, was againexpelled by military force on the 13th of October 1659. The officerswere divided in opinion, some supporting, others, headed by Lambert, opposing the Parliament; but _vis major_, or superior cunning, was onthe side of Lambert, who placed his soldiers in the streets leading toWestminster Hall, and when the Speaker came in his coach, his horseswere turned, and he was conducted very civilly home. The regiments thatshould 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, andaffected not to approve of the force put upon Parliament. The feelingfor a Free Parliament increased in strength and violence every day. TheRump was for a third time restored in December by the section of theLondon army that supported its claim. Lenthall was once more in thechair, and the journals were resumed without the least notice of pastoccurrences. Monk, having reached London amidst great excitement, wentdown to the House and delivered an ambiguous speech. Up to the last Monkseems to have remained uncertain what to do. The temper of the City, which was fiercely anti-Rump, may have decided him. At all events heinvited the secluded, that is the expelled, members of the old LongParliament to take their seats along with the others, and in a formaldeclaration addressed to Parliament, dated the 21st of February 1660, hecounselled it among other things to dissolve legally "in order to makeway for a succession of Parliaments. " In a word, Monk declared for aFree Parliament. Great indeed were the national rejoicings. On the 16th of March 1660 a Bill was read a third time dissolving theParliament begun and holden at Westminster, 3rd November 1640, and forthe calling and holding of a Parliament at Westminster on the 25th ofApril 1660. This time an end was really made of the Rump, though formany a long day there were parliamentary pedants to be found in the landready to maintain that the Long Parliament had never been legallydissolved and still _de jure_ existed; so long, I presume, as anysingle member of it remained alive. Marvell was not a "Rumper, " but on the 2nd of April 1660 he was againelected for Hull to sit in what is usually called the ConventionParliament. John Ramsden was returned at the head of the poll with 227votes, Marvell receiving 141. There were four defeated candidates. With this Convention Parliament begins Marvell's remarkablecorrespondence, on fine folio sheets of paper, with the corporation ofHull, whose faithful servant he remained until death parted them in1678. This correspondence, which if we include in it, as we well may, theletters to the Worshipful Society of Masters and Pilots of the TrinityHouse in Hull, numbers upwards of 350 letters, and with but oneconsiderable gap (from July 1663 to October 1665) covers the wholeperiod of Marvell's membership, is, I believe, unique in our publicrecords. The letters are preserved at Hull, where I hope care is takento 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 ofhis edition of Marvell's complete works. An admission may as well be made at once. This correspondence is not sointeresting as it might have been expected to prove. Marvell did notwrite letters for his biographer, nor to instruct posterity, nor toserve any party purpose, nor even to exhibit honest emotion, but simplyto tell his employers, whose wages he took, what was happening atWestminster. He kept his reflections either to himself or for hispolitical broadsheets, and indeed they were seldom of the kind it wouldhave been safe to entrust to the post. Good Mr. Grosart fusses and frets terribly over Marvell's astonishingcapacity for chronicling in sombre silence every kind of legislativeabomination. It is at times a little hard to understand it, for Hull waswhat may be called a Puritan place. No doubt caution dictated some ofthe reticence--but the reserve of Marvell's character is one of the fewtraits of his personality that has survived. He was a satirist, not anenthusiast. I will give the first letter _in extenso_ to serve as a specimen, and avery 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 17thof November 1660, the Convention Parliament began its sittings on the25th of April. In composition this Convention Parliament was very like RichardCromwell's, and indeed it contained many of the same members, whoseloyalty, however, was less restrained than in 1659. All the world knewwhat brought this Parliament together. It was to make the nation'speace with its king, either on terms or without terms. "We are allRoyalists now" are words which must often have been on the lips of themembers of this House. One can imagine the smiles, half grim, halfironical, that would accompany their utterance. Such a right-about-facecould never be dignified. It is impossible not to be reminded ofschoolboys at the inevitable end of "a barring out. " The sarcasticcomment of Clarendon has not lost its sting. "From this time there wassuch an emulation and impatience in Lords, Commons, and City, andgenerally over the Kingdom, who should make the most lively expressionsof their duty and of their joy, that a man could not but wonder wherethose people dwelt who had done all the mischief and kept the King somany years from enjoying the comfort and support of such excellentsubjects. "[88:1] The most significant sentence in Marvell's first letter to hisconstituents is that in which he refers to the Bill for making Charles'sdeclaration in religious matters the law of the land. Had the passing ofany such Bill been possible, how different the history of England wouldhave been! The declaration Marvell is referring to was contained in the famousmessage from Breda, which was addressed by Charles to all his lovingsubjects 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 readyand willing to keep this part of his royal word--but it proved animpossibility. A Roman Catholic as a matter of creed, a Hobbist in conversation, asensualist in practice, and the shrewdest though most indolent of cynicsin council, Charles, in this matter of religious toleration, wouldgladly have kept his word, not indeed because it was his word, for onthe point of honour he was indifferent, but because it jumped with hishumour, and would have mitigated the hard lot of the Catholics. Charleswas not a theorist, all his tastes being eminently practical, not to sayscientific. 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 asOliver had ever done for the _jure divino_ of the English Crown. Oliveronce said, and he was not given to _braggadocio_, that he would fire hispistol at the king "as soon as at another if he met him in battle, " andthe second Charles would have thought no more of beheading an Anglicanbishop than he did of sending Sir Harry Vane to the scaffold. Honestyand virtue, on the rare occasions Charles encountered them, he admiredmuch as a painter admires the colours of a fine sunset. Above everythingelse Charles was determined never again, if he could help it, to be senton his travels, to be snubbed and starved in foreign courts. Sir Thomas Urquhart of Cromartie, the first and best translator ofRabelais, is said to have died of laughing on hearing of theRestoration; Charles did not die, but he must have laughed inwardly atthe spectacle that met his eyes everywhere as he made hisoften-described progress from Dover to London, and examined the gorgeousbeds and quilts, fine linen and carpets, couches, horses and liveries, his faithful Commons had been at the pains and at the expense ofproviding 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 inClarendon's _Life_, and in the history of the Savoy Conference, and neednot be restated here. In the opinion of the Anglican clergy, the king'sdivine right stood no higher than their own. They too had suffered inexile. They had been "robbed" of their tithes, and turned out of theirpalaces, rectories and vicarages, and excluded from the churches theystill called "theirs. " Their Book of Common Prayer was no longer incommon use, having been banished by the "Directory of Public Worship"since 1645. So late as July 1, 1660, Pepys records attending a servicein the Abbey, and adds "No Common Prayer yet. " If we find ourselveswondering 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 thePuritan party when Laud was put to death. Both parties were, on eachoccasion, in a minority. Though England has never been longpriest-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. Itsmembers all swore--what will not members of Parliament swear?--that theking was supreme in Church and State, the only rightful king of therealm and of all other his dominions, and that from their hearts theyabhorred, detested, and abjured the damnable doctrine that princes, excommunicated or deprived of the Pope, might be murdered by theirsubjects. They proceeded to pass a very useful Act of Indemnity andOblivion, agreeing to let bygones be bygones, except in certain namedcases. They ordered Mr. John Milton to be taken into custody, andprosecuted (which he never was) by the Attorney-General. Later on thepoet was released from custody, and we find Mr. Marvell complaining tothe House that their sergeant had extracted £150 in fees before he wouldlet Mr. Milton go. On which Sir Heneage Finch, afterwards LordChancellor, laconically observed that Milton deserved hanging. Hecertainly got off easily, but, as he lived to publish _Paradise Lost_, _Paradise Regained_, and _Samson Agonistes_, he may be said to haveearned his freedom. All his poetry put together never brought him in athird of the sum the sergeant got for letting him out of prison. GeneralMonk, the man-midwife, who so skilfully assisted at that great Birth ofTime, the Restoration, was made a duke, and Cromwell's army, so long theforce behind the supreme power, was paid its arrears and (two regimentsexcepted) disbanded. "Fifty thousand men, " says Macaulay, "accustomed tothe profession of arms, were thrown upon the world . .. In a few monthsthere remained not a trace indicating that the most formidable army inthe world had just been absorbed in the mass of the community. "[92:1] After this the House of Commons fell to discussing religion, and madethe sad discovery that differences of opinion still existed. In thesecircumstances they decided to refer the matter to their pious king, andto such divines as he might choose. They then voted large sums of moneyfor the royal establishment, and, it being the very end of August, adjourned till the 6th of November. As for making constitutional termswith the king, they never attempted it, though Sir Matthew Hale iscredited with an attempt to induce them to do so. Any proposals of thekind must have failed. The people were in no mood for makingconstitutions. Having met again on the 6th of November, Marvell, in a letter to theMayor 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 £1, 200, 000a year. " "The Customs are estimated toward £500, 000 per annum in therevenue. His lands and fee farms £250, 000. The Excise of Beer and Ale£300, 000, the rest arise out of the Post Office, Wine Licenses, Stannaries Court, Probate of Wills, Post-fines, Forests, and otherrights of the Crown. The excise of Foreign Commodities is to becontinued apart until satisfaction of public debts and engagementssecured upon the excise. " This settlement of revenue marks "the beginning of a time. " Cromwell, asCowley puts it in his _Discourse_, by far the ablest indictment ofOliver ever penned, "took armes against two hundred thousand pounds ayear, and raised them himself to above two millions. " It is true. Cromwell spent the money honestly and efficiently, and chiefly on a navythat enabled him to wrest the command of the sea from the Dutch, tosecure the carrying trade, and to challenge the world for supremacy inthe Indies, both East and West. In doing this, he had the instinct ofthe whole nation behind him. But it was expensive. Had Charles been the most honest and thrifty of men, instead of one ofthe most dishonest and extravagant, he must have found his financialposition a very difficult one. He was poorer than Cromwell. The feudaltaxation had fallen into desuetude. To revive wardships, etc. , wasimpossible, to recover arrears hopeless. There was nothing for it butscientific taxation. One of his first Acts contains a schedule of taxedarticles extending over fifteen double-columned pages of a quartovolume. To raise this revenue was difficult--in fact impossible, and theamount 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 bishopwas a very "moderate" Anglican indeed, and his appointment was meant asa sop to the Presbyterians. Richard Baxter and Edmund Calamy refusedsimilar preferment. On the 29th of November Marvell's letter contains the followingpassage:-- "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 seldommentions 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 oldmaster, and allowing it to pass _sub silentio_, is one of the manyoccasions that stirred Mr. Grosart's wonder. Nerves were tough in thosedays. Pepys tells us unconcernedly enough how, after seeing LordSouthampton sworn in at the Court of Exchequer as Lord Treasurer, henoticed "the heads of Cromwell, Bradshaw, and Ireton set up at thefurther end of Westminster Hall. " It is quite possible Lady Fauconbergmay 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 forHull, for Charles the Second's first Parliament was of unconscionablelong duration, not being dissolved till January 1679, after Marvell'sdeath. It is known in history as the Pensionary or Long Parliament. Theelection 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 ofApril 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 paidby the corporation out of the borough funds. It was never a popularcharge. Burgesses in many places cared as little for M. P. 