of the Humber, opposite Kingston, lived a lady whose virtue and good sense recommended her to the esteem of Mr. Marvell, as his piety and understanding caused her to take particular notice of him; from this mutual approbation arose an intimate acquaintance, which was soon improved into a strict friendship. This lady had an only daughter, whose duty, devotion, and exemplary behaviour, had endeared her to all who knew her, and rendered her the darling of her mother; whose fondness for her arose to such a height that she could scarcely bear her temporary absence: Mr. Marvell, desiring to perpetuate the friendship between the families, requested the lady to allow her daughter to come over to Kingston, to stand god-mother to a child of his; to which, out of her great regard to him, she consented, though depriving herself of her daughter's company for a longer space of time than she would have agreed to on any other consideration. The young lady went over to Kingston accordingly, and the ceremony was performed. The next day when she came down to the river side, in order to return home, it being extremely rough, so as to render the passage dangerous, the watermen earnestly dissuaded her from any attempt to cross the river that day. But she, who had never wilfully given her mother a moments uneasiness, and knew how miserable she would be, insisted on going, notwithstanding all that could be urged by the watermen, or by Mr. Marvell, who earnestly entreated her to return to his house, and wait for better weather. Finding her resolutely bent to venture her life rather than disappoint a fond parent, he told her, as she had brought herself into that perilous situation on his account, he thought himself obliged, both in honor and conscience, to share the danger with her, and having with difficulty persuaded some watermen to attempt the passage, they got into the boat. Just as they put off, Mr. Marvell threw his gold-headed cane on shore, to some of his friends, who attended at the water-side, telling them, that as he could not suffer the young lady to go alone, and as he apprehended the consequence might be fatal, if he perished, he desired them to give that cane to his son, and bid him remember his father. Thus armed with innocence, and his fair charge with filial duty, they set forward to meet their inevitable fate. The boat was upset and they were both lost." * * We have seen the circumstances of the elder Marvell's death somewhat differently related; and though the narrative may not exactly accord with modern theories, we shall give it for the benefit of such as know "There are more things in heaven and earth, Than are dream'd of in our philosophy." According to this tradition, Mr. Marvell's apprehensions arose, not from the fears of watermen, nor from the minacious murmurs of the wind; but from that prophetic Thus perished Mr. Marvell, in the 54th year of his age, a man eminent for virtue and learning, universally lamented by his friends, and the people of Hull in general. The son gives this character of his father, in 'The Rehearsal Transprosed:'-" He died before the war broke out, having lived with some reputation both for piety and learning; and was, moreover, a conformist to the rites and ceremonies of the Church of England, though I confess none of the most over-running, or eager in them." Echard, in his history, styles Mr. Marvell "the facetious Calvinistical Minister of Hull." The extreme grief in which this melancholy event plunged the young lady's mother may be conceived: however, after her sorrow was somewhat abated, she sent for young Marvell, who was then at Cambridge, and did what she could towards supplying the loss he had sustained, and at her decease left him all that she possessed. Whether Marvell went down to Hull to take possession of the small fortune his father had left him, and by possessing it, grew negligent of his studies, is uncertain; but it appears that he, and four other students had absented themselves from their exercises, and been guilty of other indiscretions, which made the Masters and Seniors come to a resolution to refuse them the benefits of the College. In the conclusion Book, Sept. 24th, 1641, appears the following entry :-"It is agreed by the Masters and Seniors, that Mr. Carter, Dominus Wakefield, Dominus Marvell, Dominus Waterhouse, and Dominus Maye [who afterwards translated Lucan,] in regard that some of them are reported to be married, and the others look not after their dayes nor acts, shall receive no more benefit of the College, and shall be out of their places, unless they show just cause to the College for the contrary, in three months.” From the circumstance of this collegial record, we may infer that young Marvell left Cambridge about 1642, as we do not find that he ever attempted to vindicate himself against the charge. After this we presume he commenced his travels through the most polite parts of Europe. It appears he was at Rome, from his Poem