Marvell, Andrew

(1621-1678)

   He was born at Winestead in Holderness, Yorkshire, was educated under his father at the grammar school in Hull, graduated from Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1637, and left sometime before September 1641. He traveled in Europe, learning languages, then spent several years as tutor, first to Mary, the daughter of Thomas Fairfax, 3rd Baron (commander in chief of the Parliamentary army during the English Civil Wars), at Nun Appleton in Yorkshire, and to one of Oliver Cromwell's wards. In 1657 he was appointed Latin secretary to the Council of State, replacing his now totally blind friend John Milton (see entry). Marvell wrote a whole series of Cromwellian poems around the period of the Commonwealth (1653-1658). In 1659 he was elected member of Parliament for Hull, an office he held until his death of a fever. He was buried in the church of St. Giles-in-the-Fields, London. Some of his poems: "Bermudas," "Blood and the Crown," "Clorinda and Damon," "On Mr. Milton's "Paradise Lost," "The Fair Singer," "The Gallery," "The Last Instructions to a Painter," "Upon Appleton House [To My Lord Fairfax]," "Young Love."

   Sources: Anthology of Poems on Affairs of State: Augustan Satirical Verse, 1660-1714. George de F. Lord, ed. Yale University Press, 1975. Dictionary of National Biography. Electronic Edition 1.1. Oxford University Press, 1997. Encyclopædia Britannica Ultimate Reference Suite DVD, 2006. English Poetry: Author Search. Chadwyck-Healey Ltd., 1995 (http://www.lib.utexas.edu:8080/search/epoetry/author.html). Jacobean and Caroline Poetry: An Anthology. T.G.S. Cain, ed. Methuen, 1981. The Columbia Granger's Index to Poetry. 11th ed. The Columbia Granger's World of Poetry, Columbia University Press, 2005 (http://www.columbiagrangers.org). The Complete Poems of Andrew Marvell. Elizabeth Story Donno, ed. Penguin Books, 1972, reprinted 1985. The Oxford Book of English Verse, 1250-1918. Sir Arthur Quiller-Couch, ed., new edition, revised and enlarged, Oxford University Press, 1939. The Oxford Book of Satirical Verse. Geoffrey Grigson, ed. Oxford University Press, 1980. The Oxford Companion to English Literature. 6th edition. Margaret Drabble, ed. Oxford University Press, 2000. The Works of Andrew Marvell (http://www.luminarium.org/sevenlit/marvell/marvbib.htm).