's as do someof their successors for free libraries. Prynne, perhaps the greatestparliamentary lawyer that ever lived, told Pepys one day, as they weredriving to the Temple, that the number of burgesses to be returned toParliament for any particular borough was not, for aught Prynne couldfind, fixed by law, but was at first left to the discretion of thesheriff, and that several boroughs had complained of the sheriff'sputting them to the charge of sending up burgesses. In August 1661 the corporation paid Marvell £28 for his fee as one oftheir burgesses, being 6s. 8d. A day for eighty-four days, the length ofthe Convention Parliament. Marvell continued to take his wages until theend of his days; but it is perhaps a mistake to suppose he was the verylast 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 characteror independence, but it steadily deteriorated in both respects. Vacancies, as they occurred, and they occurred very frequently in thosedays of short lives, were filled up by courtiers and pensioners. In the small tract, entitled _Flagellum Parliamentum_, which is a highlylibellous "Dod, " often attributed to Marvell, a record is preserved ofmore than two hundred members of this Parliament in 1675. Despite somehumorous touches, this _Flagellum Parliamentum_ is still disagreeable toread. But the most graphic picture we have of this Parliament is to befound in one of Lord Shaftesbury's political tracts entitled "A letterfrom 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 hisdays, and if at times he may need forgiveness for the savagery of hissatire, it ought to be found easy to forgive him. The two members for Hull were soon immersed in matters of much localimportance. They began by quarrelling with one another, Marvell writing"the bond of civility betwixt Col. Gilby and myself being unhappilysnappt in pieces, and in such manner that I cannot see how it ispossible ever to knit them again. " House of Commons quarrels are usuallysoon made up, and so was this one. The custom was for _both_ members tosign these letters, though they are all written in Marvell's hand--butif this was for any reason inconvenient, Marvell signed alone. Noletters, unless in Marvell's writing, are preserved at Hull, which is acurious fact. One of these bits of local business related to a patent alleged to havebeen granted by the Crown to certain persons, authorising them to erectand maintain _ballast wharfs_ in the various ports, and to make chargesin respect of them. This was resented by the members for the ports, andon Marvell's motion the matter was referred to the Committee ofGrievances, before whom the patentees were summoned. When they came itappeared that the patent warranted none of the exactions that had beendemanded, and also that the warrant sent down to Hull naming thesecharges was nothing more than a draft framed by the patenteesthemselves, and not authorised in any way. The patent was at oncesuspended. Marvell, like a true member of Parliament, wishes to get anylittle local credit that may be due for such prompt action, andwrites:-- "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 beweakened, neither should he have power to make a grant of them to you. " Another much longer business related to a lighthouse, which someoutsiders were anxious to build in the Humber. The corporation of Hull, acting on Marvell's advice, had petitioned the Privy Council, and wereasked by their business-like member "to send us up a dormant credit foran hundred pound, which we yet indeed have no use of, but if need bemust have ready at hand to reward such as will not otherwise befriendyour business. " Some months later Marvell forwards an account, not ofthe £100, but of the legal expenses about the lighthouse. He wishes itwere less, but hopes that the "vigorous resistance" will discourage thedesigners from proceeding farther. This it did not do. As a member ofthe bar, I find two or three of the items in this old-world Bill ofCosts interesting:-- To Mr. Scroggs to attend the Council, £3 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 tobecome "the infamous Lord Chief Justice Scroggs" of all schoolhistories. A week before the prorogation of Parliament, which happened on the 19thof 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 amonth after the reassembling of the House. What took him there nobody knows. Writing to the Trinity House about thelighthouse 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 personsreferred to--but beyond this we cannot go. Whilst in Holland Marvell wrote both to the Trinity House and to thecorporation on business matters. In March 1663 Marvell came back in a hurry, some complaints having beenmade in Hull about his absence. He begins his first letter after hisreturn 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 theHouse on the unhappy Bill of Uniformity, nor does any record of thosediscussions anywhere exist. The Savoy Conference proved a failure, andno lay reader of Baxter's account of it can profess wonder. Not a singlepoint in difference was settled. In the meantime the restored Houses ofConvocation, from which the Presbyterian members were excluded, hadcompleted their revision of the Book of Common Prayer and presented itto Parliament. In considering the Bill for Uniformity, the House of Lords, wherePresbyterianism was powerfully represented, showed more regard for those"tender consciences" to which the king (by the new Prayer Book calledfor the first time "our most religious King") had referred in his BredaDeclaration 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 theContinent, the Act of Uniformity became law, and by the 24th of August1662 all beneficed ministers and schoolmasters had to make thecelebrated subscription and profession, or go out into the wilderness. There has always been a dispute as to the physical possibility ofperusing the compilation in question before the day fixed by theStatute. The Book was advertised for sale in London on the 6th ofAugust, but how many copies were actually available on that day is notknown. The Dean and Chapter of Peterborough did not get their copies until the17th of August. When the new folios reached the lonely parsonages ofCumberland and Durham--who would care to say? The Act required a verbalavowal of "unfeigned assent and consent to all and everything containedand prescribed in and by the Book of Common Prayer, and administrationsof the Sacraments and other rites and ceremonies of the Church accordingto the use of the Church of England, together with the Psalter, and theform of manner of making, ordaining, and consecrating Bishops, Priests, and Deacons" to be made after the service upon "some Lord's day" beforethe Feast of St. Bartholomew, _i. E. _ the 24th of August 1662. The Actalso required subscription within the same time-limit to a declarationof (_inter alia_) uniformity to the Liturgy of the Church of England "asit is now by law established. " That this haste was indecent no layman is likely to dispute, but that itwrought practical wrong is doubtful. The Vicar of Bray needed no time toread his new Folio to enable him to make whatever avowal concerning itthe law demanded; and as for signing the declaration, all he requiredfor that purpose was pen and ink. Neither had the incumbent, who was agood churchman at heart, any doubts to settle. He rejoiced to know thathis side was once more uppermost, and that it would be no longernecessary for him, in order to retain his living, to pretend to toleratea Presbyterian, or to submit to read in his church the Directory ofPublic Worship. Convocation had approved the new Prayer Book, which wasin substance the old one, and what more did any churchman require? Asfor the Presbyterians and others who were in possession of livings, thefailure of the Savoy Conference must have made it plain to them that theChurch of England had not allowed the king to keep his word, thatcompromise and comprehension had failed, and that if they were to remainwhere they were, it could only be on terms of completely severingthemselves from all other Protestant bodies in the world, and becomingthorough Episcopalians. No Presbyterian of any eminence was prepared tomake the statutory avowal. Painful as it always must be to give up anygood thing by a fixed date, it is hard to see what advantage would haveaccrued from delay. When the day came, some two thousand parsons were turned out of theChurch of England. Among them were included many of the most devout andsome of the most learned of our divines. Their "coming in" had beenirregular, their "going out" was painful. Save so far as it turned these men out, the Act was a failure. It didnot procure that uniformity in the public worship of God which itdeclared was so desirable; it prevented no scandal; it arrested nodecay; it allayed no distemper, and it certainly did not settle thepeace of the Church. Inside the Church the bishops were supine, theparochial clergy indifferent, and the worshippers, if such a name canproperly be bestowed upon the congregations, were grossly irreverent. Nor was any improvement in the conduct of the Church service noticeableuntil after the Revolution, and when legislation had conceded a somewhatshabby measure of toleration to those who by that time had become rigid, traditional, and hereditary dissenters. Then indeed some attempts beganto be made to secure a real uniformity of ritual in the public worshipof the Church of England. [104:1] How far success has rewarded theseexertions it is not for me to say. Marvell did not remain long at home after his return from Holland. Astrange adventure lay before him. He thus introduces it in a letterdated 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 nowdiscoverable, but the tie, whatever it may have been, was evidently aclose 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 whichmade the voyage to Archangel in less than a month, sailing fromGravesend on the 22nd of July and arriving at the bar of Archangel onthe 19th of August. The companion frigate took seven weeks to compassthe same distance. Nothing of any importance attaches to this Russian embassy. It cost agreat deal of money, took up a great deal of time, exposed theambassador and his suite to much rudeness and discomfort, and failed toeffect its main object, which was to secure a renewal of the privilegesformerly enjoyed in Muscovy by British merchants. One of the attendants upon the ambassador made a small book out of histravels, which did not get printed till 1669, when it attracted littlenotice. Mr. Grosart was the first of Marvell's many biographers todiscover the existence of this narrative. [106:1] He found it in thefirst instance, to use his own language, "in one of good trusty JohnHarris' folios of _Travels and Voyages_" (two vols. Folio, 1705); butlater on he made the sad discovery that this "good trusty John Harris"had uplifted what he called his "true and particular account" from thebook of 1669 without any acknowledgment. "For ways that are dark" theold compiler of travels was not easily excelled, but why should Mr. Grosart have gone out of his way to call an eighteenth-centurybook-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 wasaccompanied by his wife and eldest son, although ready to start fromArchangel by the end of September, was doomed to spend both the 5th ofNovember and Christmas Day in the gloomy town of Vologda, which they hadreached, travelling by water, on the 17th of October. Some of this timewas spent in quarrelling as to who was to supply the sledges that wererequired to convey the ambassador and all his _impedimenta_ along thenow ice-bound roads to Moscow. It was one of Marvell's many duties toremonstrate with the authorities for their cruel and disrespectfulindifference; he did so with great freedom, but with no effect, and atlast the ambassador was obliged to hire two hundred sledges at his owncharges. Sixty he sent on ahead, following with one hundred and forty onthe 15th of January 1664. It was an intensely cold journey, and theaccommodation at night, with one happy exception, proved quite infamous. On the 3rd of February Lord Carlisle and his _cortége_ found themselvesfive versts from Moscow. The 5th of February was fixed for their entryinto the city in all their finery. They were ready on the morning ofthat 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 heexpected to eat in his city-quarters. Nightfall approached, and it wasnot till "half an hour before night" that the belated messengersarrived, full of excuses. The ambassador was hungry, cold, and furious, nor did his anger abate when told he was not to be allowed to enterMoscow that night, as the Tsar and his ladies were very anxious toenjoy the spectacle. The return of the cooks from Moscow and thepreparation of dinner, though a mitigation, was no cure for woundedpride, and Lord Carlisle, calling Marvell to his side, and with hisassistance, concocted a letter in Latin to the Tsar, complainingbitterly of their ill-treatment _inter fumosi gurgustii sordes etangustias sine cibo aut potu_, and going so far as to assert that hadanything of the kind happened in England to a foreign ambassador, theKing of England would never have rested until the offence had beenatoned for with the blood of the criminals. When, some forty yearsafterwards, Peter the Great asked Queen Anne to chop off the heads ofthe 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 publicentry into Moscow; but so long a time was occupied over the few verststhey 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 upona yard of red damask. The titles of the Russian Potentate would, ifprinted here, fill half a page. All the Russias, Great, Little, andWhite, emperies more than one, dukedoms by the dozen, territories, countries, and dominions--not all easy to identify on the map, and veryhard to pronounce--were read out in a loud voice by Marvell. At the endof them came the homely title of the Earl and his offices, "hisMajesty's Lieutenant in the Counties of Cumberland and Westmorland. " The letters read and delivered, the Tsar and his Boyars rose in theirplaces simultaneously, and their tissue vests made so strange, loud, andunexpected a noise as to provoke the ever too easily moved risibilityof the Englishmen. [109:1] When Marvell and the rest of them had ceasedfrom giggling, the Tsar inquired after the health of the king, but thedistance between his Imperial Majesty and Lord Carlisle being too greatfor the question to carry, it had to be repeated by those who werenearer the ambassador, who gravely replied that when he last saw hismaster, namely on the 20th of July then last past, he was perfectlywell. To the same question as to the health of "the desolate widow ofCharles the First, " Carlisle returned the same cautious answer. He thenread a very long speech in English, which his interpreter turned intoRussian. The same oration was rendered into Latin by Marvell, andpresented. Over Marvell's Latin trouble arose, for the Russians werebent 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 ofTrinity, and Milton's assistant as Latin Secretary for nothing. Heprepared a reply which, as it does not lack humour, has a distinctliterary flavour, and is all that came of the embassy, may here be givenat 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 Phaëthon, _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 Electoriæ_, _Serenitates Regiæ_, 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 Cæsar 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 toa dinner, which, beginning at two o'clock, lasted till eleven, when itwas prematurely broken up by the Tsar's nose beginning to bleed. Fivehundred dishes were served, but there were no napkins, and thetable-cloths only just covered the boards. There were Spanish wines, white and red mead, Puaz and strong waters. The English ambassador wasnot properly placed at table, not being anywhere near the Tsar, and hisfaithful suite shared his resentment. Time went on, but no diplomaticprogress was made. The Tsar would not renew the privileges of theBritish merchants; Easter was spent in Moscow, May also--and stillnothing was done. Carlisle, in a huff, determined to go away, and, somewhat to the distress of his followers, refused to accept the costlysables sent by the Tzar, not only to the ambassador, Lady Carlisle, andLord Morpeth, but to the secretaries and others. The Tzar thereuponreturned the plate which our king had sent him, which plate LordCarlisle seems to have appropriated, no doubt with diplomaticcorrectness, as his perquisite in lieu of the sables; but the suite gotnothing. The embassy left Moscow on the 24th of June for Novgorod and Riga, andafter visiting Stockholm and Copenhagen, Lord Carlisle and Marvellreached London on the 30th of January 1665. During Marvell's absence war had been declared with the Dutch. It wasnever difficult to go to war with the Dutch. The king was always in wantof money, and as no proper check existed over war supplies, he took whathe wanted out of them. The merchants on 'Change desired war, saying thatthe trade of the world was too little for both England and Holland, andthat one or the other "must down. " The English manufacturers, who feltthe sting of their Dutch competitors, were always in favour of war. Thenthe 