Marvell, Andrew 1621-78
English metaphysical poet

Born in Winestead, Yorkshire, he was educated at Hull Grammar School and Trinity College, Cambridge. He travelled (1642-46) in Holland, France, Italy and Spain. After a period as tutor to Lord Fairfax's daughter, when he wrote his pastoral and garden poems, he was appointed tutor to Cromwell's ward, William Dutton. In 1657 he became Milton's assistant and two years later, MP for Hull. In 1663-65 he accompanied Lord Carlisle as secretary to the embassy to Muscovy, Sweden and Denmark, but the rest of his life was devoted to his parliamentary duties, fighting against intolerance and arbitrary government. Marvell's works are divided by the Restoration into two very distinct groups. After 1660 he concentrated on politics - his last satires are a call to arms against monarchy - except when he produced the lines which prefixed the second edition of Milton's Paradise Lost. He wrote The Rehearsal Transpos'd (1672-73), against religious intolerance, and in 1677 his most important tract, the Account of the Growth of Popery and Arbitrary Government, was published anonymously. As a poet, he belongs to the pre-Restoration period, although most of his poetry was not published until 1681 as Miscellaneous Poetry. A subsequent volume was entitled Poems on Affairs of State (1689-97).

Bibliography: J B Leishman, The Art of Marvell's Poetry (1966); P Legouis, Andrew Marvell, po�te, puritain, patriote (1928)