Society and Andrew Marvell

Abstract

At first sight the poetry of Andrew Marvell seems to bear little relation to the age in which he lived. Marvell wrote a good deal of political satire, which is of considerable interest to the historian, but of less poetic value; his greatest poems (except the ‘Horatian Ode upon Cromwel’s return from Ireland’) have no direct reference to the political and social revolution of the seventeenth century. Yet this revolution transformed the lives of Englishmen; it faced them with intellectual and moral decisions which it was difficult to evade. I believe that if we study Marvell with a knowledge of the political background of his life we can discover in the great lyrics new complexities which will increase our appreciation of those very sensitive and civilized poems.

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 alsoe offers himselfe if there be any imployment for him.

John Milton to President Bradshaw, 21 February 1653.

Amongst these lewd revilers the lewdest was one whose name was Marvell…. He … daily spewed infamous libels out of his filthy mouth against the King himself. If at any times the Fanatics had occasion for this libeller’s help, he presently issued out of his cave like a gladiator or wild beast.

Samuel Parker, Bishop of Oxford, History of his own Time, quoted in Masson’s Life of Milton, VI, p. 708.

See F. W. Bateson, English Poetry, pp. 96–101, for criticisms of this essay.