Destiny and Choice in Andrew Marvell`s `An Horatian Ode upon

Destiny and Choice
in Andrew Marvell's
Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland'
'An Horatian
Takashi
After the
Speaker
good
return
of Cromwell
success
of the Commons, gave him 'the hearty
Service',
Providence
and
delivered
of God in those
him,
as the Instrument'.1
that
'Marvell
Cromwell'.2
this
policy,
Cromwell
is acting
under
presents
Ode' Marvell
blind
/ Who think
lines
241-242).
those
On the one hand,
Marvell
panegyric
credentials
the
high
decrees
'The First
for Marvell's
government. It should
conditioned.3
response
Return
as bearing
guidance
to power
Anniversary'
to Cromwell's
attempt
not be surprising,
'An Horatian
to acquire
therefore,
that
Ode', on the other
(25)
portrayed
and apocalyptic
to the head of the
as many
panegyric
positive
nor,
testimony
that
'The
ordained,
First
in the
among the tumult
('The
was published
protege
portrays
of the Government
as divinely
have been meant, and certainly
second
Marvell
of God. Whereas
by man designed'
which
the will
from Ireland',
'undiscerned
by
argues
manifested
as a whole-hearted
seems to have been still
wrote it he was tutor
poem might
recorded
paper,
rise
the events
in the patriotic
neither
spiritual
Cromwell's
that
Anniversary
especially
first
in this
Sproxton
that
great
wrought
in the case of the 'Cromwell'
'The First
out, can be regarded
the
Judy
indeed
to this
Ode upon Cromwell's
to make clearer
Anniversary'
'Horatian
trilogy,
Marvell's
coup, 'An Horatian
century
forth
God hath
of his time
of his response
the Lord Protector',
of his foreign
as I want
Puritans
may be truer
of his Cromwell
have pointed
Works, which
Lenthall,
House for his great
setting
Violence and Religion,
as other
it 'is in terms
under His Highness
critics
and strange
William
of this
Oration,
in the mid-seventeenth
But, while
in the second
military
great
in Ireland,
Thanks
eloquent
In her
England
of God', and that
context
'an
was as certain
had overtaken
politically
from his
YOSHINAKA
First
Anniversary',
in 1655,
William
served
a position
Dutton.
and when
And this
as, part
of the
in Cromwell's
the poem was socially
and
hand, was not published,
as far as we know, in 1650.
parliamentarians
and radicals',
and republican
of verse
'It gives
to please
David
Cromwell'.4
the degree
our Desires,
Petitions
or politick
without
any insinuating
anxious,
about
making
which
he was actually
failed
to produce
with
which
expressing
both
his inner
opposing
espouse
views constantly
therefore,
that
the direct
guidance
turning
throughout
not only by alerting
choice,
determinism
'Horatian
but
significantly
Ode' raises
view of history
the problem
current
summoned Cromwell
undoubtedly
through
point
in this
deterministic
paper
time.
conviction
intrusions
is that,
view of history,
of the divine
while
Marvell
he looked
(26)
claim
into
acts under
providential
in relation
to
irresistible
into
of
which is a kind
upon it as a kind
the
God Himself
activities!
heaven
and
to earth
the course of history.
not cease
of
the providential
was that
God mediates
could
to
It is no wonder,
of God. Evidently,
as it involves
will
to choose
the poem does disservice
will
Puritans'
was that
words,
of the human fallibility
the
privacy
of widely
Cromwell
the law of nature,
especially
from his pastoral
Cromwell's
the perpetual
ofFate,
in Marvell's
that
reup by
In other
seemingly
to the possibility
not necessarily
he simply
ended
and undermined
like to demonstrate
in
factional
was not able
of Marvell's
but also by emphasizing
of the
eye to the other.
Ode' is questioned
the reader
is that
loyalties.
or not, undermined.
how the credibility
time
at a conflation
and confused
sent,
or at least
and thus
of God is, consciously
poems. Then I should
Cromwell's
lay,
Ode' the idea that
first
and nakedly
need
around him, Marvell
account of events in 'An Horatian
to itself
the
and his attempts
a blind
by the
of the critical
the 'Horatian
illustrate
his other
produced
allegiance
thereby
which any view
not but be sceptical,
to fulfill
period
is detri-
nor contrived
the fact of the matter
confusion
as a political
relativism
not moulded
could
encomiast's
to the confused
one ideology,
I shall
the
a practice
Ode', it may be said that
and an interpretation
Perhaps
many
view, a mere 'opinion'. That is why
had a special need to declare that
[are]
Marvell
a judgment
living.
of verse
War, during
of the World, but plainly
quirement
with
by the Civil
an encomium, failed
reactions
a practice
as a factional
for example,
arts'.6
to please
'but is too Machiavellian
In 'An Horatian
and Papers...
Principles
reasons,
I assume that Marvell's
is amplified
came to be most easily recognised
the Leveller Manifestation
(1649),
differing
and
mode of writing.
of his relativism
to Cromwell
The poem marks 'the line between
James Loxley asserts.5
mental to the panegyric
subtill
Norbrook
at one remove from politics
instrument',
'All
too much credit
to believe
of national
My
in a
drama
determined
by the characters
the 'ordinary'
(as opposed
due' ('An Horatian
choices
the enticingly
spiritual
ends,
material
mine).
be tantamount
Doubted
In order
to support
their
that
fighting
to fighting
political
Marvell
and killing
habitually
employed
by which
they
scriptural
examples
to contemporary
the
acquaintance
be expected
happened
deja
people
to have led to a cyclical
and what was said in the past,
with
Ode' parallels
by the providential
instance,
between
nature
the decapitation
ancient
A bleeding
first
affairs.
classical
actions
I is explained
terrified.
Hence,
and texts
the sense of
Throughout
'An
are made, and there-
appears
to be confirmed.
For
thus:
did design
line,
head where they begun,
(lines
The story is related
by Livy, Pliny and Varro, and this prodigious
appears to reflect Marvell's purpose, which is to show a providential
In all three
In addition,
if one knows what
Did fright the architects
to run:
And yet in that the State
Foresaw its happy fate.
regicide.
a means
history
of the present.
Rome and England
So when they [i.e., Romans]
The Capitol's
of Peace,
to historical
was 'prophesying',
one must often experience
of Cromwell's
of Charles
turned
view of history!
vu as one looks at the events and statements
Horatian
its
aware of the
for the Prince
frequently
might
as in 'The
for Satan.
views, Puritans
of Renaissance
that,
was fully
technique
wide
'Much to the man is
would deform and corrupt
analogy. The exegetical
applied
of God, under
Given his knowledge
to infer
of waving the banner of justice,
Typology
) law of which,
means of mediation
it seems reasonable
which may really
under the providence
to the 'extraordinary'
Ode', line 28, italics
Coronet',
danger
and their
sources, however, the head is not bleeding,
R. I. V. Hodge
sinister
in this omen, until
asks, 'Can the very different
feels,
'A reader
will
comforted by commentators',
sight of Charles's
bleeding
(27)
naturally
67-72)
Roman event
aspect of the
nor is the architect
find something
and Annabel Patterson
head, whose owner had
just
died
with courage
this
learned
sleight
Marvell's
that
topic
on the "Tragick
First
with
Anniversary'
Cromwell's
that
riding
defined
Sanders
saw Cromwell's
175-228),
accident
it proved
broadly
responded
Cromwell's
pro-government
'great
danger
Cromwell's
argue,
224):
is that
brilliant
the
exercise
attention
fall
is
But
even within
was contention'.
of being
the
people's
reader
would
in artistic
reward
killed'
forget
'the
political
beliefs
casuistry.
war, in which
different
spuriousness
and artistic
writers
organizations
Thomas Healy
offered
by literary
As Jonathan
texts'.12
the
on-stage
accidents
complex plots
fall
legitimate
Hence,
saying
of Marvell's
'bleeding
depending
description
of Charles's
are shown to be open to different
on the perspective
John Spencer,
the political
had
in the Poetics'- 'the most amazing accidental
seem to have been providential'.13
'Portents
coach,
and power
which
that
the
between
interpretations,
of civil
to argue
reader,
of natural
refers
make the best out
as well
as Charles's
to political
and poetic
explicitly
in his
royal
actor
stated
that
discussion
occurrences
positive
(28)
of
are those
is right
in 'An Horatian
in his prose work (ii. 165),
phenomena:
as
prescriptions
in
Ode'
or sinister,
of the observer'.14
to whom Marvell
interpretation
are a
is, the reader
same models
Warren Chernaik
head'
I
Marvell's
to a drama of'the
Aristotle
meaning
lines
the very experience
of Cromwell
53-54).
thing,
an easy identity
was attemptingto
liability
(lines
that
of the comprehensive
from the
people's
Marvell's
to the contemporary
case, more specifically,
scaffold'
have
fallacy
the
political
and in the king's
'tragic
us, 'the
In fact, Marvell
decapitation,
turning
revealed
ingenuity',10
The important
Lost', has noted,
employed
attend
headstrong
that
assuming
factions
John
anger'.8
F. S. Post, discussing
In addition,
and justifications,
incident,
on the
Paradise
of always
of other
of an embarrassing
advantage,
to suspect
expression'.ll
has reminded
'overextended
'the
the
Typically,
him, / Doth Providence
for being
be able
desperate
as 'a sign of [God's]
sins are to be blamed.
to form in 'On Mr Milton's
cannot
born'
the
not at all promising
to rule.
there
Wortham calls
in con-
rather
inability
ranks
1654,
repeat
with
Marvell's
(line
by
resembles
to the event
him'.9
In what Christopher
he would
in September
suspect
charioteer'
be dismissed
here closely
which
And John Denham wrote that 'all the Saints
however,
really
interpretation
(lines
for an encomium. 'Royalists
suggestions
Scaffold",
of hand?"7
tour de force in teleological
in 'The
nection
and dignity
discourages
Among the
Superstitious
people,
Ancient
Romanes subtil
Statesmen
made use of that
observation
of Omens and Prodigies, (to which they saw the
in the
ruder
ages especially
so invincibly
manage them to what perswasions
State;
to which
purpose
they
who knew to bend these
Alcoran)
to such
multitude
might
had their
Osier
best
acccidents
to the purposes
to act and
serve the necessities
Collegia
Vatum Publick
[sic]
a sence and signification
manageable
addicted)
of
Diviners,
(as the Mufti can doe the
as might
and designs
of their
make the
easie
Rulers.15
And, though
writing
almost two decades
later
than the date of Marvell's
composition
of the poem, in his Of Credulity
and Incredulity
(1668),
Meric
Casaubon stated:
As all
other
especially
things
that
superstition
ancient
in the
relate
world,
to God,
and credulity,
not
determinable
and his providence,
so this
of prodigies,
Romans have been noted for their
best Historian,
TitusLivius,
which stood upon public
for inserting
records,
those
have been liable
to
as much as any. The
excess,
that,
by sense,
in this
kind,
and their
into the body of his History,
hath been censured
as fabulous.16
Likewise, to Marvell himself, the habit of characterizing
the present events as part
of a historical
fulfillment
based on either biblical
or classical
patterns
must have
appeared
not only
(presumably
soon after
strategy.
servile
England
written
fabulous
but
also factional.
soon after May's death
the
'Horatian
Marvell
satirizes
Ode'),
typology
is treated
and obtrude
On them some Roman-cast similitude,
Until
the stories
you all grow consuls
Or thou, Dictator
fine,
in your wine.
of the glass,
On him the Cato, this
(line
40) for his customary
Go seek the novice statesmen,
bestow
the Cicero,
(29)
and thus quite
as an ideologically
Rome:
Tell them of liberty,
in 'Tom May's Death'
on 13 November 1650,
May both as a 'Foul architect'
wit, and mercenary pen' (line
to classical
Notably,
biased
51) and as the 'Most
linking
of Cromwell's
Transferring
old Rome hither
As Bethlem's
House did to Loreto
Given Marvell's
scorn for the 'Roman-cast
his use oftypology
a typical
in 'An Horatian
Cromwellian
about
their
but one thing
to Marvell
I on the scaffold.
typological
hermeneutics
effort
to present
actually
Cromwellian
In other
while
ruler,
Hannibal
Caesarian
and the defeated
Marvell,
he fails
poem depicts
thrusting
aside
his laurels
But the verb 'blast'
presses
of this
than
half
and half
disbelieves
believes
political,
out, for example,
signifying
upward and forces
/ To
there
are the
are two types of
and beneficent
And even when casting
by adapting
arresting
probably
image of Caesar
a
phrases
influenced
as an usurper. The
in Fortune's
unfailing
favour,
his march to supreme power:
(lines
lightning'
may be intransitive,
sentence,
that
and that there
of which
be taken
'three-forked
to Gaul,
and consequently
blast.
here should
was
Ode'.
to as a 'Caesar...
9), confident
barred
Did through
Cromwell's
the subject
that
(line
head at last
mean that
character
of Cromwell
... Caesar's
the 'Caesar'
and ordered
as a model of the legitimate
Cromwell'
Of course,
as an
reflects
off the condemnatory
all obstacles
change,
of
may be regarded
Tom May's translation
to shake
'restless
social
as a model of the usurper.17
Pharsalia,
the description
history
Hannibal,
aura around the impetus
might
use of
is referred
the figure
and
language
in the 'Horatian
It has been pointed
Lucanian
from Lucan's
king,
oftypology
in the ode: one is 'Horatian',
the other,
Marvell
Cromwell
would justify
the
current
words,
Marvell
to his contemporaries
of radical
a more stable
101-102),
own, confusion.
great general
Caesar
(lines
we interpret
Cromwellians
as it does after
a period
(and his own) rhetoric
an Hanniball'
Marvell's
During
43-50)
and parodying
use of providential
particularly
it as having
Correspondingly,
Italy
and its related
in interpreting
experienced.
how should
presenting
manner in which
stabilizer,
Charles
similitude',
we have to remember is that
typology
work as a psychological
(lines
My answer is yes and no. Indeed,
the typological
himself,
walk.
Ode'? Is he ironically
view of history?
was sceptical
actions,
in your talk,
as Charles
(line
13) has struck
and in that
that
(30)
case 'Caesar's
Cromwell
the crowning
I, and the lines
of his
23-24)
would
down the king.
head' would be
as a Caesar, i.e., as another
head
with
the
symbol
of
victory,
which is 'his'.
is destructive.
of giving
(lines
In either
In the latter
birth
case especially,
to himself
15-16)
while
case, however, the speed
Cromwell's
- 'Did thorough
on his way to blasting
or might
even seem monstrous like the birth
breaking
violent
(Book 2, lines
about
the figure
of contemporary
May quotes
political
at one point
Oxford,
and in which
ruler'.18
But in the
disfavoured
usurping
own side
'head
Edward
or self-authorised
epigram
Engagement
tyrant.
Interestingly
usurpers'
actions:
Controversy,
'own begotten,
Paradise
Lost
Gee denies
the
abolish
the settled,
Caesar
and
as an
as 'a self-created,
Caesar,
who made himself
of God's
will
the
Ode' presented
not only the glorified
similitude',
and Marvell
England
thus
of the
ambiguities
underlying
exposing
mould'
it would
would be another
51, 53).
the
image of Caesar
who 'ruin[ed]
another
Caesar,
lay' (lines
of reductionism
parallels,
old / Into
only heroic
Roman experience
But,
the great
(lines
34-36).
If the
end up with
Tom May's
'Foul architect,...
who by
because
the poem evokes
of power and right,
the tendentious
whole
work of
picture
rhetorical
of the
complex
strategy
of the
contains
description
the poet
of the ideal
poet:
should
When the sword glitters
be, because
o'er the judge's
'Tom May's Death'
head,
And fear has coward churchmen
silenced,
Then is the poet's
he draws,
time, 'tis then
(31)
of
political
something
of what
the
it in effect
realities
of mid-seventeenth-century
England.
Writing 'An Horatian Ode', Marvell must have had in mind at least
idea
in
and set up a new mould ofgovernment'.19
kingdoms
the kind
cited
favoured
they 'not onely seize on the Power; but of its own minde, and will,
time,
Rome's example
who both
intervention
image of him as the usurper,
cast
at
as the legitimate
'Usurpation'
of Julius
Tom
among royalists
frequently
defines
as a
S. Coolidge,
for Charles
writers
Engagement
Gee, for example,
to John
was circulated
but also the degraded
historical
way divide'
is not so much Marvellian
naturally
Thus, we find in the ode to Cromwell
rejects
act
- is unnatural,
in Milton's
that
quite
of the
enough,
or, by its force alone,
complex
at last'
According
Power, such was... that
Consul'.
'Roman-cast
fiery
entrails'
of 'Caesar'
"Caesar" stands
imposition
'Horatian
/ his
Caesarian
who, Satan's
confusion.
'a Latin
the
/ And
meteor-like
of Death,
[Sin's]
of Cromwell
782-783).
The ambiguity
reflection
his
Charles's
way / Tore through
and impetus
a
And single
fights
forsaken
Virtue's
cause.
He, when the wheel of empire whirleth
And though
Sings
the world's
still
of ancient
Seeks wretched
Indeed,
readers
defend
rights'
rights
axle crack,
and better
good, arraigns
may ponder
'ancient
disjointed
whether
heroically,
back,
successful
Marvell
lived
times,
crimes.
in the
up to this
(lines
'Horatian
Ode',
63-70)
unable
credo. But it should
be stressed
that
in the ode he faces grim realities,
and shows the greatest
lose
sight
he seems to have been most unwilling
of the ideal.
approve
quietly
For example,
of inconsistency
accept
the first
between
the fact that
instance
acclaim
for Cromwell
Cromwell
beaten
just'
might
of Cromwell's
hence it was the occasion
(lines
77,
79),
or at least
domestic
affairs,
between right
and undoubtedly
he replaces
'rights'.
'while
their
rebels
not to the poet
himself
best,
/...
not
had been
crusade,
explicit
forced
and
unqualified
praise
of
but to the
How good he is, how
'confession]'
(line
78)
Moreover, when directed
the confrontation
Richard
against
between right
sounds
towards
and might with
that
Fate complain,
the ancient
rights
in vain...
did not, as Marvell
his helpless
II, that
right'
depicts
(lines
(lines
61-62),
and yet could
not believe,
'for heaven
He would have had no more success, had he attempted
Justice
Charles's
had had against
silence,
surrounded
Fate
in pleading
clamorous
would not, claim that
tacit
providential
God is with
the ancient
with the vulgarity
round the armed bands / Did clap their
condemnation
language.
still
and still
of Roundhead
bloody
hands'
(lines
of their
'successful
guards
to assert
55-56)
his
valid
noise
-
- could
crime' buttressed
He could not, but at the
us. It seems that only under the pretext
(32)
37-38)
him, call 'the Gods with vulgar
God would send an army of angels
convey his (and Marvell's)
by their
the Irish
The only
praises
to
and fate:
/ To vindicate
than
he can to
words, he could
of anti-Catholic
of God.
can be read sardonically.20
I on the scaffold
right,
mission
as an instrument
And plead
the right'.21
in other
Vanquishing
apocalyptic
reluctance
for the poem, and could have won Marvell's
Though Justice
unlike
is right.
who 'can affirm [Cromwell's]
partisan
spite
and force;
in the poem, however, is attributed
Irish
Charles
justice
to
same time
of, or at
least
only by introducing
betweenjustice
'successful
crime' can be right
acceptance
in this opposition
or the moral question
- whyand how the
- be answered even though
of God's intention,
of realities.
Richard
'he thinketh
cannot be bad'.
Baxter
of, fate, could the frustration
and force be mitigated,
the inscrutability
conduct:
the notion
that
demanding
Baxter
looked
the end being
Although
our faithful
good and necessary,
the same way as Baxter.22
The relationship
between
is half
(but
that
correct:
force and the notion
of Cromwell's
means
applauds
where
I argue,
of right
blind)
the necessary
'Marvell...
Marvell,
ultimately
actually
back on the morality
R. V. Young asserts
condemns', his judgement
it implied
might
have felt
and wrong is referred
to
in 'Upon Appleton House': when William Fair fax of Steeton tried to rescue Isabel
Thwaites
from the nunnery 'Founded by folly, kept by wrong' (line 218), his use of
'sword' and 'courage'
was compatible
with 'justice':
He would respect
Religion,
but not right
For first
Religion
And dazzled
taught
resolved,
But reverenceth
For Justice still
narrator
of'Upon
of his Late
who 'first
of'An
Appleton
179-180),
the
Cornish
solely
in the defence
Goodwin, an apologist
(lines
Ode' could take the same panegyric
House' here, or the speaker
the Lord Protector'
in which
hand,
225-231)
position
as the
of'A Poem upon the Death
Cromwell
/ And tim'rous
he would have devised
consistency
between justice
other. In fact, as James
described
his sword he draws,
put arms into Religion's
manned' (lines
his sight.
then the laws:
that Courage led
Horatian
Highness
him right,
not but cleared
Sometimes
If the speaker
neglect:
is presented
Conscience
as one
unto Courage
somehow a means of expressing
and force rather than having them 'complain' to each
Loxley has noted, the Royalist
William
Cartwright
hero Sir Bevill
of "Afflicted
for regicide,
Grenville
Right'".23
reasoned
as 'someone who took up arms
And on the opposite
that 'right and might
side,
[were]
John
well
force is right
was
met'.24
The most powerful
provided
by Protestant
argument to support
providentialism.
the claim that
War more than anything
(33)
else highlighted
providence,
and during
naturally
extended
absolute
the
Civil
War many people
to determining
pleaseth',
observed
in battels
is from the Lord ofHosts'.25
side is certain
Cromwellian
successive
fighting
for God. Indeed,
to let them prosper
Burroughes,
one side in war, that
armies'
emerge from the complexities
God's power
Independent
to claim
minister.
the victory.
allowed
from this
of its meaning
as he
'All the successe
to align
himself
Following
that
'An Horatian
as a due panegyric
with
such a belief,
them to proclaim
perspective,
the
or not prosper
When God decides
victories
read
that
the final outcome. 'The Lord of Hosts hath
power over all weapons in battell,
Jeremiah
believed
they were
Ode' would
for Cromwell,
who
is seen as an instrument
of God: "Tis madness to resist or blame / The force of
angry heaven's flame' (lines 25-26). And that would be why Charles 'called [not]
the Gods with vulgar spite / To vindicate
his helpless
right' (lines
61-62).
If any
historical
event is willed
by God, whether
one likes
it or not, it must be accepted
soldier
rode into
the increasingly
England,
however,
he found
as
such.
When the English
seventeenth-century
victories.
Both
Cromwell
lawful.26
But anti-Cromwellians,
it had ajusttitle.
by Calvinist
and Engagers
Man being deprived
it harder
that
the
of God is doctrinally
it is argued
of his ability
that
to tell
justice
what
bickerings
to win clear-cut
was
could not admit
that
emphasized,
must yield
is right
of
new government
and even many Engagers,
If the omnipotence
voluntarism,
claimed
partisan
as was done
to providential
will,
or wrong. For example,
as
John Dury reasoned in A Second Parcel of Objections against the taking of the
Engagement answered (1650),
'God's appointment
ofa power over us, is a just caus
[sic]
to oblige
you...
Justice
us to submission
as determined
and Judgment!,]
Thomas Hobbes
properly
admitting
question
events,
then
also argued:
thereunto';
'when things
could
'Power irresistible
is no connection
not be decided
would be ever disputable,
between right
to those
remarked
of de facto political
Sacred Things (1650)
that
rulers
'It ought
the
all actions
Machiavellian
virtue
to 'right'
precisely
because
of the
(34)
us that
while
legitimacy
relationship
for the subject's
of power. Lewis de Moulin
in The Power of the Christian
to suffice
and
and success, and that the
very instability
possession'
really
Engagers,
them with the best argument
who are in 'actual
that
ethical
by an appeal
argued
justifieth
Further,
between
and success provided
obedience
upon by
which God hath appointed
to fall out, in a way of
you ought not to set your self against the same'.27
in whomsoever it be found'.28
there
are to bee look't
they governe,
Magistrate
in
and that they
have not ascended
by their
However, Hobbes's
minians
own virtue,
opponents,
particularly,
such as John Bramhall,
'immoral'.30
According
and the basis
of goodness
of a capricious
unrighteous,
but are set over, and appointed
the
condemned
Cambridge
Puritan
to them, God is identified
and justice
God. In other
cannot be understood
a principle
Fate'
these
determinations
of a despotic
eternal
will!
and
and no
and immutable
natures,
and make good bad or bad good.
It seems difficult
to assume that there was nothing
lian argument in Marvell's
mind. Just as 'first Religion
opposite
taught
right',
the
even God was subject
ethical
laws. In The Rehearsal
of right
and wrong are correspondent
Cambridge
Platonists
taught
Marvell
Transpros'd,
that
he suggests
that
as
of goodness,
of good and evil, of righteous
as mere influences
can destroy
and Ar
'divine
is exempt from the arbitrary
words, the ideas
power, not even omnipotence,
Platonists,
Calvinists'
with
by God'.29
to the Cromwel[William
Fairfax]
God's
to
consciousness
with Man's when he says that 'by Conscience
I understand
Humane reason acting by the Rule of Scripture,
in order to obedience
to God and a Mans own Salvation'
(i. 340). When Marvell wrote in the 'Ode' that
'justice...
complainfed]',
mind the theodicy
first
principle
thing.
forth
baffled
of the Cambridge
of morality,
In addition,
by a Calvinist
Platonists,
that
or, to put it most simply,
we may recall
once again
God, he must have had in
God should
that
conform to the
God cannot do an unjust
the notion
of the ideal
in 'Tom May's Death' as one who, 'when the wheel of empire
And though
successful
In the context
as successful;
as spokesman
opponents'
Return',
disjointed
axle crack,...
of the events
ambiguous. Only the republicans
line, associated
their enemies
perceived
Death'
the world's
crimes'.
appears
of that
of their
evidently
victories
but
wretched
of 1649-50,
little
for the Royalists,
as 'crimes'.
like
regarded
In 'Ode.
back, /
good, arraigns
of this
their
Ben Jonson
statement
Upon his Majestie's
his Puritan
Where are the Men who bragg'd
that
opponents
(35)
Power to find
and their
Restoration
to explain
God did bless,
And with the marks of good success,
Signe his allowance of their wickedness1}
the Divine
in 'Tom May's
loss as virtuous,
schemes^
Vain men! Who thought
whirleth
he put
- who,given the antithetical
structure
with the 'wretched'
- could really be
anti-Cromwellians,
Abraham Cowley challenges
apocalyptic
/ Seeks
poet
and
the failure
In the fierce
Thunder, and the violent
Wind
And in A Discourse
concerning The Government of Oliver Cromwell, he claims
that
for Cromwell
the admiration
and especially,
shared
the
giveth
successful
was based
upon 'a fallacy,
impose
upon the world'.31
villanies
same negative
assessment
of Cromwell:
way to the power of ambition,
increase'.32
Edmund Elys,
the King's
though
which
again
enemies who had claimed
still
his
that
extraordinary,
Richard
'general
increaseth
Baxter
religious
zeal
as his successes
after the Restoration,
explicitly
do
taunted
to read the will of God in the overthrow
of the
monarchy:
O, that
They, who did Boast
Most just,
because
their
Cause to be
'twas Prosperous,
would See
What God has Wrought for Him, whom They'd
Similarly,
in his prose
himself
wrote
Justice'
(i. 167),
'The
work, 'four and twenty
chief
of the
and later
was blind
no Inspiration
of a Prophet,
person
imparted
and devolved
during
that
defeated
and their
strong
Sir William
unjust;...
Vaughan could articulate
'I dare
not...
And, translating
justice
Royalist
none withstood'.35
sentiments
not deserve
spredinge
ofsoe
of 'successful
republican
he remembers
when he confided
crimes'
Marvell's
(discern?)
the
of the retired
'beinge
which
(36)
distrust'.34
the
Henry
saying
commend.'
I, 'When common
accorded
with
such
was hidd
under these
Marvell's
arraignment
it is inevitable
in justification
vertue'
on by good Success...,
Given the royalist
of belief
let
'beleeve
'Men ofWar',
Fairfax
ledde
'unlucky
wickedness
Even
(1651),
people
the day of Charles
in 'Tom May's Death',
expressions
Gondibert
/ Successful
that
(i. 342).
as representing
that
of that
God has thereby
Jurisdiction'
in his epic
the Serpent,
good Fortune'.36
that
the Cromwellian
self-end
for human
as to the declaring
see the pow'r, the right
towards
The opinion
some of us could
leaves
they
for a temporal
Boethius,
his Divine
and maintain
his hatred
/...
Nature,
themselves
vices',
/ where
God's sanction
to
is not now any express Revelation,
Davenant,
regard
War', Marvell
made satisfaction
I do not understand
to the Magistrate
enemy 'prosp'rous
'the late
since
to claim
of that
is to govern...
in the battle
are still
that
'For there
nor Unction
the Interregnum,
those
that
arrogance:
after
have long
on wrote further
'Administration'
particular
offenders
years'
Withstand.33
that
by
any of the
success
in the
'Horatian
Ode' would
Protestant
crusade
Victory
have to be qualified
in Europe
(lines
by the undertone
Destiny
and Choice
context
of an imperialist
- 'What may not then our isle presume,
his crest does plume?'
questioned
by the
97-98)
- and need to be, though
of the suppositional
in 'An Horatian
/ While
rhetorically,
'may'.37
Ode'
Of the pamphlets
which supported
the government's position,
one of the most
eloquent was Marchamont Nedham's The Case of the Commonwealth ofEngland,
Stated,
published
in May 1650,
In it, the Engager
of the
is already
the world;
old form hath
settled
proved
in a way visible
return
from Ireland.38
proportion
of continuance
of time allotted
apt to believe
victories
in regard
but, in despite
as others
by Divine
have
Providence.
of its confirmation
and successes
the generation
of another
and most substantial
so that 'tis not to be doubted
have a season
signal
month of Cromwell's
says:
The corruption
which
the
before
of opposition,
had
according
And this
by a continued
it will
to the
I am the more
series
to the envy of all opposers
all
of many
and amazement
of the world.
Like other
Engagers,
trying
to legitimate
providence,
Nedham predicates
divine approval,
and reasons
efforts
the present
government by appealing
to
his argument upon the notion that success means
further that 'Irriti
sunt conatus humani' (Mortal
are vain):
... it must needs be as much madness to strive
upholding
of earth
ofa power cast down by the Almighty,
to heap up mountains against
heaven's
when he says "Tis madness to resist
flame' (lines
25-26).
image of the Tower of Babel
Grove at Bilbrough,
us of Marvell's
To the Lord Fairfax',
(37)
as it was for the old sons
may appear
or blame
But at the same time,
remind
the stream for the
heaven.39
In very much the same vein as Nedham, Marvell
Cromwell
against
in which
/ The
Nedham's
panegyric
Marvell
to argue for
force of angry
wording
and the
'Upon the Hill
contrasts
and
Fairfax's
humility
with
... mountains
more unjust,
Which to abrupter
greatness
thrust,
That do with your hook-shouldered
height
The earth deform and heaven fright
or 'the
cliff
'Ambition
/ Of heaven-daring
is a theme
Considering
seem difficult
that
27-28).
poetry
As David
with
Reid
surprising
9- 12)
has said,
insistence'.40
the reason for Fairfax's
retirement
from the public scene, it would
not to associate these images of the 'excresence ill-designed'
(line 13)
Campaign)
that
(lines
recurs in Marvell's
not only with Cromwell's
with the radical
policies
although
Tenerife'
(lines
well-known wart or often ridiculed
(including
the execution of Charles
of Cromwellian
government.41
Our suspicion
Cromwell is said to be the 'force of angry heaven's
this was said by, or for, those,
Cromwell
know, as Francis
unhindered
'rather
policy'?42
Judging
Nedham,
to divine
in his own pursuit
Providence
from Marvell's
and felicity,
single,
may be aroused:
flame', is it not merely
who sided with Cromwell?
Bacon had contended,
by the envy of others
successes
like
big nose, but also
I and the Scottish
direct
that
Didn't
a man is likely
to be
of power if he attributes
than
his
to his own virtue
and bitter
reference
and
to Cromwell
in 'An Elegy Upon the Death of My Lord Francis Villiers'
- 'thou I know expect'st
to tell / How heavy Cromwell gnashed the earth and fell' (lines
13-14)
- or at
least
from the viewpoint
the latter
of the retired
Fair fax, who fell out with Cromwell,
was doing under the pretext
and blasphemous.
Cromwell's
attempted
the Tower of Babel.
to build
the 'Horatian
Ode', while
ambition
appearing
of providence
recently
linked
some misgivings
political
liberty
A pow'r must it maintain'
Matthew 26=52:
Cromwellians
righteous,
'all they
believed
their
with
(lines
119-120).43
a providential
God approves
arts ofpeace'
as to the English
military
opponents
violence
justification
in
for
ideology
that
had
power: 'The same arts that did gain /
For these
lines
cannot
but evoke
with the sword'. Whereas
saves and is redemptive
such as Henry Vaughan insisted
(38)
Marvell
of his power. On the
(line 10, italics
mine),
republican
that take the sword shall perish
that
as that of those who had
it may be noted that
to formulate
Cromwell's power, does not clearly say that
contrary, Marvell refers to it as 'the inglorious
and even reveals
was merely 'heaven-daring'
was as dangerous
In addition,
what
in the hands
that
of the
' Who with the
sword doth others
lines
5-6),
kill, /A sword shall his blood likewise
here translating
certainly
Revelation
become 'unusual
noted,
'which
regularly
violence
multiplies
in Caroline
ended
war raged elsewhere'.44
13:10.
The ending
Marvell
And even republicans
and ongoing
spiral:
earthly
Kingdoms;
Violence
for the Kingdoms
and Blood,
is erected
Butler
was articulate
religion
and violence
the way in which
but by yielding'.46
enough to unravel
which was inherent
'Errant
Saints,
that
Smith
armed citizens',
Kingdom
is unlike
to
and maintain'd
by
is a King ofa Kingdom,
not by the Sword, but by the Spirit;
not by striving,
while
breed'.45
'[God's]
'[God]
has
understood
and Machiavelli's
say that
or that
Norbrook
he, as Nigel
of the World are purchased
but so is not his',
and maintained,...
but by Love;
John Hales
while
war still
Ode' had
by Britain
such as Milton
'what can war, but endless
may have heard
as David
of the peace enjoyed
puts it, saw 'the Army' as 'the arm of Providence
he wrote to Fairfax
Men of War',
of the 'Horatian
prosphonetika',
with praise
in a devastating
spill'('The
After
the
the contradictory
in the Puritan
not by Violence,
Restoration,
Samuel
connection
Revolution,
whom all men grant
which
between
and ridiculed
/ To be the true
Church
Millitant',
Decide
all Controversies
I nfallib
le Artillery,
And prove their
By Apostolick
Call Fire
Doctrine
opinions
Marvell
and Sword and Desolation,
infallible'.
-Reformation*1
met Hales,
or read Hudibras,
when he wrote 'An Horatian
Gee, stated
that
Orthodox
Blows and Knocks',
A godlythorough
Even before
by
that
'successe
he was surrounded
Ode'. For example,
an anti-Engager,
'The Sword makes not the Magistrate',
is the
onely
Arbitrator
by similar
of Controversies
refuting
Edward
the argument
of right,
and is ever
He goes on to say:
Where there
but power
bounds
that
is no title
and will:
onely
but power, there
that
which
to it; how can they be tyed
are tyed
to none in coming
(39)
can be no rule for Government
gives
right
to Magistracy
to Laws, in exercising
by it?
