No More Learning

Though in no fur-
ther danger from the Jesuits, he seems to have
been beset by more formidable enemies in his
own bosom. Either from too early becoming his
own master, or from being betrayed into follies
to which his lively temperament and social quali-
ties readily exposed him, he became negligent of
his studies; and having absented himself from
certain " exercises," and otherwise been guilty of
sundry unacademic irregularities, he, with four
others, was adjudged by the masters and seniors
unworthy of *' receiving any further benefit from
the college," unless they showed just cause to the



* Another and more poetical version of the story is, that

Mr. Marvell had a presentiment of his fate and that he threw

on shore his staff, as the boat shoved off, crying, " Ho, for

, Heaven ! '* See Hartley Coleridge's Life of Marvell in Bio-

graphia Borcalis, 1st cd. 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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