entitled " Flecnoe, presentiment, that second sight of dissolution, which, like the shadow on the dial, points darkly at the hour of departure. The morning was clear, the breeze fair, and the company gay; when stepping into the boat the reverend man exclaimed-" Ho for Heaven," so saying, threw his staff ashore, and left it to providence to fulfil its awful warning. Of course we ask nobody to believe this unless he chooses, but we should as readily believe it, upon sufficient evidence, as any event in history. So many are the similar cases on record, that he who would reject them all, must be a person of indefatigable incredulity. The prophetic warnings have occurred to young and old, kings and rustics, saints and sinners; to Bentley, the orthodox; to Oliver Cromwell, the fanatic; to Littleton, the rake; to Nelson, the hero; and to Alexander Stephens, the buffoon. C. an English Priest," in which, though it be written in a slovenly metre, he describes with great humour and satire, that wretched Poet, Richard Flecnoe, who, as Dryden expresses it, "In prose and verse was owned without dispute, Through all the realms of nonsense, absolute." This Poem suggested one of the best and severest Satires in the English language,-we mean Dryden's " Mc Flecnoe," written against the "lambent dulness" of Thomas Shadwell, whose poetical character was injured by being placed in opposition to Dryden, as if he equalled that celebrated poet. After the Restoration, the office of Poet-Laureat was taken from Dryden (who had become a Roman Catholic,) and given to Shadwell, "Whose brows, thick fogs, instead of glories grace, And lambent dulness plays around his face." + It is probable that, during this excursion into Italy, Marvell made his first acquaintance with the immortal John Milton, who was at that time abroad. They met in Rome, and associated together, where they publicly argued against the superstitions of the Romish Church, even * "Flecnoe an English Priest." This appears to be a misnomer, for Flecnoe seems to have been a native of the Emerald Isle. Hence Pope : "High on a gorgeous seat that far outshone DUNCIAD, BOOK 2d. Flecnoe having laid aside, (as himself expressed it,) "the mechanic part of priesthood, wrote only to avoid idleness, and published to avoid the imputation of it." Mr. Southey, whose laudable zeal for obscure merit extends both to the dead and to the living, and who seems to entertain a compassion, almost melting into love, for innocent dulness, has dedicated some pages of his Omniana, (a miscellany of wonderful learning, and delightful vivacity,) to the vindication of this poor author, and gives some extracts from his poems, which we are afraid, will not plead potently against Mc Flecnoe. Southey ascribes Dryden's antipathy to Flecnoe's just invectives against the obscenity of the stage, for which wickedness Dryden was, if not more infamous, more notorious, than his dull contemporaries. But it is just as likely, that Flecnoe's name, itself a rememberable sound, and apt for composition, had by the attacks of a series of satirists, become, like that of Bavias, of Quarles, of Sternhold, and of Blackmore, a synonyme for extravagant flatness. It is hard for a man to have his name thus memorised, when every thing else about him is forgotten. C. + Dr. Johnson, in his Life of Dryden, remarks, "that the revenue which he, (Dryden) had enjoyed with so much pride, was transferred to Shadwell, an old enemy, whom he formerly stigmatized by the name of Og. Dryden could not decently complain that he was deposed; but seemed very angry that Shadwell succeeded him, and has therefore celebrated the intruder's inauguration in a Poem exquisitely satirical, called "Mc Flecnoe," of which the "Dunciad," as Pope himself declares, is an imitation, though more extended in its plan, and more diversified in its incidents." within the verge of the Vatican. It is thought by many, that Milton's great poem would have remained longer in obscurity, had it not been for Marvell, and Dr. Samuel Barrow, a Physician, who wrote it into favour. Marvell's poem, first prefixed to the second edition of Paradise Lost, is as reputable to his judgment and poetic talents, as to his friendship. Dr. Johnson endeavours to imagine what were the feelings and reflections of Milton during the composition of Paradise Lost. His conceptions and language on this subject we have often admired::"Fancy” says he, "can hardly forbear to conjecture with what temper Milton surveyed the silent progress of his work, and marked its reputation stealing its way in a kind of subterraneous current through fear and silence. I cannot but conceive him calm and confident, little disappointed, not at all dejected, relying on his own merit with steady consciousness, and waiting without impatience the vicissitudes of opinion, and the impartiality of a future generation." When Marvell arrived in Paris, on his return to England, he had an opportunity of exercising his wit on one Lancelot Joseph de Maniban, a whimsical Abbé, who pretended to enter into the qualities of those he had never seen, and to foretell their good or bad fortune by their handwriting.