If the
basis
must set
Government,
or bottome
of
Government be power, that must also be the measure of it.48
The experience
of the Civil
Marvell's
words in 'The Character
but finds
credit,
chaotic
nothing
providence
credibility
(lines
especially
it as entirely
activity
moment when so many rival
providence,
the
'Horatian
uncertainty
about how to justify
Alexandra
concludes
that
godly
opponents'
claim that
emphasizing
the deeply
antagonists'
millenarian
not be mistaken
of
in the climacteric
authority
a sense
of God's
of sustained
power.
we can find the demystification
power was urging them. In 'The Men ofWar',
Christian
activism,
Walsham in
in undermining
its
assumptions
about
for the
convey
arguments,
a divine
rooted
naturally
as
'the engulfment
Written
were vying
would
In many of the anti-Cromwellian
should
credible.
on earth'.49
factions
Ode'
/ Opinion
for a mind with such a sense of balance
in factional
strife and sectarian
struggle
assisted
and contributed
to a growing disavowal of previous
of divine
(to use
and at the same time because of this
in early modern England
the scope and legibility
of their
to the situation
'where not one so strange
73-74),
can have struck
her study of providence
contributed
ofHolland'),
and exchange'
currency of opinions,
Marvell's,
War certainly
virtue
Vaughan
for the heavenly
of patient
suggests
fortitude
that
as against
his
the New Model Army
one. He addresses
himself
to Christ:
Armies thou hast in Heaven, which fight,
And follow thee all clothed
But here on earth (though
Thou wouldst
no legions,
The sword wherewith
in white,
thou hast need)
but wouldst
bleed.
thou dost command
Is in thy mouth, not in thy hand,
And all thy saints do overcome
By thy blood, and their martyrdom.
Edward Gee refers to the 'Officers
courses with Providence',
designes...not
abundantly
with
sufficient
21-28)
of the Army' as those 'who have so masked their
and argues that
any extraordinary
Cromwellians
concurrence
power and assistances
tant here is the anti-Engager's
(lines
polemical
visibly,
strategy
God has done and what Man has done in this
(40)
'have accomplished
of Providence,
in their
hand'.
of distinguishing
late 'change':
but
their
having
What is imporbetween
in another
what
pamphlet,
Gee alerts
the reader
to the distinction
and...
the getting
and usages
unjust
not of God, but of mens lusts,
accuses
Cromwellians
to their
contention
will
'between
of the power, Which
and Satans
of conflating
based
the power which is ever of God,
religious
upon the fusion
[sic]
as to men is often
malice'.50
Nathaniel
and political
Ward, too,
necessity
of God's providence
most
- referring
and Man's ambitious
- whenhe says that 'To argue from what God can doe by his Soveraignty,
what man will doe in his arrogancie,
John
Vicars
record...
this
penned
Jehovah-Jireh.
of God's mercies
world.
to Sion',
In it, predictably,
testifying
to the
Engagers
argued
substantiate
this
such
God's glorious
illustrate
God's
an argument,
anti-Engagers'
and 'all
such as Hosea
ment', like
holding
their
standing,
strategy
the
unjust,
power that
of it, is yet
Scriptural
differentiates
'that
contention
is refuted
Lawlesse,
committed
such
13:ll,
rather
that
and falling
and logical
regicide,
power
which is of men, from that
not only by his
Hosea 8:4: 'Theyhave
logical
to
a king
between
disclaimer
in
God's
against
the
everything
is 'of God',
Gods Expresse
Commande-
of mans getting
[sic.])
our Saviour',
which is ofGod'.
but
and
from God'. Quoting
to crucifte
thinking
invoking
from God'. Against
'in regard
force or evergie
than
'All constitutions
was to distinguish
and against
as 'Pilates
God',
in
Similarly,
'I gave thee
In the former sense,
(as it is a naturall
examples
endorsement,
distinction.
from
They claimed
and command. Gee's powerful
power though
providence
[were]
'sacred
of events
powers
authorities
makes this
control
present
and marring,
Engagement
the
of a commander or soldier.52
makeing,
permission
Phrensy'.51
God in the Mount (1644),
mine anger, and took him away in my wrath'.
have their
called
heroism
'these
biblical
in Logicke
emphasizing
battles
independent
that
is a figure
to
also
Gee
And Engagers'
by the
biblical
set up Kings but not by me, they have made
Princes, and Iknew it not'.53
The theological
ing
providence
which
emphasis
I want
will
Marvell
which
be significant
appears
to praise
the anti-Engagers
is its expressions
of Cromwell's
to argue,
Marvell
the addressee
of material
human free will and the concatenation
of secondary
ly of God's will.
(41)
tactics,
tendency
ways in
Ode'. One is its
what is called
more specifically,
force or e[n]ergie'.
an anti-Calvinist
made concern-
the two insistent
of his 'Horatian
necessity,
power as 'a naturall
shows
frequently
when we consider
on Cromwell 'the man' and his Machiavellian
and the other
description
distinction
'art';
Marvell's
In these respects,
to believe
that
both
causes can work independent-
In the world controlled
providence)
while
by ordinary
providence
it is Man's free agency that
Cromwellians
view that
what
Cromwellians
tend to suppress
they
have
attempt
individuals'
to point
free will.
to extraordinary
can do bad as well as good things.
'that
been
(as opposed
which
doing
is all
out the
fallibility
From this perspective,
And
is of men', and emphasize
'that
which
is
of God',
of human choice
it can be argued
the
anti-
made by
that Marvell
implies
that the Revolution,
at least some elements of it, may have been brought about not
so much by God's command as by Cromwell's will (even if the latter is not regarded
as vicious).
It is fairly
defending
Howe, that
double
While,
to incline
under
action, actions
Latitudinarians
of faith
retirement,
and Cromwell's
These were crucial
military
occasions
knowing that tactics
Indeed,
spoke
deity
Cromwellian
Cause signifys
weight
acted
Marvell
1642',
it still
main
of
demands
kingdom
any input
rather
were Fairfax's
assumption
it be well defended'.56
unless
for Marvell,
however,
is that
is but 'the
vain curlings
First
lines
1-2).
'Apocalyptic
but Marvell
by an all
described
In a letter
to
which, of all his statements
quoted:
'in this
he felt
there
World a good
was something
compared to the strong flow of which,
of the wat'ry
Anniversary
of active
to facilitate
erected
transformist.
he wrote the sentence
of power.
to change or try to
on earth
than
little,
the Lord Protector',
or seem to change
in the function
from man whatsoever',55
as reformist
in Persia,
('The
for, or even
Walsham suggests,
of Christ
Free will
plead
decisively
believed
as Alexandra
to be most frequently
does raise'
change
and consequent
about the great stream of history,
Man's action
though
most important
was perhaps
The problem
inevitable
the
on the doctrine
and manoeuvres may sometimes be required
eschatology
topic,
victories
Evidently,
of a glorious
Thomas Rolt, a friend
on this
emphasis
which
when individuals
'after
without
choices
two of the historically
change the course of history.
powerful
the Arminian
was still
Many of his poems assume, consider,
among which
preaching
from what
of predestination,
moments of significant
achievements.
of the dogma of
- Manmust work out his own salvation.54
everything,
will,
the pamphlet
interpretation
Milton,
towards
the doctrine
meant a lot to Marvell.
the
like
especially
could not bring about salvation,
the Arminians and the English
in general emphasized
'humane reason', by which - together
the exercise
imitate,
prose writings,
the Calvinistic
departing,
tradition
free will.
in Marvell's
he rejected
predestination,
Protestant
with
clear
maze / Which...
a sinking
of the Government under His Highness
If it is true
(42)
that,
as John
Carey
has argued,
'a
continual
irritant
in Marvell's
condition
of being
is predominant
thwarted,
poetry
is his desire
puts him in such predicaments.
trying
framework
Thorough
sets
the iron gates of life' (lines
disrupts
his vengeance
(lines
1-6).
we may also say that what
from the controlling
of the epicurean
their
43-44),
- the
power that
speaker
which
'pleasures
the Christian
with
or of the speaker's
of'To His
rough
strife,
disentangled
/
soul
away from the flow of history which constituted
'busy
12). In 'Upon the Death of Lord Hastings',
Marvell's
the orderly,
and therefore
on fate, the disconsolate
by 'intercepting]
or by 'arresting]
of restriction
down the moral confinement
up, by tearing
in 'The Garden' breaking
companies of men' (line
fantasy
to escape
We may think
to break
of time
predicament
confined or enmeshed',57
in his poetry
Coy Mistress'
is the
restrictive,
narrator
process
of the heavens:
seeks to control
in
the flow of nature
some fountain in the vein' and so preventing
its normal spring,
the early showers' and so stopping
them from naturally
falling
His antipathy
the few recorded
towards
biographical
controlling
episodes
power may be found even in one of
of his Cambridge
days:
the flight
from the
university
probably in 1639.58
Accordingly,
in 'An Horatian Ode' while there is a strong sense of the morethan-human movement of history felt ('The force of angry heaven's flame'), both
Cromwell
and Charles
withdraw
into
austere'
(line
their
30),
and especially
have the ability
personal
selves,
or of private
his love-poetry,
to choose
to a world
necessity
the mind. But it is the
mind that
allow the concatenation
of causes to operate.59
to take
of private
agony and personal
material
either
the
calm,
courage.
'reserved
and
poetry,
transcended
whether
In the 'Horatian
or to
In Marvell's
is never totally
must always decide
field
by
or not it should
Ode', the speaker
emphasizes Cromwell's virtues as a man, and likewise those of Charles as a man.
Cromwell is praised
for personal traits of practical
effectiveness!
he is said to
display
'That
'industrious
valour'
(line
33) and again,
does both act and know' (line
public
emergence
noted,
'a Caesarian
own Side"
(line
15)'
-
volition.60
The
speaker
as not a natural
- 'as giving birth
suggests
brings
that
out
speak
to himself
it is brought
the
movement when he says"... if we would
phrase,
76). And the way in which Marvell
of Caesar-Cromwell
birth'
in an effective
true,
(43)
truth
about
to be one
pictures
the
but, as we have already
by bursting
"thorough
about
through
the
current
his
his
own
historical
Much to the man is due[.]
'Eye not man', Isaac Pennington
those
all,
things
wherein
especially
manageth
supernatural
Calvinism
to Arminianism,
providence
to Man's exercise
in the
Marvell
'Horatian
cause,
Marvell
a passage
offree
humanistic
with his description
efficacy
was referred
of a certain
charts
'no not in
who it is that
the
destiny
historical
from God's willful
rather
doth
(as opposed
of Cromwell
exercise
to theocentric)
of extraordinary
Ode' he seems explicitly
to admire
of ordinary
leader!
ethical
to as 'Italo-Machiavellian'
and spiritual
political
is
he believes
in 1656,62
Cromwell's
its
view of history
as a Machiavellian
to achieve
than
movement from
will in the more mundane sphere
of human inventiveness
himself
lines,
It is not the wit of man the will of man, which
on the human choice
Marvell's
to these
27-28)
but one above man'.61
particular
providence.
have responded
as the main agent. Consider
in such great changes.
Thus, by focusing
consistent
Jr. might
he appears
these things
(lines
ends.
and in the
manipulative-
ness:
And Hampton shows what part
He had of wiser art:
Where, twining
subtle
fears with hope,
He wove a net of such a scope,
That
Charles
To Caresbrook's
That
thence
The tragic
The idea
that
animals
woman'sfood is a popular
example,
emulate
chase
narrow case:
scaffold
might
are willing
adorn
(lines
to be killed
topos, frequently
/ Officiously
'every beast
at first
did
Seen from such a Royalist
to provide
some great
found in eulogistic
in 'To Penshurst'
them, and leap on land / Before
Carew in 'To Saxham':
offering'.63
might
the royal actor born
Ben Jonson writes
thy net, / And pikes,...
himself
that
themselves
the fisher,
[to thy
aged carps,
betray,'
house]
bring
Charles
that
/ Bright
/ Himself,
I might
man's or
poems. For
or into his hand',
perspective,
(44)
'Fat,
Cavalier
47-54)
run into
eels that
and Thomas
to be an
have been
regarded
as a scapegoat
English
the
history.
king
then
But the point
'himself
thought
believed,
For Royalists,
Cromwell
about
Charles's
Marvell's
might
here,
lines
the king's
therefore,
'wiser
art',
his
political
imply
themselves
like
'subtle'
or divine
in Cavalier
'the craftie
fears
and hope,
power of the great
but Cromwell's
Casaubon,
Politician,...
as was
What can be
poetry
For Meric
that
for example,
would seem to do all
by God; and yet doth work more by cunning, then by confidence'. For 'that
is wicked,
if wise,
should
in the
world',
judgement)
wondered
cunning,
as was courage, but there
God abhors'
'carnal
-
of the
righteousness
of God'.65
using his craftiness
in employing
youth that
fraud,
the
to be doubted,
(line
nor
we may say that
history
Cromwell
ruled
of the
Prince',66
later
Marvell's
his active
an interplay
between
('Urged').
The star is 'active',
and Joseph
satirical
bribery,
the course of action
of the
While
for us
of the
cheating,
destiny,
but
rather
rules
star'
(lines
ll-12).
In fact,
destiny
('star')
but also 'activated'
(45)
and
and the
it can be read as
God had set before
actions
him',67
of men: Marvell's
it,
having
this
autonomous
by Cromwell.
God's
Anthony
treatment
of procurement,
as
of the 'forward
it would be difficult
of providence.
in the poem consists
suggests
as following
image
and
described
Ode' has always been its ambiguity!
its treatment
by his
for the
providence
is Cromwell
the arrogant
management,
followed
war / Urged
to the
Ode',
John
policy
of mind
Or is he described
of the 'Machiavellian
'Cromwell...
is not
to excel?
in God's
- 'that cursed
l), or, as many contemporaries
beginning
a quality
or, a sound ability
it? If we see in Cromwell
can be said about
meaning that
to 'self-ends'
wisdom,
out of ambition
arts of modern political
same thing
directed
of men, in subordination
influence-peddling.
The difficulty
of 'An Horatian
advent'rous
'is neither
to be made- the line which
Now in the 'Horatian
would appear'
not to sense
policy'
affairs
Mazzeo did, something
corrupted
of humane reason and
was as requisite
was a distinction
and 'civil
management
will
observed,
the wisdom of serpents,
Owen drew between
which
Casaubon
(in point
one that
at'.64
Indeed,
service
have good successe
while
Cromwell,
own ambition.
mysterious
of
from Hampton Court.
using
his
juncture
in the 'Ode' is that
escape
that,
manipulativeness.
must have looked
critical
by his own volition,
mind to further
kill
at the
rendition
disastrous
is not the
for whom the animals
himself
Marvell's
he was acting
person
Cromwell
to sacrifice
masterminded
controlled
emphasized
willing
phrase
'through
subtly
human will
In 'A Poem upon the
Death
of his
refers
Late
Highness
to Cromwell
the Lord Protector'
(1658),
Marvell
retrospectively
as follows:
What man was ever so in heav'n obeyed
Since
the commanded sun o'er Gibeon
then,
that
It is evident,
will,
but as acting
Marvell
warned Samuel
Merit,
in human free will
to will
is [the
doubted
Parker
and debasing
natural
that
that
aggressive
Marvell's
poem the act of choosing
devote
his skill
misguided
Christine
itself
to whatever
a zealot
withal
heaven's
is regarded
classical
rhetoric
praised
the
power
by false
too much to his own
pours forth
from her soil an easy sustenance'
the act offree
drop about
clusters
of his Highness
out that
that
is free to
himself,
that
Just
functions
for
Calvinistic
the writer
and
is why the
as Virgil
had
'under
no man's
Earth,
unbidden,
of arms, most righteous
(Georgics,
225)
Discussing
in this
Perhaps
the
ofcarnall
doctrine'.69
to Marvell.
will in describing
What wondrous life is this
his Bona Opera
but he cannot separate
of nature
Marvell
of our Saviours
can be 'the instrument
sua was appealing
'far from the clash
The luscious
prejudice
said
nature'.68
zeal was 'a mask' (line
or choosing'.70
and that
Ripe apples
ill, of a corrupt
as a sin: 'In theory,
constraint'
eschewing
as Calvin
attribute
Rees has pointed
his sin, from the act of writing
spontaneous
to the
Puritan
end he chooses;
of suponte
fallibility;
In 'A Poem upon the Death
therefore
thus virtually
obeying
will be in some danger offinding
to the view that
and
'The Coronet',
shall,
of the Holy Ghost,
As Casaubon argues,
and affections,
is its
of man; to will
'whosoever
364).
he refers
egotism.
part]
the operation
ad Salutem'ii.
Lord Protector',
as simply
191-192)
human free will always chooses the right.
vigour and performances,
perniciosa
ends
involved
'simply
Obviously,
did not see Cromwell
(lines
on his own volition.
The danger
dogmatically,
Marvell
stayed?
