SOME UNCOLLECTED LETTERS OFANDREW MARVELL

HILTON KELLIHER

EARLIER this year the British Library acquired an unpublished letter of Marvell to SirHenry Thompson of Escrick, dated i6 December 1675.' Sir Henry {c. 1627-84), thesecond of the five sons of Richard Thompson of Kilham and his wife Anne Thompson, neeNelthorpe, was a successful wine merchant, knighted in 1665 and serving as Member ofParhament for York from 1673 until 1681, in succession to Thomas Osborne, Earl ofDanby.- With him and with his youngest brother Edward {c. 1637-1701), whose politicalviews coincided largely with his own, Marvell corresponded over the last eight years of hislife in a friendly and even playful fashion, thanking them for favours to himself and to hisnephew William Popple when the latter was setting up in the w ine trade at Bordeaux, andretailing current news and gossip. This new letter, which brings the total so far known ofthe series to eighteen, that is, to no less than two-fifths of Marvell's miscellaneouscorrespondence in the standard edition, fits neatly between two that were written on 9 and28 December to Sir Henry and Edward Thompson respectively.' What is more it suppliesa missing link, since it was composed in reply to the letter* sent to him by Sir Henry notearlier than 6 December, after the latter had returned from London to York, that itselfcrossed with Marvell's of the 9th. The draft of Sir Henry's letter survives among theEscrick Papers: in it he thanks Marvell for his 'protection and repeated favors', concludingwith a wish for 'as much happiness as your heart can desire & that I had an occasion toshow how much I am & will be your most faithful & most humble servant\ I'he text ofMarvell's reply runs as follows, the only change being the addition of some essentialpunctuation.

Sir, I have received your kind letter then which nothing can be more acceptable to me, but that theextraordinary civility of the expressions such as it is neither proper for you to pay me nor for me toreceive, dos in a manner confound me. Hut your actions having always proved as Civill to me asyour words so that you appeare therein no Courtier I ean the better digest them. I would tell yousome news if there were ought to purpose. I doe certainly believe that w ithin a few days M"" Garwayand S' William Thompson w ill now be out of the Customes and S"" Ed: Deering and M"" Cheinv inthetr places. Garway himselfe expects it. It argues a great impartiality in the Treasurer and if he doethis probably he may adventure upon many more. Yet I can not find though often considered ofthat it can goe so far as Shaftesbury. No though a Letter I mean a Speech is printed under his nameas spoke in the Lords house, which makes angers. Truly all that is spoke about a new Parliament isyet without any ground. I will not believe any thing till the latter end of January by whieh time the

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fig. I. Letter from Andrew Marve)l to Sir Henry Thompson of Escrick, i6 Dec. 1675.Add. MS. 60391E.

Court may take more certain measures. Nell in tbe meane time is said to have obtained lodgings alWbiteball. The Duchesse Ma/arins journy I heare is stoppd, yong Ruvigny and the Chevalier dcVendosme havinj!: gone hence to her at Diepe to devert her. I do not thinke there will be any part ofa Peace abroad. My humble service to your Lady, to M'" Robinson, your Brother Ned. I am yourmost humble servant. Dec: i6. 1675.

These lines, writteti less than a month after the king had prorogued Parliament for, as itwas to prove, the unprecedented period of fifteen months, include matters of more interestto students of Marvell than mere gossip about Charles's former and future mistresses. Thewriter, no friend to the Earl of Danby, then Lord Treasurer, finds 'great impartiality' inthe appointment of Charles Cheyney, later Viscount Newhavcn, and Sir Ldvvard Deringas Commissioners of the Customs in place of William Garroway and Sir WilliamThompson. Mrs. E. E. Duncan-Jones suggests that this is ironical, and certainly the namesof the first two appear in an estimate,^ drawn up by an agent of Danby's on 18 December, ofnon-official supporters of the government. The move may, in reality, have had more to dowith the economics that Danby had determined to effect following the great increase ofgovernment place-men and pensioners over the previous two years,'' for the new warrantallowed him to reduce the salaries of the Commissioners from ^^2,000 to £1,200 perannum." The reference to Shaftesbury, dismissed from tbe Lord Cbancellorsbip inNovember 1673 and ever since carrying on an active opposition to the ruling Court Part},may mean that Marvell actually hoped that he would be restored to some position ofpower, and in this case would foreshadow the admiration expressed for this statesman inAn Account of the Growth of Popery {i6-j-j). The sentence that follows is wrongly cast in thecontext, but its drift is clear: Shaftcsbury's chances, slight in any event, were likely to beredueed by the publication of a speech that he had delivered in the Lords in October,' whichmakes angers'.^ Finally, the 'M' Robinson' mentioned at the end of the letter may be oneof two persons, both members of a prosperous and influential York famiK that, like theThompsons, had won a place in both local and national politics. Thomas Robinson(1634-76)" was the brother of Sir Metcalfe Robinson, Bt., Member for the city throughoutthe Long Parliament, whose estates were evcntualh inherited by Thomas's son \\ illiam,born about 1655, who had enrolled at Gra\'s Inn in February 1674.'" Marvell would nodoubt have had ample opportunit) of meeting either of these men through their mutualacquaintances.

