lieved to have composed it. In France, likewise, he found a subject for his poetical talent in Lancelot Joseph de Maniban, a French Abbé, who pretended to determine the characters of persons whom he had never seen, and to prognosticate their future good or ill fortune from their hand-writing: these absurdities he ridiculed in a Latin poem addressed to him, and written upon the spot.* At Constantinople, also, he appears to have passed some time in the capacity of Secretary to the English Embassy. In 1653, he was employed by Oliver Cromwell, as preceptor to a young gentleman of the name of Dutton; and, in 1657, he was associated with Milton as assistant Latin Secretary to the Protector. "I never had any, not the remotest relation to public matters (he himself says) nor correspondence with the persons then predominant, until the year 1657; when indeed I entered into an employment, for which I was not altogether improper, and which I considered to be the most innocent and inoffensive toward his Majesty's affairs, of any in that usurped and irregular government, to which all men were then exposed-and this I accordingly discharged, without disobliging any one person there having been opportunity and endeavours, since his Majesty's happy return, to have discovered, had it been otherwise."

His lines, with those of Dr. Samuel Barrow upon

* See the Extracts at the end of the Life. This composition Philips notices in his Freethinker,' No. 253; in which he gives a short account of the Abbé. From the subject of his preceding poem, Mr. Richard Flecknoe, a wretched poetaster, Dryden gave the name of Mac-Flecknoe' to his satire against Shadwell,

† See the Extracts. They were prefixed to the second edition of that immortal poem, and (to adopt Dr. Symmons' expres

the Paradise Lost,' of his illustrious collegue, first drew the attention of the public to a poem, which has since been deservedly placed on a level with the noblest productions of antiquity. A short time before the Restoration, he was chosen to represent his native town in parliament, and continued to discharge that honourable function till his death. At the beginning of the new reign, he probably thought the parliamentary business of inferior importance; as he was absent in Holland and Germany between the years 1660 and 1663 (upon what account, however, is uncertain) and not long after his return, accompanied Lord Carlisle on his embassy to the northern courts, as his Secretary. It was not till the parliament of October 1665, that his attendance in the House of Commons seeins to have been uninterrupted. In this office, it was his custom to send the proceedings of that assembly on matters of consequence to his principal constituents, always subjoining his opinion on the subject: and such was their sense of his merits, that they allowed him an honourable pension in return for his services, and invariably treated him with the greatest respect.*

sions) are "as reputable to his judgement and poetic talent, as they are to his friendship."

* It is to be regretted, that these bonds of integrity and gratitude have generally ceased to exercise this creditable influence in English boroughs, under the fatal talisman of—a third man! Marvell was the last, who received a pension from his constituents; and he well deserved it by his diligence, his firmness, and his incorruptibility. "Of all men, indeed, in his station (observes Aikin) he deserves best to be selected as an example of the genuine independence produced by a philosophical limitation of wants and desires. He was not to be purchased, because he wanted nothing that money could buy; and held cheap all titular honours, in comparison with the approbation of his conscience,

Marvell,* indeed, though he seldom spoke in parliament, by his great influence without doors, and the way in which it was exerted, merited the applause not only of his constituents but also of all his countrymen for his incorruptible integrity. We are told, that he had made himself obnoxious to government, both by his actions and his writings; though his patriotism did not render him personally unacceptable to his witty and profligate sovereign. Having one night been entertained by Charles II., who took great delight in his company, he was surprised the next day by a visit from the Lord Treasurer at his lodgings up two pair of stairs in a court in the Strand. He was writing, when Danby abruptly opened the door. Upon his observing to him, however, that he must have mistaken his way, the Treasurer replied, "Not now I have found Mr. Marvell ;” adding, that his Majesty wished to know what he could dó to serve him.' In answer to this, he remarked, 'he

and the esteem of the wise and the virtuous." Hence Mason, in his Ode to Independence,' says:

"In aweful poverty his honest Muse

Walks forth, vindictive, through a venal land;
In vain Corruption sheds her golden dews,

In vain Oppression lifts her iron hand:

He scorns them both, and arm'd with truth alone,
Bid Lust and Folly tremble on the throne."

* His power over Prince Rupert was such, that whenever he voted (as he frequently did) according to the sentiments of Marvell, the adverse party used to observe, He has been with his tutor.' Nay, even in later days, when it was unsafe for Marvell to have it known where he lived, the Prince frequently visited him in the habit of a private person in order to enjoy his conversation. The patriot Earl of Devonshire, also, was one of his intimate friends.

knew the nature of courts too well, not to be sensible that whoever is distinguished by a prince's favour, is expected to surrender to him his vote: that, of course, he could not accept with honour offers which would reduce him to the painful alternative of being either ungrateful to his king, or false to his country: and the only favour, therefore, which he would request of his Majesty was, that he would deem him as dutiful a subject as any he had, and more in his proper interest by refusing his offers than if he had embraced them.' Lord Danby then informed him, that his royal master had ordered a thousand pounds for him, which he hoped he would accept :' but this last offer was rejected with the same steadiness as the former; though, soon after the departure of his noble visitor, he was obliged to borrow a guinea from a friend.

In 1672, with a spirit becoming his patriotic character, he engaged in a controversy with Dr. Samuel Parker, at that time Archdeacon of Canterbury, and afterward Bishop of Oxford. This divine had affected to signalise his zeal for the Hierarchy, by defending and encouraging intolerance toward Non-conformists. In 1670, he published a book entitled, Ecclesiastical Polity,' and the following year, A Defence of it:' but what particularly roused Marvell to the attack was his Preface to Bishop Bramhall's Vindication of Himself and the rest of the Episcopal Clergy from the Presbyterian Charge of Popery;' in which, with strong expressions in favour of unlimited monarchy,* he recommended a rigorous prosecution of

6

"It is better," he affirms, "to submit to the unreasonable impositions of Nero and Caligula, than to hazard the dissolution of the state! "_"It is absolutely necessary, indeed, to the peace and government of the world, that the supreme government of

all dissenters. Fully convinced of the dangerous tendency of such doctrines, Marvell determined to expose their author. This he happily effected by a tract called, 'The Rehearsal Transprosed, &c. or Animadversions upon a late Book, intituled, "A Preface showing what Grounds there are of Fears and Jealousies of Popery." London, printed by A. B. for the Assigns of John Calvin and Theodore Beza, at the sign of the King's Indulgence, on the South-side of the Lake Leman, 1672.' in which, with great strength of argument and considerable wit and humour, hẹ points out the absurdity of his antagonist's tenets.* To this the Doctor published an anonymous answer; upon which Marvell, in 1673, drew up his Second Part of his Rehearsal Transprosed;' occasioned by two letters, the first from a nameless author entitled, The Reproof, &c.;' the second left at a friend's house with the signature J. G., and concluding, "If thou darest to print or publish any lie or libel against Doctor Parker, by the eternal God I will cut thy throat." Several other anonymous pieces were published, about the same time, in favour of Parker; but the patriot, nevertheless (not confining his remarks to the Preface' and the Reproof' of his Adversary, but exposing likewise

every commonwealth should be vested with a power to govern and conduct the consciences of subjects in affairs of religion!""Tenderness and indulgence to such men (sectarians) were to nourish vipers in our own bowels, and the most sottish neglect of our quiet and security!"

* See the Extracts. At this time, as Burnet observes, "the court had given such broad intimations of an ill design, both on our religion and the civil constitution, that it was no more a jea lousy; all was, now, open and barefaced."