He followed the town life, haunted the best companies ;
and, to polish himself from any pedantic roughness,
he read and saw the plays with much care, and more
proficiency than most of the auditory.
and, to polish himself from any pedantic roughness,
he read and saw the plays with much care, and more
proficiency than most of the auditory.
Marvell - Poems
XXlX
nesses that can only be expected from a renegade
of Algiers and Tunis — to overdo in expiation,
and gain better credence of being a sincere Mus-
sulman. '**
Marvell gives an amusing account of the pro-
gress of Parker's conversion— of the transforma-
tion by which the maggot became a carrion-fly.
In the second part of the Rehearsal^ after a humor-
ous description of his parentage and youtli, he
tells us that at the Restoration ^' he came to Lon-
don, where he spent a considerable time in creep-
ing into all corners and companies, horoscoping
up and down ** (" astrologizing " as he elsewhere
expresses it) " concerning the duration of the
government ; — not considering any thing as hest^
but as most lasting^ and most profitable. And
after having many times cast a figure, he at last
satisfied himself that the Episcopal government
would endure as long as this king lived, and from
thenceforward cast about how to be admitted into
the Church of England, and find the highway to
her preferments. In order to this, he daily en-
larged not only his conversation but his con-
science, and was made free of some of the town
vices : imagining, like Muleasses, King of Tunis,
(for I take witness that on all occasions I treat
him rather above his quality than otherwise,)
that, by hiding himself among the onions, he
♦ RehearBol TVantprotedf vol. i. pp. 91, 92.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
XXX NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.
should escape being traced by his perfumes. "*
Marvell sketches the early history and character
of Parker in both parts of the Rehearsal — though,
as might be expected, with greater severity in the
second than in the first. A few ludicrous sen-
tences may not displease the reader. He says : —
** This gentleman, as I have heard, after he had read
Don Quixote and the Bible, besides such school-books
as were necessary for his age, was sent early to the
university ; and there studied hard, and in a short time
became a competent rhetorician, and no ill disputant.
He had learned how to erect a thesis^ and to defend it
pro and con with a serviceable distinction
And so, thinking himself now ripe and qualified for
the greatest undertakings and highest fortune, he
therefore exchanged the narrowness of the university
for the town ; but coming out of the confinement of
the square cap and the quadrangle into the open air,
the world began to turn round with him, which he
imagined, though it were his own giddiness, to be
nothing less than the quadrature of the circle. This
accident concurring so happily to increase the good
opinion which he naturally had of himself, he thence-
forward applied to gain a like reputation with others.
He followed the town life, haunted the best companies ;
and, to polish himself from any pedantic roughness,
he read and saw the plays with much care, and more
proficiency than most of the auditory. But all this
while he forgot not the main chance ; but hearing of a
Tacancy with a nobleman, he clapped in, and easily
* Rehtanal Trcmproted, vol. ii. pp. 77, 78.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
NOTICE OP THE AUTHOR. XXXX
obtained to be his chaplain ; from that day you may
take the date of his pi*cfennent8 and his ruin; for
having soon wrought -himself dexterously into his pa-
tron's favour, by short gracos and sermons, and a
mimical way of drolling upon the Puritans, which he
knew would take both at chapel and at table, he gained
a great authority likewise among all the domestics.
They all listened to him as an oracle; and they
allowed him, by common consent, to have not only all
the divinity, but more wit, too, than all the rest of the
family put together. Nothing now must
serve him, but he must be a madman in print, and
write a book of Ecclesiastical Polity. There he distri-
butes all the territories of conscience into the Prince's
province, and makes the Hierarchy to be but Bishops
of the air ; and talks at such an extravagant rate in
things of higher concernment, that the reader will
avow that in the whole discourse he had not one lucid
interval. " ♦
The work here mentioned, his J^cclesiasttcal
Polity, was published in the year 1670. But the
book which called forth Marvell, was a Preface
• to a posthumous work of Archbishop Bramhairs,
which appeared in 1672. In this piece Parker
had displayed his usual zeal against the Non-
conformists with more than usual acrimony, and
pushed to the uttermost extravagance his fa-
vourite maxims of ecclesiastical tyranny. Like
his previous works on similar matters, it was
anonymous, though the author was pretty well
♦ Rehearsal Trainprosed^ vol. i. pp.
nesses that can only be expected from a renegade
of Algiers and Tunis — to overdo in expiation,
and gain better credence of being a sincere Mus-
sulman. '**
Marvell gives an amusing account of the pro-
gress of Parker's conversion— of the transforma-
tion by which the maggot became a carrion-fly.