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 rightof entry in that quarter of the globe. A baronet called on Pepys andpulled out of his pocket letters from the East Indies, full of sad talesof Englishmen having been actually thrashed inside their own factory atSurat by swaggering Dutchmen, who had insulted the flag of St. George, and swore they were going to be the masters "out there. " Pepys, whoknew a little about the state of the royal navy, listened sorrowfullyand was content to hope that the war would not come until "we are moreready for it. " In the House of Commons the prudent men were against the war, and wereat once accused of being in the pay of the Dutch. The king's friendswere all for the war, and nobody doubted that some of the money votedfor it would find its way into their pockets, or at all events thatpensions would reward their fidelity. A third group who favoured the warwere supposed to do so because their disloyalty and fanaticism alwaysdisposed 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 kingopened Parliament and demanded money. He got it. Clarendon describes howSir Robert Paston from Norfolk, a back-bench man, "who was no frequentspeaker, but delivered what he had a mind to say very clearly, " stood upand proposed a grant of two and a half million pounds, to be spread overthree years. So huge a sum took the House by surprise. Nobody spoke;"they sat in amazement. " Somebody at last found his voice and moved amuch smaller sum, but no one seconded him. Sir Robert Paston ultimatelyfound supporters, "no man who had any relation to the Court speaking aword. " The Speaker put Sir Robert Paston's motion as the question, "andthe affirmative made a good sound, and very few gave their negativealoud. " But Clarendon adds, "it was notorious very many sat silent. " The war was not in its early stages unpopular, being for the control ofthe sea, for the right of search, for the fishing trade, for mastery ofthe "gorgeous East. " The Admiralty had been busy, and a hundredfrigates, well gunned, were ready for the blue water by February 1665. The Duke of York, who took the command, was a keen sailor, though hisunhappy notions as to patronage, and its exercise, were fatal to anefficient service. On the 3rd of June the duke had his one victory; itwas off the roadstead of Harwich, and the roar of his artillery washeard 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, LordMuskerry and young Richard Boyle, all on the duke's ship the _RoyalCharles_, were killed by one shot, their blood and brains flying in theduke's face. The Earls of Marlborough and Portland were killed. Thegallant Lawson, who rose from the ranks in Cromwell's time, anAnabaptist and a Republican, but still in high command, received onboard his ship, the _Royal Oak_, a fatal wound. On the other side theDutch admiral, Opdam, was blown into the air with his ship and crew. TheDutch fleet was scattered, and fled, after a loss estimated attwenty-four ships and eight thousand men killed and wounded; Englandlost no ship and but six hundred men. The victory was not followed up. Some say the duke lost nerve. Tromp wasallowed to lead a great part of the fleet away in safety, and when thegreat De Ruyter was recalled from the West Indies he was soon able toassume the command of a formidable number of fighting craft. In less than ten days after this great engagement the plague appeared inLondon, a terrible and a solemnising affliction, lasting the rest of theyear. It was at its worst in September, when in one week more than seventhousand died of it. The total number of its dead is estimated atsixty-eight thousand five hundred and ninety-six. On account of the plague Parliament was summoned to meet at Oxford inOctober 1665. Marvell must have reached Oxford in good time, for the Admission Book ofthe Bodleian records his visit to the library on the last day ofSeptember. His first letter from Oxford is dated 15th October, and in ithe tells the corporation that the House, "upon His Majesty'srepresentation of the necessity of further supplies in reference to theDutch War and probability of the French embracing their interests, hathvoted the King £1, 250, 000 additional to be levied in two years. " Theking, who was the frankest of mortals in speech, though false as Belialin action, told the House that he had already spent all the moneypreviously voted and must have more, especially if France was to preferthe friendship of Holland to his. Amidst loud acclamations the money wasvoted. The French ambassadors, who were in Oxford, saw for themselvesthe temper of Parliament. Notwithstanding the terrible plight of the capital, Oxford was gaietyitself. The king was accompanied by his consort, who then was hopeful ofan heir, and also by Lady Castlemaine and Miss Stewart. Lady Castlemainedid not escape the shaft of University wit, for a stinging couplet wasset up during the night on her door, for the discovery of the authorshipof which a reward of £1000 was offered. It may very well have beenMarvell'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 whichbut one is still remembered in certain quarters--the Five Mile Act, which Marvell briefly describes as an Act "for debarring ejectedNonconformists from living in or near Corporations (where they hadformerly pursued their callings), unless taking the new Oath andDeclaration. " Parliament was prorogued at the end of October. Another visitation of Providence was soon to befall the capital. OnSunday morning, the 2nd of September, Pepys was aroused by one of hismaid-servants at 3 A. M. To look at a fire. He could not make out muchabout it and went to bed again, but when he rose at seven o'clock it wasstill burning, so he left his house and made his way to the Tower, fromwhence he saw London Bridge aflame, and describes how the poor pigeons, loth to leave their homes, fluttered about the balconies, until withsinged wings they fell into the flames. After gazing his fill he went toWhitehall and had an interview with the king, who at once ordered hisbarge and proceeded downstream to his burning City, and to theassistance of a distracted Lord Mayor. The fire raged four days, and made an end of old London, a picturesqueand even beautiful City. St. Paul's, both the church and the school, theRoyal Exchange, Ludgate, Fleet Street as far as the Inner Temple, wereby the 7th of the month smoking ruins. Four hundred streets, eighty-ninechurches (just a church an hour, so the curious noted), warehousesunnumbered with all their varied contents, whole editions of books, valuable and the reverse of valuable, were wiped out of existence. Rentsto an enormous amount ceased to be represented any longer by the housesthat paid them. How was the king to get his chimney-money? How weremerchants to meet their obligations? The parsons on Sunday, the 9th ofSeptember, ought to have had no difficulty in finding texts for theirsermons. Pepys went to church twice, but without edification, andcertainly Dean Harding, whom he heard complaining in the evening "thatthe City had been reduced from a folio to a duo decimo, " hardly rose tothe dignity of the occasion. Strange to say, not a life was actually lost in the fire, [118:1] thoughsome old Londoners (among them Edmund Calamy's grandfather) died ofgrief, and others (and among them Shirley the dramatist and his wife)from exposure and exhaustion. One hysterical foreigner, who insistedthat he lit the flame, was executed, though no sensible man believedwhat he said. It was long the boast of the merchants of London that noone 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, andaliens, suspected of belonging to our old religion, found it dangerousto walk the streets whilst the embers still smoked, which they continuedto do for six months. The meeting of Parliament was a little delayed in consequence of thisnational disaster, and when it did meet at the end of the month, Marvellreports the appointment of two Committees, one "about the Fire ofLondon, " and the other "to receive informations of the insolence of thePopish priests and Jesuits, and of the increase of Popery. " The latterCommittee almost at once reported to the House, to quote from Marvell'sletter of the 27th of October, "that his Majesty be desired to issue outhis proclamation that all Popish priests and Jesuits, except such as notbeing natural-born subjects, or belong to the Queen Mother and QueenConsort, be banished in thirty days or else the law be executed uponthem, that all Justices of Peace and officers concerned put the laws inexecution against Papists and suspected Papists in order to theirexecution, and that all officers, civil or military, not taking theOaths of Supremacy and Allegiance within twenty days be displaced. " In a very real sense the great fire of London continued to smoke formany a weary year, and to fill the air with black suspicions and civildiscord. Parliament had not sat long before it was discovered that a change hadtaken place in its temper and spirit. The plague and the fire hadcontributed to this change. The London clergy had not exhibited greatdevotion during the former affliction. Many of the incumbents desertedtheir flocks, and their empty pulpits had been filled by zealots, whopreached "Woe unto Jerusalem. " The profligacy of the Court, and thegeneral decay of manners, when added to the severity of the legislationagainst the Nonconformists, gave the ejected clergy opportunities for arenewal of their spiritual ministrations, and as usual their labours, _pro salute animarum_, aroused political dissatisfaction. Some of themore outrageous supporters of the royal prerogative, the renegade Mayamong them, professed to see in the fire a punishment upon the spirit offreedom, for which the City had once been famous, and urged the king notto suffer it to be rebuilt again "to be a bit in his mouth and a bridleupon his neck, but to keep it all open, " and that his troops might enterwhenever he thought necessary, "there being no other way to govern thatrude multitude but by force. " Rabid nonsense of this kind had no weight with the king, who nevershowed his native good sense more conspicuously than in the pains hetook over the rebuilding of London; but none the less it had its effectin getting rid once and for ever of that spirit of excessive (besottedis Hallam's word) loyalty which had characterised the Restoration. The king, of course, wanted money, nor was Parliament disposed to refuseit, we being still at war with Holland; but to the horror of thatelderly pedant, Lord Clarendon, the Commons passed a Bill appointing acommission of members of both Houses "to inspect"--I am now quotingMarvell--"and examine thoroughly the former expense of the £2, 800, 000, of the £1, 250, 000 of the Militia money, of the prize goods, etc. " In anearlier letter Marvell attributes the new temper of Parliament, "not toany want of ardour to supply the public necessities, but out of ourHouse's sense also of the burden to be laid upon the subject. " Clarendonwas so alarmed that he advised a dissolution. Charles was alarmed, too, knowing well that both Carteret, the Treasurer of the Navy, and LordAshley, the Treasurer of the Prize Money, issued out many sums upon theking's warrant, for which no accounts could be produced, but he wasstill more frightened of a new Parliament. In the present Parliament hehad, so Clarendon admits, "a hundred members of his own menial servantsand their near relations. " The bishops were also against a dissolution, dreading the return of Presbyterian members, so Clarendon's advice wasnot 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 andefficient. The shrewd Secretary of the Navy Office here puts his finger on thereal plague-spot of the Restoration. Our Puritan historians write ratherloosely about "the floodgates of dissipation, " etc. , having been flungopen by that event as if it had wrought a sudden change in human nature. Mr. Pepys, whose frank Diary begins during the Protectorate, underwentno such change. He was just the same sinner under Cromwell as he wasunder Charles. Sober, grave divines may be found deploring the growingprofligacy of the times long before the 29th of May 1660. An era ofextravagance was evidently to be expected. No doubt the king's returnassisted it. No country could be anything but the worse for havingCharles the Second as its "most religious King. " The Restoration of theStuarts was the best "excuse for a glass" ever offered to an Englishman. He availed himself of it with even more than his accustomed freedom. Butit cannot be said that the king's debauchery was ever approved of evenin London. Both the mercurial Pepys and the grave Evelyn alike deploreit. The misfortune clearly attributable to the king's return was thesubstitution of a corrupt, inefficient, and unpatriotic administrationfor the old-fashioned servants of the public whom Cromwell had gatheredround 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 thewrong side, but owing to his reserve I am not sure. An Irish Cattle Billwas a measure very popular in the House of Commons, its object being toprevent 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 Canadiancattle to-day. The breeders (in a majority) were on one side, and theowners of pasture-land on the other. The breeders said the Irish cattlewere bred in Ireland for nothing and transported for little, that theyundersold the English-bred cattle, and consequently "the breed of Cattlein the Kingdom was totally given over, " and rents fell. Other memberscontended in their places "that their countries had no land bad enoughto breed, and that their traffic consisted in buying lean cattle andmaking them fat, and upon this they paid their rent. " Nobody, except theking, gave a thought to Ireland. He, in this not unworthy of his greatTudor predecessor, Henry the Eighth, declared he was King of Ireland noless than of England, and would do nothing to injure one portion of hisdominions for the benefit of another. But as usual he gave way, being ingreat straits for money. The House of Lords was better disposed towardsIreland than the House of Commons, but they too yielded to selfishclamour, and the Bill, which had excited great fury, became law, andproved ineffective, owing (as was alleged) to that corruption whichrestrictions on trade seem to have the trick of breeding. [123:1] It is always agreeable to be reminded that however large a part of ourhistory is composed of the record of passion, greed, delusion, andstupidity, yet common-sense, the love of order and of justice (inmatters of business), have usually been the predominant factors in ournational life, despite priest, merchant, and party. Nowhere is this better illustrated than by two measures to which Marvellrefers as Bills "for the prevention of lawsuits between landlord andtenant" and for "the Rebuilding of London. " Both these Bills became lawin February 1668, within five months of the great catastrophe that wastheir occasion. Two more sensible, well-planned, well-drawn, courageousmeasures were never piloted through both Houses. King, Lords andCommons, all put their heads together to face a great emergency and toprovide an immediate remedy. The Bill to prevent lawsuits is best appreciated if we read itspreamble:-- "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 Benchand Common Pleas and the Barons of the Exchequer, or any three or moreof them, should form a Court of Record to hear and determine everypossible dispute or difference arising out of the great fire, whetherrelating