Book 2),71
the fruits
so did Marvell,
in his Eden:
I lead!
my head;
of the vine
Upon my mouth do crush their
wine,'
The nectarine,
and curious peach,
Into my hands themselves
do reach
(46)
('The Garden',
lines
33-38)
Genesis 3:6ff. informs us that when Eve saw that
was good, pleasing
and desirable,
it was she that
husband
did likewise.
entirely
condition.
passive
so that he is not responsible
In 'Casting
the body's vest aside'
Shakespeare's
Marvell's
Iago, who believed
are gardeners',
as a garden
"Tis all enforced'
the Diggers'
('The
activity
in these
self-defeat
state
'our bodies
are gardens,
becomes a typical
loaded
victory:
of Marvell',
fallen
from
our wills
was power
the danger
that
garden where
Rogers,
of 'digging'
is
to do in the
action
line 31). John
action
of "mowing" in the lyrics
job
seventeenth-century
Gardens',
precipitate
hand,
to the which
in Cromwell's
power' of Parliamentary
Mower against
ideologically
analogous
on the other
for man's mortality
and
(line
51), he is different
Paradise Lost.12
danger involved
on force - the 'forced
England
in 'The Garden',
or Adam and Eve, who have a reformative
figurative
garden in Milton's
What is more, another
resting
speaker
the fruit of the forbidden
tree
took some and ate it; and her
comparing
with
'the curiously
argues that
'the emphasis
poems on Damon's tragic folly pressures
us to acknowledge
the ironic
of this attempt
- perhaps any attempt - to force an alliance
with
the forces of nature'. '[T]he
Mower's intervention
in the realm of natural process
his "stroke between the Earth and Root" - functions as a gesture of
revolutionary
activism
that
invariably
fails'.73
Likewise,
when Marvell
wrote
that Cromwell
'As if his highest
plot / To plant
the bergamot,
/ Could by
industrious
valour climb' ('An Horatian Ode', lines 31-33),
he could not but suggest
part
of his
'Spartacus'
denunciation
of Cromwell's
('Tom May's Death',
bergamot
the
eager
pear, the garden
highest
status
line
74). Given
plot Cromwell
of kingship.
It seems that
with
more radical
sectarians,
plotting.
Gangraena (1646),
Thomas
Presbyterian
just
greatnesse,
'against
plot,
party,
which
stood for 'the
and his posterity
Monarchy, the Kings
after
mento them'.74
The fallibility
of human will
conveyed by the way in which
described.
The essential
despicable
'plot'
association
though
were infamous
for their
Edwards,
himself
Crown, the Kings
him', regarded
of the
sometimes
excessive
a member of the
person
and Honor, his
'the Independent
party'
as
and wrote that 'they
lay plot
on
and the Jesuits
may be manifested
some of the characters
are but punies
and fresh
by a sense of impetuosity
in Marvell's
poetry
weakness of the human will is shown, for instance,
(47)
of
to reach could not but imply
Independents,
person and honour',
and lay snare on snare: Machiavelli
as the
the monarchical
is plotting
lumped together
In his
deed
are
in his
love poems, where love appears
As we discussed
causation,
earlier,
Calvinists
as a force to which
ignoring
thought
the distinction
that
heaven. Therefore,
it was inevitable
to Puritans'
commitments.
social
dence by inaction
actions.
That
Cromwell
or inertia,
Anniversary'),
he can hasten
First
Anniversary',
line
the anxiety
that
the hesitation
it hinders
but their
156).
them
that
people
and action.
Cromwell
have rolled
ourselves
our hearts
further.
stopping
of the justness
Ernst Cassirer
'attitude
in which
things,
even on their
mystical
to acting
swiftly
himself
claiming
In other
that
because
recommended
to 'have
words,
patience
those
who acted
decision
must have agreed with Richard
Sibbes,
who said 'After
upon God, we should
unto, without
both
further
immediately
distracting
Thus, like
fear'.
the lovers
up into one ball'
themselves
and other
undecided
the action
encouraged
during
panic
produced
take
that
we
course
Otherwise,
he
it is a sign
in 'To His Coy Mistress',
(lines
41-42),
people
the Civil
by the uncertainty
Cromwel-
from thinking
War was a way
both
about
what
were doing and about the future.
says of the 'religious
man faces reality
purely
set up the ideal
religious
of active
development
and believes
side,
of an active
and practical
such that
sometimes
they, when uncertain
my self upon Providence'.78
(so to speak)
faith,
verification.
(48)
England'
that
the
he can see into the nature
of quiet
contemplation
of conquest
Puritans'
of
or of
and subjection'.77
and demanded
for the
insistence
how to act, resolved
In the
on the battlefields
of puritan
is not that
usurpation,
a concrete
'experiment'
feel at the time,
of the Revolution
not'.75
advocated
or 'cast
might
Cromwell
(The
poems, however,
not hinder
communion, but
Puritanism
Cromwell
hastes'
should
the psychological
the Revolutionalists
the inference
scruple
It may be said that
of allaying
418).
provi-
as in 'The First
what th'elected
his opposition
(ii.
impetus
to present,
of predestination
Englishman
by
of meritorious
appears
indicated
of Marvell's
who say 'Let us roll all our strength,...
acted,
added
were not to 'tempt'
or at least
version
patriotic
we 'commit not our way to him'.76
lians
was also designed
agency became capable
articulated
not to think,
servants
'The ill delaying,
are, and judge
and secondary
to history
is not so clearly
and Judgment'
encouraged
inclines
this
The first
of one who later
on earth
Ode' presents,
a thoughtful,
one 'who is not persuaded'
towards
divine
susceptible.
primary
approach
The Lord's
the hour of bliss:
'Meditation
their
from the Calvinistic
that
reflects
that
(though
drawing
between
what happened
is why the 'Horatian
as God's elect
Man is helplessly
truth
on action
it
was
to 'try providence',
case of Cromwell,
and his consequent
too, it was his
victories
that
convinced
him that
he was following
Hammond to reject
him that
'reasonings'
'the Lord teach[es]
God's footsteps.
Cromwell
and to 'try what truth
us'. In the First
exhorted
may be in them',
Parliament,
Robert
assuring
presenting
a fiscal policy,
money],
must be carried
hesaid^
Supposing
this
cause, or this
on, either
it is of God, or of man.... If it be of God, He will bear it up. If it
be of man, it will
world
began,
traditions
tumble,
hath
He hath
shaken
[of raising
as everything
done.
of actions
business
that
And what
are all
in former times,
and tumbled
hath
been of man, since the
our histories,
but God manifesting
down and trampled
and
other
Himself
that
upon everything
that
He hath not planted?79
Cromwell's
teacher,
argument
Gamaliel,
them alone:
here is suggestive
advises
for if this
the council
counsel
or this
it be of God, ye cannot overthrow
Of course, there
and their
'Christians
should
fear
of (in
confidence'
when he mentioned
opposition
as is like
enthusiasme,
that
akin
that
Jewish
apostles:
come to nought:
concern about Puritans'
for example,
words)
will
'let
But if
1655
as it is an effect ofnature:
Robert
of God'.81
Hammond
in carnal
against
Slingsby
God! to attempt
In this
is
in a sermon that
as if, by acting
to a challenge
to superstition'.82
excessive
presumptuously
to control
the response
in
'acting
be a tempting
said
Colonel
it was 'somewhat
in attempts
work published
Paul's
away from Christ's
God's providence'.80
to be, there
or to declare
was too obviously
Casaubon's
Sibbes,
Cromwell's
'the human presumption
where
it'.
not outrun
his
5:38-39,
work be of men, it will
impetuosity.
expressed
into action,
to stay
were those who voiced their
confidence
noted
of Acts
expressed
context,
meaningful:
but is mistaken
such
had also
to force Him
divine
opinion,
title
of Meric
the
A treatise
concerning
by many for either divine
inspira tion, or diabolicalpossession.83
Evidently,
there
were many who felt that
star' at the time when the 'Ode' was written.
of Cromwell
had
Presbyterian
members.
(1647),
exalt
not been
for example,
themselves
under
The author
noted
that
above king
'the
'restless
By then it seemed
the control
of Parliament,
of the pamphlet
Agitators
and Parliament,
(49)
Cromwell...
/ Urged
clear that
and Officers
the army
especially
The Hypocrites
of its
Vnmasking
in the Army...
& give Lawes to both'.84
his...
now
So the
image of Cromwell
as falcon
may be read as wishful
pointed
thinking
to disband,
of 'the
marching
purging
of Parliament
part,
(lines
or, as Michael
in 1648,
and that
has
Parliament's
on London and occupying
of Parliament'
91-96)
Wilding
the memory of the army resisting
and ultimately
military
to the control
on Marvell's
out, as a way 'to counter
orders
that
responsive
it' in 1647,
of 'the
trial
and
execution of King Charles' in 1649.85
Furthermore,
the impression
of Cromwell's
relative
deference to Parliament
in 1650 - 'Nor yet grown stiffer with command,
/ But still
in the Republic's
hand'
ominous if he or she took
Marvell's
What
discernment
warranted
(lines
81-82)
- would have struck
the words 'yet'
of the
and 'still'
Commander's
Cromwell's
flexibility
future
and
pretexts
was providentialism!
him from being
government'. It enabled
Christ',
different
him to think
and to move swiftly
one.86
Our question
impatience
his
'wedded
believed
Ode'.
anxieties
up much critical
regarding
Cromwell
approving
nod to John
perverting
of judgement
though
debate,
would
when the latter
and justice
-
to forms of
of
to a markedly
so at this
reading
Marvell,
moment of
of the
poem,
its sustained
however, would give an
wrote 'when you see the violent
marvell
not at the matter...
in such proceedings,
by the greatnes
as if there were nothing above them, yet there are higher
is a time, when God will judge both the righteous
and the
Or it can be argued
Gee, for example,
and restlessness
allow us to detect
in a Province,
men may be apt to secure themselves
of their own strength,
then they. And there
wicked'.87
The double-edged
as a human being.
Wilkins
in other
with Cromwell that the Revolution
his
has stirred
-
position
answer is, not necessarily
which
agility
of them as 'dross and dung in comparison
Marvell
of 'An Horatian
of
Parliament.
and glued
was of God. And the most probable
composition
with
for his lawlessness
from one constitutional
is whether
as
as a manifestation
demanded
words, what gave him the political
it exempted
here
the reader
quoting
that
Marvell
Acts 5:38-39,
asserts:
sided
with
anti-Engagers.
Edward
Nowto discern what is of God, so as to impose upon us, we must not go to
his secret will or providence,
many things come about to us that way
which we are not bound to embrace and acquiesce
to use remedy
tentations
defamation,
against,
to sinne,
and
diseases
and such like.
strive
to avert
in; but may, yea, ought
or remove;
such
of the body, captivity,
oppression,
These
we are patiently
(50)
evils,
albeit
as are
dishonour,
and
submissively
to bear
them
correcting
hand,
required
to speak
removall
of them when befallen!
this
would imply
correcting
the
preventing
of them
Unjustly
the image of Cromwell
not that
he is the Elect,
And plead the ancient
'Unjustly
noted,
rights
that
that
felt that
providence
Cromwell
had decreed
Cromwell's
indirect
the evil that
certain
perform.
The evil actions
influences)
themselves
Presumably
against God, but against 'Fate'. This distinction
consideration
the fact that Cromwell hesitated
that
'that
'We do not,
the
and intimately
the
appellation
series
to Fortune
whereof, both
context.
Hobbes
enclines
argues
that
efficacy)
of the
some
says that
justice
a word'.90
complains,
not
Calvin
113)
Chapter
if men think
out of the
Ode'
might
of 'their
perpetual
in nature'.91
in Cromwell's
final
even sound atheistic
12, explaining
fortune',
them from the search
of feigning
had been
events are generally
testifrom the 'Stoics' dogma of
'Horatian
son' (line
(51)
to
for the sake of achieving
a necessity
in the
gives occasion
free decisions
of causes, which is contained
to fear, and hinders
and thereby
of the
inclined
them
particular
providence',
In his Leviathan,
of his
may be important,
if we take into
at least once to use the word 'Fate'
contrive
'the War's and Fortune's
of religion,
things!
Stoics,
related
reference
the Hobbesian
other
with
he had to
influence
were too paganish
careful to distinguish
his doctrine,
'that
monies of the character
of God's singular
rebel,...
were already
utter
Marvell
as
by God for
rise and the triumph
persons
God did this
is one
is, God may have reinforced
(without
and righteous
goal.
It should be noticed,
however, that
he thought
that
/
Marvell,
were utilized
were the result
but God did indirectly
decisions.
Fate complain,
Essay Concerning
was an unrighteous
(through
Further,
are of
of God, 'God's
of Religion,
'men's own inclinations
goals,
toward these
against
in Matters
providential
in question,
Justice
In A Short Historical
In view of specific
connection
and the
Magistrates
he is a scourge
says 'Though
cause'.89
fate':
when threatned,
and
as the 'force of angry heaven's flame'
Creeds, and Impositions,
And 'Ifhe
acknowledge
because
yet we are allowed
advanced
but that
Magistrates'.
used the idea
His purposes'.
specific
come from Gods
in vain', he would seem to admit that Cromwell
advanced
General Councils,
people
as they
when they are come to passe!
hand'. And, when Marvell
Stocker
present,
nature.88
Given this viewpoint,
of these
for the
the natural
'the
in
cause
solicitude
of the causes of
of as many Gods, as there
be
menthat
feigne
them'.92
been the sentence
accidents
of this
applaudes
that
in Plutarch's
life,
refusal
of God, since there
is specifically
what Marvell
Morals'- 'there
but either
'Legouis's
Scourge
Or alternatively,
fortune
is no other
or els the will of man'.93
is nothing
in this
From this angle,
in the poem is not God's will as the first
have called
the Stoic
law of nature
And plead
as secondary
against
the ancient
But those
Brooks
as "a kind of
ode" - nothing, at least,
it should
emphasized
Justice
Cleanth
of the poem depicted
Christian
have
cause of good and evill
to see the Cromwell
Christian'.94
Though
had in mind might
be noted
that
what is
cause but what Calvin
would
cause:
Fate complain,
rights
in vain:
do hold or break,
As men are strong or weak.
Nature that hateth
Allows
emptiness,
of penetration
less:
And therefore
must make room
Where greater spirits
come.
In the
natural
tolerates
material
world,
it is necessary
that,
(lines
just
as nature
abhors
37*44)
a vacuum, it
even less two bodies in the same place at the same time. Here, while the
principle
(derived
from contemporary physics)
is superimposed
on a
language
of non-materiality
- 'greater spirits',
Cromwell is described
as a
natural force. And that is why restless Cromwell 'could not cease' (line 9) even if he
would. If we may regard
expressed
old
in the lines
system
changed.95
did
not
Elsewhere
a physical
Machiavellism
quoted
'hold'
with it the implication
of physics
of politics,
above would seem to be materialism
but
broke
in the 'Ode',
phenomenon like
as a kind
the
in politics:
the
distribution
of power
had
creature
like a falcon,
and
too, he is a natural
lightning.
ofa certain
because
The image of the controlled
helplessness
what is
on the falconer's
falcon
part;
carries
he can only
whistle
and wait. What he cannot do is to reason with a force of deaf, unreasonable
nature.
Furthermore,
(line
92),
as David
sense of gravitational
Lightning
when we are told
Norbrook
that
has pointed
like
a falcon
Cromwell
out, 'the agency of hunting
'Falls
heavy'
blurs
into a
inevitability'.96
was once thought
to be a portent,
(52)
not least
by Cromwell
himself.
As
Keith
Thomas has explained,
divine displeasure!
indeed
God'.97 In the 'Horatian
laurel,
are blasted
attempts
belief
or blasted.98
which
by Pliny
substituted
himself
as the instrument
Divine
Right
authority
those
could
and religious
the view that
another
form of humanly
viewpoint.
For, during
between
Cromwell's
the
intervention.
teleological
lightning,
lightning
seventeenth
for those
case against
only
to the
called
into
a genuine
direct
were often
rehabilitators
of atomism,
of thunder
the fact
discrimination.99
for example,
Charleton,
cusses ' the ordinary intervention
that
reader's
and becoming
causes as operating
demystification
or
connection
secondary
view, like Lucretius's
in
belief
on the
in the
doubt,
higher
in abrogating.
however, depends
belief
a
element
who regarded
They
Walter
by appealing
was instrumental
the
for
and the image of
magic was an integral
magic,
was being
ode
of Kings,
and Parliament's,
phenomena, would be able to adduce
righteous
Right
is God's is really
century,
the
so could not be burnt
the Divine
Cromwell
contrived
God and lightning
myth, especially
divine
be legitimated
institutions
13),
at any time, and in Roman
represents
of God. Cromwell's,
Whether
political
wreath
of God. A form of humanly contrived
political
(line
the myth of the coming millennium
monarchy
of
Every Roman Emperor - every
were proof against
And here this myth clearly
Cromwell
lightning'
another.
to wear the laurel
laurels
manifestation
was often taken as a direct act of
(line 24), or things wreathed
in
'three-forked
one myth with
- had the right
recorded
seemed another
death by lightning
Ode', when 'laurels'
by Cromwell's
to replace
Caesar
'Thunderstorms
really
a
free from
whose antr
and other threatening
thunder-bolts
referring
ofmany effects inconsistent
strike
without
to Lucretius,
dis-
with the justice
and
administra tion ofBivinity'
Since we observe the Thunderbolt
(I.) To be, for the most part, discharged
on the heads of the Innocent, and not the Guilty- (2.) To batter Sancta
Deumdelubra, the Temples of the Gods themselves,
commonbuildings:
(3.) To be idly spent
more frequently,
at random, upon the sea and void
Campanias!
and so seems not to have been the Artillery
Vengeance, prepared for the punishment
of impious mortals:
generated,
like
exhalation
compacted
venture,
other
meteors,
by natural
in the clouds,
on whatever is situate
Causes,
and thence
in the level
(53)
then
being
darted
of its projection:
of Divine
(4.) To be
a sulphureous
ala volee, or at a
it appears
an
absurdity
of timerous
is praeordained
praescripts
Or at least
clouds,
causal
believed
influence
that
providence,
cause. An anti-Engager,
of the
Nathaniel
exhalations',
and ridiculed
those
such
numinously
Margarita
lightning'
and plague
has remarked,
observation
that
Marvell
implies
strikes
118).