An early letter of Marvell to Edward Thompson was by 1836 in the hands of thecollector William Upcott, who listed it without giving any details among the three volumesof literary autographs included in his Original Letters, Manuscripts and State Papers^ p. 40.At the sale ofhis collection at Sotheby's on 22 June 1846 these volumes were purchased, aslot 421, by the then Mr. Evelyn of Wotton," and are now part of the Evelyn familymanuscripts deposited at Christ Church, Oxford. Marvell's letter (MS. Evelyn 3, part ii,no. 69) is first published here by kind permission of the Trustees of the Will of Major PeterGeorge Evelyn; and I should like to thank also the Assistant Librarian of the College, Mr.H. J.R. Wing. It is dated 29 December 1670 and sealed with MarvelFs first stag seal. Someessential punctuation has been added.

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Sir, 1 went out of town at the adjournment: ;it my return yesterday 1 found two of yours, 21 & 24}^^& one from your Brother. Pray till I write to him which shall be shortly present him my thanks forhis thanks, I was very glad of that occasion & should bo happy upon any other to witnesse theService 1 have for him. Hut you know that the kindnesse hetwixt you & Will is enough to ingage mein all things to catch at the opportunityes to court and ohlige you or any of your relations according tomy best though mean capacity. Retrospect I see runns much in your mind. We have nothing to door intermctkile with it further. And as to the late order of taking of the 4'' per tun: your winesimported before that order must be content to pay & what is secured must be effected. There will beno examination further whether the 310 000 with use were indeed received before, whereby youmight be relieved. Tis well tis stopt for the future. The businesse of S'" J: Coventry is all discoverd.Lake (S-" Lancelots Son) & Wroth two of 'm (Lifeguard men & so were the rest) committedyesternight to Newgate. S'" 1"ho: Sands (T Jeu' of the Kings troop) & Capt: Charles Obrian & othersfled or not to be heard of. The house said nothing of it but adjournd till Tuesday next when the billof Subsidy is to have its first reading & then I think they will adjourn to Munday following w" thehouse is to be called.

Yours A: M:

We now turn by contrast to some Marvell letters whose whereabouts are not at presentknown. In the notes that I published in the last issue but one of this journal mention wasmade of the sale at Sotheby's (24 July t978, lot 108) of papers of Francisco dc Mello eTorres, Portuguese Ambassador to F.ngland between 1657 and 1665, which included anunpublished letter written and signed by Man ell on 4 April 1660 concerning a treaty thenunder discussion.'- After the failure of an earlier attempt by King Alfonso IV of Portugalto join with England, France, and Sweden in a projected alliance against Spain whichwould safeguard his own crown, Mello remained in London for two years beforeadvancing proposals for another treat\. The Council of State in October appointeda committee of seven- the Domini Conimissuni of the letter that follows—to treat withhim, Mar\ ell apparently acting as secretary. As a result a military agreement was drawn upthat was almost exclusively to the advantage of Portugal,' ' except that the first articledemanded the ratification of the Six Articles of January 1652 and the humiliating Treatyot Jul\ 1 )̂54, concluded under John IV, that were wholly favourable to England.Evidently Mello, like his predecessors, demurred at this, and Marvell was thereupon giventhe delicate task of putting on the pressure: I quote with a single emendation the linesprinted in Sotheby's catalogue.

