lodgings: so that, whenever His Royal Highness voted on the 'side of Marvell, which he often did, it was the observation of 'the adverse faction, that " he had been with his tutor."

In 1672, Marvell first entered the lists with Parker. In 1675, he took up his pen in reply to an attack made upon Bishop Croft's Naked Truth.' " He was also the author of various valuable political tracts and facetice. For his last production, "An Account of the Growth of Popery and Arbitrary Government in England," printed in 1678, he was threatened by the Court with prosecution, a reward being offered for the discovery of the writer; and it is even supposed to have cost him his life, which was thought to have been shortened by poison. He died on the 16th of August in the same year, in the 59th year of his age, and in the full vigour of his constitution; and there must have been some ground for the suspicion to which the Duke of Buckingham refers, when he says:

We with deep sorrows wail his loss:

But whether fate or art untwined his thread,
Remains in doubt. Fame's lasting register
Shall leave his name enroll'd, as great as those
Who at Philippi for their country bled.'

Marvell was buried in the Church of St. Giles in the Fields, at the expense of the Corporation of that town which he had so long and faithfully represented. We know not on what authority it is stated, that the rector of the parish refused to suffer a monument to his memory to be placed within the walls of the church.

The first edition of Marvell's Poems is posthumous, and was published in folio, in 1681, by a bookseller who bought his manuscripts from the woman in whose house Marvell lodged, and who is made to certify their authenticity in the advertisement prefixed to them, in the assumed character of his widow. Marvell was never married; and the cheat was soon detected.' As these poems were not left by Marvell for publication, but merely found among his papers, it is impossible to determine whether he was the actual author of all the compositions ascribed to him. That he was a poet of no contemptible talents, his Lines on Paradise Lost evince; but nothing is more likely than that he should have copied into his common-place book, many productions which pleased him, by different authors. The best edition of his poems is that published by Thomas Davies, in 2 vols 12mo., in the year 1726. His political and controversial works had never been collected, when, in 1765, Mr. Thomas Hollis projected a complete edition of Marvell's Works; and proposals were issued for the purpose by Andrew Miller, the Bookseller; but the scheme was abandoned. Ten years afterwards, however, Captain Edward

6

Thompson of Hull, a very zealous liberal of his day, but not very peculiarly fitted for the literary task he undertook, published "The Works of Andrew Marvell, Esq. with a new Life," in 3 vols 4to. In the Preface, the worthy Editor acknowledges his obligations to Mr. Brande Hollis, who had obligingly sent to him all the manuscripts and scarce tracts,' collected for the edition projected in 1675. Since the death of Mr. Thomas Hollis,' he says, 'I have been favoured by his successor with many anecdotes, 'manuscripts, and scarce compositions of our Author, such as I was unable to procure elsewhere; and by the attention and friendship of Mr. Thomas Raikes, I have been put in possession ' of a volume of Mr. Marvell's poems, some written by his own hand, and the rest copied by his order. This valuable acquisi'tion was many years in the care of Mr. Nettleton.' gentleman must have been one of Marvell's great-nephews, a son of Robert Nettleton, alderman of Hull, who married his niece. That the volume belonged to Marvell, may therefore be considered as not doubtful; but that its contents were his own authorship, is not so clear. Could this be established, it would prove him to have been the author of some of the most beautiful hymns in the language. Among others, the exquisite one inserted in No. 453 of the Spectator, and attributed to Addison, beginning,

When all thy mercies, O my God,'

This

appears with the title of, A paraphrase of David's Hymn on "Gratitude. This is followed by the Paraphrase of Psalm cxiv, inserted in No. 461, beginning,

'When Israel freed from Pharaoh's hand;'

6

but which appears in the Spectator as the contribution of a dif ferent correspondent. In the same manuscript volume, are contained Addison's paraphrase of the xixth Psalm, William and 'Margaret,' and other poems ascribed to different authors. The fact, we suspect to be this. The volume is a collection of poems begun by Marvell, and continued by the person into whose hands it fell after his decease; and the poems in question were transcribed from the Spectator as the Numbers containing them appeared. We never saw the long controversy which appeared on the subject in the Gentleman's Magazine, to which Mr. Dove refers; but the internal evidence is almost sufficient to disprove their being Marvell's productions, or the productions of his age. As undoubted specimens of Marvell's poetry, Mr. Montgomery has inserted in his "Christian Poet," The Emigrants,' and 'Eyes and Tears,' both of which will be found in the present volume. We regret that, as to several others, we cannot help having strong doubts whether they are justly ascribed to him. It must surely have been in his juvenile days, if the poem be really his,

that Marvell addressed to his coy mistress,' the quaint and unequal lines, not quite unworthy of Cowley, in which we are surprised with the following striking thought:

But at my back I always hear

Time's winged chariot hurrying near:

And yonder all before us lie

Deserts of vast eternity.'

The Character of Holland' is more likely to have proceeded from Marvell's satirical pen :

6

Holland, that scarce deserves the name of land,
As but th' off-scouring of the British sand.'

The allusions indicate that it was written during the Protectorate. We wish that we had sufficient authority for assigning to our Author the Dialogue between the Resolved Soul and created Pleasure'; but the versification seems much too polished, the turns of thought too delicate, and the whole is in too pure a taste for Marvell's day: it must, we think, be of later date. It is given in Thompson's edition of the Works, but, we presume, does not appear in the folio edition of the Poems. It is by far the most beautiful of all the specimens selected by Mr. Dove; and, as it may be new to many of our readers, we shall indulge ourselves in extracting it.

6 A DIALOGUE BETWEEN THE RESOLVED SOUL, AND CREATED

PLEASURE.

'Courage, my soul, now learn to wield
The weight of thine immortal shield.
Close on thy head thy helmet bright;
Balance thy sword against the fight.
See where an army, strong as fair,
With silken banners spread the air.
Now, if thou be'st that thing divine,
In this day's combat let it shine;
And shew that nature wants an art
To conquer one resolved heart.

6 PLEASURE.

Welcome the creation's guest,
Lord of earth, and heaven's heir;
Lay aside that warlike crest,

And of nature's banquet share:

Where the souls of fruits and flowers
Stand prepar'd to heighten yours.

6 SOUL.

I sup above, and cannot stay,
To bait so long upon the way.

PLEASURE.

On these downy pillows lie,
Whose soft plumes will thither fly:
On these roses, strew'd so plain,
Lest one leaf thy side should strain.

'SOUL.

My gentle rest is on a thought,
Conscious of doing what I ought.

PLEASURE.

If thou be'st with perfumes pleas'd,
Such as oft the Gods appeas'd,
Thou in fragrant clouds shalt show,
Like another God below.

" SOUL.

A soul that knows not to presume,
Is heaven's, and its own, perfume.

PLEASURE.

'Every thing does seem to vie

Which should first attract thine eye :
But, since none deserves that grace,
In this crystal view thy face.

· SOUL.

When the Creator's skill is priz'd,
The rest is all but earth disguis'd.

6 PLEASURE.

Hark how music then prepares,
For thy stay, these charming airs;
Which the posting winds recall,
And suspend the river's fall.

C SOUL.

Had I but any time to lose,
On this I would it all dispose.

Cease tempter. None can chain a mind

Whom this sweet cordage cannot bind.

CHORUS.

Earth cannot shew so brave a sight,
As when a single soul does fence
The batt'ry of alluring sense;

And heaven views it with delight.

Then persevere; for still new charges sound ;
And, if thou overcom'st, thou shalt be crown'd.

Marvell might occasionally trifle in poetry; but, in his prose writings, he appears in his native vigour of character as the indignant satirist and the intrepid advocate of freedom. In the