In the second part of the Rehearsal^ after a humor-
ous description of his parentage and youtli, he
tells us that at the Restoration ^' he came to Lon-
don, where he spent a considerable time in creep-
ing into all corners and companies, horoscoping
up and down ** (" astrologizing " as he elsewhere
expresses it) " concerning the duration of the
government ; — not considering any thing as hest^
but as most lasting^ and most profitable. And
after having many times cast a figure, he at last
satisfied himself that the Episcopal government
would endure as long as this king lived, and from
thenceforward cast about how to be admitted into
the Church of England, and find the highway to
her preferments. In order to this, he daily en-
larged not only his conversation but his con-
science, and was made free of some of the town
vices : imagining, like Muleasses, King of Tunis,
(for I take witness that on all occasions I treat
him rather above his quality than otherwise,)
that, by hiding himself among the onions, he
♦ RehearBol TVantprotedf vol. i. pp. 91, 92.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
XXX NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.
should escape being traced by his perfumes. "*
Marvell sketches the early history and character
of Parker in both parts of the Rehearsal — though,
as might be expected, with greater severity in the
second than in the first. A few ludicrous sen-
tences may not displease the reader. He says : —
** This gentleman, as I have heard, after he had read
Don Quixote and the Bible, besides such school-books
as were necessary for his age, was sent early to the
university ; and there studied hard, and in a short time
became a competent rhetorician, and no ill disputant.
He had learned how to erect a thesis^ and to defend it
pro and con with a serviceable distinction
And so, thinking himself now ripe and qualified for
the greatest undertakings and highest fortune, he
therefore exchanged the narrowness of the university
for the town ; but coming out of the confinement of
the square cap and the quadrangle into the open air,
the world began to turn round with him, which he
imagined, though it were his own giddiness, to be
nothing less than the quadrature of the circle. This
accident concurring so happily to increase the good
opinion which he naturally had of himself, he thence-
forward applied to gain a like reputation with others.
He followed the town life, haunted the best companies ;
and, to polish himself from any pedantic roughness,
he read and saw the plays with much care, and more
proficiency than most of the auditory. But all this
while he forgot not the main chance ; but hearing of a
Tacancy with a nobleman, he clapped in, and easily
* Rehtanal Trcmproted, vol. ii. pp. 77, 78.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
NOTICE OP THE AUTHOR. XXXX
obtained to be his chaplain ; from that day you may
take the date of his pi*cfennent8 and his ruin; for
having soon wrought -himself dexterously into his pa-
tron's favour, by short gracos and sermons, and a
mimical way of drolling upon the Puritans, which he
knew would take both at chapel and at table, he gained
a great authority likewise among all the domestics.
They all listened to him as an oracle; and they
allowed him, by common consent, to have not only all
the divinity, but more wit, too, than all the rest of the
family put together. Nothing now must
serve him, but he must be a madman in print, and
write a book of Ecclesiastical Polity. There he distri-
butes all the territories of conscience into the Prince's
province, and makes the Hierarchy to be but Bishops
of the air ; and talks at such an extravagant rate in
things of higher concernment, that the reader will
avow that in the whole discourse he had not one lucid
interval. " ♦
The work here mentioned, his J^cclesiasttcal
Polity, was published in the year 1670. But the
book which called forth Marvell, was a Preface
• to a posthumous work of Archbishop Bramhairs,
which appeared in 1672. In this piece Parker
had displayed his usual zeal against the Non-
conformists with more than usual acrimony, and
pushed to the uttermost extravagance his fa-
vourite maxims of ecclesiastical tyranny. Like
his previous works on similar matters, it was
anonymous, though the author was pretty well
♦ Rehearsal Trainprosed^ vol. i. pp.