to liability to repair, and rebuild, or to pay rent, or forarrears of rent (other than arrears which had accrued due before the 1stof September) or otherwise howsoever. The proceedings were to be bysummary process, _sine forma et figura judicii_ and without court fees. The judges were to be bound by no rules either of law or equity, andmight call for what evidence they chose, including that of theinterested parties, and try the case as it best could be tried. Theirorders were to be final and not (save in a single excepted case) subjectto any appeal. All persons in remainder and reversion were to be boundby these orders, although infants, married women, idiots, beyond seas, or under any other disability. A special power was given to order thesurrender of existing leases, and to grant new ones for terms notexceeding forty years. The judges gave their services for nothing, and, for once, released from all their own trammels, set to work to dosubstantial justice between landlord and tenant, personalty and realty, the life interest and the remainder, covenantor and covenantee, after afashion which excited the admiration and won the confidence of the wholeCity. The ordinary suitor, still left exposed to the pitfalls of thespecial pleader, the risks (owing to the exclusion of evidence) of anon-suit and the costly cumbersomeness of the Court of Chancery, mustoften have wished that the subject-matter of his litigation had perishedin the flames of the great fire. This court sat in Clifford's Inn, and was usually presided over by SirMatthew Hale, whose skill both as an arithmetician and an architectcompleted his fitness for so responsible a position. Within a year thework was done. The Act for rebuilding the City is an elaborate measure of more thanforty clauses, and aimed at securing "the regularity, safety, conveniency and beauty" of the new London that was to be. The buildingswere classified according to their position and character, and had tomaintain a prescribed level of quality. The materials to be employedwere named. New streets were to be of certain widths, and so on. This isthe Act that contains the first Betterment Clause: "And forasmuch as theHouses now remaining and to be rebuilt will receive more or lessadvantage in the value of the rents by the liberty of air and freerecourse for trade, " it was enacted that a jury might be sworn toassess upon the owners and others interested of and in the said houses, such sum or sums of money with respect of their several interests "inconsideration of such improvement and melioration as in reason and goodconscience they shall think fit. " It takes nothing short of a catastrophe to suspend in England, even fora few months, those rules of evidence that often make justiceimpossible, and those rights of landlords which for centuries haveappropriated public expenditure to private gain. [126:1] The moneys required to pay for the land taken under the Act to widenstreets and to accomplish the other authorised works were raised, asMarvell informs his constituents, by a tax of twelve pence on everychaldron of coal coming as far as Gravesend. Few taxes have had souseful 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 comesafter it. The king now wanted peace, and the merchants on 'Change hadglutted their ire. In February 1667 the king told the Houses ofParliament that all "sober" men would be glad to see peace. Unluckily, it seems to have been assumed that we could have peace whenever wewanted it, and the fatal error was committed of at once "laying up" thefirst-and second-rate ships. It thus came about that, whilst still atwar, England had no fleet to put to sea. It did not at first seem likelythat the overtures for peace would present much difficulty, whensuddenly arose the question of Poleroone. It is amazing how fewEnglishmen have ever heard of Poleroone, or even of the Banda Islands, of which group it is one. Indeed, a more insignificant speck in theocean it would be hard to find. To discover it on an atlas is no easytask. Yet, but for Poleroone, the Dutch would never have takenSheerness, or broken the chain at Gillingham, or carried away with themto the Texel the proud vessel that had brought back Charles the Secondto 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 Firstimagined 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. Haveit he would for the East India Company. The Dutch objected, but gaveway, and by an article in the treaty with Oliver bound themselves togive up Poleroone to the Company. All, in fact, that they did do, was tocut down the nutmeg trees, and so make the island good for nothing formany a long year. Physical possession was never taken. For someunaccountable reason Charles, who had sold Oliver's Dunkirk to theFrench for half a million of money, stuck out for Poleroone. WhatCromwell had taken he was not going to give up! On the other hand, neither would the Dutch give up Poleroone. This dispute, about a barrenisland, delayed the settlement of the peace preliminaries; buteventually the British plenipotentiaries did get out to Breda, in May1667. 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 fairwind behind him stood for the Thames. All is fair in war. England wascaught napping. The doleful history reads like that of a suddenpiratical onslaught, and reveals the fatal inefficiency of theadministration. Sheerness was practically defenceless. "There were aCompany or two of very good soldiers there under excellent officers, butthe fortifications were so weak and unfinished, and all other provisionsso entirely wanting, that the Dutch Fleet no sooner approached within adistance but with their cannon they beat all the works flat and droveall the men from the ground, which, as soon as they had done with theirBoats, they landed men and seemed resolved to fortify and keepit. "[128:1] Capture of Sheerness by the Dutch! No need of a halfpennypress to spread this news through a London still in ruins. What madematters worse, the sailors were more than half-mutinous, being paid withtickets not readily convertible into cash. Many of them actuallydeserted to the Dutch fleet, which made its leisurely way upstream, passing Upnor Castle, which had guns but no ammunition, till it wasalmost within reach of Chatham, where lay the royal navy. General Monk, who was the handy man of the period, and whose authority was alwaysinvoked when the king he had restored was in greater trouble than usual, had hastily collected what troops he could muster, and marched toprotect Chatham; but what were wanted were ships, not troops. The Dutchhad 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 carrythem back again. "[129:1] These events occupied the tenth to thefifteenth of June, and for the impression they produced on Marvell'smind we are not dependent upon his restrained letters to hisconstituents, but can turn to his longest rhymed satire, which isbelieved to have been first printed, anonymously of course, as abroadsheet in August 1667. This poem is called _The Last Instructions to a Painter about the DutchWars_, 1667. The title was derived from Waller's panegyric poem on theoccasion of the Duke of York's victory over the Dutch on the 3rd of June1665, 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 anexcuse for hating the Duke of York as this world affords, had seizedupon the same idea and published four satirical poems on these sameDutch Wars, entitled _Directions to a Painter_ (see _Poems on Affairs ofState_, 1703, vol. I. ). Marvell's satire, which runs to 900 lines, is essentially a House ofCommons poem, and could only have been written by a member. It isintensely "lobbyish" and "occasional. " To understand its allusions, toappreciate 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 inentering into the spirit of the performance. As a poem it is rough inexecution, careless, breathless. A rugged style was then in vogue. EvenMilton could write his lines to the Cambridge Carrier somewhat in thismanner. Marvell has nothing of the magnificence of Dryden, or of thefinished malice of Pope. He plays the part, and it is sincerely played, of the old, honest member of Parliament who loves his country and hatesrogues and speaks right out, calling spades spades and the king's womenwhat they ought to be called. He is conversational, and thereforecoarse. The whole history of the events that resulted in the nationaldisgrace 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 inLondon 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 agèd 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 outburstof Mr. Micawber's on the subject of Uriah Heep. The satire concludes with the picture of the king in the dead shades ofnight, 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 nextmorning seeks out Lady Castlemaine, Bennet, and Coventry, who give himthe same advice. He knows them all three to be false to one another andto 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 whichdeal with the composition of the House of Commons. All its parties aredescribed, 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. TheSpeaker, Sir Edward Turner, is somewhat unkindly described. Honest menare usually to be found everywhere, and they existed even in Charles theSecond'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 didnot 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 toinsist on vengeance or to mourn over lost prestige. De Ruyter had goneafter suffering repulses at Portsmouth, Plymouth, and Torbay. Peace wasconcluded at Breda on the 21st of July. We gave up Poleroone. _Percontra_ we gained a more famous place, New Amsterdam, rechristened NewYork in honour of the duke. All prisoners were to be liberated, and theDutch, despite Sheerness and the _Royal Charles_, agreed to lower theirflag 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 morecruel enemy than Marvell. Why this was has not been discovered, butthere was nothing too bad for Marvell not to believe of any member ofClarendon's household. All the scandals, and they were many andhorrible, relating to Clarendon and his daughter, the Duchess of York, find a place in Marvell's satires and epigrams. To us Lord Clarendon isa grave and thoughtful figure, the statesman-author of _The History ofthe Rebellion and Civil Wars in England_, that famous, large book, loftily planned, finely executed, full of life and character and thephilosophy of human existence; and of his own _Autobiography_, aproduction which, though it must, like Burnet's _History_, be read withcaution, unveils to the reader a portion of that past which usually isas deeply shrouded from us as the future. If at times we are reminded inreading Clarendon's _Life_ of the old steward in Hogarth's plate, wholifts up his hands in horror over the extravagance of his master, if hispedantry often irritates, and his love of place displeases, we recognisethese but as the shades of the character of a distinguished andaccomplished public servant. But to Marvell Clarendon was rapacious, ambitious, and corrupt, a man who had sold Oliver's Dunkirk to theFrench, and shared the price; who had selected for the king's consort abarren woman, so that his own damaged daughter might at least chance tobecome Queen of England, who hated Parliaments and hankered after astanding army, who took money for patents, who sold public offices, whowas bribed by the Dutch about the terms of peace, who swindled theruined cavaliers of the funds subscribed for their benefit, and had bythese methods heaped together great wealth which he ostentatiouslydisplayed. Even darker crimes than these are hinted at. That Marvell waswrong in his estimate of Clarendon's character now seems certain;Clarendon did not get a penny of the Dunkirk money. The case madeagainst him by the House of Commons in their articles of impeachment wasfelt even at the time to be flimsy and incapable of proof, and in themany records that have come to light since Clarendon's day nothing hasbeen discovered to give them support. And yet Marvell was a singularlywell-informed member of Parliament, a shrewd, level-headed man ofaffairs, who knew Lord Clarendon in the way we know men we have to seeon business matters, whose speeches we can listen to, and whose conductwe discuss and criticise. "Gently scan your brother-man" is a preceptMarvell never took to heart; nor is the House of Commons a place whereit is either preached or practised. When Clarendon was well nigh at the height of his great unpopularity, hebuilt himself a fine big house on a site given him by the king where nowis Albemarle Street. Where did he get the money from? He employed, inbuilding it, the stones of St. Paul's Cathedral. True, he bought thestones from the Dean and Chapter, but if the man you hate builds a greathouse out of the ruins of a church, is it likely that so trivial a factas a cash payment for the materials is going to be mentioned? Splendidfurniture and noble pictures were to be seen going into the newpalace--the gifts, so it was alleged, of foreign ambassadors. What wasthe consideration for these donations? England's honour! Clarendon Housewas at once named Dunkirk House, Holland House, Tangiers House. Here is Marvell upon it:-- UPON HIS HOUSE "Here lie the sacred bones Of Paul beguilèd 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 toplace any reliance upon the king. Evelyn visited him on the 27th ofAugust 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 andladies of pleasure hated him, because--so Evelyn says--"he thwarted someof them and stood in their way. " In November Evelyn called again andfound the late Lord-Chancellor in the garden of his new-built palace, sitting in his gout wheel-chair and watching the new gates setting uptowards the north and the fields. "He looked and spoke verydisconsolately. After some while deploring his condition to me, I tookmy 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 wearyman reached Calais, and died seven years later in Rouen, having wellemployed his leisure in completing his history. His palace was sold forhalf what it cost to the inevitable Monk, Duke of Albemarle. On the 3rd of December Marvell writes that the House, having heard thatLord Clarendon had "withdrawn, " forthwith ordered an address to hisMajesty "that care might be taken for securing all the sea ports lest heshould pass there. " Marvell adds grimly, "I suppose he will not troubleyou at Hull. " The king took good care that his late Lord-Chancellorshould 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. " TheHouse 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, hadbeen applied to the use of the war?" This was an awkward inquiry. TheHouse voted that the not prosecuting the first victory of June 1665 wasa miscarriage, and one of the greatest: a snub to the Duke of York. Thenot furnishing the Medway with a sufficient guard of ships, though theking had then 18, 000 men in his pay, was another great miscarriage. Thepaying of the fleet with tickets, without money, was a third greatmiscarriage. All this time Oliver Cromwell's skull was grinning on itsperch in Westminster Hall. Besides the honour of England, that of Hull had to be defended by itsmember. A young Lieutenant Wise, one of the Hull garrison, had in someboisterous fashion affronted the corporation and the mayor. On thiscorrespondence ensues; and Marvell waits upon the Duke of Albemarle, thehead 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 wasnot 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, butevidently