Masaryk University Faculty of Arts
Department of English and American Studies
English Language and Literature
Tomáš Michálek
Oliver Cromwell through the poems of Andrew Marvell Bachelors Diploma Thesis
Supervisor: Stephen Paul Hardy, PhD.
2018
/ declare that I have worked on this thesis independently, using only the primary and secondary sources listed in the bibliography.
Author's signature Acknowledgement I would like to thank my supervisor Stephen Hardy for his valuable advice. Table of Contents
Introduction 1
1. Historical and Political Background (1650 - 1660) 4
2. "An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland" 10
CONTEXT 10
ANALYSIS 11
MAIN THEMES 12
ALLUSION 18
SUMMARY 19
3. "The First Anniversary of the Government under His Highness the Lord
Protector" 20
CONTEXT 20
ANALYSIS 20
MAIN THEMES 21
ALLUSION 27
SUMMARY 28
4. "A Poem upon the Death of his Late Highness the Lord Protector" 30
CONTEXT 30
ANALYSIS 30 MAIN THEMES 31
ALLUSION 37
SUMMARY 37
Conclusion 39
CROMWELL 'S PORTRA YAL 40
ALLUSIONS 42
Works Cited 45
Resume 46
Resume 47
Appendix: Full Texts of Poems 48
"An Horatian Ode Upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland" 48
"The First Anniversary of the Government under His Highness the Lord
Protector" 53
"A Poem upon the Death of his Late Highness the Lord Protector " 70 Introduction
Andrew Marvell is one of the most prominent poets and polemicists of the seventeenth century. The Oxford Dictionary of National Bibliography called Marvell's poem "An
Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland" "one of the greatest political poems in English". Marvell also wrote poems supporting royalists, such as "Tom May's Death" or "Elegy upon the Death of my Lord Francis Villiers".
Oliver Cromwell, the declared subject of the three poems this thesis focuses on, is one of the most controversial characters in British history. He rose through the military ranks in the English Civil War and became the de-facto ruler of the Commonwealth. This was later formalised when Cromwell took the title of Lord Protector.
The three poems that are the focus of this thesis are "An Horatian Ode upon
Cromwell's Return from Ireland", "The First Anniversary of the Government under His
Highness the Lord Protector" and "A Poem Upon the Death of his Late Highness the Lord
Protector". The poems deal with the dramatic period since the defeat and execution of
Charles I, the rise of Oliver Cromwell to power and Cromwell's death. Each of the poems deals with a different stage of the Protectorate. However, these are not the only poems about Cromwell Marvell wrote. Marvell also wrote two short poems in Latin to accompany Cromwell's portrait sent to the Queen of Sweden. The reason for the focus only on the three poems is their possible perception as a "trilogy" of sorts.
This concept of a "trilogy" is in part caused by the common history of the poems. They were excluded from most copies of the first posthumous collection of Marvell's poetry and were not reprinted until 1776. The fact that they were both excluded and later reprinted together strengthened the view of the poems as a sort of a "Cromwell trilogy".
As a "trilogy", there is a customary reading of the poems as an evolving reaction and relation to Cromwell.
1 The "Horatian Ode" is set after Cromwell's triumphant return from Ireland and before his Scottish campaign. The poem is generally considered the best of three. One of the reasons is its well-known ambiguity and ability to support opposing readings, such as both royalist and republican. It is also the most prominent of the three in the amount of academic attention. Its portrayal of Cromwell is generally considered to be ambivalent.
The possibility of a wide range of readings is also one of the reasons this poem is considered the most "Marvellian" of the three.
As the title suggests, Marvell composed the "First Anniversary" on the occasion of the first anniversary of the Protectorate. It was probably written to be circulated as a propaganda poem. As such, it is usually read as an expression of support for Cromwell and the protectorate, sometimes even as far as a panegyric.
One of the possible readings of "A Poem upon the Death" is clear from the subject - an elegy on the death of Cromwell. Another common reading is a combination of elegy and a personal commitment to Oliver Cromwell. However, this commitment is rather to the person of Oliver than to the Lord Protector. The contrast of the praise of Oliver and the last twenty lines dedicated to Richard lead to doubt on the degree of the poem's support for Richard.
However, not all scholars agree on the reading of the poems as a trilogy. For example,
Raymond in his chapter in The Cambridge Companion of Andrew Marvell criticizes this way of reading the poems. Others, such as Worden in his Literature and Politics in
Cromwellian England, argue for it. This thesis aims to address this contrast and disagreement on whether the poems should be read as a trilogy, or not. To do so, I will analyse the three poems with the help of works both dealing with all three poems and papers focusing on only one of them. The primary objective is to determine whether the analysis supports the traditional reading mentioned above. If not, whether there is a
2 different reading, or if the concept of a trilogy itself is merely a tempting oversimplification. The secondary objective of the thesis is to characterise Oliver
Cromwell as portrayed in each of the three poems. The characterisations will then be used to support the primary objective.
The structure of the thesis will follow that of the corpus. After a chapter dedicated to the historical and political background, there will be a chapter dedicated to each of the poems. The poems will be ordered chronologically. Each poem will be analysed as stated above. Where relevant, the analysed part will be contrasted with a previous poem or poems. The aim of the thesis is not to provide an exhaustive analysis of the poems, as that would be beyond its scope. The thesis instead focuses on key parts of the poems, their portrayal of Oliver Cromwell and the textual interaction between each other.
The poems are taken from Smith's revised and annotated edition of The Poems of
Andrew Marvell and the full text of the poems can be found in the appendix. Where relevant, Smith's headnotes and annotations are used and referenced as well.
3 1. Historical and Political Background (1650-1660)
The period of the poems is one of rapid change. The poems themselves are all situated within the time of the Commonwealth, after the regicide of 1649 and before the succession of Richard Cromwell in January 1659. But to understand the time, the events that led to the regicide should be discussed as well, if only briefly. The events following
Richard's succession need to be mentioned too, to accompany the publishing history of the three poems.
As Worden writes in his English Civil Wars, the "political upheaval of the mid- seventeenth century has no parallel in English history"(77ze English Civil Wars: 1640-
1660 Origins). While there were conflicts before, there were none such as this. But before moving on, a few words about terminology should be said to make things clearer. Various terms were used to describe the period, which can also serve as an illustration of its impact. After the restoration, "rebellion" was one of the used terms. And while
"rebellion" is not used now, "The Interregnum" is one that is used to this day. As Worden notes, this term aims to represent the subject as a mere interruption of the norm - the monarchy (The English Civil Wars: 1640-1660 Origins). But as in the Victorian era the public sympathies shifted, the terminology had to change to reflect the shift. The negative
"Interregnum" turned into the more positive "The Puritan Revolution", to be later changed to "the English Revolution". Probably the most neutral term, and the one mostly used in this thesis, is "the English civil wars". Even that is however not without problems, as "the British civil wars" is suggested as well, to avoid the Anglocentricity of the study of British history(77ze English Civil Wars: 1640-1660 Origins). Both English or British civil war also has one other problem. It stresses the conflicts at the beginning of the period and seem to disregard the Republic and the Protectorate. As two of the three poems were
4 written under the Protectorate, this term - "the Protectorate" will be used as well to refer both to the regime under Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell and under his son Richard.
Another set of terms that has to be clarified is "republic," "Protectorate" and
"Commonwealth." The official term used both in the 1649 Act Declaring and
Constituting the People of England to be a Commonwealth and Free-State and in the
1653 Instrument of Government is the "Commonwealth." However, the unofficial term
"republic" was used more or less interchangeably with the official "Commonwealth." The
"Protectorate" then refers to the regime under the "Lord Protector," whose official name was still the "Commonwealth."
With the terminology dealt with, let us return to the significance of the English civil wars and the changes they brought. The English civil wars were unique chiefly because of three facts. First, the opposing sides were not led by two individuals fighting to become kings, but a king and a parliament. This caused another unique change. The result of the wars was not a change of the person of the king, but the change from monarchy to republic. The importance of this change can be illustrated by the fact that, as Worden writes, even after Charles' defeat, most parliamentarians initially wanted to restore the monarchy and the king (The English Civil Wars: 1640-1660 Regicide). Even after Oliver
Cromwell's rise to power many expected, and feared, that he will usurp the throne and become the king. Cromwell's refusal of the crown and his insistence on being a "humble servant" confused many. And third, the rise of Oliver Cromwell was connected to the creation of not one, but two written constitutions. England had no written constitution before and the power of the monarchy largely depended on the cooperation of its subjects.
Thus the introduction of the first and second written constitution marked an important change. This uniqueness could be said to be reflected in the three Marvell's poems and more broadly in the literary landscape of the period.
5 From the literary perspective, the English civil wars, the following republic,
Protectorate and after it the Restoration are intriguing because of the fast and significant changes. The change of regime first from monarchy to what was constitutionally a republic and then back to monarchy tested one's loyalty. In the wartime, there was a literary war of sorts as well. As "Marchamont Nedham, observed afterwards that 'in our late wars ... the pen militant hath had as sharp encounters as the sword, and borne away as many trophies'" (Worden, The English Civil Wars: 1640-1660 Regicide). There were both newsbooks, for one of which Nedham was the editor, and collections of poetry being written in favour of both sides. Once the Protectorate was established, the new regime desperately needed support and legitimacy. Literature could help in such an effort, as it had a vital role in informing the public. Some writers, such as Nedham - "the serial turncoat of the Puritan Revolution" (Worden, Lit. Polit. Cromwellian Engl. 14), wrote for the regime of the time, be it monarchy and the king or republic and parliament. Others, such as John Milton, stayed true to their own beliefs and did not change sides. It is also worth noting that writers sometimes more or less collaborated, even when their works supported opposite sides. As Worden writes about the editors of two newsbooks, one royalist and one supporting the parliament: "its editors evidently colluded - in what must have been entertaining conversations - to present diametrically opposing viewpoints"
{Lit. Polit. Cromwellian Engl. 60). The editors mentioned are Nedham, at the time writing for the royalists, and John Hall. One possible interpretation of this fact is that some writers of the time approached their work with a certain degree of detachment. For someone like
Nedham, this is probable, as he had no problem to write for whatever regime was in power, even though they were often antagonistic towards each other.
The author this work focuses on, Andrew Marvell, is harder to place than Nedham or
Milton. Marvell was not in England at the time of the first civil war. He returned to
6 England in 1647, but, as Worden notes, "in 1648-9, the time of the second war and of the regicide and the inauguration of the republic, he wrote three royalist poems" (Lit. Polit.
Cromwellian Engl. 58).Thus it might seem that he was a royalist. Yet later Marvell wrote, between 1650 and 1659, the three Cromwell poems that are the focus of this work.
Marvell was also the tutor of Cromwell's protege William Dutton for over 3 years since
July 1653 (Von Maltzahn 39) and "a secretary for the foreign tongues" since September
1657 (Von Maltzahn 47). This involvement with the Protectorate, together with the earlier royalist poems, would suggest that Marvell switched sides. This simple interpretation has, however, few flaws. It does not take into account "Tom May's Death", a royalist and anti- republican poem that Marvell wrote after his "Horatian Ode" and before his "First
Anniversary". Some may also suggest that "The Nymph Complaining for the Death of her Fawn" should be mentioned here. And while, as Smith writes, the fawn's murder can be read as referring to the regicide and the poem thus as Royalist (79), there is one problem. The dating of the poem is uncertain. It probably precedes the "Horatian Ode" and was written in 1649 (Von Maltzahn 34; Smith 79), but a reference to a later poem indicates possible revision in or after 1662 (Von Maltzahn 6).
Another problem is with the perception of the three Cromwell poems as purely pro- republican or in praise of Oliver Cromwell, as will be shown further in this thesis. This illustrates what many scholars note - that Marvell is a poet of many voices. Yet it is extremely hard, if not impossible, to discern his own voice or view within the poems.
Each of the three poems that are the focus of this thesis commemorates a different stage of the Republic and Cromwell's carrier. The "Horatian Ode" returns to the dawn of the republic - the regicide. It finds Cromwell before his ascension to the title of Lord
Protector and right at his appointment as Lord General. The Irish are defeated, but the
Scottish threat to the republican "Good Old Cause" still remains.
7 Oliver Cromwell had been Lord Protector for a full year when "The First Anniversary" was written. The Scottish thread of the "Horatian Ode" has been eliminated, but the protectorate is not what many republicans hoped to achieve after the regicide. The regime therefore lacked support and thus stability.
The event of the coaching accident in "The First Anniversary" is by many considered to be a rehearsal of what happened. Lord Protector Oliver Cromwell has died. "I saw him dead" (247), reports Marvell in the poem. The poem recounts official information about
Cromwell and his funeral but draws a distinction between the private person of Oliver
Cromwell and the Lord Protector. The ending of the poem seemingly supports Oliver's son and the new Lord Protector Richard Cromwell. But the ambiguity and possibility of different interpretations hark back to the "Horatian Ode".
After the death of Oliver Cromwell in 1658, his son Richard was named the new Lord
Protector. However, Richard's rule lasted less than a year. Shortly after Richard was removed by the army, the monarchy was restored. In 1661, the body of Oliver Cromwell was exhumed, executed and put on display in chains. His head was on display in front of
Westminster Hall till 1685. As Norbrook writes, the 1661 exhumation was not only of
Cromwell, but also of other "republicans and Cromwellians" (3). The fact that the reform group Charter 88, now Unlock Democracy, demands changes that "were voiced by the
Levellers in the 1640s" (Norbrook 5) shows that, while not military in form, the civil war in a way never ended.
The fate of Marvell's three Cromwell poems attests that Oliver Cromwell was still a highly controversial character even in the 1680s. The posthumous collection of Marvell's poems Miscellaneous Poems was published in 1681. As Raymond writes, the three poems were meant to be published in Marvel's first posthumous collection of poems in 1691.
But then their publication was cancelled. The reason for this was the fear that "their
8 inclusion would result in the censorship of the whole volume" (141). This illustrates the intensity of Cromwell's "legacy". The poems were published only almost a century later, in 1776. This common fate of the three poems also "forced the three poems into each other's company" (Raymond 141).
9 2. "An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland''
CONTEXT
Oliver Cromwell returned from his campaign in Ireland in late May 1650 and invaded
Scotland on 22nd July the same year. Marvel probably wrote the poem sometime between these two dates (Smith 80; Worden, Lit. Polit. Cromwellian Engl. 64; Von Maltzahn 34).
Both the victory in Ireland and the Scottish campaign to follow are present in the poem.
While Cromwell eliminated the Irish threat, he did so with ruthless brutality.
Cromwell's treatment of the Irish enemy "has been viewed with outrage there since the rise of Irish nationalism in the nineteenth century" (Worden, The English Civil Wars:
1640-1660 Republic). This casts a different light on the praise Marvell has the Irish say:
"How good he is, how just" (79). But, as Smith correctly notes, government propaganda stressed how some Irish welcomed Cromwell (272). Nedham's newsbook even suggested to " take notice of the noble temper of the Lord General, all whose conquests are ever sweetened with acts of mercy" (qtd. in Worden, Lit. Polit. Cromwellian Engl. 66). Thus the praise is less surprising and more in line with some of the reporting of the time.
But even with the Irish victory, as Worden writes, "the military defeat of royalism was far from certain" (Worden, Lit. Polit. Cromwellian Engl. 83). Charles moved to Scotland and "to make concessions to Presbyterians or Catholics, whatever the offence given to his Anglican following" (Worden, The English Civil Wars: 1640-1660 Republic). The parliament's decision to invade Scotland led to the resignation of lord general Fairfax and his replacement with Oliver Cromwell. Cromwell, who just returned from his Irish campaign, invaded Scotland in July 1650.
The beginning of the poem joins the patriotism of the time in calling "the forward youth" to take up arms and join the cause. This may understandably seem to confirm
Marvell's change of faith, but, as will be shown further in this chapter, Marvell manages
10 to advocate for the new regime and Cromwell, while not necessarily praising it as morally superior to the old one.
ANALYSIS
"An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland" is the first of the three
Marvell's poems this thesis focuses on. It is also the most prominent in the amount of literary attention it has received. In a way, the poem's uncertain allegiance mirrors the uncertain times it was composed in.
As Raymond demonstrates, interpretations of the Ode's view on Cromwell vary. John
Wallace claims "a conditional commitment to Cromwell, without irony or ambivalence but with a great deal of realpolitik." Annabel Patterson sees the "Horatian Ode" as
"committed to a Protestant imperial vision, rooted in classical precedent". Others find
"traces or royalism", although mostly sentimental. Yet others connect the poem with the republican literary culture. John Creaser finds, through the comparison of Marvell's prosody with Milton's, "uncertainty about the virtues of the republic and its military champion"(142). Jajtner claims that "the 'Horatian Ode" of 1650 laments the execution of the King while betraying the author's fascination with Cromwell" (9). This wide range of interpretations illustrates how the Ode eludes attempts for a "definite" interpretation.
It rather keeps its ability to provide a different interpretation for every reader.
This openness to interpretation is hinted at right in the title - "Horatian Ode". Both
Davis and Corns attempt to "decrypt" the meaning of this part of the name (Davis 32,
Corns 276). Davis shows how assigning different odes changes the interpretation of the poem. But instead of any conclusion, he dismisses the whole "Horatian issue". Corns spends much less time debating the meaning of the title. He chooses a different approach and instead of focusing on specific Odes by Horace focuses on Horace himself. Thus
Corns avoids the need to link specific Odes to specific parts or interpretations of Marvell's
11 poem. Instead, he characterises Horace as "a supporter of the Roman republic who became the poet of empire by creating a mode that could celebrate and criticize at the same time, in the service of an ideal of humane conduct" (276). This ability to "celebrate and criticize at the same time (276), is, in the context of the time, to be both royalist and republican. Worden's variant of this evaluation is probably the most succinct: "the ode, rather than taking neither side, takes both" (Lit. Polit. Cromwellian Engl. 86). But while
Worden's above quote expresses what Corns and in part Davis understood from the title,
Worden does not talk only about the title, but about the whole text. But the possibility to take Worden's description of the poem and use it to help interpret its title also shows how fitting the title is.
MAIN THEMES
The "Horatian Ode" has three main themes. There is the past, represented by the monarchy and the king. Then there is the future, represented by the Republic and
Cromwell. The third theme connects the previous two, as it is the fight between them.
The king
The most obvious part of the poem dedicated to the past are the twenty lines (50 - 70) focused on the execution of Charles. Two key aspects of the passage should be mentioned.
First is the undeniably positive description of the king. "He nothing common did or mean"
(57) "Nor called the gods with vulgar spite/To vindicate his helpless right" (61-62). The king is portrayed as calm, composed and dignified. In fact, as Smith notes in his headnote,
"the twelve lines recounting the regicide were frequently memorized in the nineteenth century as a eulogy to the martyr-king" (271).Therefore, it may be not that surprising that, in the same passage, the portrayal of the Parliamentarians is much less favourable.
Watching the execution, "the armed bands/Did clap their bloody hands" (55-56). This portrayal of clapping bloodthirsty bands directly contrasts with the calm king. Marvell
12 further calls the Parliamentarians "the forced pow'r" (66). While this could be seen as negative and doubting the legitimacy of the new "pow'r", this line may be also interpreted as part of another of the main themes - the struggle between the republic and the monarchy.
The second aspect partially contradicts the royalist outlook of the passage. Within the contemporary context, as Raymond writes, the description of the execution is rather restrained, and there is no mention of the king's son (143). Marvell's tone is closer to that of a matter of fact journalist, in which it is similar to some parts of the "Poem upon the
Death". And while the passage may, as discussed earlier, be interpreted in favour of the king, it is not royalist. A royalist poet would be sure to express the horror the execution brings, as well as mention the hope embodied in the king's son. Marvell does neither.
Oliver Cromwell
The depiction of Charles in the abovementioned passage of the poem is mostly clear.
The depiction of Oliver Cromwell, however, is much harder to interpret. Cromwell is compared to "the three-forked lightning" and "the force of angry Heaven's flame" (13,
26). As Worden writes, in this, Marvell echoes the "contemporary assumption that the civil wars had been the punishment of the nation's sins by a wrathful deity" (Lit. Polit.
Cromwellian Engl. 68). As Smith writes, this assumption also transferred to Cromwell himself: "he was widely seen as an instrument of apocalyptic justice punishing those who had displeased God" (81). But portraying Cromwell as an instrument of God's wrath is also important for another reason. It grants Cromwell standing above right and wrong, as
Marvell writes: '"Tis madness to resist or blame / the force of angry Heaven's flame"
(25-26). But being an instrument of God also indicates a lack of choice. The will
Cromwell is exercising could be seen as not his own, but that of God. The lack of choice is also hinted at in the first two lines about Cromwell: "So restless Cromwell could not
13 cease/In the inglorious arts of peace" (9-10). Uneasy, impatient Cromwell could not rest in these arts. But the lines allow more than one interpretation. It could be that Cromwell was not allowed to rest by the actions of the "forward youth" that is invoked at the beginning of the poem. But it could also be the restlessness which did not allow Cromwell to rest. Consider lines 29 to 33 about Cromwell:
Who, from his private gardens, where
He lived reserved and austere,
As if his highest plot
To plant the bergamot,
These four lines seem to continue presenting Cromwell as reluctant. But, as Worden writes, this changes when the reader learns that bergamot is, in fact, the pear of kings (Lit.
Polit. Cromwellian Engl. 89). This changes the meaning of the passage and reveals what many believed was the truth - that Cromwell's reluctance merely concealed his high ambitions. This issue of Cromwell's suspected royal ambitions is present in several other lines of the poem. He "has his sword and spoils ungirt / To lay them at the public's skirt"
(89-90). As Smith notes, in these two lines Marvell echoes a contemporary political image of Cromwell giving "the Republic" his weapons and spoils as a sign of respect
(277n90). Marvell also compares Cromwell to a falcon:
She, having killed, no more does search
But on the next green bough to perch,
Where, when he first does lure,
The falc'ner has her sure.(93-96)
Here, Cromwell is likened to the ideal falcon. Once he completes his task, he returns.
But, as in lines 29 to 33 above, this comparison is double-edged. Falcons often, as Smith writes, did not return to their lures (278n96). The comparison of Cromwell and a falcon
14 becomes even more apt when Cromwell's return from Ireland is considered. The parliament summoned Cromwell back from Ireland. Yet it took almost five months and several instructions from parliament for Cromwell to return (Worden, Lit. Polit.
Cromwellian Engl. 90). In this context, the praise Marvell has the Irish say, that Cromwell is "fit for highest trust" (80) is not a praise of a faithful servant of the Republic and parliament. It is rather a praise of a leader, possibly even a confirmation of Cromwell's ability to rule.
Consider lines 81 to 84:
Nor yet grown stiffer with command,
But still in the Republic's hand:
How fit he is to sway
That can so well obey.
Marvell admits that Cromwell is still a servant of the Republic. But at the same time, he doubts how long will it take Cromwell to change and take command himself. The second half of the above-quoted passage is, as Smith writes, a paraphrase from Plato's
Laws: "No one will ever make a commendable master without having been a servant first"(277n83-4). It supports the doubt of the first two lines. It claims that by being a servant, Cromwell will be an even better master. All these lines hint at Cromwell's suspected ambitions. As Worden writes, Cromwell's contemporaries "expected
Cromwell, whose 'ambition' was (fairly or not) generally taken for granted, to usurp"
{Lit. Polit. Cromwellian Engl. 88). As mentioned in the second chapter, the usual result of a civil war was that the leader of the victorious side became the king. And so many expected Cromwell, who became the leading figure, to confirm this.
Marvell's comparison of Cromwell to the "the three-forked lightning" and "the force of angry Heaven's flame" (13, 26) was mentioned earlier. However, consider the lines in
15 connection with these lines: "What field of all the civil wars/Where his were not the deepest scars?" (45-46). Are the scars in line 46 received by Cromwell as a form of personal sacrifice? Or are they caused by him? Taken together with the lightning and flame, Marvell depicts Cromwell as a force of destruction in these lines. Compare this to lines 33 to 36, where Cromwell:
Could by industrious valour climb
To ruin the great work of time,
And cast the kingdoms old
Into another mould.
Cromwell is still portrayed as a force of destruction on line 34, but the next two lines transform the meaning. Cromwell is now no longer solely a force of destruction, but also one of change, or creation.
In summary, the Cromwell of Marvell's "Horatian Ode" echoes some of the contemporary views. Marvell echoes the assumption that the Civil Wars were God's punishment. He also deals with the suspicions about Cromwell's ambition of being the king. The way Marvell deals with this is in line with the ambiguity of the poem as a whole.
He openly portrays Cromwell as reluctant or as a servant of parliament. But, at the same time, Marvell's choice of words allows the opposite interpretation. As Smith writes "in
Marvell's verse Cromwell might be read as threatening to overawe the Parliament despite his apparent obedience to it" (82).
