art yet could prevent these seditious
meetings
of let-
ters.
ters.
Marvell - Poems
*' Ed.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
Xlii NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.
or of the most cutting invective ; but he appears
equally devoid of malevolence in both. In the
one, he seems amusing himself with opponents
too contemptible to move his anger ; in the other,
to lay on with the stern imperturbable gravity of
one who is performing the unpleasant but neces-
sary functions of a public executioner. This
freedom from the usual faults of satirists may be
traced to several causes ; partly to the honhommie
which, with all his talents for satire, was a pecu-
liar characteristic of the man, and which rendered
him as little disposed to take offence, and as pla-
cable when it was offered, as any man of his time;
partly to the integrity of his nature, which, while
it prompted him to champion any cause in which
justice had been outraged or innocence wmnged,
effectually preserved him from the wanton exer-
cise of his wit for the gratification of malevo-
lence; partly, perhaps principally, to the fact,
that both the above qualities restricted him to
encounters in which he had personally no con-
cern. If he carried a keen sword, it was a most
peaceable and gentlemanly weapon ; it never left
the scabbard except on the highest provocation,
and even then, only on behalf of others. His
magnanimity, self-control, and good temper, re-
strained him from avenging any insult offered to
himself; — his chivalrous love of justice instantly
roused all the lion within him on behalf of the
injured and oppressed. It is perhaps well for
Digitized by VjOOQIC
NOTICE OP THE AUTHOR. xliii
Marvcirs fame that his quarrels were not per-
sonal: had they been so, it is hardly probable
that such powers of sarcasm and irony should
have been so little associated with bitterness of
temper.
We must not quit the subject of his wit, with-
out presenting the reader with some few of his
pleasantries : premising that they form but a very
small part of those which we had marked in the
perusal of his works; and that, whatever their
merit, it were easy to find others far superior to
them, if we could afford space for long citations.
Of the invention of printing, he writes in the
following cutting train of irony : —
* The press, (that villanous engine,) invented much
about the same time with the Reformation, hath done
more mischief to the discipline of our Church than the
doctrine can make amends for. It was a happy time,
when all learning was in manuscript, and some little
officer, like our author, did keep the keys of the
library : When the clergy needed no more knowledge
than to read the liturgy, and the laity no more clerk-
ship than to save them from hanging. But now, since
printing came into the world, such is the mischief, that
a man cannot write a book, but presently ho is an-
swered. Could the press but at once be conjured to
obey only an imprimatur^ our author might not dis-
daine, perhaps, to be one of its most zealous patrons.
There have been wayes found out to banish ministers,
to find not only the people, but even the grounds and
fields where they assembled, in conventicles ; but no
Digitized by VjOOQIC
Xliv NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.
art yet could prevent these seditious meetings of let-
ters. Two or three brawny fellows in a corner, with
meer ink and elbow-jrrease, do more harm than a
hundred systematical divines, with their sweaty preach-
injr. And, what is a stranjre thinjr, the very spunks,
which one would think should rather deface and blot
out the whole book, and were anciently used for that
purpose, are become now the instalments to make
them legible. Their ugly printing letters look but
like so many rotten teeth; how oft have they been
pulled out by B. & L. the public tooth drawers ; and
yet these rascally operators of the press have got
a trick to fasten them again in a few minutes, that
they grow as firm a set, and as biting and talkative as
ever. O, printing ! how hast thou disturbed the
peace of mankind! — that lead, when moulded into
bullets, is not so mortal as when formed into letters !
There was a mistake, sure, in the story of Cadmus;
and the serpent's teeth which he sowed were nothing
else but the Icttera which he invented. The first essay
that was made towards this art, was in single charac-
ters upon iron, wherewith, of old, they stigmatized
slaves and remarkable offenders ; and it was of goo<l
use, sometimes, to brand a schismatic ; but a bulky
Dutchman diverted it quite from its first institution,
and contriving those innumerable si/ntagmes of alpha-
bets, hath pestered the world ever since, with the
gross bodies of their German divinity. One would
liave thought in reason, that a Dutchman might have
contented himself only with the wine-press. "
The following passage from ** Mr. Smirke, or
the Divine in Mode," would he enough to show
Digitized by VjOOQIC
NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR. xlv
even without any acknowledgment on his own
part, that Swift studied and profited by the prose
of Marvell.
" And from hence it proceeds, that, to the no small
scandal and disreputation of our church, a great arca-
num of their state hath been discovered and divulged ;
that, albeit wit be not inconsistent and incompatible
with a clergyman, yet neither is it inseparable from
them.
