Hi, I’m Andrew Marvell! You may know me from such poems as “The Nymph Complaining for the Death of her Faun” and “To His Coy Mistress”…
Sorry, sorry, couldn’t resist. Andrew Marvell(
1621-
1678) is today considered one of the foremost of the
British Metaphysical poets, remembered for his
lyric poetry. In his day, he was known instead for being a politician and a
satirist, and largely forgotten afterwards. Interest in his work was revived first by
Charles Lamb in the 19th century and then by
T.S. Eliot in the 20th.
Marvell was the youngest of four children of the Reverend Andrew Marvell of
Yorkshire,
England, who drowned in the
River Humber in
1640. Marvell graduated from
Cambridge in
1639, but left the university and his academic career after his father’s death. During the early years of the
English Civil War, he traveled the continent.
A few years after his return, he fell in with the
parliamentarians. From
1650 to
1652, he was tutor to
Mary Fairfax, future
Duchess of Buckingham and daughter of the general Lord
Thomas Fairfax. At their house
Nun Appleton it is believed that he wrote some of his finest lyric poetry, like “
Upon Appleton House” and “
The Garden”.
In
1653, Marvell became the tutor to
William Dutton, ward of
Oliver Cromwell, which was the beginning of his association with the
Lord Protector. He became a sort of
poet laureate for Cromwell, but his laudatory political poems were too complex and ambivalent to be mere asskissing. His “
An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell’s Return from Ireland” praises Cromwell, of course, but it is also quite sympathetic to the executed
Charles I.
In
1657, he was appointed to the post
Latin Secretary for the
Commonwealth, a significant government post responsible for foreign correspondence (written in
Latin) and affairs, with a salary of £200. The Latin Secretary was assistant to none other than fellow poet and friend
John Milton, who was instrumental in securing the job for Marvell. Two years later, he became an
MP in
Parliament for his hometown of
Hull. It was just in time too, because the
Royalists were back in power and
Charles II was king. They were out for the blood of
Milton, a staunch defender of the Cromwell regime, but Marvell was instrumental in saving his life and the Royalists were content that the old, blind poet was harmless. Marvell would remain in Parliament until his death. In the next two decades, he penned his infamous satires and became involved in foreign political intrigue.
In
1678, he died of
tertian ague as a result of a doctor’s malpractice. After his death, his poetry was published by his “widow”, “Mary Marvell”. She was actually his housekeeper
Mary Palmer, who had gathered up Marvell’s papers and posed as his widow to get her hands on £500 of his money.
I suppose I’ll say a few words about his lyric poetry. Four will do: “
To His Coy Mistress”. It’s witty, wicked, brilliant and one of the finest poems in the
English language. If it was the only thing he ever wrote, it would be enough.