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Hull engraving, Hollar, 1640
© Courtesy of Hull Local Studies Library
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Andrew Marvell: Man of contradictions |
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Parliamentarian or Royalist?
Although Marvell lived through the English Civil War, the part he played in it and his affiliations are ambiguous. His poems to Lovelace and Lord Hastings demonstrate a Royalist attitude, however his Horation Ode shows Cromwell’s move as filling a void left by Charles I’s incompetence and the deviousness of the parliamentary and military dissenters.
So restless Cromwell could not cease
In the inglorious arts of peace,
But through adventurous war
Urged his active star:
Unattributed portrait
© Courtesy of Hull Local Studies Library |
In 1650, Marvell became tutor to the daughter of former Parliamentarian general Thomas Lord Fairfax at his Yorkshire home, Nun Appleton. His stay there prompted Marvell to write a poem in its praise – 'Upon Appleton House, to My Lord Fairfax'. Marvell left Nun Appleton around the year 1652 and went to London where he became the tutor to William Dutton, a protégé of Oliver Cromwell. It is possibly at this period (though some scholars think it was as early as 1646) that Marvell wrote what is arguably his most famous poem – 'To His Coy Mistress'.
A favourite of the parliamentarians
Marvell was abroad again in 1656, this time at Saumur, with his pupil William Dutton, but who knows what other “business” he was on? In 1657, having read the reports of an English naval victory, Marvell wrote the poem 'On the Victory Obtained by Blake over the Spaniards, in the Bay of Santacruze, in the Island of Teneriff'. This poem has often been viewed as an attempt by its author to curry favour with Cromwell. A ploy that may well have paid off, for shortly after the poem was published, Marvell got the post he had been seeking – that of Latin Secretary. Latin was the language used for diplomacy and communication and Marvell’s duties while in the post would have included translating between Latin and English, drafting letters and documents and acting as translator for visiting foreign dignitaries.
Words: David Smith - Hull Local Studies Library
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