Andrew Marvell

English poet, satirist, and politician

• Born: March 31, 1621
• Birthplace: Winestead-in-Holderness, Yorkshire, England
• Died: August 16, 1678
• Place of death: London, England

For a century after his death, Marvell was remembered for his long career as a member of Parliament and for his political writings. His considerable talents as a lyric, Metaphysical poet, however, form the basis of his modern reputation, a reputation largely initiated by T. S. Eliot’s reevaluation of his work.

Early Life

Andrew Marvell was born on March 31, 1621, the fourth of five children of the Reverend Andrew Marvell and his wife, Anne Pease. Marvell and his family moved to Hull in 1624, when his father was appointed as lecturer at Holy Trinity Church and was also made master of the Charterhouse School. Marvell most likely attended Hull Grammar School, and in 1633, he entered Cambridge University. He received a B.A. after four years, then began working toward an M.A. However, he left Cambridge in 1641 without completing the master of arts degree.

Although Marvell’s father, while at Cambridge, had attended Emmanuel College, a college with strong Puritan connections, Marvell was sent to Trinity College, which was more moderate. Like other students of the time, Marvell would have studied Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, as well as logic, rhetoric, philosophy, and mathematics. His skill with languages is evinced in his professional career. Marvell was already writing poetry at Cambridge, and his first published poetry was a contribution to a university collection, published in 1637, which celebrated the birth of Charles I’s daughter, Anne.

It appears that Marvell was recruited briefly by the Jesuits and left the university for a few months, probably in 1638. The attraction did not last and may in some way be connected to the strong anti-Catholic position Marvell held throughout his life. Both of Marvell’s parents died while he was at university, his mother in 1638, and his father in an accidental drowning in 1641. It may be that the death of his father precipitated the end of Marvell’s formal education.

Life’s Work

Marvell’s activities after leaving Cambridge are not certain. It is likely that he spent much of the time from 1641 to 1647 traveling in Europe. It is also possible that he was employed as a tutor during at least some of this time. A 1653 letter by John Milton , unsuccessfully recommending Marvell for a position as assistant Latin secretary, mentions that Marvell had spent time in Holland, France, Italy, and Spain.

In 1650, Marvell became the tutor of Mary Fairfax, the twelve-year-old daughter of the third Baron Fairfax. Fairfax had served in the English Civil War as commander in chief for the Parliamentary forces. Marvell, who up to this point had shown moderate Royalist tendencies, was now aligned with Oliver Cromwell’s Puritans. The complexity of Marvell’s political views is apparent in his poem, “An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell’s Return from Ireland” (wr. 1650; pb. 1681). It is likely, though not certain, that many of Marvell’s lyric poems date from his three years at Fairfax’s home, Nun Appleton, Yorkshire, including his famous country house poem, “Upon Appleton House, to My Lord Fairfax” (pb. 1681). Other well-known poems, including “To His Coy Mistress” (pb. 1681), “The Nymph Complaining for the Death of Her Faun” (pb. 1681), and the four Mower poems, are usually associated with the early phase of Marvell’s life, but they cannot be dated with confidence.

In 1653, Marvell left Nun Appleton and became the tutor of William Dutton, a ward of Cromwell. He continued in this position until 1657, when he was finally appointed assistant Latin secretary, aiding Milton in the translation and writing of diplomatic correspondence. There is evidence that Marvell visited Milton in his home and that their friendship continued after Charles II’s Restoration in 1660, when it might have been detrimental to Marvell. Marvell was more than likely one of the men involved in saving Milton from the purges that took place with the Restoration. He paid tribute to Milton’s talents in the poem “On Mr. Milton’s Paradise Lost” (1674), which appeared in the 1674 edition of Milton’s poem. Marvell continued to write topical poems, including The First Anniversary of the Government Under His Highness the Lord Protector (1655).

Marvell continued in his civil service post until 1659. In the same year, he was elected as member of Parliament representing Hull. He continued to serve as an M.P. until his death in 1678. While Marvell accepted the Restoration of the monarchy in 1660, he sided with those in opposition in Parliament. He was a dedicated M.P., serving on committees, writing frequently to his constituents, and making a name for himself as an honest politician dedicated to constitutional monarchy and religious toleration, marred only by his vehement anti-Catholicism. Marvell even participated in an unsuccessful diplomatic mission to Russia, Sweden, and Denmark.