A Ranter,
'the
rod of God',
oppressors'.
met [sic]
burning
saw Cromwell's
of the ambiguity
another
Joseph
about the referent
of lightning
Salmon,
for instance,
But he warns the generals
and destruction'.
Thus, paradoxical
for the
Lord
with
of fiery
lightning
so
merely 'acts as
'Cromwell
was the
but,
as John
when he is
as 'numinous',
and meant
of 'Caesar',
as discussed
it could
be read as
by some upcoming rising
refers
heaven
the wicked
I, nonetheless,
or ominous 'spirits
who 'have a commission
to you again,
and
for crime',
'lightning'
head may be blasted
flash
eruptions
the same poet's melancholy
the good along
head' in line 23 to be the head of Charles
the future,
and lightning'
Cromwell
that
as a punishment
'he would not have overlooked
Cromwell's
the direct
must have 'read in Horace that
the 'Caesar's
meaning that
violent
that
Even ifMarvell
because
of God being
and
as to chuse no more Boanerges,
scorned'".103
earlier,
sustaining
a thundering
in saying
Marvell
upon earth
"Jove often
ultimate,
it must not concerne us what they doe: I
is right
and that
Prime Mover of the regicide'.102
Klause
that
5:45),
and true Heliastae.101
Stocker
(my emphasis)
sent thunder
who
as to fall
speak
as declarations
to 'thundring
Parliamentarians
will be so wise hereafter
but such as are right
the
the
are the
over our heads,
hope the People
being
'they
Jupiters
verses that
can be understood
Ward, too, referred
phenomenon:
context,
have their
such as rain (Matthew
but not necessarily
as a natural
prove
events,
deity
scientifically
In this
occurrence
Accidents
most of the scripture
135:5-7)
cause of such phenomena,
shall
every single
all extemporary
over natural
and wind (Psalm
ordinary
permissive
that
in the book ofFate.100
sea, lightning,
of God's
to believe,
by Wisdom, or that
such thinkers
of the divine
superstition
of the shady
to the generals
from the Lord
power in
night'
(line
of the Army as
to scourge
England's
that
'the same measure you mete, shall
be
will
ere long cast
of
his rod into
the fire
104
as it may sound, Cromwell
(54)
as a man is equally
presented
as
impersonal,
being an agent of the historical
response
to the image of him as a natural
which category
this force falls
been pointed
then
instrument
of God. The simile
materialist
alternative
ofCromwell.
under, extraordinary
image
would
has argued,
the English
the 'Engagers,
also defended
Parker
had even, like
Marvell,
matter
and the laws of political
There was a different
force. And the
depending
providence.
that
providence
implicit
as John M.
and especially
support
Ascham, with their
the status
found
quo by natural
analogies
between
the
laws of physical
however, which emphasized
explanation',106
providence
force in history
but of ordinary
unfashionable
providence.
did not deny that
be perceived
operate
against
God's finger
could
chose to concentrate
is consistent
with
the principle
its
cate gories.
It may be argued that Marvell
Marvell's
suggestion
of goodness
and that
was actually
manboth approved
the perspective
events
living
of and led by God, it might
of hindsight,
to small anomalies
of the moment backed
century
Everett
that
the
Ode' puts
natural
on
can
ethical
of the historical
While
to the truth
be possible
force
too, is beyond
perspective.
up by religious
has perceptively
such as Cromwell's
in a larger process
from a wider historical
perspective.
The experience of 'Though Justice
Barbara
causes" which had
the time in
of Cromwell
that,
as a
when seen from
the same manwould turn out to be a mere rebel, local
of the mid-seventeenth
being reduced
in the Great
was torn between the intensity
seemed to attest
Thomas. 'The
'Horatian
Cromwell,
moment and a somewhat calmer, wider, historical
which Marvell
Keith
on the "natural
emphasis
'In
after the mid seventeenth
Earl of Clarendon
The particular
'the demysti-
namely, the natural
it became increasingly
causes
for
law, and Henry
stated
secondary
phenomenon
order out of chaos. For example,
not of extraordinary
it about'.107
the
in the image
as such a natural
events in terms of God's providence',
brought
is an
in the 'Ode' would suggest
Revolution
perspective,
but nevertheless
powerful
Cromwell
century to explain
Rebellion;
As has
for the emergent
view
on
change'.105
powers of naturalistic
writing
the
of the laws of physics
the power of usurpers,
historical
propaganda
propagate
be a way of making
as a manifestation
or ordinary
to the act of extraordinary
And to explain
would indeed
Wallace
the
or an elemental
force can be bifurcated,
out, it can be seen as skilful
individual;
fying
process,
noted,
and political
against
of history.
Fate complain'
over Ireland
The apparent
enthusiasm
'not a sense of conflict,
(55)
victory
truth
may be denied
must have been, as
but its opposite
a bewilderment
withdrawal
will
at the
absence
of the rational'.108
of God, operating
fundamentally,
of clear
The inscrutable
in terms which
have a far greater
place,
that
dramatist!
might
a tragrcomic
forces
and that
heaven
'While
round the armed bands
contemporary
to face the fact that
'tragic
scaffold'
... nothing
clap
their
is not a just
the law of nature
on the side
bloody
of one
events, he is
the world
that
does not intervene
/ Did
but which,
than the mere achievements
may, and often does, overcome right,
the law of equity
of the
as the
comprehension
views and interprets
he is ready
sense
may be identifiable
defy immediate
significance
man.In the way in which Marvell
close to a tragic
issues,
hands',
is not
of legitimacy.
Charles
I on the
commondid, or mean,
Upon that memorable
scene!
But with his keener
eye
The axe's edge did try.
Nor called
the Gods with vulgar
To vindicate
his helpless
spite
right!
But bowed his comely head
Down, as upon a bed.
To the Royalists,
Christomimetes,
is echoing
Charles
Strafford
at the block:
at this
the scene, Marvell
repeats
of force and Fate:
forced
pow'r' (lines
be detrimental
actions
the 'royal
like
was that
(line
by
of history,
God's
wrote in lines
adorn',
'thence',
53-54
meaning
tried
will.
It
the medieval
here Marvell
his position
'thence
'as a result
to spread,
(line
demanding
by executing
the
(56)
assured
the
however, could
reader
that
royal
in
in the
role, Cromwell
the king forcibly.
stratagem',110
their
that
to be an actor
the royal actor born / The tragic
of Cromwell's
first
the view that
remind
53)
Dramatizing
carry the implication
force and Fate,
might
54-64)
but doe as chearfully
hour / Which
between
who was 'born'
33) to it, eventually
Marvell
of death...
memorable
The association
to Charles,
had to 'climb'
53),
Perhaps
and makes 'forced'
to the view Cromwellians
theatre
(line
a second Jesus.
'I am not afraid
'memorable'
65-66).
contradistinction
actor'
time as ever I did when I went to bed'.109
'This
were validated
providential
was indeed
who went to his death
put off my doublet
both
(lines
And when
scaffold
might
might
signal
that
the
apparent
providential
drama was in fact fashioned
Machiavellian
schemer.
The pre-Christian
Fatum appears
the 'iron wedges' (line
ll)
between
for example.
In 'The Picture
the gods' (line
10) is subject
be able
to see a parallel
figures
are over-ruled
the hunted
held
animal
the lives
of Little
between
ofFlowers',
as Olympian
Little
power. In the 'Ode',
Cromwell
In this respect,
conflict
described
process^
time, nature,
history
move on and take Charles
Although
Cromwell
is 'Fortunes's
Necessity,
son' (line
and the dominant,
attitude
towards
anti-Cromwellians,
'necessity'
the concept
designed
to justify
on its determinism
conflict
elements
of the political
Lord Hastings',
bereaved
for instance,
by saying
politicized:
'the
ostracize'
(lines
In the
while
'Needs
stars
did rise,
'necessitas
absoluta'.
the Stoics
is nothing
needs
(line
modern
period,
'necessity'
language
of
but on the other
the bewilderment
and
In 'Upon the Death
to alleviate
the
the
pain
necessity
worth
of providence.
retained
Nicolaus
of
of the
is curiously
from hence did
And Sir Thomas Browne wrote that
but the immutable
law of [God's]
came to be employed
began
language
to notice
'too often the belief
successful
making providence
reputable
Cusanus
as the providential
sometimes
both
/ And all that
associated
of any
On the one hand,
violence,
10),
terms and ideas were closely
situation,
or
25-26).
as a branch
more people
he
is Fate,
in the providential
much stiller.
the poet
of
with them.
figure
is ambivalent.
to reduce
must he die'
democratic
early
credentials
ofFate
to something
sense
in the final analysis
invisible,
Cromwellians'
hand he seems to rely
the
are
with Fortune.111
he was able to recognize
sophistry
into
to
falcon
figures
and Cromwell
though
which Horace in his Ode I, 35 associates
Marvell's
like
113),
is likened
contemporary
of the 'Ode',
god-like
to the fierce
poem resolves
of
We might
both
Charles
is compared
and the
seems to be the addressee
the 'darling
in that
while
powerful
in the
ofLove',
gods are to Fate.
T. C. and Cromwell
by Cromwell,
as a
poems as well. Fate drives
T. C. in a Prospect
by a higher
netted
lyric
of the lovers in 'The Definition
to Flora just
on the lure of the falconer.
diminished,
in Marvell's
by Cromwell
policy'.
the
fact
that,
in providence
Consequently,
make the
meaning
of his
degenerated
'Preachers
insisting
judgements
(57)
'That
that
fatal
God is
necessity
Especially,
in Puritan
for political
as Keith
"a warrant of our actions",
asserted
will'.112
with each other
philosophical
the two
minds.113
purposes,
of
But
more and
Thomas summarizes
the
into a crude justification
warned their
that
clear
flocks
although
they
against
God might
were normally
unsearchable'.114
the
Puritan
In the
use of providential
contended
that,
that
'it fareth
that
with
century,
language
by the Engagers'
wife if he had claimed
stated
mid-seventeenth
lights,
the People
for ideological
Joseph
providence
many anti-Engagers
put
purposes.
could have slept
Henry Hall
with Pontiphar's
her in his way.115
of England
mocked
Clement
Walker
fallen
into the
as with a traviler
hands of thievs....
they Robbe him by Providence,
And then Murder him by
Necessity'.116
Nathaniel
Ward asserted that 'that Necessity which will warrant
such a formidable
and precipitant
mutation
of a State'
was similar
to the following
episode^
It must be truly
reall,
and not fantasticall,
neer his Fire,
that
he burnt
Necessitythat
the Masons should
his Shins,
Chimny, and set it up again
his Legs further
And he concluded
pretended
that
Necessity,
same point,
from that
is the
I acknowledge
there
that
against
I speake
making,
follow
Cromwell
necessities':
is, that
Certainly
these
that
of God, and make pretences
persuaded
himself
following
terms:
no necessities
point
'it is as legal
that
feigned.
And truly
not help
expressing
with Cromwell,
to the
I should
there
in writing
providences',
of their
owne fansies,
should
were 'Feigned
cozenage
owne
and then
necessities,
that
'An Horatian
that
change.
(58)
justify
imaginary
men can put upon the
the
and as stupid,
because
think
all
and many others.117
he could
necessities,
who was so confident
the
to break known rules by'. Nevertheless,
where
be so, ifI
Necessity,
He reiterated
Providences
to their
of themselves
and as carnal
are manifest
iniquity'.
men follow
are 'the greatest
providence
of mistaken
and determining
Gods Providences
admitted
have set
this time:
them to the destruction
himself
was an absolute
sent for to pull downe the
Grand-mother
are demonstrating
mis-construe
so
Charge.
of intended
using the word 'Providence'
there
from his Legs, but he might
at a lesser
the Father-in-law
thought
be presently
further
'Ignorance
Von Don Dosmestanding
to think
necessities
so'.118
that
in the
there
are
may be abused
And what Marvell
Ode' was, at least
providence
Revolution
he
partial,
was operating
or
could
agreement
in the great
In
The Rehearsal
Families
Transpros'd,
of the Necessities'
(i. 321).
was pre-eternal
distinguishes
Fate
It may be assumed that,
the 'Ode', he was at a loss, unable
that
Marvell
to differentiate
to all things,
'several
when he was writing
the original
and exercised
into
necessity
dominion
not only over
all humane things, but over Jupiter
himself and the rest of the Deities,
and drove the great Iron nail thorough the Axle-tree of Nature
{ibid)
from the 'Necessity
Right',
that
or 'the Necessity
of the Legs being placed
it were necessary
before for defense,
lest
hast then good speed.
Marvell
criticizes
his
precisely
this kind
of imaginary
That
Necessity
where the King loses his
of the Calf:
For the Calves
unuseful,
has no Law,... that
behind
where they are altogether
in some mens opinion,
men should
insufferable
break
antagonist
to place
their
Shins
Samuel
the Calf rather
by making
Parker
more
(i- 322.)
for suggesting
necessity:
is to say, You do hereby
seem to imagine,
that
Providence
have contrived all things according to the utmost perfection,
you conceive would have been most to your purpose.
or that
should
which
(i. 323)
Marvell reproves Parker for his use of the verb 'must': 'Still
must, must, must
...Why mustagain, eight times at least in little more then one page' (i. 272). In this
connection,
other
discussing
the 'Horatian
small word, must,...
sense of Necessity,
unstressed
'Must'
philosophical
prowess alive:
at the time
many people
specifically
acquires
greater
to point
out that 'That
force as the poem continues':
that
to the
"Nature...
final
must make room / Where greater
exhortation
to Cromwell
"The same Arts that did gain /APow'r
Marvell
is right
'The
perhaps undesirable,
undergirds
the poem, from that normally
(competing
with 'now' for emphasis),
through
to the central
proposition,
come", and thence
Ode', Patterson
was writing
for his penchant
just
as Marvell
for presumptuously
(59)
his
military
must it maintain'".119
the 'Ode' for Cromwell,
who condemned Cromwell,
to keep
Spirit
there
Even
were around them
was to condemn Parker,
interpreting
God's purposes
to
suit his argument.
But it seems
that
Marvell
was not sure whether
approved
of by God or merely
Rehearsal
Transpros'd may elucidate
the destructive
Civil
permitted
as the scourge
retroactively
power was
of God. Again,
his perplexed
feelings
The
towards
War:
As God has hitherto,...
subjected
Mankind
Comets from above, to Thunder,
middle
Cromwell's
Region...,
humane life
beside
is
and Lightning,
all other
exposed,
to the dismal
and Tempests
the innumerable
he has
in
like
influence
from the
calamities
manner
of
to which
distinguish'd
the
Government of the World by the intermitting
seasons of Discord, War, and
publick
Disturbance.
Neither has he so order'd it only (as men endeavour
to express
it) by meer permission,
but sometimes
out of Complacency.
(i.323)
Since,
as Marvell
first
says in 'The Character
made kings'
(line
of Holland',
37), it may be the necessity
'Necessity
of God that
[is]
prompted
Given Marvell's
statements
(i. 166)
God can 'sway and temper the Minds and Affections
323)
and that
- although
which
that
disagreed
with
the
alternatively,
actions
satisfaction
and the rare quality
grown stiffer
terms in which
tries
Cromwell
command' (line
the poet praises
from divine
to artificial:
who dislike
Cromwell,
of God', into which
that
the
that,
'Horatian
ofMankind'
of the necessity
if sometimes
the 'Fate'
like
his spiritual
to conceal
(i.
of all,
those
that
both
the
the force of necessity
of spiritual
And if the ruler
I. Or,
permit
force to himself.
as is suggested
God
of Charles
God does not simply
the dangers
may bring
81).
Ode' suggests
who did so with
of the man who can draw that
which
with
doctrine
in it, the poem recognizes
same time it undoubtedly
self-assurance
Hobbes's
of Cromwell,
it may be argued
War, but takes
Cromwell.
'it is not in a Mans Power now, to choose the Will he shall
have anon'120 - it may be argued
masterminded
[which]
in his prose work that 'the Mind is in the hand ofGod'
Marvell
maintained
that
But at the
pride
and blind
in the line:
addressed
falls
off from the
him, the force of necessity
will
in the 'Ode' will sound, just
as it does to readers
some pretext
of necessity,
arrogance
and blind
shift
'Nor yet
or 'the pretence
self-centredness
its
nature
of the cause
have trapped
him.
Thus, the fate in the 'Ode' can potentially
(60)
be a quiet
irony!
but in addition
it
has an important
providence
or pagan
authority
responsibility
stress
psychological
what at first
doctrinal
determinism
laws retrospectively
sounded
impersonal
like
the poet's
under the critical
but the point
wish and effort
conditions
it is interpreted
as Christian
provides
script
Furthermore,
the
dictates
of
provided
about the "Must" of line 2'
turns out to be no more than an
to believe
known text,
the subtle
that
ambiguity
moral choice
When one's present
understanding
one to discern
the contingent
a way of coping
and seemingly
with
the
acts are illegible
as
the self as subjected
an eternal
to its
in one's actions.
and even inexorable
random events
increasing
of the word
is not necessary
gives one both an excuse for and consolation
by encouraging
behind
questions
is that
of the time.
in an incompletely
transcendental
raises
a moral imperative
necessity',121
indicates
purpose
its
Whether
to rely on, so that those who are challenged
can evade their own
to judge and choose. Norbrook has perceptively
noted that '[t]he
on natural
signs
Fate,
function.
of time,
complexity
of the
providence
seventeenth-
century world. As Keith Thomas has pointed out, for most believers
at most times
the doctrine
of providence
exercised its greatest
influence
as a system of consolation and tranquility.