Monarchy and Republic
Should the "Horatian Ode" be interpreted, as a "case study in power" (Raymond 144), the question would be - whose power? Cromwell and his possible royal ambitions? Or the power shift from monarchy to the republic? As the character of Cromwell has been
16 the focus of the previous part of this thesis, let us now focus on the latter - the conflict between republic and monarchy.
Here, the poem's ambiguity mostly shifts. As the already mentioned lines 25 and 26 claim, '"Tis madness to resist or blame/the force of angry Heaven's flame". The poem sidesteps the issue of right and wrong by claiming that there is no choice. After all:
Though Justice against fate complain,
And plead the ancient rights in vain;
But those do hold or break
As men are strong or weak. (37-40)
Marvell claims that justice is powerless against fate. The right of conquest is the only one that matters. As Nedham declared: "the power of the sword is, and ever hath been, the foundation of all titles to government" (qtd. in Worden, Lit. Polit. Cromwellian Engl.
69). Both Nedham and Marvell refer to the ancient right of conquest - that the victorious power has the right to rule. Marvell also invokes nature to further his argument:
Nature that hateth emptiness,
Allows of penetration less:
And therefore must make room
Where greater spirits come. (41-44)
The argument there seems to be twofold. One interpretation of the first line could be to argue for the rise of Cromwell as required by natural laws. Charles' execution created a power vacuum, which had to be filled by someone - that someone being Oliver
Cromwell. But at the same time, the other three lines seemingly attempt to justify the removal, if not the execution, of Charles by the rise of a "greater spirit".
17 ALLUSION
The allusion to Horace is right in the title of Marvell's poem. But, apart from the approach to the subject, as discussed earlier in this thesis, Marvell imitates Horace in other aspects.
Marvell uses alternating couplets of iambic tetrameter and trimeter. Sir Richard Fanshawe used the same metre for his translations of Horace and, as Smith states in his headnote, it is possible that they influenced Marvell (267). The alternating couplets can also be seen as two distinct voices (270). This duality may be best seen in lines such as 53 to 56, where the subject shifts. Consider also lines 33 to 36:
Could by industrious valour climb
To ruin the great work of time,
And cast the kingdoms old,
Into another mould.
Not only does the shift from destruction in the second line to the creation of something new in the second half of the passage illustrate the duality of voices. The "industrious valour" also refers to terms from Machiavelli's The Prince - "industria" and "virtu".
Raymond also claims that lines 43 and 44 "And therefore must make room/where greater spirits come" reveal what he calls "a Machiavellian amorality" (143) on the side of the narrator. However, Smith argues that the syntax of line 43 merely implicates that "rational demonstration is offered" (275n41-4). This would be in line with the natural law. But, as has been shown earlier in this thesis, the lines of the "Horatian Ode" often hide more than one meaning. The interpretations do not rule each other out, but rather allow more than one reading of the passage. Furthermore, the notion of the "Horatian Ode" as a
Machiavellian poem and Cromwell's portrayal as the Novus Princeps is one presented by many scholars. Smith, to name just one, in his biography calls the "Horatian Ode" "the first truly Machiavellian poem in the [English] language" (83). Worden reminds us that
18 this interpretation is not new and points to an essay from 1960. He also adds valuable contemporary context, as he notes that Cromwell's rise was seen as a "Machiavellian achievement" by Cromwell's enemies. Worden also observes that Nedham uses
Machiavelli's The Prince to illustrate Cromwell as "the principal threat" first to the royalists and later to the Republic (Lit. Polit. Cromwellian Engl. 91-92). This shows that
Machiavelli's Prince was well known and used by at least some of Marvell's contemporaries, and thus, it is likely that Marvell knew the work as well and possibly used it in the creation of the "Horatian Ode".
SUMMARY
Marvell's "An Horatian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland" is mostly known for two reasons. One is its quality as a political poem - it is, as Smith writes, "considered by many to be the greatest political poem in the English language"(80). It is also well-known for its ambiguity and possibility to support opposite sides. As Worden writes, "Marvell, in the ode, occupies the two [sides] at once" (Lit. Polit. Cromwellian Engl. 100).Cromwell is presented as swift in action, decisive and promising to spread the revolution to other countries. He is also presented as a reserved and humble servant of parliament and the
Republic. But, at the same time and often in the same lines, the poem hints at Cromwell's ambitions and desire for the crown. The poem argues for support of the Republic and
Cromwell. It does so by presenting the new regime as stronger than the weak monarchy before it. Yet instead of claiming any sort of moral superiority, it rather invokes pragmatism and the promise of victories under Cromwell.