* This ridiculous prognosticator received a severe lashing W. Newcastle has the following excellent lines in reference to Dryden's Poem :— "Flecnoe, thy characters are so full of wit And fancy, as each word is throng'd with it. Whole libraries were in each character. Nor arrows in a quiver stuck, nor yet Nor quills upon the armed porcupine, Than wit and fancy in this work of thine." *The race of the Manibans is by no means extinct; and however futile may be the pretence to prognosticate the contingencies of a life, from the curves and angles of an autograph, we do most seriously maintain, that a diagnosis of character may be derived from the physiognomy of a manuscript. The goodness or badness of the writing has nothing to do with the question; neither is the expression of a countenance dependent upon its beauty or homeliness. Indeed, Caligraphy, as practiced by writing masters, and taught to young ladies, in six lessons, is a species of dissimulation, intended, like the Chesterfieldian politeness of a courtier, to conceal the workings of thought and feeling-to substitute the cold, slippery, polished opacity of a frozen pool, for the ripple and transparency of a flowing brook. But into every habitual act, which is performed unconsciously, earnestly, or naturally, something of the mood of the moment, and something of the predominant habit of the mind, unavoidably passes:-the play of the features, the motions of the limbs, the paces, the tones, the very folds of the drapery (especially if it have long been worn), are all from Marvell in a Poem written in Latin, and addressed to him. After this, we have no information respecting Marvell till the year 1652, a space of eleven years. To fill up this interval, some of his Biographers have sent him to Constantinople, and made him Secretary to an embassy, though during the Commonwealth it does not appear there was any minister in Turkey. It is probable the mistake has arisen from the fact of Marvell afterwards attending Lord Carlisle in that capacity to Petersburgh. When we consider the splendid talents possessed by Marvell, we have reason to lament that we know so little of him during this period, especially when we reflect on his active turn of mind, and the acuteness of his perception. His observations and reflections, on men and manners, both at home and abroad, would have been inestimable. It appears from the following letter, written at the commencement of the year 1652, by Milton to Bradshaw, on behalf of Marvell, that he was then an unsuccessful canditate for the office of Latin Secretary. But to this application of Milton he no doubt owed his subsequent introduction into that office. The letter is endorsed for the Honour able the Lord Bradshawe :' significant. A mild, considerate man, hangs up his hat in a very different style from a stern and determined one. A Dissenter does not shake hands like a High-Churchman. But there is no act into which the character enters more fully, than into that of writing; for it is generally performed alone or unobserved; seldom is it, in adults, the object of conscious attention; and takes place while the thoughts, and the natural current of feeling, are in full operation. D'Israeli in his Curiosities of Literature, Second Series, has two interesting chapters on Autographs and Handwriting. C. * Mr. HORACE SMITH, in his interesting Novel of "Brambletye House," alludes to Milton and Marvell's association as Latin Secretaries. After mentioning Colonel Lilburne and Jocelyn's introduction to the Protector, he thus writes: "Following their conductor, they were ushered into a spacious and noble library, whose shelves were closely filled with books. At the upper end, before a desk, on which were several folio volumes, two gentlemen were seated, one of whom was writing from the dictation of his companion. The latter, who was rather below the middle size, wearing his light brown hair parted at the foretop, and hanging down on either side of his singularly comely and majestic countenance, took not the smallest notice of them as they passed, but continued dictating. His amanuensis, a strong set figure, with a round face, cherry cheeks, hazel eyes, and brown hair, bowed to them with a cheerful smile, as they walked through into an inner apartment, but did not speak. These were the immortal John Milton, Latin Secretary to the Protector, and the scarcely less illustrious Andrew Marvell, recently appointed his Assistant; men worthy to sit enthroned in that costly library, and to be surrounded by the great and kindred intellect of the world; men who have become the certain heirs of never dying fame, while with one or two exceptions, the crowd of nobles and grandees that thronged the adjoining saloon, passed rapidly away into irredeemable oblivion." B |