they have vanities to tickle. In November 1669 the House is still busy over the accounts. Sir GeorgeCarteret was Treasurer of the Navy. Marvell refers to him in _The LastInstructions 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 ofCommons business, both how it is conducted, and how often it getsaccidentally 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 highlycharacteristic of the House of Commons. Whilst Queen Elizabeth and her advisers did succeed in making some sortof a settlement of religion having regard to the questions of her time, the Restoration bishops, an inferior set of men, wholly failed. Therepressive legislation that followed upon the Act of Uniformity, succeeded in establishing and endowing (with voluntary contributions)what is sometimes called, absurdly enough, Political Dissent. Onpoints, not of doctrine, but of ceremony, and of church government, onehalf of the religiously-minded community were by oaths and declarations, and by employing the Sacrament of the Lord's Supper as "a picklock to aplace, " drawn out of the service of the State. Excluded from Parliamentand from all corporate bodies, from grammar-schools and universities, English Dissent learned to live its own life, remote from the army, thenavy, and the civil service, quite outside of what perhaps may be fairlycalled the main currents of the national life. Nonconformists veneratedtheir own divines, were reared in their own academies and colleges, readtheir own books, went, when the modified law permitted it, to their ownconventicles in back streets, and made it their boast that they hadnever entered their parish churches, for the upkeep of which they werecompelled to subscribe--save for the purpose of being married. Thenation 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 (evenwhen united with the habit of _extempore_ prayer, and a hereditarydisrespect for bishops' aprons), are national assets, as the expressionnow goes, which cannot be disregarded with impunity. The Conventicle Act Marvell refers to was a stringent measure, imposingpecuniary fines upon any persons of sixteen years of age or upwards who"under pretence of religion" should be present at any meeting of morethan five persons, or more than those of the household, "in other mannerthan 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 in1621, made a very sensible remark on the second reading: "Let them aloneand they will preach against each other; by this Bill they willincorporate as being all under one calamity. "[145:1] But by 144 to 78the Bill was read, though it did not become law until the followingsession. An indignant Member of Parliament once told Cromwell that hewould take the "sense" of the House against some proposal. "Very well, "said Cromwell, "you shall take the 'sense' of the House, and I will takethe 'nonsense, ' and we will see who tells the most votes. " In February 1670 the king opened a new session, and in March Marvellwrote a private letter to a relative at Bordeaux, in which he "lends hismind out, " after a fashion forbidden him in his correspondence with hisconstituents:-- "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 formâ_, 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 inthe Roos divorce case was believed to be due to his own desire to bequit of a barren and deserted wife. [148:1] Our most religious king hadnineteen bastards, but no lawful issue. It may seem strange that so higha churchman as Bishop Cosin should have taken the view he did, but Cosinhad a strong dash of the layman in his constitution, and was always anadvocate of divorce, with permission to re-marry, in cases of adultery. A further and amending Bill for rebuilding the city was before theHouse--one of eighty-four clauses, "the longest Bill, perhaps, that everpast in Parliament, " says Marvell; but the Roos Divorce Bill and theConventicle Bill proved so exciting in the House of Lords that they hadlittle time for anything else. Union with Scotland, much desired by theking, but regarded with great suspicion by all Parliamentarians, fellflat, though Commissioners were appointed. The Conventicle Bill passed the Lords, who tagged on to it a provisoMarvell refers to in his next letter, which the Lower House somewhatmodified by the omission of certain words. Lord Roos was allowed tore-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, andkept no record of their _names_. Mr. Gladstone remembered the alterationbeing made in 1836, and how unpopular it was. The change was a greaterrevolution 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 usbelieve that Lady Fauconberg, foretelling the time to come, had causedsome other body than her father's to be buried in the Abbey (see _Notesand 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 ofhis own Time_, composed after Marvell's death, reviles his deadantagonist for having taken this payment which, the bishop says, wasmade by a custom which "had a long time been antiquated and out ofdate. " "Gentlemen, " says the bishop, "despised so vile a stipend, " yetMarvell required it "for the sake of a bare subsistence, although inthis mean poverty he was nevertheless haughty and insolent. " In Parker'sopinion 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 waseffected until within the period of his own memory. 'Our services wereprobably 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 _Athenæum_, London: "ARelation of Three Embassies from his sacred Majestie Charles II. To theGreat 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 1663and 1664. Written by an Attendant on the Embassies, and published withhis Lordship's approbation. London. Printed for John Starkie at theMiter in Fleet Street, near Temple Barr, 1669. " [109:1] "I have mentioned the dignity of his manners. .. . He was at hisvery best on occasion of Durbars, investitures, and the like. .. . Itirritated him to see men giggling or jeering instead of acting theirparts 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 betweenProtection and Free Trade in England. --_The United Kingdom_, vol. Ii. P. 25. [126:1] Being curious to discover whether no "property" man raised hisvoice against these measures, I turned to that true "home of lostcauses, " the Protests of the House of Lords; and there, sure enough, Ifound one solitary peer, Henry Carey, Earl of Dover, entering hisdissent to both Bills--to the Judicature Bill because of the unlimitedpower given to the judges, to the Rebuilding Bill because of theexorbitant powers entrusted to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen to give awayor 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 andProgress of His Majesty's forces at Sea under the command of HisHighness Royal: together with the Battel and Victory obtained over theDutch, June 3, 1665. "--Waller's _Works_, 1730, p. 161. [130:1] Sir John Denham's wife was reported to have been poisoned by adish 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 lastvisit to Clarendon, in his Diary under date of the 9th December, bywhich time the late Chancellor was in Rouen. One likes notes in a diaryto be made contemporaneously and not "written-up" afterwards. Evelynmakes the same kind of mistake about Cromwell's funeral, misdating it amonth. [140:1] The duke died in 1670 and had a magnificent funeral on the 30thof 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 ofCommons 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 thereincontained shall extend to invalidate or avoid his Majesty's supremacy inecclesiastical affairs [or to destroy any of his Majesty's rights powersor prerogatives belonging to the Imperial Crown of this realm or at anytime exercised by himself or any of his predecessors Kings or Queens ofEngland] but that his Majesty his heirs and successors may from time totime and at all times hereafter exercise and enjoy all such powers andauthorities aforesaid as fully and amply as himself or any of hispredecessors have or might have done the same anything in this Act (orany other law statute or usage to the contrary) notwithstanding. " Thewords in brackets were rejected by the Commons. See _ParliamentaryHistory_, iv. 446-7. [150:1] Madame's business is now well known. The secret Treaty of Doverwas the result of this visit. CHAPTER V "THE REHEARSAL TRANSPROSED" It is never easy for ecclesiastical controversy to force its way intoliterature. The importance of the theme will be questioned by few. Theability displayed in its illumination can be denied by none. It is thetemper that usually spoils all. A collection in any way approachingcompleteness, of the pamphlets this contention has produced in England, would contain tens of thousands of volumes; full of curious learning andanecdotes, of wide reading and conjecture, of shrewdness and wit; yetthese books are certainly the last we would seek to save from fire orwater. Could they be piled into scales of moral measurement a singlecopy of the _Imitatio_, of the _Holy Dying_, of the _Saint's Rest_, would outweigh them all. Man may not be a religious animal, but herecognises and venerates the spirit of religion whenever he perceivesit, and it is a spirit which is apt to evaporate amidst the strife ofrival wits. Who can doubt the sincerity of Milton, when he exclaimedwith the sad prophet Jeremy, "Woe is me my Mother that thou hast borneme a man of strife and contention. " Marvell's chief prose work, the two parts of _The RehearsalTransprosed_, is a very long pamphlet indeed, composed by way of replyto certain publications of Samuel Parker, afterwards Bishop of Oxford. Controversially Marvell's book was a great success. [152:1] It amused theking, delighted the wits, was welcomed, if not read, by the pious folkwhose side it espoused, whilst its literary excellence was sufficient towin, in after years, the critical approval of Swift, whose style, thoughemphatically his own, bears traces of its master having given, I willnot say his days and nights, but certainly some profitable hours, to thestudy 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 mypredecessors. He was not an honour to his profession, being, perhaps, asgood or as bad a representative of the seamy side of State Churchism asthere is to be found. He was the son of a Puritan father, and whilst atWadham lived by rule, fasting and praying. He took his degree in theearly part of 1659, and migrating to Trinity came under the influence ofDr. Bathurst, then Senior Fellow, to whom, so he says in one of hisdedications, "I owe my first rescue from the chains and fetters of anunhappy education. "[152:2] Anything Parker did he did completely, andwe next hear of him in London in 1665, a nobleman's chaplain, settingthe table in a roar by making fun of his former friends, "a mimical wayof drolling upon the puritans. " "He followed the town-life, haunted thebest companies and, to polish himself from any pedantic roughness, heread and saw the plays with much care and more preparing than most ofthe auditory. " In 1667 the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Sheldon, a verymundane person indeed, made Parker his chaplain, and three years laterArchdeacon of Canterbury. He reached many preferments, so that, saysMarvell, "his head swell'd like any bladder with wind and vapour. " Hehad an active pen and a considerable range of subject. In 1670 heproduced "A Discourse of Ecclesiastical Politie wherein the Authority ofthe Civil Magistrate over the Consciences of Subjects in Matters ofExternal Religion is Asserted; The Mischiefs and Inconveniences ofToleration are represented and all Pretenses pleaded in behalf of_Liberty of Conscience_ are fully answered. " Some one instantly took upthe cudgels in a pamphlet entitled _Insolence and Impudence Triumphant_, and the famous Dr. Owen also protested in _Truth and InnocenceVindicated_. Parker replied to Owen in _A Defence and Continuation ofEcclesiastical Politie_, and in the following year, 1672, reprinted atreatise of Bishop Bramholl's with a preface "shewing what grounds thereare of Fears and Jealousies of Popery. " This was the state of the controversy when Marvell entered upon it withhis _Rehearsal Transprosed_, a fantastic title he borrowed for no verygood reasons from the farce of the hour, and a very good farce too, theDuke of Buckingham's _Rehearsal_, which was performed for the first timeat the Theatre Royal on the 7th of November 1671, and printed early in1672. Most of us have read Sheridan's _Critic_ before we readBuckingham's _Rehearsal_, which is not the way to do justice to theearlier piece. It is a matter of literary tradition that the duke hadmuch help in the composition of a farce it took ten years to make. Butler, Sprat, and Clifford, the Master of Charterhouse, are said to beco-authors. However this may be, the piece was a great success, and bothMarvell and Parker, I have no doubt, greatly enjoyed it, but I cannotthink the former was wise to stuff his plea for Liberty of Conscience sofull as he did with the details of a farce. His doing so should, at allevents, acquit him of the charge of being a sour Puritan. In the_Rehearsal_ Bayes (Dryden), who is turned by Sheridan in his adaptationof the piece into Mr. Puff, is made to produce out of his pocket hisbook 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 someresemblance between Parker and Bayes, and, indeed, he says he does, andgives 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 theTormentor. What were his positions? He was a coarse-fibred, essentiallyirreligious fellow, the accredited author of the reply to the question"What is the best body of Divinity?" "That which would help a man tokeep 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 anddangerous channel, avoiding Hobbism on the one side and tenderconsciences on the other. Each generation of State Churchmen has thesame task. The channel remains to-day just as it ever did, with Scyllaand Charybdis presiding over their rocks as of old. Hobbes's _Leviathan_appeared in 1651, and in 1670 both his philosophy and his statecraftwere fashionable doctrine. All really pious people called Hobbes anAtheist. Technically he was nothing of the sort, but it matters littlewhat he was technically, since no plain man who can read can doubt thatHobbes'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, ora senate or other sovereign person forbid us to believe in Christ? Theanswer given is, "such forbidding is of no effect; because belief andunbelief never follow men's commands. " But suppose "we be commanded byour lawful prince to say with our tongue we believe not, must we obeysuch command?" Here Hobbes a little hesitates to say outright "Yes, youmust"; but he does say "whatsoever a subject is compelled to do inobedience to his own Sovereign, and doth it not in order to his ownmind, 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 Christbefore men, but his Governor and the law of his country. " Hobbes thenputs the case of a Mahomedan subject of a Christian Commonwealth who isrequired under pain of death to be present at the Divine Service of theChristian Church--what is he to do? If, says Hobbes, you say he oughtto die, then you authorise all private men to disobey their princes inmaintenance of their religion, true or false, and if you say theMahomedan ought to obey, you admit Hobbes's proposition and ought toconsent to be yourself bound by it. (See Hobbes's _English Works_, iii. 493. ) The Church of England, though anxious both to support the king andsuppress 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 todisobey 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 theclaims of conscience so strongly, when he has to grapple with those who, like the immortal author of _The Pilgrim's Progress_, "devilishly andperniciously abstained from coming to Church, " and upheld "unlawfulMeetings and Conventicles, " his tone alters, and it is hard todistinguish his position from that of the philosopher of Malmesbury. Parker's argument briefly stated, and as much as possible in his ownvigorous language, comes to this: There is and always must be a competition between the prerogative ofthe Prince or State and that of Conscience, which on this occasion isdefined as "every private man's own judgment and persuasion of things. ""Do subjects rebel against their Sovereign? 'Tis Conscience that takesup arms. Do they murder Kings? 'Tis under the conduct of Conscience. Dothey separate from the communion of the Church? 'Tis Conscience that isthe 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 languagewhich 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. ) Devotiontowards God is a virtue akin to gratitude to man; religion is a branchof morality. The Puritans' talk about grace is a mere imposture, (76)which extracts from Parker vehement language. What is there to make sucha fuss about? he cries. Why cannot you come to Church? You are left freeto _think_ what you like. Your secret thoughts are your own, but livingas you do in society, and knowing as you must how, unless the lawinterferes, "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 ofGod, and the cause of God can never be prosecuted with too muchviolence" (16), why cannot you conform to a form of worship which, though it does not profess to be prescribed in all particulars, containsnothing actually forbidden in the Scriptures? What authority haveDissenters for singing psalms in metre? "Where has our Saviour or hisApostles enjoined a directory for public worship? What Scripture commandis there for the _three_ significant ceremonies of the Solemn League andCovenant, 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 aworship in its own nature sinful and sensual, Parker replies it is notin the least likely, and the risk must be run. "Our enquiry is to findout the best way of settling the world that the state of things admitof--if indeed mankind were infallible, this controversy were at an end, but seeing that all men are liable to errors and mistakes, and seeingthat there is an absolute necessity of a supreme power in all publicaffairs, our question (I say) is, What is the most prudent and expedientway of settling them, not that possibly might be, but that really is. And this (as I have already sufficiently proved) is to devolve theirmanagement on the supreme civil power which, though it may be imperfectand liable to errors and mistakes, yet 'tis the least so, and is a muchbetter way to attain public peace and tranquillity than if they wereleft 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 farI have hardly given an example of his familiar style, I must find roomfor two or three final quotations. The thing Parker hated most in theworld was a _Tender Conscience_. He protests against the weakness whichis content with passing penal laws, but does not see them carried outfor fear of wounding these trumpery tender consciences. "Most men'sminds or consciences are weak, silly and ignorant things, acted by fondand absurd principles and imposed upon by their vices and theirpassions. " (7. ) "However, if the obligation of laws must yield to thatof a tender conscience, how impregnably is every man that has a mind todisobey armed against all the commands of his superiors. No authorityshall be able to govern him farther than he himself pleases, and if hedislike the law he is sufficiently excused (268). A weak conscience isthe product of a weak understanding, and he is a very subtil man thatcan find the difference between a tender head and a tender conscience(269). It is a glorious thing to suffer for a tender conscience, andtherefore it is easy and natural for some people to affect some littlescruples against the commands of authority, thereby to make themselvesobnoxious to some little penalties, and then what godly men are theythat are so ready to be punished for a good conscience" (278). "Thevoice of the publick law cannot but drown the uncertain whispers of atender conscience; all its scruples are hushed and silenced by thecommands of authority. It dares not whimper when that forbids, and thenod of a prince awes it into silence and submission. But if they dare tomurmur, and their proud stomachs will swell against the rebukes of theirsuperiors, then there is no remedy but the rod and correction. They mustbe chastised out of their peevishness and lashed into obedience (305). The doctor concludes his treatise with the words always dear to men offluctuating opinions, 'What I have written, I have written'" (326). Whilst Parker was writing this book in his snug quarters in theArchbishop's palace at Lambeth, Bunyan was in prison in Bedford forrefusing to take the communion on his knees in his parish church; andDr. Manton, who had been offered the Deanery of Rochester, was in theGate 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 whatgrounds there are of Fears and Jealousies of Popery, " deals afterMarvell's own fashion with all three of Parker's books, the_Ecclesiastical Politie_, the _Bramhall Preface_, and the _Defence ofthe Ecclesiastical Politie_. It is by no means so easy to give a fairnotion of the _Rehearsal Transprosed_ in a short compass, as it was ofParker's line of argument. The parson wrote more closely than the Memberof Parliament. I cannot give a better description of Marvell's methodthan in Parker's own words in his preface to his _Reproof to theRehearsal Transprosed_, which appeared in 1673 and gave rise toMarvell'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 itwas just because this was Marvell's method that he succeeded so well inamusing the king and in pleasing the town, and that he may still be readby 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 "adroll, " Parker, who was to be a bishop, calls him "a buffoon. " Marvellis occasionally humorous and not infrequently carries a jest beyond thelimits 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 animpertinence. But as it is his wit alone that has kept him alive he neednot be pitied overmuch. The substance of Marvell's reply to Parker, apart altogether from itsby-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 bythe Dissenters over the "two or three symbolical ceremonies" calledsacraments, 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 andstates, Marvell deals more in the mood of a statesman than of aphilosopher, more as a man of affairs than as a jurist. He deplores theferocity 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 theeighteenth century as a Puritan and a Republican, call for no apology. An example of Marvell's Interludes ought to be given. There are many tochoose 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 bementioned:-- "'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 stillunsettled. Parker's _Reproof_, published in 1673, is less argumentative andnaturally enough more personal than the _Ecclesiastical Politie_. Anyuse I now make of it will be purely biographical. Let us see AndrewMarvell depicted by an angry parson--not in passages of mere abuse, as_e. G. _ "Thou dastard Craven, thou Swad, thou Mushroom, thou coward inheart, word and deed, thou Judas, thou Crocodile"; for epithets such asthese are of no use to a biographer--but in places where Marvell is atleast 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 isParker's portrait to be regarded as truthful in any otherparticular--yet something of a man's character may be discovered bynoticing the way he is abused by those who want to abuse him. Marvell, though no orator, or even debater, was the stuff of whichcontroversialists are made. In a letter, printed in the Duke ofPortland'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 acuriosity:-- 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 aperformance. 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 atrace 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 wasParker, afterwards made Bishop of Oxford by King James: who was full ofsatirical vivacity and was considerably learned, but was a man of nojudgment and of as little virtue, and as to religion rather impious:after he had for some years entertained the nation with several virulentbooks writ with much life, he was attacked by the liveliest droll of theage, who writ in a burlesque strain but with so peculiar andentertaining a conduct that from the King down to the tradesman hisbooks were read with great pleasure, that not only humbled Parker butthe whole party, for the author of the _Rehearsal Transprosed_ had allthe men of wit (or as the French phrase it all the laughers) on hisside. "--Burnet's _History of his Own Time_. [152:2] See the dedication to _A Free and Impartial Censure of thePlutonick Philosophy_, by Sam Parker, A. M. , Oxford 1666. Parker was aman of some taste, and I have in my small collection a beautifully boundcopy of this treatise presented by the author to Seth Ward, then Bishopof 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 samespiteful hand, see Parker's _History of his Own Time_, a posthumouswork, first published in Latin in 1726, and in an English Translation by_Thomas Newlin_ in 1727. This book contains an interesting enumerationof the numerous conspiracies against the life and throne of Charles theSecond during the earlier part of his reign, a panegyric upon ArchbishopSheldon and plentiful abuse of Andrew Marvell. Parker died in unhappycircumstances (see Macaulay's _History_, vol. Ii. P. 205), but he leftbehind him a pious nonjuring son, and his grandson founded the famouspublishing 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 bythe passionate conviction that there existed in high quarters of theState a deep, dangerous, and well-considered plot to subvert theProtestant faith and to destroy by armed force Parliamentary Governmentin 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 toconsider the alarm it created to have been exaggerated. Marvell was, of all public men then living, the one most deeply imbuedwith the spirit of our free constitution. Its checks and balances jumpedwith his humour. His nature was without any taint of fanaticism, nor washe anything of the doctrinaire. He was neither a Richard Baxter nor aJohn Locke. He had none of the pure Erastianism of Selden, who tells usin his inimitable, cold-blooded way that "a King is a King men have madefor their own sakes, for quietness' sake. " "Just as in a family one manis appointed to buy the meat, " and that "there is no such thing asspiritual jurisdiction; all is civil, the Church's is the same with theLord Mayor's. The Pope he challenges jurisdiction over all; the Bishopsthey pretend to it as well as he; the Presbyterians they would have itto 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'sway 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 Growthof Popery and Arbitrary Government in England, " printed at Amsterdam andrecommended to the reading of all English Protestants_, 1678, which madea prodigious stir and (it is sad to think) paved the way for the "PopishPlot, " Marvell sets forth his view of our constitution in language aslofty as it is precise. I know no passage in any of our institutionalwriters 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 informationwere 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 aredifficult to unravel and still more difficult to illuminate, for theyhad their dim origin in the secret thoughts and wavering purposes of theking. Charles the Second, like many another Englishman guiltless of Stuartblood in his veins, was mainly governed by his dislikes, his pleasures, and his financial necessities. To suppose, as some hasty moralisers havedone, that Charles cared for nothing but his women is to misread hischaracter. He had many qualifications to be the chief magistrate of anation of shopkeepers. He was ever alive to the supreme importance ofEnglish trade upon the high seas. His thoughts were often turned in thedirection of the Indies, east and west. He took a constant, though notalways an honest, interest in the navy. He hated Holland for morereasons than one, but among these reasons was his hatred of England'smost formidable and malicious trade competitor. He also disliked herarid and ugly Protestantism, and blood being thicker than water, hehated Holland for what he considered her shabby treatment of hisyouthful nephew, whose ultimate destiny was happily hidden fromWhitehall. Among Charles's many dislikes must be included the Anglicanbishops, who had prevented him from keeping his word, and foiled hispurpose of a wide toleration. He envied his brother of France the wideculture, the literature and art of Catholicism. He regretted theReformation, and would have been best pleased to see the English Churchin communion with Rome and in possession of "Anglican liberties" akinto those enjoyed by the Gallican Church. Charles was also jealous ofLouis the Fourteenth, and in many moods had no mind to play perpetuallya second fiddle. He longed for a navy to sweep the seas, for an armystrong enough to keep his Parliament in check, and for liberty forhimself and for all those of his subjects who were so minded, to hearMass on Sundays. Behind, and above, and always surrounding these desiresand dislikes, was an ever-present, ever-pressing need for money. Like aroyal Becky Sharp, Charles might have found it easy to be a patrioticking on five millions a year. The king was his own Foreign Minister, and being what he was, and swayedby the considerations I have imperfectly described, his foreign policywas necessarily tortuous and perplexing. As Ranke says, "Charles wascapable of proposing offensive alliances to the three neighbouringpowers, to the Dutch against France, to the French against Spain andHolland, to the Spaniards against France to the detriment of Holland, but in these propositions two fundamental views always recur--demandsfor 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 thecontracting parties to come to each other's assistance by sea and landif attacked by any power (France being here intended), to force Spain tomake peace with France on the terms already offered, and to compelFrance to keep those terms when agreed to by Spain. The Triple Alliance was not only very popular in England, but was gooddiplomacy, for it was quite within the range of practical politics thatFrance and Holland might have combined against England; nor could iteasily be maintained that the alliance was hostile to France, as itprovided that Spain should be forced to accept the terms France hadalready proposed. What wrecked the Triple Alliance and prepared the way for the secretTreaty of Dover (1670), was the impossibility of settling thosereligious difficulties which, despite the Act of Uniformity, were morerampant than ever. The king wanted to patch up peace, and to secure someworking plan of comprehension or composure, under cover of which theCatholic religion should be tolerated and Presbyterianism formallyrecognised. But, king though he was, he could not get his way. TheChurch and the House of Commons, full as the latter was of his pimps andpensioners, were as obstinate as mules in this matter of