Digitized by VjOOQIC
Xlii NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.
or of the most cutting invective ; but he appears
equally devoid of malevolence in both. In the
one, he seems amusing himself with opponents
too contemptible to move his anger ; in the other,
to lay on with the stern imperturbable gravity of
one who is performing the unpleasant but neces-
sary functions of a public executioner. This
freedom from the usual faults of satirists may be
traced to several causes ; partly to the honhommie
which, with all his talents for satire, was a pecu-
liar characteristic of the man, and which rendered
him as little disposed to take offence, and as pla-
cable when it was offered, as any man of his time;
partly to the integrity of his nature, which, while
it prompted him to champion any cause in which
justice had been outraged or innocence wmnged,
effectually preserved him from the wanton exer-
cise of his wit for the gratification of malevo-
lence; partly, perhaps principally, to the fact,
that both the above qualities restricted him to
encounters in which he had personally no con-
cern. If he carried a keen sword, it was a most
peaceable and gentlemanly weapon ; it never left
the scabbard except on the highest provocation,
and even then, only on behalf of others. His
magnanimity, self-control, and good temper, re-
strained him from avenging any insult offered to
himself; — his chivalrous love of justice instantly
roused all the lion within him on behalf of the
injured and oppressed. It is perhaps well for
Digitized by VjOOQIC
NOTICE OP THE AUTHOR. xliii
Marvcirs fame that his quarrels were not per-
sonal: had they been so, it is hardly probable
that such powers of sarcasm and irony should
have been so little associated with bitterness of
temper.
We must not quit the subject of his wit, with-
out presenting the reader with some few of his
pleasantries : premising that they form but a very
small part of those which we had marked in the
perusal of his works; and that, whatever their
merit, it were easy to find others far superior to
them, if we could afford space for long citations.
Of the invention of printing, he writes in the
following cutting train of irony : —
* The press, (that villanous engine,) invented much
about the same time with the Reformation, hath done
more mischief to the discipline of our Church than the
doctrine can make amends for. It was a happy time,
when all learning was in manuscript, and some little
officer, like our author, did keep the keys of the
library : When the clergy needed no more knowledge
than to read the liturgy, and the laity no more clerk-
ship than to save them from hanging. But now, since
printing came into the world, such is the mischief, that
a man cannot write a book, but presently ho is an-
swered. Could the press but at once be conjured to
obey only an imprimatur^ our author might not dis-
daine, perhaps, to be one of its most zealous patrons.
There have been wayes found out to banish ministers,
to find not only the people, but even the grounds and
fields where they assembled, in conventicles ; but no
Digitized by VjOOQIC
Xliv NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR.
art yet could prevent these seditious meetings of let-
ters. Two or three brawny fellows in a corner, with
meer ink and elbow-jrrease, do more harm than a
hundred systematical divines, with their sweaty preach-
injr. And, what is a stranjre thinjr, the very spunks,
which one would think should rather deface and blot
out the whole book, and were anciently used for that
purpose, are become now the instalments to make
them legible. Their ugly printing letters look but
like so many rotten teeth; how oft have they been
pulled out by B. & L. the public tooth drawers ; and
yet these rascally operators of the press have got
a trick to fasten them again in a few minutes, that
they grow as firm a set, and as biting and talkative as
ever. O, printing ! how hast thou disturbed the
peace of mankind! — that lead, when moulded into
bullets, is not so mortal as when formed into letters !
There was a mistake, sure, in the story of Cadmus;
and the serpent's teeth which he sowed were nothing
else but the Icttera which he invented. The first essay
that was made towards this art, was in single charac-
ters upon iron, wherewith, of old, they stigmatized
slaves and remarkable offenders ; and it was of goo<l
use, sometimes, to brand a schismatic ; but a bulky
Dutchman diverted it quite from its first institution,
and contriving those innumerable si/ntagmes of alpha-
bets, hath pestered the world ever since, with the
gross bodies of their German divinity. One would
liave thought in reason, that a Dutchman might have
contented himself only with the wine-press. "
The following passage from ** Mr. Smirke, or
the Divine in Mode," would he enough to show
Digitized by VjOOQIC
NOTICE OF THE AUTHOR. xlv
even without any acknowledgment on his own
part, that Swift studied and profited by the prose
of Marvell.
" And from hence it proceeds, that, to the no small
scandal and disreputation of our church, a great arca-
num of their state hath been discovered and divulged ;
that, albeit wit be not inconsistent and incompatible
with a clergyman, yet neither is it inseparable from
them.
