Marvell Andrew - Andrew Marvell : the critical heritage

The Critical Heritage series collects together a large body of criticism on major figures in literature. Each volume presents the contemporary responses to a particular writer, enabling the student to follow the formation of critical attitudes to the writer's work and its place within a literary tradition.

The carefully selected sources range from landmark essays in the history of criticism to fragments of contemporary opinion and little published documentary material, such as letters and diaries.

Significant pieces of criticism from later periods are also included in order to demonstrate fluctuations in reputation following the writer's death.

THE CRITICAL HERITAGE

Edited by

ELIZABETH STORY DONNO

London and New York

First Published in 1978

This edition published in the Taylor & Francis e-Library, 2002.

11 New Fetter Lane
London EC4P 4EE
&
29 West 35th Street
New York, NY 10001

Compilation, introduction, notes and index 1978
Elizabeth Story Donno

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reprinted or reproduced or utilized in any form or by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, including photocopying and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without permission in writing from the publishers.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data

ISBN 0-203-19435-7 Master e-book ISBN

ISBN 0-203-19438-1 (Adobe eReader Format)
ISBN 0-415-13414-5 (Print Edition)

To

WILLIAM NELSON

he nothing common did or mean

The reception given to a writer by his contemporaries and near-contemporaries is evidence of considerable value to the student of literature. On one side we learn a great deal about the state of criticism at large and in particular about the development of critical attitudes towards a single writer; at the same time, through private comments in letters, journals or marginalia, we gain an insight upon the tastes and literary thought of individual readers of the period. Evidence of this kind helps us to understand the writer's historical situation, the nature of his immediate reading-public, and his response to these pressures.

The separate volumes in the Critical Heritage Series present a record of this early criticism. Clearly, for many of the highly productive and lengthily reviewed nineteenth- and twentieth-century writers, there exists an enormous body of material; and in these cases the volume editors have made a selection of the most important views, significant for their intrinsic critical worth or for their representative qualityperhaps even registering incom-prehension!

For earlier writers, notably pre-eighteenth century, the materials are much scarcer and the historical period has been extended, sometimes far beyond the writer's lifetime, in order to show the inception and growth of critical views which were initially slow to appear.

In each volume the documents are headed by an Introduction, discussing the material assembled and relating the early stages of the author's reception to what we have come to identify as the critical tradition. The volumes will make available much material which would otherwise be difficult of access and it is hoped that the modern reader will be thereby helped towards an informed understanding of the ways in which literature has been read and judged.

B.C.S.

Satirist, Patriot, and Emergent Poet
16521845

Poet and Prose Writer
180692

Poetic Reassessment
18921921

To a twentieth-century reader who thinks of Andrew Marvell in terms of poetic achievement, the history of his literary fortunes may occasion surprise. The single edition of the poetry published in the seventeenth century, and posthumously at that, had its promptings in his reputation as a witty satirist and incorruptible patriot. Established during the last few years of his life and lasting for nearly two centuries, this reputation was primarily determined by the impact of the controversial writings in prose. Editions in the eighteenth century did indeed keep the poetry in public view, but the same motivation for publication continued to obtain, as the assertions of the editors, together with their inclusion of the letters and prose pieces, attest. In order to trace the development of Marvell's reputation chronologically, comments on the works which determined this public image appear first. To establish a context for them, a summary of each controversy introduces the comments; to elucidate often remote topical allusions, some notes are appended.

The remaining critical items focus on the emergence of the poet, first in conjunction with the persistent image of satirist and patriot, then within the double frame of his achievement as poet and prose writer. Finally, at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth, comes the singular stress on his achievement as poet.

E.S.D.

The author and publishers are grateful to the following for permission to reproduce copyright material:

Associated Book Publishers Ltd for A.Clutton-Brock, More Essays on Books; Faber & Faber Ltd and Mrs Valerie Eliot and Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc. for T.S.Eliot, Selected Essays, copyright 1932, 1936, 1950 by Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.; renewed, 1960, 1964 by T.S.Eliot. Reprinted by permission of Harcourt Brace Jovanovich, Inc.; The Huntington Library, San Marino, California, for Nos 1, 3, 6, 9, 12, 16, 17, 19, 20, 22, 23, 31, 32, 33, 34, 36, 39, 42, 43, 46, 48, 53, 62, 66; Macmillan London and Basingstoke for Augustine Birrell, Andrew Marvell; Macmillan Publishing Co. Inc., New York, and the Executors of George Saintsbury Deceased for George Saintsbury, A Short History of English Literature; John Murray (Publishers) Ltd for extracts from the Cornhill Magazine and the Quarterly Review; New Statesman, London, for Matthew Arnold's letter to Sainte Beuve, reprinted in the Athenaeum, J.Stuart's review in the Athenaeum and T.S. Eliot's review in the Nation and Athenaeum; the North American Review for Francis L.Bickley's essay; Oxford University Press for Herbert J.C.Grierson, Metaphysical Lyrics and Poems of the Seventeenth Century, the Spectator for reviews by W.D.Christie and Lytton Strachey; the Times Literary Supplement for the unsigned review, No. 91 a.

In general, the copytext is that of the earliest printing, with abbreviations and contractions expanded, modern typographical conventions followed, and insignificant printing errors corrected. For texts originally printed in italic with proper names in roman, a reverse procedure has been followed. Selected original notes are indicated by asterisks, explanatory notes by a numerical sequence. Place of publication is indicated only when it is other than London.

In place of long quotations from Marvell's writings, bracketed references have been inserted, keyed to the following editions: