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 - Poems
The weather was tempestuous, and on reaching
the river's side, accompanied by Mr. Marvell, the
boatmen endeavored to dissuade her from cross-
ing. But, afraid of alarming her mother by pro-
longing her absence, she persisted. Mr. Marvell
added his importunities to the arguments of the
boatmen, but in vain. Finding her inflexible, he
told her that as she had incurred this peril to
oblige him, he felt himself ** bound in honour and
conscience" not to desert her, and, having pre-
vailed on some boatmen to hazard the passage,
they embarked together. As they were putting
off, he fiung his gold-headed cane on shore, and'
Digitized by VjOOQIC
Xll NOTICE OP THE AUTHOR.
told the spectators that, in case he should never
return, it was to be given his son, with the in-
junction "to remember his father." The boat
was upset, and both were lost.*
As soon as the mother had a little recovered
the shock, she sent for the young orphan, inti-
mated her intention to provide for his education,
and at her death left him all she possessed.
One of his biographers informs us that young
Marvell took his degree of B. A. in the year 1638,
and was admitted to a scholarship.f If so, he
did not retain it very long. 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.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
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.
