four years abroad, in Holland, France, Italy, and
Spain, to very good purpose, as I believe, and
the gaining of those four languages ; besides, he
is a scholar, and well read in the Latin and
Greek authors, and no doubt of an approved con-
versation; for he comes now lately otU of the
house of the Lord Fairfax, where he was in-
trusted to give some instructions in the languages
to the lady, his daughter** Milton concludes the
letter with a sentence which fully discloses the
very high
estimation
he had formed of MarvelFs
abilities — ^^ This, my lord, I write sincerely, with-
out any other end than to perform my duty to
the public in helping them to an humble servant ;
laying aside those jealousies and that emulation
which mine own condition might suggest to me
by bringing in such a coadjutor**
In the year, 1657, Marvell was appointed tutor
to Cromwell's nephew, Mr.
Marvell - Poems
p. 6. — Ed.
t Cooke, in the life prefixed to MarvelPs Poems, 1726.
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NOTICE OP THE AUTHOR. XIU
contrary 'within three months. The required
vindication does not appear to have been found,
or at all events was never offered. The record
of this transaction bears date September 24, 1C41.
Soon after this, probably at the commence-
ment of 1642, Marvell seems to have set out on
his travels, in the course of which he visited a
great part of Europe. At Rome he stayed a
considerable time, where Milton was then residing,
and where, in all probability, their life-long friend-
ship commenced. With an intrepidity, charac-
teristic of both, it is said they openly argued
against the superstitions of Rome within the pre-
cincts of the Vatican.
After this we have no trace whatever of Mar-
vell for some years ; and his biographers have,
as usual, endeavoured to supply the deficiency
by conjecture — some of them so idly, that they
have made him secretary to an embassy which
had then no existence.
It is not known when he returned to England ;
but that he was already there in 1652, and had
been there for some time, appears by a recom-
mendatory letter of Milton to Bradshaw, dated
February 21, of that year. It appears that Mar-
vell was then an unsuccessful candidate for the
office of Assistant Latin Secretary. In thia
letter, after describing Marvell as a man of " sin-
gular desert," both from " report " and personal
"converse,*' he proceeds to say — "He hath spent
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XIV NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.
four years abroad, in Holland, France, Italy, and
Spain, to very good purpose, as I believe, and
the gaining of those four languages ; besides, he
is a scholar, and well read in the Latin and
Greek authors, and no doubt of an approved con-
versation; for he comes now lately otU of the
house of the Lord Fairfax, where he was in-
trusted to give some instructions in the languages
to the lady, his daughter** Milton concludes the
letter with a sentence which fully discloses the
very high
estimation
he had formed of MarvelFs
abilities — ^^ This, my lord, I write sincerely, with-
out any other end than to perform my duty to
the public in helping them to an humble servant ;
laying aside those jealousies and that emulation
which mine own condition might suggest to me
by bringing in such a coadjutor**
In the year, 1657, Marvell was appointed tutor
to Cromwell's nephew, Mr.
Dutton.* Shortly
after receiving his charge, he addressed a let-
ter to the Protector, from which we extract one
or two • sentences characteristic of his caution,
* This Mr. Dutton, thongh called CromwelPs nephew in
all the notices of Marvell we have seen, seems to have been
in no way related to him. Perhaps ho was the son of Sir
Ralph Dutton, and nephew to John Dutton, Esq., who became
his guardian on the death of his father, and bequeathed him
to the care of Cromwell, with a wish that he might marry
his daughter, the Lady Frances Cromwell. His will was
proved 30 June, 1667. The marriage never took place. See
Noble's Memoirs, i. 196, note. Ed.
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NOTICE OP THE AUTHOR. XV
good sense, and conscientiousness. ^^ I have taken
care," says he, "to examine him [his pupil]
several times in the presence of Mr. Oxen-
bridge, as those who weigh and tell over money
before some witness ere they take charge of it;
for I thought there might be, possibly, some
lightness in the coin, or error in the telling,
which, hereafter, I should be bound to make
good.'* "He is of a gentle and
waxen disposition ; and God be praised, I cannot
say he hath brought with him any evil impres-
sion, and I shall hope to set nothing into his
spirit but what may be of a good sculpture.