Quod ad primum Articulum, quo priores tractatus confirmantur, attinet, dicunt, nisi Exc'̂ V^ ineo conveniat id merito suspiciosum Concilio Status futurum, et dubitari posse qua fid[ej agatur, siilia ipsa quac Majestas Sua jam rata habuit Exc-' tamen \-^ dicis tantummodo causa confirmarehaesitaverit quum in toto tractatu per quem tanta navium et militum Anglicorum roboraPortugalliae permittuntur, nulla alia ne quidem Species Conditionis reciprocie aut mutuae utihtatisex hac parte postuletur . . .

(. . . As to the first Article, by which the former treaties are to be confirmed, [the Commissioners]sav that unless your Excellency concurs in that it will deservedly become grounds for suspicion tothe (Council of State, and \\ill give rise to doubts of the good faith of the proceeding if those verythings that His Majesty [Alfonso IV] has already approved your Excellency shall for any reason

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whatsoever hesitate to confirm; since in the whole treaty, by which such considerable forces ofEnglish ships and soldiers are allowed to Portugal, nothing otherwise, not even the shadow oi areciprocal arrangement or of mutual benefit, is requested on this side . . .)

The letter concludes with MarvclFs disclaimer of any personal responsibility for theviews that he is merely reporting, and flatters the Ambassador with the hopes of increasedpopularity both in England and Portugal if he signs the treaty. Here Sotheby's catalogue,which fortunately publishes some two-thirds of the whole text, reproduces the lines infacsimile with the loss of some words.

. . . modo in eorum manibus corrumpatur. Haec uti a Dominis Commissarijs habui ita optima fideExeellentiae Vestrae retuli, nihil ex meo addens (quod neque muneris neque ingenij Nostri est) utietiam haec spero satis ponderis apud Eam habitura ad ipsius Portugalliae emolumentum quod exhoc tractatu haud mediocre imo vel ma[xi]mu[m] fore summa cum Exc-"-̂ V-̂*̂ tam Nobiscum quamdomi pruden[ti]ae fama et gratia confido. Ita auguror et voveo

Excellentissime DomineExeellentiae Vestrae

Albam Aulam Servus addictissimus4 Aprilis 1660. Andreas Marvell

The treaty was duly signed on 18 April by Mello and b} the Council of State acting onbehalf of the republic, but although the fourteenth and final article specified that twomonths were to be allowed for formal ratification the Restoration cut short any furtherprogress. The importance of this letter for the study of Marvell's career is that it shows forthe first time exactly where be was and what he was doing between October 1659, when theCouncil of State was first dissohed and its servants, including Milton and Marvell, werepaid their arrears of salary, and his taking his seat as Member for Hull in the ConventionParliament, the elections for which had been held on 2 April. The address suggests that hestill retained the lodgings in Whitehall that had been granted to him about Jul\ 1659, evenif he had to resign them in the next month or two; and at the Restoration his talents wereput to use in answering, on 2;^ July, a Latin letter of congratulation sent by the ElectorPalatine. He thus seems to have been continuously employed in the service of the statefrom his appointment as Thurloe's secretary to his death as M.P. for Hull thirty-one yearslater.

I have mentioned elsewhere'^ that the Potter Collection in the Department of Printsand Drawings at the British Museum includes a cutting from the Norih MnldlcsexChronicle for 25 March 1882 that reports a lecture on Marvell given in a series on Highgateworthies by John T. Taylor, Assistant Secretary of the Museum, at the Highgate Literaryand Scientific Institution. According to this report Taylor 'read several hithertounpublished letters written by Marvell to his friends and dated from High Gate'. None ofthese is now known; but John H. lAoydi's History of Highgate {\^^^), p. 214, notes that 'inone of his letters, dated from Highgate, he states his foes are implacable, and that he wasfrequently threatened with murder at his proceeding to and from Highgate'. Since in thepreface to the book Taylor's name heads the list of those who 'freely rendered informationand assistance' it seems likely tbat Lloyd is quoting indirectly from one of these letters.

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'VA\ lor tlietl in September ujoS, and the letters have dropped completely out of sight. Thetomaniic-sotintlinu; cMrad quotcti above gives rise, however, to a mild scepticism aboutwhat miiilit jKissiblv lia\e been a hoax on someone's part. We are on firmer ground withthe autograph letter running to one folio page and elated 1658 that was sold in an album ofletters'^ belonging to Dawson Turner by Puttick and Simpson on 6 June 1859, lot 677.The only complete letter know n that bears this date is that addressed to George Downingon 11 l'V'bruar) 1658/9 that was indutletl elsewhere (lot 146) in the same sale. Nor is itlikel\ that the description would be answered by the fragment dated 15 January 1658/9that had belonged to John Tlianc, the author of the 'first English book in which autographswere a major feature',"' British . \iiti>;^riiphy \ i7(S(S 9^ ?|, in the second volume of v\hich itwas reproduced.