122
During the Civil War, however, it was especially
needed, as is illustrated
by
the title of a book such as John Wilkins's
Discourse concerning the Beauty of
Providence in All the Rugged Passages ofIt. Veryseasonable to quiet and support
the heart in these times ofpublick confusion (London, 1649). In it, Wilkins admits
'unequall
dispensation'
righteousness,
in his
time,
when 'a just
and the wicked shouldprosper
is a violentperverting
ofjudgement
man should
perish
in his
in his wickedness' and. when 'there
andjustice
in a Nation!
and on the side of the
oppressor there is might, but the oppressed have none to comfort them '. He thinks,
however: 'It may be our lots perhaps
the fabrick,
when all
structure'.
advises,
gathered
confused
into heaps.
preparations
divine
'that
[because
the successe
Providence
or miscarriage
by whose influence
God sits in heaven,
Wilkins
praises
observing
the 'Stoicks'
they know] nothing
to see onely the beginningof
the rubbish
Posterity
shall
And he condemns one who 'looks
for the best'.
event,
being
these
which he ascribes
that
times,
when the old frame is demolished,
the new materials
it,
in these
perhaps
ofevents!
unto
and doth not take notice of
are guided'.
all these
'never troubled
could have been better
(61)
a beautifull
then second causes,
and ordering
for being
about,
may see the end of
be made up into
no further
they
lyes scattered
'Remember',
inferior
he
motions
at any crosse
then it is', and goes on
to argue
that
'if meer reason could
much more then should
minde
to this
compliance
prophesies
lead
the
In
virtue
advice
her marriage
shall
744)
who is willing,
we will
in any case be compelled.
'[T]he
observed,
'is to make his wish[es]
fit what
Edward
thereof,
voluntarily
but
fear or anxiety'.
Corbett
said
that
And Henry
sufferings
which
although
providence
his
referring
'I shall
political
in prison
from the
priest's
to 'make their
destiny
their
The freedom of the Stoic
necessity.
Seneca said 'The
the one who is unwilling'.
of the
happens'
only touch
wrote
So,
by them, though
philosopher',
so that
Epictetus
he spends
his
life
(line
upon the power and providence
of our thoughts
his
enemies
is 'secret'
in God's 'strange
save her
124
Vaughan
in these
poem 'Providence'
inflicted
8), concluding
distracted
to palliate
on him during
l) and 'in a mystic
sure mercies' (line
'Gladly will I, like PonticSheep,
made thy Arm my fold' (lines
written
task
a submissive
Marvell
than being dragged
so far as may conduce to the quieting
times'.125
believes
is much better
his
House',
with
drag
with
raise
Appleton
is in fact Stoic.
the fates
distress,
not
to her parents
(line
of God...
himself
'Upon
by his own choice together
person
men to such resolutions,
in the Providence
following
'without
Heathen
and make him bend
Fairfax's
in acting
faith
condition'.123
His implicit
concerning
sage consists
Fates
Mary
knife.
choice'
temper,
every
that
sacrificial
a Christians
heroick
unto
advance
cloud'
the
(line
Civil
the
War:
7), Vaughan
the poem with the lines,
/ Unto their wormwood-diet keep / Since thou hast
46"48). The verses Charles I was reputed to have
also show a man trying
to come to terms with his hardships
by
to providence^
In all things
here Gods providence,
and will alone commands,
The life of my poore spirit
sad,
is only in his hands.126
The common source of these
attitudes
which
for Christians;
'emphasized
intricate
comfort
work of God remained
seems to be Calvin's
for, although
view of providence,
the
disposition
a mystery, the course of each particular
and
event was
in the hands ofGod'.127
Similarly,
as his attempt
Marvell's
description
to place
the tragedy
of the execution
of the regicide
(62)
of Charles
I may be regarded
in an impersonal
and inevitable
historical
process:
cannot
be helped,
execution
Charles's
that
if there
is a fatal
or providential
stream which sucks him in, it
and no one will
be responsible
for the
king's
death;
and the
is a necessary
sacrifice
to assure the future of the English
state.
eye which is 'keener [than] / The axe's edge' (lines 59-60) may suggest
he looks at something
beyond the immediate
cause of his impending
death
some spiritual
meaning beyond what his physical
eyes can see. Charles's
eye is
close to the eye of'a Drop ofDew' which, 'gazing back upon the skies' ('On a Drop of
Dew', line
ll),
bend' (line
36), in that
the 'spiritual
and 'the world excluding
neither
combat' so dear to Cromwell
is the one unambiguous
'Ode' suggests
that
process
continuity
Marvell's
time,
to grasp
the
impersonal
Ode'
by the king which
noted, because
the
as well as Charles,
of his destiny.
or climacteric
sense
not even in
The 'Horatian
by the vision
a crisis
does upwards
on earth,
displayed
over Cromwell
acceptable
the
Since
moment in a larger
of the
historical
process
and
distances
the accompanying violence. The poem is also an attempt on
part to evade personal emotion, the natural human need to choose sides,
and to reach a level of inevitability
the very act of attempting
conflict
of poise
dominion
is rendered
an effort
of flowing
about
it can offer. As we have already
fate exercises
the poem contains
'all
and other Puritans.
that distinction
virtue
power of Cromwell
29),
of them finds value in struggle
as a whole may seek to attain
fearful
round' (line
where destiny
to persuade
and so, no room for choice.
tone of the poem would be best
exempts
the reader
and himself
The poet failed,
described
him from choice.
that
It is
there
is no
however, and as a result
as a 'tentative
suspension
the
of final
judgment'.128
It must be remembered
William
Perkins's
unresistable
words,
and violent
whole-heartedly
cally
speaking,
cancelled,
Marvell
'imagine
that
necessity'.129
determinism,
whether
qualified
of which
things
behind
but of their
almost diametrically
that offate
by his belief
would be able
lay all the blame on their
fault,
all
are governed
in the doctrines
to operate
offree
because
sentiments
punishment
Marvell's
concerning
(63)
providence'
as
theologi-
will and secondary
of God's will.
said that
sinners
He
'shall
He knew that they could
is the
'Horatian
or an
had to be, if not
independently
Baxter when the latter
own. Consequently,
opposite
by fate
For Marvell,
or of providence,
own Wills in Hell for ever'.131
determinism,
who, to borrow
Nor could he rely on 'special
would have concurred with Richard
not shelter
was not one of those
as Hamlet in the last act of the drama.130
at least
causes, both
that
result
not of God's
Ode' had to reveal
the relationship
two
between fate
and
Cromwell.
attempts
illegible
obliquely
While
to render
on the
the brute
one hand
reality
it makes
acceptable,
by suggesting
a strong
indicates
the possibility
of human errors
whether
sense of fate,
Cromwell has made destiny
or in other words, whether
himself or by some inevitable
and psychological
the inchoate
accessible,
cannot judge
political
coherent,
on the
inherent
his choice
other
in choice.
or choice
hand
All quotations from Marvell's verse and Nigel Smith's notes are taken from The
Poems ofAndrew Marvell, ed. Nigel Smith (London: Longman, 2003). Quotations
from the former are accompanied by references to line numbers, and from the
latter's annotations by page numbers. References to Marvell's prose works are,
unless otherwise noted, to The Prose Works of Andrew Marvell, ed. Annabel
Patterson, Martin Dzelzainis, N. H. Keeble, Nicholas von Maltzahn, 2 vols. (New
Haven: Yale UP, 2003).
1. Wilbur Cortez Abbott, The Writings and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell'
- With an
Introduction. Notes and a Sketch of His Life, 4 vols. (Cambridge, Mass.:
Harvard UP, 1937-47), ii. 262.
2. Judy Sproxton, Violence and Religion: Attitudes towards Militancy in the
French Civil Wars and the English Revolution (London: Routledge, 1995), p.
89.
3. Patsy Griffin, The ModestAmbition ofAndrew Marvell-'A Study ofMarvell and
His Relation to Lovelace, Fairfax, Cromwell, and Milton (Newark: Univ. of
Delaware Press), pp. 138-139, argues that in 'The First Anniversary' Marvell's
'strategy is to establish firmly the carriage accident and the loss of Cromwell as
God's threat to the English, as well as to emphasize the providential nature of
Cromwell's deliverance' whereas Cromwell himself 'seems bound to have
interpreted the event, as others did, as a possible sign of God's displeasure'.
Annabel Patterson, Andrew Marvell (Plymouth: Northcote House, 1994), p. 40,
however, suggests that 'The First Anniversary' is 'an exercise in readerly
frustration': 'Perhaps the biblical types are intended to function in the same
provocative but ultimately unsatisfying way as the echoes of Roman history
it
Marvell
his destiny,
Cromwell's providential
role has been assigned
power of the natural process.
Notes
(64)
and the
by
inserted
so unreassuringly
4. David
Norbrook,
into the "Ode"'.
'Marvell's
Literature
and the English
(Cambridge:
CUP, 1990),
Rhetoric
and Politics,
explains
that
demands
of a republic
p. 158. In his
1627-1660
to avoid
on Cromwell's
Verse',
(Cambridge:
Politics
the English
CUP,
necessarily
cults
of Genre'
of personality',
at Last to Strike
Poetry,
Norbrook
up a tension
and that
with
'Marvell
the
lays...
the republic'.
in with
the Tyde? Andrew Marvell
Century 10 (1995),
from Lieutenant
p. 270,
in
Sawday
Republic:
1999),
sets
agency in establishing
The Seventeenth
6. A Manifestation
Writing
sublimity...
5. James Loxley, 'Prepar'd
Royalist
Ode" and the
Civil War, ed. Thomas Healy and Jonathan
'Cromwell's
much emphasis
"Horatian
and
p. 56.
Col. John Lilburn,
Mr. William Walwyn, Mr.
Thomas Prince, andMr. Richard Overton, NowPrisoners in the Tower ofLondon
and Others,
Leveller
commonly (though
Manifestoes
Thomas Nelson
of the Puritan
and Sons, 1944),
7. R. I. V. Hodge,
Revolutions
unjustly)
Foreshortened
(Cambridge:
styled
Levellers
Revolution,
(London,
1649),
in
ed. Don M. Wolfe (New York:
p. 392.
Time:Andrew Marvell and Seventeenth
D. S. Brewer,
Andrew Marvell, p. 38. See also Nigel
1987),
Smith's
p.
126.
footnote
Annabel
Century
Patterson,
in The Poems ofAndrew
Marvell, p. 276.
8. Joad Raymond, 'Framing
Instrument
of Government',
Liberty:
Marvell's
Huntington Library
First Anniversary
Quarterly, 62 (1999),
and the
pp. 341-
342.
9. [John
Denham],
'A Jolt on Michaelmas
of the Choycest
Eminent
Wortham, 'Marvell's
The Political
(Aldershot:
ll.
Cromwell
to the Late
Press,
desperation
1990),
1662),
F. S. Post,
discussing
in 'The First
Anniversary'
1999),
over-extended
Triptych',
and A. D. Cousins
Marvell's
ingenuity'
in
(lines
architec87-98),
says
(p. 39),
and that
Lyric Poetry-' The Early Seventeenth
Century
at the centre'
English
p. 364.
Poems: an Accidental
p. 39. Wortham,
in Marvell's
is an empty hollowness
Routledge,
Times. By the most
ofAndrew Marvell, ed. Conal Condren
image of the Commonwealth
Jonathan
(London:
Identity
Scolar
'One senses
'There
Poems and Songs relating
Rump-' or an Exact Collection
Wits, fromAnno 1639 toAnno 1661 (London,
10. Christopher
tural
day 1654',
(p. 40).
p. 286.
12. Thomas Healy,
'"Dark all without
Upon Appleton
House', in Literature
it knits":
Vision
and Authority
and the English
(65)
Civil
in Marvell's
War, ed. Thomas
Healy and Jonathan Sawday (Cambridge: CUP, 1990), p. 173.
13. Aristotle, Poetics, 1452a, in Aristotle The Poetics, "Longinus" on the Sublime,
Demetrius on Style, trans. W. Hamilton Fyfe and W. Rhys Roberts (London:
William Heinemann, 1960), p. 39.
14. Warren Chernaik, 'Was Marvell a Republican?', The Seventeenth Century, 20
(2005), p. 83. Laura Lunger Knoppers, Constructing Cromwell'
- Ceremony,
Portrait, andPrint 1645-1661 (Cambridge: CUP, 2000), sees much of'The First
Anniversary' as 'addressing] the act of viewing', giving 'a lesson in hermeneutics, showing the reader how to read, interpret, and judge rightly' (p. 98), and
argues that the right interpretation is, as George Wither did in his Vaticinium
Causuale, to read 'the accident as providential, a reminder to the people of the
divine source of Cromwell's power' (p. 97).
15. John Spencer, A Discourse concerning Prodiges- Wherein the Vanity of
Presages by Them Is Reprehended, and Their True and Proper Ends Asserted
and Vindicated (Cambridge, 1663), sig. B. In A Discourse Concerning Vulgar
Prophecies (London, 1665), p. ll, Spencer, discussing the 'political Sophism in
reference to Prophecy', takes as an example Caesar, 'who told the Romans in
open Senate, as from the Oracles of Sibylla that he that they had now their
King in reality, must have the title of King too, if they would be in a safe
condition'. This is of course the same de facto argument as was used in the
mid-seventeenth-century Engagement Controversy.
16. Meric Casaubon, Of Credulity and Incredulity in Things Natural, Civil, and
Divine (London, 1668), p. 150.
17. Blair Worden, 'Andrew Marvell, Oliver Cromwell, and the Horatian Ode', in
Politics of Discourse-' The Literature and History of Seventeenth-Century
England, ed. Kevin Sharp and Steven N. Zwicker (Berkeley: Univ. of California
Press, 1987), pp. 171-172, notes that 'Nedham's The Case of the Commonwealth Stated remarked that "the hand of heaven" had been against Hannibal'.
For the comparison of Cromwell with Caesar, see A. I. N. Wilson, 'On "An
Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland'", Critical Quarterly, 2, No.
4 (1969), pp. 325-341, rpt. in AndrewMarvell, Poems- A Casebook, ed. Arthur
Pollard (London: Macmillan, 1980), pp. 180, 195. See also John S. Coolidge,
'Marvell and Horace', Modern Philology, 63 (November, 1965), p. 115. For 'the
conceptual likeness between Lucan's Caesar and Marvell's Cromwell', see also
Cleanth Brooks, Historical Evidence and the Reading ofSeventeenth -Century
(66)
Poetry (Columbia:
'Paradise
Lost from Civil
Writing ofthe
251,
notes
English
that
and allusion
can[s],
Univ. of Missouri
Revolution,
cf. p. 13: 'Ifviolent
that
could
seise
on any Kingdome or Territory,
20. Blair
169,
became
such as A Politick
depicting
who had usurped
Worden,
quotes
always
1627-1660,
pp. 246-249,
1640s,
Ireland
Independents'.
should
his
republican
Oliver
that
invocation
Shakespeare,
that's
Republic:
pointing
to hold'.
and
Once
on him were
Julius
Caesar,
Caesar
the tyrant
and the Horatian
Alexander
circles'.
beaten
always
Poetry,
Rhetoric
non-ironic
of the
opened
is correct
Irish
links
without
KingRichardII,
3.2.62,
and
republic',
with
in saying
of Cromwell
English
for instance,
negotiations
is
Politics,
between
Catholic
side
wrong'. David
praise
Owen Roe O'Neill,
become an independent
Ode', p.
Brome: 'That
out 'unexpected
Worden, nonetheless,
it away' (p. 174).
that
'had
and 'in
the
'while
English
we can
an ironical
reading,
we cannot
ed. Peter
Ure (London:
Methuen,
p. 97.
Baxter,
The Autobiography
of Richard
(Totowa,
N. J.: Rowman & Little field,
'Marvell
and the Politics
23. James
for any,
and destroy
attacks
ofJulius
Cromwell,
of the Royalist
representatives
explain
22. Richard
Lord Protector,
English
Catholic
the
1961),
as Caesar inclined
/ And
source',
explain
21. William
and Dominion,
version
pp.
up in Arms, invade,
over; yea to kill
has found 'some wholly
and Irish
the
late
the
Catholic
that
for it, to rise
1650),
it were lawfull
Commentary on the Life ofCaius
verse
strong
Writing
proposed
and even Republi-
then
he can prevail
'Andrew Marvell,
Norbrook,
republican
of
Rome's liberties.
that's
... in an Irish
p.
the translation
Vsvrpt Powers (London,
him as England's
the sarcastic
right
CUP, 2001),
century...
made a right;
strength
for Empire
when Cromwell
1654),
Smith,
Companion to
(Cambridge:
of] Parliamentarian^]
occupation
make a sufficient
(London,
Nigel
The Cambridge
seventeenth
concerning
4-5;
published,
135-136.
of Thomas May'.
18. John S. Coolidge,
ibid.
19. Edward Gee, An Exercitation
menand Countreys
pp.
ed. N. H. Keeble
to Lucan [are works
that
1991),
War to Restoration',
'in the mid and later
especially
again,
Press,
Loxley,
Sword (Basingstoke:
ofProvidence',
1974),
p. 88, quoted
Ben Jonson Journal,
Royalism and Poetry in the English
Macmillan,
Baxter,
1997),
(67)
p. 193.
Civil
ed. N. H. Keeble
in R. V. Young,
1 (1994),
p. 222.
Wars: The Drawn
24. John
Goodwin,
Right
and Might
Well Met, or a brief and unpartiall
enquiry
into the late andpresentproceedings
of the army under the command of... the
Lord ofFairfax,'
and regularnesse
wherein the equity
are demonstra tively vindica ted upon undeniable
religion.
Together
against
with satisfactory
them (London,
overcomingRight.
1649).
religion
that
John
made
Geree wrote Might
action
of the Army in secluding
by the rules
of solid
well
many
reason, nor
The Glorious Nameof God, The Lord ofHosts:
Cornhill
God's Englishman^
Oliver
New York: Harper
Torchbooks,
[Cromwell's]
doctrine
justification
by success'.
which
the
defensible
in two Sermons, at Michaels
said,
anything,
to this,
objections
1649).