Far more is known of Marvell’s political career than of his private life. He apparently never married. He seems to have had a close relationship with his nephew, William Popple. Some of their correspondence has survived. The income Marvell received as an M.P. was a modest one, and while the evidence has been debated, it seems that Marvell was never financially well off.

During his career as an M.P., Marvell continued to write, producing satirical, political poems and pamphlets. Some works necessarily appeared anonymously, so ascription of a given poem to Marvell is at times tenuous. He is credited with political poems that satirized the corruption of the court, such as the highly critical “Last Instructions to a Painter” (wr. 1667; pb. 1689). His engagement in the religious controversies of his day is best represented by two satirical works, The Rehearsal Transpros’d (1672) and The Rehearsal Transpros’d: The Second Part (1673), the first of which appeared anonymously. One of his final works, An Account of the Growth of Popery and Arbitrary Government in England (1677), was more serious in tone.

Marvell died in London on August 16, 1678, as a result of fever, perhaps made worse through the medical treatment he received. After Marvell’s death, his housekeeper, Mary Palmer, claimed to be his wife, although the claim was not supported and appears to have been part of a complicated financial scheme. Palmer, however, was responsible for the publication of Miscellaneous Poems (1681), a volume that preserved nearly all of Marvell’s significant poetry.

Significance

No continuous line can be drawn from the first publication of Marvell’s poetry in 1681 to the present. For about two hundred years after Marvell’s death, his reputation as a poet was eclipsed by his reputation as a political satirist and politician. From the nineteenth century on, however, attention to Marvell as a lyric poet grew steadily. Interest in his poetry was first expressed by writers such as William Hazlitt, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Edgar Allan Poe, and Alfred, Lord Tennyson, and continued to grow throughout the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. T. S. Eliot’s praise of Marvell’s poetry brought Marvell even more attention. In fact, Marvell’s lyric poetry garnered so much interest that it eclipsed his satirical and prose works. Critics in the later twentieth and early twenty-first centuries accordingly began an effort to bring the latter works back into the light.

Marvell’s Major Works

1655

• The First Anniversary of the Government Under His Highness the Lord Protector

1672

• The Rehearsal Transpros d

1673

• The Rehearsal Transpros d: The Second Part

1676

• Mr. Smirke: Or, The Divine in Mode

1677

• An Account of the Growth of Popery and Arbitrary Government in England

1678

• Remarks upon a Late Disingenuous Discourse

1681

• Miscellaneous Poems

Bibliography

Donno, Elizabeth Story. Andrew Marvell: The Critical Heritage. London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1978. While not a biography, this book is immensely useful for an assessment of Marvell’s early impact. Index.

Kavanagh, Art. “Andrew Marvell ’in Want of Money’: The Evidence in John Farrington v. Mary Marvell.” Seventeenth Century 17, no. 2 (Autumn, 2002): 206-212. Brings new evidence to light on the question of Marvell’s poverty and concludes that he was in fact poor.

Legouis, Pierre. Andrew Marvell: Poet, Puritan, Patriot. Oxford, England: Clarendon Press, 1965. An abridged and updated English version of the 1928 French original. The standard twentieth century biography. Index.

Murray, Nicholas. World Enough and Time: The Life of Andrew Marvell. New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999. Careful and well-researched biography. Balances an interest in the poetry with attention to Marvell’s political career. Illustrations and index.

Patterson, Annabel. Marvell: The Writer in Public Life. Harlow, Essex, England: Longman, 2000. Includes a helpful chapter on Marvell’s life. Illustrations, bibliography, and index.

Von Maltzahn, Nicholas. “Andrew Marvell and the Lord Wharton.” Seventeenth Century 18, no. 2 (Autumn, 2003): 252-265. Interesting for its insights on Marvell’s friendship with Philip, fourth Baron Wharton.

Wheeler, Thomas. Andrew Marvell Revisited. Twayne’s English Authors Series 531. Edited by Arthur Kinney. New York: Twayne, 1996. Chapters on Marvell’s life and reputation, as well as studies of his works. Time line, bibliography, and index.