Andrew Marvell Part 13

A further and amending Bill for rebuilding the city was before the House--one of eighty-four clauses, "the longest Bill, perhaps, that ever past in Parliament," says Marvell; but the Roos Divorce Bill and the Conventicle Bill proved so exciting in the House of Lords that they had little time for anything else. Union with Scotland, much desired by the king, but regarded with great suspicion by all Parliamentarians, fell flat, though Commissioners were appointed.

The Conventicle Bill pa.s.sed the Lords, who tagged on to it a proviso Marvell refers to in his next letter, which the Lower House somewhat modified by the omission of certain words. Lord Roos was allowed to re-marry. The big London Bill got through.

Another private letter of Marvell's, of this date, is worth reading:--

"DEAREST WILL,--I wrote to you two letters, and payd for them from the posthouse here at Westminster; to which I have had no answer.

Perhaps they miscarryed. I sent on an answer to the only letter I received from Bourdeaux, and having put it into Mr. Nelthorp's hand, I doubt not but it came to your's. To proceed. The same day (March 26th letter) my letter bore date, there was an extraordinary thing done. The King, about ten o'clock, took boat, with Lauderdale only, and two ordinary attendants, and rowed awhile as towards the bridge, and soon turned back to the Parliament stairs, and so went up into the House of Lords, and took his seat. Almost all of them were amazed, but all seemed so; and the Duke of York especially was very much surprized. Being sat, he told them it was a privilege he claimed from his ancestors to be present at their deliberations.

That therefore, they should not, for his coming, interrupt their debates, but proceed, and be covered. They did so. It is true that this has been done long ago, but it is now so old, that it is new, and so disused, that at any other but so bewitched a time as this, it would have been looked on as an high usurpation, and breach of privilege. He indeed sat still, for the most part, and interposed very little; sometimes a word or two. But the most discerning opinion was, that he did herein as he rowed for having had his face first to the Conventicle Bill, he turned short to the Lord Ross's.

So that, indeed, it is credible, the King, in prospect of diminis.h.i.+ng the Duke of York's influence in the Lord's House, in this, or any future matter, resolved, and wisely enough at present, to weigh up and lighten the Duke's efficacy, by coming himself in person. After three or four days continuance, the Lords were very well used to the King's presence, and sent the Lord Steward and Lord Chamberlain, to him, when they might wait, as an House on him, to render their humble thanks for the honour he did them. The hour was appointed them, and they thanked him, and he took it well. So this matter, of such importance on all great occasions, seems riveted to them, and us, for the future, and to all posterity. Now the Lord Ross's Bill came in order to another debate, and the King present. Nevertheless the debate lasted an entire day; and it pa.s.sed by very few voices.

The King has ever since continued his session among them, and says it is better than going to a play. In this session the Lords sent down to us a proviso[149:1] for the King, that would have restored him to all civil or ecclesiastical prerogatives which his ancestors had enjoyed at any time since the Conquest. There was never so compendious a piece of absolute universal tyranny. But the Commons made them ashamed of it, and retrenched it. The Parliament was never embarra.s.sed, beyond recovery. We are all venal cowards, except some few. What plots of State will go on this interval I know not. There is a new set of justices of peace framing through the whole kingdom.

The governing cabal, since Ross's busyness, are Buckingham, Lauderdale, Ashly, Orrery, and Trevor. Not but the other cabal too have seemingly sometimes their turn. Madam,[150:1] our King's sister, during the King of France's progress in Flanders, is to come as far as Canterbury. There will doubtless be family counsels then.

Some talk of a French Queen to be then invented for our King. Some talk of a sister of Denmark; others of a good virtuous Protestant here at home. The King disavows it; yet he has sayed in publick, he knew not why a woman may not be divorced for barrenness, as a man for impotency. The Lord Barclay went on Monday last for Ireland, the King to Newmarket. G.o.d keep, and increase you, in all things.--Yours, etc.

"_April 14, 1670._"

FOOTNOTES:

[77:1] Clarendon's _Life_, vol. ii. p. 442.

[79:1] The clerks, however, only _counted_ the members who voted, and kept no record of their _names_. Mr. Gladstone remembered the alteration being made in 1836, and how unpopular it was. The change was a greater revolution than the Reform Bill. See _The Unreformed House of Commons_ by Edward Posselt, vol. i. p. 587.

[79:2]

"And a Parliament had lately met Without a single Bankes."--_Praed_.

[82:1] See Dr. Halley's _Lancas.h.i.+re--its Puritanism and Nonconformity_, vol. ii. pp. 1-140, a most informing book.

[88:1] Clarendon's _History_, vol. vi. p. 249.

[90:1] An Historical Poem.--Grosart, vol. i. p. 343.

[92:1] Macaulay's _History_, vol. i. p. 154.

[95:1] I am acquainted with the romantic story which would have us believe that Lady Fauconberg, foretelling the time to come, had caused some other body than her father's to be buried in the Abbey (see _Notes and Queries_, 5th October 1878, and Waylen's _House of Cromwell_, p.

341).

[96:1] See _The Unreformed House of Commons_, by Edward Porritt, vol. i.

p. 51. Marvell's old enemy, Parker, Bishop of Oxford, in his _History of his own Time_, composed after Marvell's death, reviles his dead antagonist for having taken this payment which, the bishop says, was made by a custom which "had a long time been antiquated and out of date." "Gentlemen," says the bishop, "despised so vile a stipend," yet Marvell required it "for the sake of a bare subsistence, although in this mean poverty he was nevertheless haughty and insolent." In Parker's opinion poor men should be humble.

