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less happy quotation could not have beenfound. They who take up the attitude thatMarvell adopted are hardly the men whoreceive the rewards or decorations givensuccessfijl statesmen. It cannot be denied that coarse passages ;to be found In Marvell's satires \ but wc mustremember the circumstances under which thejwere written. Parker, whom Mr. ChristUgravely quoted against Marvell, says that " outof the House, when he could do it withimpunity, he vented himself with the greatestbitterness, and daily spewed infamous iibels outof his filthy mouth against the King himself."It is true that there is often plain-speaking ofthe King, but that King was Charles II. ; andloyal as he was, Marvell's love for his countrywas too great to allow hini to pass over in INTRODUCTION, lix silence the infamous state of affairs that hesaw around him. Every form of uncleanness,bribery, and corruption was practised openly atthe Court, and behind this apparent surrender-ing of all else to the pleasures of the momentthere was a plot to sacrifice the country and thenational religion for private and selfish ends.In speaking plainly of such things the poetcould hardly fail sometimes to write coarselyor unmercifully. The more we study the writings of MarvelPscontemporaries, the more we realize theaccuracy of the numerous uncomplimentaryallusions to people of the day in these satires.When any one who dared to speak of a royalintrigue, well known to all, was liable to abrutal assault at the hands of soldiers undercommand of the King's son, it was impossibleto write otherwise than anonymously, and thecharge of cowardice or unmanliness is absurd.Perhaps there is no attack in these satires thatwe need much regret except that upon AnneHyde, the Duke of York's first wife ; but evenin this case Marvell may have had good reasonfor knowing that her enemies were right inasserting that the connection she had with theDuke before her marriage was not the only slip lit ANDREW MARVELL. she made. The Duke of York himself was aprofligate andan intriguer against his country'sbest interests, and well deserved all thatMarvell said of him. Of the earlier satires the " Character ofHolland " is the best, and the vigorous, rollick-ing humour and careless, unpremeditated stylehave often been compared with Butler's ; butthere is an earnest feeling throughout of lovefor England, " dariing of Heaven, and ofmen the care," and of admiration for those whoin troublesome limes watched over the Common-wealth. Among the Latin poems the pieceupon Joseph de Maniban illustrates Marvell'swit in its lighter vein. His scholarship was ofno mean order, and his reading was wide. It is pleasant to turn to the poems uponwhich Marvell's fame chiefly rests. They wereall, with one exception, written before theRestoration, and none would realize more thanMarvell how great a sacrifice he made when heabandoned the higher forms of art to attack thevices that he saw around him. He had a reallove of Nature for its own sake, which was thenrare even among poets, and he made the bestuse of the opportunity for studying the beautiesof the country that was afforded during his sofotsn sz Lord Filzset =. Ht vl* -"">^ lh:*—thirty years of 2:rt- ^^i "ii^ -i-i «— ?s- • VnrrL ti* log the birds eZsZ 5vT*r= -rhh z rzl-ii izjf iis-cemicg c3.-e, Zfjz zj-x ^--"r*- — 'r ^-t 1 — --"element in the -nirli. izii tb* r^litiizs c: :lewhole to rs Cztzzir.
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