Burroughes,
26. Cromwell
as well ofreason as
answers to all materiall
In response
men... is neither
(London,
25. Jeremiah
principles,
Or, a deer answer to M. J. Goodwin's Might and Right
met. Wherein is cleared,
Parliament
of the said proceedings
1643),
p. 19. Christopher
Cromwell and the English
1972),
of providence
p. 136,
[had]
Revolution
finds
slipped
that
(1970;
'by the
over easily
Hill,
into
rpt.
1650's...
a theory
of
See also pp. 246-250.
for example,
'I do not therefore
and yet such obedience
it is lawful
(London,
Opened
to resist'
[be]
( Writings
due,
think
the authorities
but all agree
there
may do
are cases
in
and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell, i. 697).
And the attitude
of Engagers
is clearly
exemplified
by the
Rous's pamphlet,
The Lawfulness of Obeying the Present
title
of Francis
Government (London,
1649).
27.
John
Dury,
A Second Parcel
Engagement answered (London,
28. Thomas Hobbes,
Clearly
Stated
of Objections
1650),
The Questions
and Debated
in all his actions.
between
29. See Victoria
30. For Marvell's
contact
Renaissance
1656),
not comprehending
Rhetoric
U. P., 1994),
with
Marvell, pp. 3-4. The words quoted
The Platonic
and Chance.
Bishop
of Derry, and
p. 89. He continues:
'Less
his Counsails,
call him to
in it'.
Princeton
early
of the
Necessity
Dr. Bramhall
(London,
Kahn, Machiavellian
Milton (Princeton:
taking
such power is in God only, he must needs be just
And we, that
the Bar, commit injustice
the
pp. 23-24.
concerning Liberty,
Thomas Hobbes ofMalmesbury
power does not. And because
against
' From the Counter-Reformation
pp. 162-163.
Cambridge
Platonism,
here are Cudworth's.
see Legouis,
Andrew
See Ernst
Cassirer,
in England, trans. James P. Pettegrove
(68)
(Edinburgh:
to
Nelson,
1953),
3 1. Abraham
p. 79.
Cowley, The Complete
2 vols., ed. Alexander
32. Richard
Baxter,
33. Edmund
117-118,
B. Grosart
Anglia
(London,
eminently
a wicked cause to prosper:
Servants!
yea godly Kings
34. Sir William
1651),
The
Second
William Davenant's
1971),
pp. 142,
'The
Gondibert,
Rudrum (1976;
rpt.
27,
Century Revolutions,
Klaus,
The Unfortunate
AndrewMarvell(Hamden,
38. The
and Marvell
in successful
Erect
F. Gladish
Ministers
and
Tho. Newcomb,
Canto
4, Stanza
44, Sir
(Oxford:
Clarendon
Press,
of Boethius,
1983),
of
Poems, ed Alan
120.
Repertory',
Foreshortened
vol. 3, 1808),
p.
Time- Andrew Marvell and
p. 139.
Fall:
Theodicy
'at one time or another
leaders"
Consolation
pp. 283,
(in 'Antiquarian
and the Moral Imagination
Conn.: Archon Books,
of Nedham
parallels.
resemblances
'The
us,
amongst
1983),
expressed
p. 138, states
something
and were tempted
to believe
and Marvell,
close
that
of
both
ofa "desperate
that
success
marked
of Providence'.
careers
suggestive
59 and
Penguin,
of Thomas Lord Fairfax'
the approval
as lately
our late most pious Soveraign,
"Translation
Harmondsworth:
Seventeenth
faith
pp.
Henry Vaughan-' The Complete
in R. I. V. Hodge,
Milton
2, Stanza
14-16,
4, as quoted
37. John
of
and Incredulity,
Heroick Poem (London:
ed. David
lines
II v', line
36. 'Memorials
sometimes,
In another
149.
Men of War',
Philosophy
A3vA4r.
p. 86.
of the wicked'.
Gondibert:An
Canto
ed. N. H. Keeble,
sigs.
(Whereof
Cowley,
i. 160, ii. 295.
and Godly men, his faithful
and Princes
Book,
1967),
Of Credulity
suffered,
to fall into the hands
D'avenant,
1660),
Casaubon,
'God in all ages hath
a rare example)
35.
Meric
Press,
ofRichardBaxter,
Rediviva
instances,
says:
(New York:AMS
TheAutobiography
Elys,
many other
Worksin Verse and Prose ofAbraham
E. E. Duncan-Jones
between
Sword
both
Nedham's
of Marvell's
has
pamphlet
Horatian
friends
of Milton,
have
noted
a series
of verbal
and Marvell's
'Horatian
Ode'. See
Ode',
Etudes
Anglaises
(1962),
pp.
172-174.
39. The Case of the Commonwealth ofEngland,
ed. Philip
A. Knachel
40. David
Reid,
41. Blair
Worden,
175,
quotes
(Charlottesville,
The MetaphysicalPoets
'Andrew Marvell,
the doggerel
Stated
by Marchamont Nedham,
Va.: Univ. Press of Virginia,
{HallowOliver
from the Royalist
(69)
Longman, 2000),
Cromwell,
newspaper
1969),
p. 13.
p. 207.
and the Horatian
Ode', p.
The Man in the Moonfor
5 June
1650:
'And art returned
(Great
Nay then I see god Nose must reign,
phrase
role,
'god Nose' is an allusion
and possibly
the
Laura
Lunger
Knoppers,
Print
1645-1661,
pages
Knoppers
points
doubt
about
indicated
behind?
come behind'.
his pretended
mission:
divine
'God knows'. See also
'Cromwell,
'water-colour
than Peter
Lely's
Michael
Oliver:
miniature
and
nose, satirized'.
evinces
portraiture
J. Hawkins
/
The
Cromwell-' Ceremony, Portrait,
by Index,
Bacon, Essays, introd.
big nose,
his divine
Cooper's
/ And left Ireland
/ And Tom-ass [Fairfax]
Constructing
out that
again,
to Cromwell's
warts even more prominantly'
42. Francis
Noll)
Cromwell's
(p. 80).
(London:
Dent,
1972),
p.
160.
43. Admittedly,
Poetry,
however
Rhetoric
frequently
- as David Norbrook,
and Politics,
belligerent'
Marchamont
Pohticus,
44. David
(p. 296).
Nedham's
no. 103, 20-27
Norbrook,
1627-1660,
Writing
has pointed
For republican
in the
government
May 1652,
pp. 1609-1613.
Republic:
Republic-'
out -
militarism,
editorials
Writing the English
the English
'Marvell
is
see, for example,
newsbook,
Mercurious
Poetry, Rhetoric
and Politics,
1627- 1660, p. 258.
45. Nigel
Smith,
Literature
Yale U. P., 1994),
of Colchester',
and Revolution
p. 194; John
line
Milton,
10, Complete
Shorter
Longman, 1984),
Empire',
in Milton and Republicanism,
Quentin
Skinner
in Defensio
the basis
Boyd
'John
ed. David Armitage,
CUP, 1998),
marks 'the lowest
- to Satan's
Lost (ed. Alastair
that
'nor is it aught
point
of Milton's
Quarterly
35 (1974),
butjust,
/That
he who in debate
creatures
lead in Paradise
46. John Hales,
disputes
alike
Soldiers
in
clear-cut
has pointed
and decisive,
Poet
(Book
Paradise
Lost',
against
Armand Himy, and
faith
the passage
in victory
good by success,
of truth
6, lines
as
nor
Abdiel
in
p. 317)
hath
won, /
121-124),
as
Modern Language
'we may thirst
but that
rpt.
Longman, 1986],
/ Victor'
out,
Milton:
(1968!
Lost. Whereas
rpt. Harlow:
p. 393,
victories,
in Paradise
[1968;
'Puritan
personal
proved
Fowler
win in arms, in both
M. Berry,
victory
Carey
p. 219, relates
of de facto power' - 'Acause is neither
Paradise
Should
Armitage,
(New Haven:
Fair fax at the siege
Poems, ed. John
David
rpt. Cambridge:
Secunda that
shown to be evil'
claims
p. 320.
1640-1660
'On the Lord General
Harlow:
(1995;
in England,
is not the
for brilliant
sort of life the
Lost'.
Golden Remains, of the ever memorable Mr.John Hales, ofEaton
College, & C, p. 191. Hale's
influence
on Marvell
(70)
occurred
both through
printed
pages
and through
personal
contact:
Marvell
honour to have grown up into some part
while
with
breasts
the living
remains
in Christendom'.
47. Samuel Butler,
Wilders
(Oxford:
First
Clarendon
'I account
of his acquaintance,
of one of the clearest
See Pierre
Hudibras,
writes,
Legouis,
Part,
Press,
1967),
and convers'd
heads
pp. 96-98.
191-192,
195-200,
50. Edward
p. 333. See alsopp.
whose Judgement
come all for violence,
Treatise
by many for eitherDivine
p. 2, observes:
men should
Gods, that
upon that
more courage!
as deeming
grounds,
'explanation
advantage
revolution
because
ment:
"O ever-failing
Discussing
52. John Vicars,
Chronicle...
42 (2003),
53. See Edward
54. See Caroline
of the History
pp.
coincides
trust
/ In mortal
Militant?
with
of
with
them more
Milton's
Samson
John Milton
argues
that
and
Milton's
his own understanding
that
rather
strength!
Heroick
but upon imaginary
165-166,
'Manoa is clear
in his own strength
Samson's
than
of
fall has come
in God's empower-
And O what not in man /
(348-50)'.
Jehovah-Jireh.
(London,
or Patient
2nd ed.
matters
and accomplish
successe'.
A
to be issued
great
though
Quietist,
failed':
he trusted
and vain!"
{ex Diis genitos)
and security,
of why Samson has fallen
about
Deceivable
gallant
attempt
An
but is mistaken
good, that
might
who
Casaubon,
for the public
falsely,
that
God']
(London,
to good
Milton Studies
why the Puritan
p. 35. Meric
them with more fervency!
John Coffey, 'Pacifist,
Restoration',
Power unto their
1650),
they
such confidence
a great
Agonistes,
the
prosecute
their
or DiabolicallPossession
though
confidence
p. T- 'the
of themselves,
as It is an Effect ofNature:
Inspiration,
themselves,
shallproceed
that
'it was expedient
believe
p. 14. Cf. ibid.,
to possesse the dwellingplaces
(London,
concerning Enthusiasme
luckily:
Appendix,
and Impute
rpt. Oxford,
334.
and dignity
Exercitation,
pp. 74-75.
51. Nathaniel
Ward, Discolliminium
the
221,
who were to come upon Judah,
are not theirs,
1656),
217,
Gee, A plea for NonScribers,
Chaldeans
shall
214,
ed. John
p.7.
48. Edward Gee, An Exercitation, pp. 14- 15.
49. Alexandra Walsham, Providence in Early Modern England (1999;
OUP, 2001),
a
and best-prepared
AndrewMarvell,
Canto I, lines
it no small
God in the Mount; or, Englands Parliamentarie-
1644).
Gee, Aplea
Robbins,
of Ideas,
forNonScribers,
'Marvell's
Religion:
23 (April-June,
Appendix,
Was He a New Methodist?',
1962),
(71)
p. 2.
p. 270.
Journal
For a 'fine "fiction"'
to
explain
the integration
of divine
providence
see Thomas Adams, The Soldiers
Boyd
M. Berry,
Quarterly,
55. Alexandra
'Puritan
p. 381.
Walsham,
Providence
56. Andrew Marvell,
Legouis
Honour (London,
Soldiers
35 (1974),
Carey,
Approaches
(London:
Poems andLetters,
'Reversals
Legouis,
59. Conversely,
86-90,
'Reason
desires
/ And
2 vol. (Oxford:
AndrewMarvell,
1978),
as Milton
passions
M. Friedman,
in
3rd edn, rev. Pierre
Press,
of Marvell's
1971),
ii. 324.
Imagination'
in
ed. C. A. Patrides
p. 138.
wrote in his Paradise
or not obeyed,
catch
the
Lost, Book 12, lines
/ Immediately
government
inordinate
/ From reason,
and to
free.'
'Rude Heaps and Decent Order',
ed. Warren Chernaik
quoted
p. 4.
in man obscured,
upstart
Blv
acts,
Modern Language
Clarendon
An Aspect
& Kegan Paul,
reduce / Man till then
60. Donald
Lost',
ed. H. M. Margoliouth,
Transposed:
for example,
servitude
Paradise
sig.
to Marvell-' The York Tercentenary Lectures,
Routledge
58. Pierre
in
1617),
individual
in EarlyModern England, p. 307.
and E. E. Duncan-Jones,
57. John
and the Puritan's
and Martin
Dzelzanis
in Marvell andLiberty,
(Basingstoke:
Macmillan,
1999),
p.
127.
61.
Isaac
Pennington
People (London,
62. A phrase
Jr.,
The Fundamental
1651),
To the present
used of Marvell
William
Dutton.
Margoliouth,
during
Right,
Parliament
his
stay
Legouis,
and Liberty
of the
of England.
in France
See The Poems and Letters
3rd edn. ii. 378;
Safety
in 1656.
He was with
of Andrew Marvell, ed. H. M.
Andrew Marvell, p. 106. John
Klause,
The Unfortuna te Fall- Theodicy and the Moral Imagina tion ofAndre wMarvell,
p.148,
has noted
divine
presence
astic"
faith
that
Marvell's
working
in "natural"
of Christ's
kingdom
'sense
towards
polities'.
that
the "mystery"
a millennium
gave way to a less
See also Marvell's
from Caesar's
in the state
reference
at the opening
was a
"enthusi-
to the separation
of A Short Historical
Touching General Councils, Creeds, and Impositions
in Matters
Essay,
ofReligion
(ii.
115ff.).
63.
'To Penshurst',
lines
Cavalier
Authoritative
York:
Poets:
Norton,
'Aramantha.
be slave
1974),
A Pastoral'
in vain'
(lines
29-38;
pp. 22,
'To Saxham',
Texts and Criticism,
164.
Richard
as 'The happy
143-144,
lines
Lovelace
captive
Richard
(72)
gladly
Lovelace:
21-26,
Ben Jonson and the
ed. Hugh
also
refers
ta'n / [which]
Selected
Maclean
to the
(New
fish
in
Sues ever to
Poems, ed. Gerald
Hammond [Manchester:
64. Meric Casaubon,
A Treatise
65. The WorksofJohn
348-349.
66. Joseph
Anthony
Horatian
Ode'",
Cromwell's
Prynne,
Carcanet
that
Cromwell
Mazzeo, 'Cromwell
JHI, 21 (i960),
Kiffin,
well
as he [had]
insists
that
71-72,
'his Highness's
action
than
events
as the consequences
68. John Calvin,
John
Institutes
Westminster
Press,
72. William
trans.
1960),
1958),
215,
p. 40; Alastair
quoting
Ford
as an emblem
Richard IIIII
Othello,
Fowler,
In Book 9, the serpent
and
6).
to justify
the regicide,
him the receiver
'an interpretation
Religion,
Lewis
that
sees
individual
Book 2, Chapter
Battles,
2 vols.
3, Section
5,
(Philadelphia:
Heinemann,
'the gardening
or even of political
tells
Eve that
maintenance
'high
(73)
1967),
of John
pp. 116, 117,
should
148,
(London:
Milton's
activity
1989),
p.
Georgics andAeneidI-VT,
ed. M. R. Ridley
in his edition
symbolizes
p. 219.
Pinter Publishers,
Eclogues,
1.3.320-321,
notes that
of moral
iv, which
(p. 5),
act of a self-motivated
10, 459-460,
(London:
Broadbent,
London,
i. 295.
Fairclough
Shakespeare,
&
an act oftreason'.
Georgics, Book 2, lines
trans. Rushton
rpt.
other'
mover, making
69. Meric Casaubon, A Treatise concerningEnthusiasme,
70. Christine
Rees, The Judgment ofMarvell(London34.
71. Virgil,
p. 4, says
of ATHEISME
of the
trying
because
of the Christian
T. McNeill,
1652),
In a similar way, Bruce Lawson,
Art'", Comitatus 23 (1992),
pp.
who, he argues,
of the willful
would make the execution
Ne wSta tist (London,
'Machiavelli'iip.
p. 82.
"Wiser
subject'
William
of the Lion and Tail of the Fox, as
as individual
the
"An
often attributed
Principles
one and Deceit
Violence andReligion,
Cromwell:
Marvell's
the focus on Cromwell
in Marvell's
Noe Murder (1657;
own Evangelist'was
of the
ed.
Killing
of the
George Wither,
viii.
See for instance
by the
had 'the Skin
Violence
1850-1853),
As You Were (London,
Sexby,
Cromwell
rather
Contemporaries
Machiavellianism.
man who 'walks
the
discusses
'reduces
254.
Prince
Cromwellist and Hypocritical
Edward
that
67. Judy Sproxton,
'Representing
1-17.
in John Lilburne,
MACHIAVELLSME'.
suggests
pp. 290,
as Machiavellian
pp.
to his
is the
1689),
p. 56).
concerningEnthusiasme,
The Machia vellian
William
1987],
Owen, ed. W.H. Goold, 24 vols. (Edinburgh,
opportunism
1648).
Press,
(like
Methuen,
Paradise
probably
the
149.
Lost, p.
be regarded
gardening
in
of order in the commonwealth)'.
from ground the branches
[ofthe
tree
ofknowledge] would require / Thy utmost reach or Adam's' (lines 591-592), and
Fowler's comment is apposite: Milton 'makes the point in favour of divine
providence, that if the fruit was so difficult of access there was no chance of its
being plucked without a firm decision' (p. 473).
