E-text prepared by Irma Spehar, Louise Pryor, and the Project Gutenberg Online Distributed Proofreading Team (http://www.pgdp.net/) from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries (http://www.archive.org/details/toronto) Note: Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive/Canadian Libraries. See http://www.archive.org/details/andrewmarvell00birruoft The caret character (^) indicates that the remainder of the word is superscripted. Italicized words or phrases are placed between underscore (_) marks. English Men of Letters Edited by John Morley ANDREW MARVELL by AUGUSTINE BIRRELL New York The MacMillan Company London: MacMillan & Co., Ltd. 1905 All rights reserved Copyright, 1905, By the MacMillan Company. Set up and electrotyped. Published September, 1905. Norwood Press J.S. Cushing & Co.--Berwick & Smith Co. Norwood, Mass., U.S.A. PREFACE I desire to express my indebtedness to the following editions of Marvell's Works:-- (1) _The Works of Andrew Marvell, Esq., Poetical, Controversial, and Political_: containing many Original Letters, Poems, and Tracts never before printed, with a New Life. By Captain Edward Thompson. In three volumes. London, 1776. (2) _The Complete Works in Verse and Prose of Andrew Marvell, M.P._ Edited with Memorial-Introduction and Notes by the Rev. Alexander B. Grosart. In four volumes. 1872. (_In the Fuller Worthies Library._) (3) _Poems and Satires of Andrew Marvell, sometime Member of Parliament for Hull._ Edited by G.A. Aitken. Two volumes. Lawrence and Bullen, 1892. _Reprinted_ Routledge, 1905. Mr. C.H. Firth's Life of Marvell in the thirty-sixth volume of _The Dictionary of National Biography_ has, I am sure, preserved me from some, and possibly from many, blunders. A.B. 3 NEW SQUARE, LINCOLN'S INN, June 3, 1905. CONTENTS CHAPTER I PAGE EARLY DAYS AT SCHOOL AND COLLEGE 1 CHAPTER II "THE HAPPY GARDEN-STATE" 19 CHAPTER III A CIVIL SERVANT IN THE TIME OF THE COMMONWEALTH 48 CHAPTER IV IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS 75 CHAPTER V "THE REHEARSAL TRANSPROSED" 151 CHAPTER VI LAST YEARS IN THE HOUSE OF COMMONS 179 CHAPTER VII FINAL SATIRES AND DEATH 211 CHAPTER VIII WORK AS A MAN OF LETTERS 225 INDEX 233 ANDREW MARVELL CHAPTER I EARLY DAYS AT SCHOOL AND COLLEGE