It ma\ be useful to conclude with some purely bibliographical notes regardingM.ir\ell's letters to the Thompson brothers, which, though unknown to Captain EdwardThompson, his editor, \\\ \~'(^, had begun to circulate among collectors in the secondquarter of the nineteenth centur\ .Two letters to Edward Thompson, numbered 24 and 38in Margoliouth's edition, were among the collection of J. L. Anderdon that was sold byl~\anson 13 Fcbruar\ 1S33 (lots 2(17, 26S): the former was first printed b\ Grosart in 1872but the text of the latter remained unknown until 1930. I'hat written by Marvell to SirHenry on 28 December 167-; (Misc. letter ;i,;i,) was reproduced in facsimile, before Grosartprinted it, b\ V. G. Netherclift, The Autagruph Soircoiir (ist Scries, 1865), and, in partonl\, in 7/?c' . iii/niiruph .Mhuni (1866), from the original then in the collection of John"VOung and later sold at Sotheb\'s on 26 April 1869, lot 628. Finally, Miscellaneousletter 26, dated 1 December 1(174, part of the collection of autographs assembled by LadyCharnwood, is now on deposit in the Department of Manuscripts at the British Library,as loan ()0/2, foi. l.

. . . (Amsterdam, 1675).1) J. .iiul J. ;\. \ enn, . l/iiinin (^itiiiii/'iii;ienfes. Part 1

(C.amhridjic, iy22 7}, \<)l. iii, .w/A'Robinson'.10 B.E., Add. M S . 24121, fol. 197; Venn, op. cit.;

and V.C.H. Cily of ) iirk (u)6o), pp. 240, 241.11 A. N. L. Munby, 'I tie Cull i>J the Autograph Letter

iTi A'H^A/W (Eondon, 1962), pp. 15, 16, 2g.12 I'or the historiLal background see Edgar Prcs-

lage. The Diplomahc Retatmns of Pnrtugal mth ...Efighiml . . . 1(140 III i6()S (Watford, 1925),pp. 128-39.

13 Viscnnde dc Santarem, Qjiadrn ctementar, vol.xvii (1858), pp. 118 21.

14 Andrew Marvett: Pnei (^ Politician 1621-j8(Eondon, IQ78), pp. ,S7, 8H (Potter Collection,vol. \ii).

15 It was in his possession by 1844: sec the index tohis auiographs, now B.T.., Add. MS. 23107.

16 Munby, up. eit., p. 12.

1 XJti, M.S. (lO^fjlI.. Tllf scjl uscJ nil lli .which IS .1 r(iuij:hl\ circul.ir oiu' nK.isiiring sunn.15 mm. in diamclcr, incorpnratcs ihc niono-pram HS.

2 ilunlur's I'limtluic Mtii'inini Ccninini, cJ. J. W .C \ d \ ( I l a r k i a n S o c i c t ) , X \ \ \ I I I , l i S t j s ) , \ ( i l . i i ,

p p . 5 . 1 ' 43 PtH'Wi ami Lclltrs of Aiuircir A\iirvcll, cd. H- M.

.Margolioulh (Oxlord. 3rd cd.. re\. b.\ PierreLegouis and E. E. Duncan-joncs, 1971), vol. ii,PP- 343^ 344> l^*"ers T,}, and 34.

4 A<7/iT>, cd. cit.. pp. 3Q2, 393.5 .Xndrcw Browning, Thiman Oshonic (Glasgow,

1951), \ol. iii, pp. 87, 88.6 Ihid.. \ol. i, pp. 16S 71.7 Warrants issued on 22 I'"cb. 1(173 and 22 Dec.

1675: Cat. S.P. Trciisnry Books I >il- l\ , /67J-if'JS- PP 7'i ^^^^)

H '! wn spccihcs. I. The luirl of S/uiJlcst'iiry^s Speechm the House of Lords, the 20th. oj October, 16/^

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