[98:1] _Parliamentary History_, vol. iv., App. No. III.

[104:1] Mr. Gladstone's testimony is that no real improvement was effected until within the period of his own memory. 'Our services were probably without a parallel in the world for their debas.e.m.e.nt.' (See _Gleanings_, vi. p. 119.)

[106:1] There is a copy in the library of the _Athenaeum_, London: "A Relation of Three Emba.s.sies from his sacred Majestie Charles II. to the Great Duke of Muscovie, the King of Sweden, and the King of Denmark.

Performed by the Right Ho^ble the Earle of Carlisle in the Years 1663 and 1664. Written by an Attendant on the Emba.s.sies, and published with his Lords.h.i.+p's approbation. London. Printed for John Starkie at the Miter in Fleet Street, near Temple Barr, 1669."

[109:1] "I have mentioned the dignity of his manners.... He was at his very best on occasion of Durbars, invest.i.tures, and the like.... It irritated him to see men giggling or jeering instead of acting their parts properly."--_Life of Lord Dufferin_, vol. ii. p. 317.

[116:1] _Hist. MSS. Com., Portland Papers_, vol. iii. p. 296.

[116:2] See above, vol. iii. p. 294.

[118:1] Sir Walter Besant doubted this. See his _London_.

[123:1] Mr. Goldwin Smith says this was the first pitched battle between Protection and Free Trade in England.--_The United Kingdom_, vol. ii. p.

25.

[126:1] Being curious to discover whether no "property" man raised his voice against these measures, I turned to that true "home of lost causes," the Protests of the House of Lords; and there, sure enough, I found one solitary peer, Henry Carey, Earl of Dover, entering his dissent to both Bills--to the Judicature Bill because of the unlimited power given to the judges, to the Rebuilding Bill because of the exorbitant powers entrusted to the Lord Mayor and Aldermen to give away or dispose of the property of landlords.

[128:1] Clarendon's _Life_, vol. iii. p. 796.

[129:1] Clarendon's _Life_, vol. iii. p. 798.

[129:2] "Instructions to a Painter for the drawing of the Posture and Progress of His Majesty's forces at Sea under the command of His Highness Royal: together with the Battel and Victory obtained over the Dutch, June 3, 1665."--Waller's _Works_, 1730, p. 161.

[130:1] Sir John Denham's wife was reported to have been poisoned by a dish of chocolate, at the bidding of the d.u.c.h.ess of York.

[131:1] Clarendon's eldest son.

[139:1] It is disconcerting to find Evelyn recording this, his last visit to Clarendon, in his Diary under date of the 9th December, by which time the late Chancellor was in Rouen. One likes notes in a diary to be made contemporaneously and not "written-up" afterwards. Evelyn makes the same kind of mistake about Cromwell's funeral, misdating it a month.

[140:1] The duke died in 1670 and had a magnificent funeral on the 30th of April. See _Hist. MSS. Com., Duke of Portland's Papers_, vol. iii. p.

314. His laundress-d.u.c.h.ess did not long survive him.

[141:1] Afterwards Lord Dartmouth, a great friend of James the Second, but one who played a dubious part at the Revolution.

[145:1] The poet Waller was one of the wittiest speakers the House of Commons has ever known.

[148:1] For a full account of this remarkable case, see Clarendon's _Life_, iii. 733-9.

[149:1] "Provided, etc., that neither this Act nor anything therein contained shall extend to invalidate or avoid his Majesty's supremacy in ecclesiastical affairs [or to destroy any of his Majesty's rights powers or prerogatives belonging to the Imperial Crown of this realm or at any time exercised by himself or any of his predecessors Kings or Queens of England] but that his Majesty his heirs and successors may from time to time and at all times hereafter exercise and enjoy all such powers and authorities aforesaid as fully and amply as himself or any of his predecessors have or might have done the same anything in this Act (or any other law statute or usage to the contrary) notwithstanding." The words in brackets were rejected by the Commons. See _Parliamentary History_, iv. 446-7.

[150:1] Madame's business is now well known. The secret Treaty of Dover was the result of this visit.

CHAPTER V

"THE REHEARSAL TRANSPROSED"

It is never easy for ecclesiastical controversy to force its way into literature. The importance of the theme will be questioned by few. The ability displayed in its illumination can be denied by none. It is the temper that usually spoils all. A collection in any way approaching completeness, of the pamphlets this contention has produced in England, would contain tens of thousands of volumes; full of curious learning and anecdotes, of wide reading and conjecture, of shrewdness and wit; yet these books are certainly the last we would seek to save from fire or water. Could they be piled into scales of moral measurement a single copy of the _Imitatio_, of the _Holy Dying_, of the _Saint's Rest_, would outweigh them all. Man may not be a religious animal, but he recognises and venerates the spirit of religion whenever he perceives it, and it is a spirit which is apt to evaporate amidst the strife of rival wits. Who can doubt the sincerity of Milton, when he exclaimed with the sad prophet Jeremy, "Woe is me my Mother that thou hast borne me a man of strife and contention."

Marvell's chief prose work, the two parts of _The Rehearsal Transprosed_, is a very long pamphlet indeed, composed by way of reply to certain publications of Samuel Parker, afterwards Bishop of Oxford.

Controversially Marvell's book was a great success.[152:1] It amused the king, delighted the wits, was welcomed, if not read, by the pious folk whose side it espoused, whilst its literary excellence was sufficient to win, in after years, the critical approval of Swift, whose style, though emphatically his own, bears traces of its master having given, I will not say his days and nights, but certainly some profitable hours, to the study of Marvell's prose.