73. John Rogers, The Matter ofRevolutionå ' Science, Poetry, and Politics in the Age
ofMilton (Ithaca: Cornell U. P., 1996), pp. 62, 65, 68.
74. Thomas Edwards, Gangraena '
- or A Catalogue and Discovery of many of the
Errours, Heresies, Blasphemies and pernicious Practices of the Sectaries of
this time, vented and acted in England in these four lastyears (London, 1646),
The First Part, p. 159, The Second Part, p. 182. Cf. According to ODNB, s.v.
'Fairfax [nee Vere], Anne', Lady Fairfax 'was widely believed by contemporaries
to have had a considerable influence over her husband's actions during the civil
wars. This belief was reinforced by her public support for the presbyterian
ministry and her tenacity in accompanying her husband on campaign'. Soon
after the composition of the 'Horatian Ode', Marvell was to enter the household
of Thomas Fairfax.
75. Writings andSpeeches of Oliver Cromwell, ed. W. C. Abbott, i. 698.
76. Richard Sibbes, 'The Soul's Conflict', The Complete Works, 7 vols., ed A. B.
Grosart (Edinburgh: James Nichol, 1862-64), i. 211.
77. Ernst Cassirer, The Platonic Renaissance in England, p. 69.
78. Diary ofRalph Josselin, 1616-1683, ed. A. Macfarlane, Brit. Acad. Records of
Social and Econ. Hist., new ser., 3 (London: OUP, 1976), p. 81 [Slingsby Bethel],
The Worlds Mistake in Oliver Cromwell(London, 1668), p. 2.
79. Writings and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell, i. 697, iii. 590.
80. Richard Sibbes, 'The Soul's Conflict', The Complete Works, i. 416.
8 1. Writings and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell, i. 698.
82. Quoted in Barbara Donagan, 'Providence Chance and Explanation: Some
Paradoxical Aspects of Puritan Views of Causation', JRH, ll (1981), p. 397.
83. See my forthcoming article, 'A Dialogue between the Puritan and the Royalist:
Who is the Speaker ofMarvell's "To His Coy Mistress"?'.
84. [William Prynne], The Hypocrites Vnmasking'
- Or A Cleare Discovery of the
grosse Hypocrisy of the officers and Agitators in the Army, concerning their
pretended forwardnesse, and reall sincere desires to relieve Ireland,... By a
Letter of the Agitators to Lieutenant Generall Cromwell, March 30. 1647...
(London, 1647), p. 3.
(74)
85. Michael
Wilding,
Ireland'",
the
(January,
1987),
'Marvell's
Levellers,
"An Horatian
and the Junta',
p. 9. Margarita
Coming in the Seventeenth
pp. 83-84,
Senate,
maintain
because
which
Augustus
was increasingly
Press,
answerable
himself
Roman antimonarchism.
republic
from
MarveW The Second
Harvester
was technically
a fiction
of vestigial
well in the English
Apocalyptic
Century Poetry (Brighton:
was largely
Return
The Modern Language Review, 82
Stocker,
also says: 'While Augustus
this
Ode upon Cromwell's
to the Roman
was anxious
The position
similar
1986),
to that
to
of Crom-
of Augustus
in the
Roman'.
86. Writings and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell, i. 527, 540.
87.
John
Wilkins,
Discourse
Rugged Passages ofIt.
times ofpublick
concerning
the Beauty
Very seasonable
confusion
(London,
to quiet
1649),
of Providence
in All
the
and support the heart in these
'To the Reader'.
88. Edward Gee, An Exercitation,
pp. 62-63.
89. Margarita
Stocker,
Apocalyptic
MarveW The Second Coming in the Seventeenth
Century Poetry, pp. 322,
pamphlet,
argues
An Honest Discourse
that
Cromwell's
there
68-69.
the
pamphleteer
authority
is no doubt
between
'like
is divinely
See also p. 103:
Three Neighbours
Marvell,
sanctioned'
of Cromwell's
political
citing
...
in spite
must
a polemical
(1655),
Stocker
acknowledge
of the fact that
malignity
and selfish
that
'In his view
ambition'.
90. Writings and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell, iii. 590.
91. John Calvin,
and Section
Institutes
ofthe
8, ed. John T. McNeill,
92. Thomas Hobbes,
Leviathan,
Brooks,
Poetry, p. 137.
stopps
trans.
1651),
Historical
Representation
time
apply'd":
Andrew Marvell, ed. Claude
sanction
of religious
95. See Christopher
Revolution
(London:
Press,
Holland
the 'Horatian
at Midcentury',
Univ. of Missouri
Ford Lewis Battles,
(London,
1603),
Evidence and the Reading
Discussing
to various
Book 1, Chapter
16, Section
i. 205,
7
207.
p. 53.
Morals, trans. Philemon
94. Cleanth
Religion,
or The Matter, Forme, & Power ofa Common-
Wealth and Civill(London,
93. Plutarch,
Christian
ofSeventeenth
Ode', M. L. Donnelly,
Marvell,
Cromwell,
in On the Celebrated
and
p. 157,
and scriptural
figures'.
Hill,
Some Intellectual
Phoenix,
1997),
observes
'"And still
the
that
Pebworth
Marvell
from Hobbes's
new
Problem
of
Poems of
(Columbia:
'forgoes
Consequences of the
p. 45. Quoting
(75)
-Century
and Neglected
J. Summers and Ted-Larry
1992),
p. 538.
the
English
Leviathan
a
theorem that 'The Obligation
of Subjects
to the Sovereign,
is understood
to last
as long, and no longer, than the power lasteth,
by which he is able to protect
them', Robert Wilcher, Andrew Marvell (Cambridge:
CUP, 1985), p. 118, says,
'Hobbes's
theory
of sovereignty
is based
on a materialistic
conception
of natural
law'.
96. David
Norbrook,
1627-1660,
97. Keith
Thomas,
Poetry, Rhetoric
Religion and the Decline ofMagic-' Studies
and Seventeenth-Century
Penguin,
1985),
Pliny,
Natural
Rackham,
99. Titus
Republic-'
and Politics,
p. 265.
Sixteenth98.
Writing the English
England
in Popular Beliefs in
(1971;
rpt.
Harmondsworth:
p. 97.
History,
XV, 135,
10 vols. (1938-1963;
Lucretius
The
Loeb
rpt. London:
Classical
Heinemann,
Carus, De Rerum Natura, 6, 379-422,
2nd edn. revised
by M. F. Smith
(Cambridge,
520-525.
Alexandra
Walsham,
124-125,
cites
seventeenth-century
Olveston
church
early
schoolmaster
was struck
lamented
that
iv. 379.
UP, 1982),
in 1606,
'When the
the local
remains
is this,
what a mischance
is here, what hard hap, what bad fortune,
and the clouds,
as if the sphears
hayle,
lightning,
but a cast at hazard'";
gentleman
astrologer
Sir
firmly
Christopher
rejected
"unworthy ofa scholar'".
Harward,
A Discourse
(London,
1607),
sigs.
the
other places.
Bleachingley
Heydon
Buckstead
erect
hypothesis
that
Severall
Kinds
[C3vHC4r]:
'This
lightning
it entered
with
such
of fortune,
to chance,
wrote the
Cambridge
to blind
divine
Fortune".
Yet
it was an act of God
as
example is found in Simon
and Causes of Lightnings
on monday the
17.
of
Sussex and
at the same time when it fiered
also into the house of one Stephen Lugffordoi
lead of his glasse
windowes did with
sunder
bricke
chimney:
that
what a mishap
harme in Surry, but also it afflicted
that
of
of God else, were
to the
temples
of the
xo.Sussex ahaost twentie
a strong
[to]
It was very strange
steeple
of 1608
See also p. 127. Another
Nouember did not onely this
diuers
and all the terrors
the cold winter
Samuel Ward, was "with the Epicure
he no less
was his complaint,
of heaven were the wheeles
thunder,
'To ascribe
steeple
one or two" among the multitude
"but this
pp.
Gloucester-shire
to see the charred
speeches,
pp.
in Early Modern England,
flocked
heathenish
H.
W. H. D. Rouse,
Harvard
examples.
by lightning
trans.
1949-1969),
trans.
Mass.:
Providence
"scarce
Library,
miles
from Bleachingley
great
violence
breake
the man is of honest
(76)
and melting
through
report
the
and rent in
and zealous
in
religion, we must not therefore iudge of men by those outward accidents, but
commit all iudgemeut [sic] to God to whom it doth belong'. John Klause, The
- Unfortunate
Theodicy andFall'
the Moral Imagination of Andrew Marvell,
p.171, notes that 'Marvell was quite familiar with the De rerum natura', and
goes on to say that 'Another ofMarvell's favorites was the "atheist" Pliny, who,
along with Lucretius and the satirist Lucan, was ranked among the foremost
enemies of religion by Christians of the Renaissance'.
100. Walter Charleton, The Darknes ofAtheism dispelled by the Light ofNature:A
Physico-Theologicall Treatise (London, 1652), p. 101. See also p. 155.
101. Nathaniel Ward, Discolliminium, pp. 25-26.
102. Margarita Stocker, Apocalyptic Marvell-' The Second Coming in the Seventeenth CenturyPoetry, pp. 76, 81.
103.
John Klause,
Unfortunate
Fall'of
- Theodicy
and theThe
Moral
Imagination
AndrewMarvell, p. 129.
104. Joseph Salmon, A Rout, A Rout (London, 1649), in A Collection ofRanter
Writings from the 17th Century, ed. Nigel Smith (London: Junction Books,
1983), pp. 190-191, 193.
105. John M. Wallace, Destiny His Choice: The Loyalism of Andrew Marvell
(Cambridge: CUP, 1968), p. 76.
106. Michael Witmore, Culture of Accidents: Unexpected Knowledges in Early
Modern England (Stan ford: Stan ford U. P., 2001), p. 136, discusses what he
calls 'anagogic wonder', which 'could accommodate a mode of providential
speculation that was wholly indifferent to the demystifying powers of
naturalistic explanation'.
107. Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline ofMagic, p. 127.
108. Barbara Everett quotes as 'representative of the feeling of all the moderates
of [the] time' a Parliamentarian, Sir William Waller, who describes 'the Wars as
both "this tragedy", and yet Opus Domini, the work of the Lord'. See 'The
Shooting of the Bears: Poetry and Politics in Andrew Marvell', in Andrew
Marvell-'Essays on the Tercentenary ofhis Death, ed. R. L. Brett (Oxford: Univ.
of Hull, 1979), pp. 87-88.
109. Quoted by George R. Hibbard, 'The Early Seventeenth Century and the
Tragic View of Life', Renaissance and Modern Studies, 5 (October, 1961), p. ll.
In The Rehearsal Transpros'd, that is, long after the Cromwellian regime is
over, Marvell says that 'Serious Men consider whether he [Bishop Bramhall]
(77)
were ingaged
England,
in the conduct
for
Wentworth]
the
Imputation
his Patron
110. Margarita
of the Irish
Stocker,
Horatian
Cromwell's
Apocalyptic
Ode',
return
'Machiavelli,
called
is that
could
not necessarily
112. Nicolaus
of
him 'Novus Princeps', pointing
clearly
to
Marvell
two kinds
of ruler:
easy and about whom he has
and whom Machiavelli's
(Harmondsworth:
Cusanus,
who reaches
book is designed
describes
the
as a positive
power by a
to educate'.
virtu of the
virtue
in the
My
new prince
context
rpt. Westport,
Thomas Browne, Religio
Robbins
because
Penguin,
(1972;
rpt. Oxford:
Bookes of Constancie,
1939),
ch. 15; Sir
Evans
(Harmondsworth:
that
of the
Philip
(Oxford:
1979),
1728-1731),
confusion
throughout
English
for example,
590-591,
and
Revolution
between
The English
Dury, Considerations
1989),
p. 22. 1 refer
(New Brunswick,
N.J.:
pp.
489-490;
Lipsius,
Two
Rutgers
UP,
ed. M.
Spenser,
The Faerie
ed. Hugh
de Quehen
Walsham,
trans. T. Gordon,
Providence
to the post-Reformation
determinism
to these
Arcadia,
p. 14; The Works ofTacitus,
divine
p. 50. Sir
in Early
ministry,
and pagan fatalism
an
persisted
society'.
Writings and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell, iii. 60-61,
iv. 261,
1625-1660,
Press,
Prose Observations,
'According
Fr.
and The Garden of Cyrus, ed.
i. 25. Alexandra
Modern England, p. 22, says:
unhealthy
1977),
trans.
1979),
The Countess ofPembroke's
Penguin,
Press,
Press,
read them. See also Justus
Kirk
Sidney,
Butler,
(London,
I. 22, OfLearnedIgnorance,
Clarendon
ed. Rudolf
trans. W.
pp. 98-99.
Conn.: Hyperion
Marvell
Queene, I. v. 25; Samuel
2 vols.
1983),
Medici Hydriotaphia,
it seems evident
Clarendon
with the CentennialHymn,
De docta ignorantia,
Germain Heron (1954;
p. 403;
writing
The Complete Odes andEpodes
G. Shepherd
113. See,
and
Nedham,
is relatively
be accepted
Cromwell,
drama of the regicide.
111. Horace,
Robin
Oliver
Marchamont
("ilnuovoprincipe"),
the way in which
providential
[Thomas
(i. 56)
of The Prince distinguishes
to say, and the new prince
point
that
whose task
coup or by conquest,
of Strafford
'Andrew Marvell,
noted
from Ireland,
prince,
Earl
suffered'
Worden,
p. 163,
the
it over upon
Marvel!' The Second Coming in Seventeenth
who at the start
the hereditary
little
of which
so undeservedly
Century Poetry p. 78. Blair
the
army, and to have brought
353;
The
Constitutional
ed. S. R. Gardiner
(1889;
Banner of Truth Displayed
Documents of the
rpt.
Oxford:
(London,
1958),
pp. 7-8," John
concerning the Present Engagement (London,
(78)
Puritan
Clarendon,
1650),
460,
1650),
pp.
13- 14. (Cf. Two Treatises concerning the Matter of the Engagement [London,
1650], p. 9); A. S. P. Woodhouse, Puritanism and Liberty (1938; rpt. London:
Dent, 1974), p. 443; OriginalLetters and Papers ofState... Addressed to Oliver
Cromwell, ed. John Nickolls (London, 1743), p. 91; N. H. Keeble, Richard
Baxter, Puritan Man ofLetters (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982), pp. 3, 29; cf. J.
A. Mazzeo. Renaissance and Seventeenth -Century Studies (New York: Columbia UP, 1964), p. 200.
114. Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline ofMagic, p. 124.
115. Henry Hall, Digitus Testium (London, 1650), p. 30.
116.
Clement Walker,
The High Court ofJustice'
, or Cromwell's
New Slaughter
Housein England'(n.p., 1651), pp. 58-59.
117. Nathaniel Ward, Discolliminium, pp. 15-16, 20. The abuse of the providential
excuse finds its most extreme form in the perfectionism and illuminist
doctrines of the sects. R. A, Knox, Enthusiasm-' A Chapter in the History of
Religion with Special Reference to the XVII and XVIII Centuries (Oxford:
Clarendon Press, 2000), quotes an antinomian perfectionist's formula: 'If
therefore it be the will of God that I should commit sin, my will must be the
same. And I must not desire even to abstain from sin' (p. 125). And for those
who 'live by the inner light' such as mid-seventeenth century Quakers, they are
'in some sense... divinized,... [or] realize the dwelling ofGod's Spirit in' them,
thus becoming 'above sin-level' (p. 153).
118. Writings and Speeches of Oliver Cromwell, iii. 460.
119. Annabel Patterson, 'Andrew Marvell and the Revolution', in The Cambridge
Companion to Writing of the English Revolution, ed. N. H. Keeble, p. 115.
120. Thomas Hobbes, The Questions concerningLiberty, Necessity and Chance, 'To
the Reader', sig. a.
12 1. David Norbrook, Writing the English Republic: Poetry Rhetoric and Politics,
1627-1660, p. 265.
122. Keith Thomas, Religion and the Decline ofMagic, ch. 4. passim.
123. John Wilkins, Discourse concerning the Beauty of Providence in All the
Rugged Passages ofIt. Very seasonable to quiet and support the heart in these
times ofpublick confusion, sig. A5r, pp. 70, 73-74, 76-77, 116, 108-109.
124. R. W. Sharpies, Stoics, Epicureans and Sceptics: An Introduction to
Hellenistic Philosophy (1996; rpt. London: Routledge, 1999), p. 77, 76.
125. Edward Corbett, God's Providence, A Sermon Preached before the Honourable
(79)
House of Commons(London,
126.
1648
Ronald
[1649]).
The punctuation
J. VanderMolen,
Puritan
and Anglican
128. John
M. Wallace,
William
Perkins,
Thomas Randolph
('Upon
Modifications
CavalierPoets,
130.
William
Edwards
131.
Richard
DestinyHis
Works, 3 vols. (London,
Refused
Shakespeare,
Baxter,
of John
Providence
Calvin's
Doctrine
as Revelation^
of Providence',
Choice, p. 103.
Hamlet,
CUP, 1985),
The Saints
1626-31),
ii. 669.
powers rule us, ourselves
for Conscience's
ed. Hugh Maclean,
(Cambridge:
as Mystery,
p. 36.
also says 'Higher
Love Fondly
has been amended.
'Providence
Church History, 47 (1978),
129.
p. 3.
The Kings Last Farewell to the World, or the Dead Kings Living Meditations,
at the Approach of Death Denounced against Him CSTC K597, a single sheet
dated
127.
1642),
Sake',
A Cavalier
poet
can nothing
do'
line 9, Ben Jonson and the
p. 218).
Prince
of Denmark,
5.2.192,
p. 234.
EverlastingRest
(80)
(London,
1650),
p. 338.
ed.
Philip