toleration. They would neither favour Papists nor Dissenters, protested againstIndulgences as unconstitutional, and clamoured for a rigorousadministration of that penal legislation against Nonconformists whichthey had purchased with so many and such lavish supplies. As a matter offact, these penal laws were very fitfully enforced. In London they wereoften totally disregarded, and we read of congregations numbering twothousand openly attending Presbyterian services. The Lord Mayor for thetime being took his orders direct from the king. What was Charles to do? After the fall of Clarendon, the king'sfavourite privy councillors, called the "Cabal, " because the initialletters of their names formed a word which for some time previously hadbeen in common use, represent only too faithfully the confusion andcorruption of the times. Clifford was a zealous Roman, Arlington acautious one, Buckingham a free-thinker and mocker, friendly to Franceand on good terms with the more advanced English sectaries; Ashley madeno pretence to be a Christian, but favoured philosophic toleration;whilst Lauderdale, one of the most learned ministers that ever sat incouncil (so Ranke says[185:1]), was, as a matter of profession, aPresbyterian, but in reality a man wholly and slavishly devoted to theking's interests, and prepared at any moment to pour into the kingdomsoldiers from Scotland to purge or suppress all Free Institutions. Irritated, disgusted, thwarted, and annoyed, the king, acting, it wellmay be, under the influence of his accomplished sister, the beautifuland ill-fated Duchess of Orleans, struck up, to use Marvell's own words, "an invisible league with France. " The negotiations were either by wordof mouth or by letters which have been burnt. Dr. Lingard in his historygives an interesting account of this mysterious transaction. Two thingsare apparent as the objects of the Treaty of Dover. The Dutch Republicis to be destroyed, and the cause of Catholicism in England is to bepromoted and maintained. It was this latter object that seems most tohave excited the hopes of the Duchess of Orleans. A woman's hand istraceable throughout. Charles promised to profess himself openly a RomanCatholic at the time that should appear to be most expedient, andsubsequently to that profession he was to join with Louis in making warupon the Dutch Republic. At the date of this bewildering agreement, itwas high treason by statute even to _say_ that Charles was a RomanCatholic. In case the king's public conversion should lead todisturbances, Louis promised an "aid" of two millions of _livres_ and anarmed force of six thousand men. He also agreed to pay the whole cost ofthe Dutch War _on land_, and to contribute thirty men-of-war to theEnglish fleet. Holland once crushed, England's share of the plunder wasto be Walcheren, Sluys, and Cadsand. A remarkable conversion! It isdifficult to suppose that either Charles or Louis were quite seriousover this part of the business. Yet there it is. The Catholic provisionsof the secret Treaty of Dover were only known to Clifford, whose soulwas fired by them, and to Arlington, who did not share the confidenthopes of his co-religionist. Clifford thought there were thousands ofEnglishmen "of light and leading" among the English Catholics who wouldbe both willing and able to assume the burdens of the State and to rallyround a Catholic king. Arlington thought otherwise. The king's public conversion never took place. No hint was given of anysuch impending event. Parliament met on the 24th of October 1670, andafter hearing a good deal about the Triple Alliance and voting largesums of money, was prorogued in April 1671, and did not meet again tillFebruary 1673. To pick a quarrel with the Dutch was never difficult. Marvell tells ushow it was done. "A sorry yacht, but bearing the English Jack, in August1671 sails into the midst of the Dutch fleet, singles out the Admiral, shooting twice as they call it, sharp upon him. Which must sure haveappeared as ridiculous and unnatural as for a lark to dare the hobby. "The Dutch admiral asking "Why, " was told "because he and his whole fleethad 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 hecould have no instruction, therefore proper to be referred to theirmasters, and so they parted. The yacht having thus acquitted itself, returned fraught with the quarrel she was sent for. "[187:1] Surinam wasa perpetual _casus belli_. Some offence against the law of nations wasalways happening there. A third matter, very full of gunpowder, was madegreat use of by the promoters of the war already agreed upon. A picturehad been hung at Dort representing De Witt sailing up the Medway verymuch in the manner described in Marvell's poem. Medals also had beenstruck and distributed in commemoration of the same event. War wasdeclared against Holland by England and France in March 1672. TheDeclaration of War was preceded by the Declaration of Indulgence, whereby, wrote Marvell, "all the penal laws against Papists for whichformer Parliaments had given so many supplies, and againstNonconformists for which this Parliament had paid more largely, were atone instant suspended in order to defraud the nation of all thatreligion which they had so dearly purchased, and for which they ought atleast, the bargain being broke, to have been reimbursed. "[187:2] The unconstitutional suspension of bad laws put lovers of freedom in apredicament. Marvell was what he calls a "composure, " that is a"comprehension, " man. In the _Growth of Popery_ he sorrowfully admitsthat it is the gravest reproach of human wisdom that no man seems ableor 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 onwith much composure as her two maritime competitors battered eachother's fleets. At sea the honours were divided between the Dutch andthe English. On land Louis had it all his own way. Besides, rumours gotabroad of an uncomfortable plot to restore Popery. Jesuits seemed toabound. Roman Catholics asserted themselves, the laws being suspended. An army was collected at Blackheath. The Treasury was closed. Charleshad been badly bled by the goldsmiths or bankers, who had charged him£12 per cent. ; but in commercial centres Acts of Bankruptcy are seldompopular, and though the bankers were compelled to be content with £6 percent. , the closing of the Treasury brought ruin into many homes. When Parliament met in February 1673, its temper was bad. It would havenothing to do with the Declaration of Indulgence, and though the kinghad told them, in the round set terms he could so well command, that hewas resolved to stick to his declaration, he had to give way and to seethe 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 tomitigate the hostility of the House of Commons to Protestant Dissenters, and to drive it to concentrate its jealousy upon the Catholics. Anylurking idea of the king declaring himself a Romanist had to beabandoned. His hatred of Parliament increased. He lost all sense ofshame, and frankly became a pensioner of France. In 1676 he concluded asecond secret treaty, whereby both Louis and himself bound themselves toenter into no engagements with other powers without consent, and in caseof 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 waslargely spent in bribing the House of Commons. The French ambassador wasallowed an extra grant of a thousand crowns a month to keep a table forhungry legislators. [189:1] Did not Marvell do well to be angry? Some of Marvell's letters belonging to this gloomy period are full ofinterest. _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 atumultuous assembly, written by themselves, may be read in the _StateTrials_, vol. Vi. The trial was the occasion of Penn's famous remark tothe Recorder of London, who, driven wellnigh distracted by Penn'sdialectics, exclaimed, "If I should suffer you to ask questions tillto-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 thanpolitics, for it seeks to condole with a father who has lost an onlyson. _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 thepoet'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 ofMilton would have been a treasure. [199:1] When Parliament met on the 13th of April 1675, members found in theirplaces a mock-speech from the throne. They _knew_ the hand that hadpenned 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 Ithink still the best of them all. There was no shaking off religion from the debates of those days. A newOaths Bill suddenly appeared in the House of Lords, where it gave riseto one of the greatest debates that assembly has ever witnessed, lasting seventeen days. The bishops were baited by the peers with greatspirit, 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 morecompendious or binding terms have drawn a dissettlement of the wholebirthright 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 wascontent to say: "The Lords sate the whole day yesterday till ten atnight without rising (and the King all the while but of our addressespresent) upon their Bill of Test in both houses and are not yet come tothe question of committing it. " After prolonged discussion the Oath Bill was sent to the Commons, wheredoubtless it must have passed, had not a furious privilege quarrel overSir John Fagg's case made prorogation in June almost a necessity. InOctober Parliament met again, and at once resolved itself into aCommittee upon Religion to prevent the growth of Popery. This time theking made almost an end of the Parliament by a prorogation which lastedfrom November 1675 until February 1677--a period of fifteen months. On the re-assembling of Parliament the Duke of Buckingham fathered theargument much used during the long recess, that a prorogation extendingbeyond twelve months was in construction of law a dissolution. For the expression of this opinion and the refusal to recant it theDuke of Buckingham and three other lords were ordered to the Tower, theking being greatly angered by the duke's request that his cook might beallowed to wait on him. On this incident Marvell remarks: "Thus aprorogation without precedent was to be warranted by an imprisonmentwithout example. A sad instance! Whereby the dignity of Parliament andespecially of the House of Peers did at present much suffer and mayprobably more for the future, _for nothing but Parliament can destroyParliament_. If a House shall once be felon of itself and stop its ownbreath, taking away that liberty of speech which the King verbally, andof course, allows them (as now they had done in both houses) to whatpurpose 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 andmaintain a tradition concerning an historical character about whomlittle is positively known, it can hardly escape mention in anybiography of Marvell. A pamphlet printed in Ireland (1754) supplies aneasy 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 £1000, and then went to his chariot. Marvell, looking at the paper, calls after the Treasurer, 'My Lord, I request another moment. ' They went up again to the garret, and Jack, the servant boy, was called. 'Jack, child, what had I for dinner yesterday?' '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 July6, 1678. The member for Hull died in August 1678. The Parliament inwhich he had sat continuously for eighteen years was at last dissolvedon 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 SecondEdition (1674) of Milton's great poem. Marvell did not agree with Drydenin thinking that _Paradise Lost_ would be improved by rhyme, and says soin 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 hisedition of 1726. It may be read as Cooke tells it in the _Dictionary ofNational Biography_, xxxvi. , p. 329. There was probably some foundationfor it. CHAPTER VII FINAL SATIRES AND DEATH Marvell was no orator or debater, and though a member of Parliament fornearly eighteen years, but rarely opened his mouth in the House ofCommons. His old enemy, Samuel Parker, whilst venting his posthumousspite upon the author of the _Rehearsal Transprosed_, would have usbelieve "that our Poet could not speak without a sound basting:whereupon having frequently undergone this discipline, he learnt atlength to hold his tongue. " There is no good reason for believing theBishop of Oxford, but it is the fact that, however taught, Marvell hadlearnt to hold his tongue. His longest reported speech will be found inthe _Parliamentary History_, vol. Iv. P. 855. [211:1] When we rememberhow frequently in those days Marvell's pet subjects were under fiercediscussion, we must recognise how fixed was his habit ofself-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 inthe 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-familiarbut choleric gentleman, full of likes and dislikes, readier with histongue in the lobby than with "set" speeches in the Chamber. A solitarypolitician with a biting pen. Satirists must not complain if they haveenemies. Marvell's vein of satire was never worked out, and the political poemsof his last decade are fuller than ever of a savage humour. How he kepthis ears is a repeated wonder. He is said to have been on terms ofintimate friendship with Prince Rupert, and it is a steady traditionthat the king was one of his amused readers. It is hard to believe thateven Charles the Second could have seen any humour, good or bad, in sucha 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, eitherat Whitehall or in a punt whilst fishing at Windsor. Their occasion wasthe setting up in the stocks-market in the City of London of a statue ofthe king by Sir Robert Viner, a city knight, to whom Charles was veryheavily in debt. Sir Robert, having a frugal mind, had acquired a statueof John Sobieski trampling on the Turk, which, judiciously altered, wasmade to pass muster so as to represent the Pensioner of Louis theFourteenth 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 anexample:-- 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 respectivebacks the stone effigies of Charles the First at Charing Cross andCharles the Second at Wool-Church, is, in its own rough way, masterlysatire 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 steedboldly 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 SidneySussex College, is said to have written beneath it the lines justquoted. 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 August1678. Colonel Grosvenor, writing to George Treby, M. P. (afterwards Chiefof the Common Pleas), on the 17th of August, reports "Andrew Marvelldied yesterday of apoplexy. " Parliament was not sitting at the time. What was said of the elder Andrew may also be said of the younger: hewas happy in the moment of his death. The one just escaped the CivilWar, the other the Popish Plot. Marvell was thought to have been poisoned. Such a suspicion in those badtimes was not far-fetched. His satires, rough but moving, had beenwidely 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 accomplishedphysician, Dr. Gee, who in 1874 communicated to the _Athenæum_ (March 7, 1874) an extract from Richard Morton's {Greek: Pyretologia} (1692), containing a full account of Marvell's sickness and death. Art "untwin'dhis thread, " but it was the doctor's art. Dr. Gee's translation ofMorton'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 southside of St. Giles's Church in the Fields, under the window wherein ispainted on glass a red lion. " So writes the invaluable Aubrey, who tellsus he had the account from the sexton who made the grave. In 1678 St. Giles's Church was a brick structure built by Laud. Thepresent 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 mausoleumunder the church of St. Giles, to search for the coffin in which Mr. Marvell was placed: in this vault were deposited upwards of a thousandbodies, but I could find no plate of an earlier date than 1722; I dotherefore suppose the new church is built upon the former burial place. " The poet's grand-nephew, Mr. Robert Nettleton, in 1764 placed on thenorth side of the present church, upon a black marble slab, a longepitaph, still to be seen, recording the fact that "near to this placelyeth the body of Andrew Marvell, Esquire. " At no great distance fromthis slab is the tombstone, recently brought in from the graveyardoutside, of _Georgius Chapman, Poeta_, a fine Roman monument, preparedby the care and at the cost of the poet's friend, Inigo Jones. Stillleft exposed, in what is now a doleful garden (not at all Marvellian), is the tombstone of Richard Penderel of Boscobel, one of the five yeomenbrothers who helped Charles to escape after Worcester. Lord Herbert ofCherbury, in 1648, and Shirley the dramatist, in 1666, had been carriedto 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 hisconversation, 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 wouldnot play the good fellow in any man's company in whose hands he wouldnot trust his life. He kept bottles of wine at his lodgings, and manytimes he would drink liberally by himself and to refresh his spirit andexalt his muse. James Harrington (author of _Oceana_) was his intimatefriend; J. Pell, D. D. , was one of his acquaintances. He had not ageneral acquaintance. " Dr. Pell, one may remark, was a great friend of Hobbes. In March 1679 joint administration was granted by the Prerogative Courtof Canterbury, _Mariæ Marvell relictæ et Johni Greni Creditori_. This isthe first time we hear of there being any wife in the case. A creditorof a deceased person could not obtain administration without citing thenext of kin, but a widow was entitled, under a statute of HenryVIII. , as of right, to administration, and it may be that Mr. Green thought the quickest way of being paid his debt was to invent awidow. The practice of the court required an affidavit from the widowdeposing that she was the lawful relict of the deceased, but thisassertion on oath seems in ordinary cases to have been sufficient, ifthe customary fees were forthcoming. Captain Thompson roundly assertsthat the alleged Mary Marvell was a cheat, and no more than thelodging-house keeper where he had last lived--and Marvell was amigratory man. [223:1] Mary Marvell's name appears once again, in theforefront of the first edition of Marvell's _Poems_ (1681), where shecertifies all the contents to be her husband's works. This may have beena publisher's, as the affidavit may have been a creditor's, artifice. Asagainst this, Mr. Grosart, who believed in Mary Marvell, reminds us thatMr. Robert Boulter, the publisher of the poems, was a most respectableman, and a friend both of Milton's and Marvell's, and not at all likelyeither to cheat the public with a falsely signed certificate, or to becheated by a London lodging-house keeper. Whatever "Mary Marvell" mayhave been, "widow, wife, or maid, " she is heard of no more. Hull was not wholly unmindful of her late and (William Wilberforcenotwithstanding) her most famous member. "On Thursday the 26th ofSeptember 1678, in consideration of the kindness the Town and Boroughhad for Andrew Marvell, Esq. , one of the Burgesses of Parliament for thesame Borough (lately deceased), and for his great merits from theCorporation. It is this day ordered by the Court that Fifty pounds bepaid out of the Town's Chest towards the discharge of his funerals(_sic_), and to perpetuate his memory by a gravestone" (_Bench Books ofHull_). The incumbent of Trinity Church is said to have objected to the erectionof any monument. At all events there is none. Marvell had many enemiesin the Church. Sharp, afterwards Archbishop of York, was a Yorkshireman, and had been domestic chaplain to Sir Heneage Finch, alawyer-member, much lashed by Marvell's bitter pen. Sharp had also takenpart in the quarrel with the Dissenters, and is reported to have beenvery much opposed to any Hull monument to Marvell. Captain Thompson says"the Epitaph which the Town of Hull caused to be erected to Marvell'smemory was torn down by the Zealots of the King's party. " There is norecord of this occurrence. There are several portraits of Marvell in existence--one now being inthe National Portrait Gallery. A modern statue in marble adorns the TownHall of Hull. FOOTNOTES: [211:1] In reading the early volumes of the _Parliamentary History_ thequestion has to be asked, What authority is there for the reports ofspeeches? In Charles the Second's time some of the speakers, both in theLords 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, ' hasnow disappeared. Several of Marvell's letters were written fromHighgate. CHAPTER VIII WORK AS A MAN OF LETTERS Marvell's work as a man of letters easily divides itself into theinevitable 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 "thereading public, " had no opportunity of forming any real opinion untilafter the poet's death, namely, when the small folio of 1681 made itsappearance. This volume, although not containing the _Horatian Ode uponCromwell's Return from Ireland_ or the lines upon Cromwell's death, didcontain, 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--itsdifficulty is to get a hearing, to secure a _vogue_. I feel certain thatfrom 1681 onwards many ingenuous souls read _Eyes and Tears_, _TheBermudas_, _The Nymph complaining for the Death of her Fawn_, _To hisCoy Mistress_, _Young Love_, and _The Garden_ with pure delight. In 1699the poet Pomfret, of whose _Choice_ Dr. Johnson said in 1780, "perhapsno composition in our language has been oftener perused, " and whoSouthey in 1807 declared to be "the most popular of English poets"; in1699, I say, this poet Pomfret says in a preface, sensibly enough, "toplease everyone would be a New Thing, and to write so as to please noBody would be as New, for even Quarles and Wythers (_sic_) have theirAdmirers. " So liable is the public taste to fluctuations and reversals, that to-day, though Quarles and Wither are not popular authors, theycertainly number many more readers than Pomfret, Southey's "most popularof English poets, " who has now, it is to be feared, finally disappearedeven from the Anthologies. But if Quarles and Wither had their admirerseven in 1699, the poet Marvell, we may be sure, had his also. Marvell had many poetical contemporaries--five-and-twenty atleast--poets of mark and interest, to most of whom, as well as to someof his immediate predecessors, he stood, as I must suppose, in somedegree of poetical relationship. With Milton and Dryden no comparisonwill suggest itself, but with Donne and Cowley, with Waller and Denham, with Butler and the now wellnigh forgotten Cleveland, with Walker andCharles Cotton, with Rochester and Dorset, some resemblances, certaininfluences, may be found and traced. From the order of his mind and hisprose style, I should judge Marvell to have been both a reader and acritic of his contemporaries in verse and prose--though of hiscriticisms little remains. Of Butler he twice speaks with great respect, and his sole reference to the dead Cleveland is kindly. Of Milton weknow what he thought, whilst Aubrey tells us that he once heard Marvellsay that the Earl of Rochester was the only man in England that had thetrue vein of satire. Be these influences what they may or must have been, to us Marvelloccupies, as a poet, a niche by himself. A finished master of his art henever was. He could not write verses like his friend Lovelace, or likeCowley's _Chronicle_ or Waller's lines "On a Girdle. " He had not theinexhaustible, astonishing (though tiresome) wit of Butler. He is oftenclumsy and sometimes almost babyish. One has frequently occasion towonder how a man of business could allow himself to be tickled by suchobvious 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 saidagainst poetry is that there is so much tedium in it. The gloriousmoments are all too few. It is his honest recognition of this woefulfact 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 thispernicious failure is that which an author is least able to discover. Weare seldom tiresome to ourselves. .. . Perhaps no man ever thought a linesuperfluous when he wrote it" (_Lives of the Poets_. Under _Prior_--seealso under _Butler_). That Marvell is never tiresome I will not assert. But he too has hisglorious moments, and they are all his own. In the whole compass of ourpoetry 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, notborrowed from brother-poets. It is not indulged in to prove anything. Itis 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 madehis 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 agood while both by its original note (for originality is alwaysforbidding at first sight) and by its author's fame as a satirist, andhis reputation as a lover of "liberty's glorious feast. " It was as oneof the poets encountered in the _Poems on Affairs of State_ (fifthedition, 1703) that Marvell was best known during the greater part ofthe eighteenth century. As Milton's friend Marvell had, as it were, aside-chapel in the great Miltonic temple. The patriotic member ofParliament, who refused in his poverty the Lord-Treasurer Danby'sproffered bribe, became a character in history before the exquisitequality of his garden-poetry was recognised. There was a cult forLiberty in the middle of the eighteenth century, and Marvell's name wason the list of its professors. Wordsworth's sonnet has preserved thistradition 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 whichcontains the poetry that was in the folio of 1681, and in 1772 Cooke'sedition was reprinted by T. Davies. It was probably Davies's editionthat Charles Lamb, writing to Godwin on Sunday, 14th December 1800, sayshe "was just going to possess": a notable addition to Lamb's library, and an event in the history of the progress of Marvell's poeticalreputation. Captain Thompson's edition, containing the _Horatian Ode_and other pieces, followed in 1776. In the great Poetical Collection ofthe Booksellers (1779-1781) which they improperly[229:1] called"Johnson's _Poets_" (improperly, because the poets were, with fourexceptions, 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 firstpublished in 1803, printed from Marvell _Daphne and Chloe_ (in part) and_Young Love_. When Mr. Bowles, that once famous sonneteer, edited Popein 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 ofnature and a witness of her beauties in her most solitary retirement. "On this Mark Pattison makes the comment that the lines only prove thatMarvell when a boy went bird-nesting (_Essays_, vol. Ii. P. 374), apursuit 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 _SelectPoets_ (1825), which contains the _Horatian Ode_, _Bermudas_, _To hisCoy Mistress_, _The Nymph and Fawn_, _A Drop of Dew_, _The Garden_, _TheGallery_, _Upon the Hill and Grove at Billborow_. In this choice we maysee the hand of Charles Lamb, as Tennyson's may be noticed in theselection made in Palgrave's _Golden Treasury_ (1863). Dean Trench inhis _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_, _TheBermudas_, _Young Love_, the _Horatian Ode_, and the _Lines on ParadiseLost_. Thanks to these later Anthologies and to the quotations from _TheGarden_ and _Upon Appleton House_ in the _Essays of Elia_, Marvell'sfame 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 undeservedfate of almost all satirists of their age and fellow-men. The authors oflines written in heat to give expression to the anger of the hour maywell be content if their effusions give the pain or teach the lessonthey were intended to give or teach. If you lash the age, you do sopresumably for the benefit of the age. It is very hard to transmit evena fierce and genuine indignation from one age to another. Marvell'ssatires were too hastily composed, too roughly constructed, too redolentof the occasion, to enter into the kingdom of poetry. To the careful andcharacter-loving reader of history, particularly if he chance to have afeeling for the House of Commons, not merely as an institution, but as aplace of resort, Marvell's satirical poems must always be intenselyinteresting. They strike me as honest in their main intention, and neververy wide of the mark. Hallam says, in his lofty way, "We read withnothing 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 everto be stupid. As a satirist Marvell had, if he wanted them, many models of style, buthe really needed none, for he just wrote down in rough-and-ready rhymewhatever his head or his spleen suggested to his fancy. Every now andagain there is a noble outburst of feeling, and a couplet of greatfelicity. I confess to taking great pleasure in Marvell's satires. As a prose writer Marvell has many merits and one great fault. He hasfire and fancy and was the owner and master of a precise vocabulary wellfitted to clothe and set forth a well-reasoned and lofty argument. Heknew how to be both terse and diffuse, and can compress himself into aline or expand over a paragraph. He has touches of a grave irony as wellas of a boisterous humour. He can tell an anecdote and elaborate aparable. Swift, we know, had not only Butler's _Hudibras_ by heart, butwas also (we may be sure) a close student of Marvell's prose. His greatfault is a very common one. He is too long. He forgets how quickly areader grows tired. He is so interested in the evolutions of his ownmind that he forgets his audience. His interest at times seems as if itwere going to prove endless. It is the first business of an author toarrest and then to retain the attention of the reader. To do thisrequires great artifice. Among the masters of English prose it would be rash to rank Marvell, whowas neither a Hooker nor a Taylor. None the less he was the owner of aprose style which some people think the best prose style of all--that ofhonest 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. _Athenæ 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, andCharles 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 OliverCromwell_ (quoted), 73, 92. _Discourse concerning Government_ (Sidney), 64. "_Discourse of Ecclesiastical Politie wherein the Authority of theCivil Magistrate over the Consciences of Subjects in matters ofexternal 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 theLord-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. _Mariæ Marvell relictæ 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 £150 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 MORLEYCloth 12mo 75 cents net, each * * * * * GEORGE ELIOT. By Leslie Stephen. WILLIAM HAZLITT. By Augustine Birrell. MATTHEW ARNOLD. By Herbert W. Paul. JOHN RUSKIN. By Frederic Harrison. JOHN GREENLEAF WHITTIER. By Thomas W. Higginson. ALFRED TENNYSON. By Alfred Lyall. SAMUEL RICHARDSON. By Austin Dobson. ROBERT BROWNING. By G. K. Chesterton. CRABBE. By Alfred Ainger. FANNY BURNEY. By Austin Dobson. JEREMY TAYLOR. By Edmund Gosse. ROSSETTI. By Arthur C. Benson. MARIA EDGEWORTH. By the Hon. Emily Lawless. HOBBES. By Leslie Stephen. ADAM SMITH. By Francis W. Hirst. THOMAS MOORE. By Stephen Gwynn. SYDNEY SMITH. By George W. E. Russell. WILLIAM CULLEN BRYANT. By William A. Bradley. WILLIAM HICKLING PRESCOTT. 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