19 3. "The First Anniversary of the Government under His Highness the Lord Protector"
CONTEXT
The Protectorate was established on 16th December 1653. Marvell wrote the "First
Anniversary" between late December 1654 and early January 1655 (Smith 125). The poem was published anonymously on 17th January 1655 (Von Maltzahn 42). The time of the poem's publication was one of instability. As Worden writes, the Instrument of
Government "had been a hastily improvised solution," Worden also lists a few aspects that Cromwell could use to gain support for his regime, such as "the fear of anarchy"(Lit.
Polit. Cromwellian Engl. 141). All of them are essentially negative and set the
Protectorate against something, rather than for something. As a proof of the aforementioned instability can serve the fact that just five days after the "First
Anniversary" was published, Cromwell dissolved the Parliament yet again.
The two coups in 1648 and 1653 did not help the public perception of the Protectorate either. They clearly showed the shift of power from the parliament to Cromwell and the army. Thus it is not surprising that there were, as Smith notes, attempts on Cromwell's life not only by royalists but by republicans as well (126).
ANALYSIS
Scholars have always been intrigued by the complexity and ambiguity of the "Horatian
Ode", so it has been the focus of many academic works. On the other hand, the "First
Anniversary" has not been so popular. While Jajtner lists three different points of view and seems to claim that the poem has enjoyed considerable attention (10), his claim is not echoed by other scholars. Smith in his headnote specifically notes that "the poem attracted hardly any attention until the twentieth century" and that the 20th-century attention was mostly paid to the poem's "context and formal structure" instead of "offering any critical
20 evaluation" (286-287). Worden correctly claims that as Marvell was already the tutor of
Cromwell's protege and wrote two poems on Cromwell's behalf, he is "unlikely to have published 'The First Anniversary' without, at the least, covert approval in Whitehall" (Lit.
Polit. Cromwellian Engl. 140-141).
As with the "Horatian Ode", the title of the "First Anniversary" deserves some attention. As Jajtner notes, the title "suggests a breakup with the practice of the early
Commonwealth to number the years of its existence from the regicide in 1649" (10). Not only does the title break the tradition of the era of Parliament, but it also replaces it with that of the Protectorate. As Worden notes "Cromwell did not want to have the regicide remembered, or the abolition of the monarchy that had followed it"(LzY. Polit.
Cromwellian Engl. 142). And the title does exactly that. It replaces the regicide and sets it to a past era. It signifies the power switch from the Parliament to Lord Protector, and the desire to leave the regicide, and possibly also the dissolution of the Rump Parliament in 1653, behind and focus on the present.
MAIN THEMES
The main contrast, or conflict, in the "Horatian Ode" was between the old monarchy and its king and the new Republic and its Oliver Cromwell. This is, in a way, one of the main themes of "The First Anniversary" as well. But where the struggle of the "Horatian Ode" was within the British Isles and the monarch was specific, Charles, "The First
Anniversary" looks to continental Europe and none of its monarchs are named.
The opposition to the Protectorate from within it is also one of the themes of the poem.
It is noteworthy because it contains the only passage in which Marvell calls out the names of the antagonists. Another important theme, or a passage, is the recounting of
Cromwell's coaching incident - Cromwell's coach overturned while he was driving it on
29 September 1654. This passage is important mostly because it could be called a
21 rehearsal for the third major poem Marvell wrote about Oliver Cromwell - the "Poem upon the Death of his Late Highness the Lord Protector".
Oliver Cromwell as a no-king
Lines 15 to 44 of the poem could be read as a savage attack against monarchs. The
"heavy monarchs" (15) are slow, only able to gain renown "by proxy" (24), oppress their subjects when they win a war, as well as when they lose. The monarchs "nor more contribute to the state of Things/Then wooden Heads unto the Viols strings" (43-44).
They are "image-like" (41), passive. In contrast, "Cromwell alone with greater vigour runs" (7) and '"Tis he the force of scattered Time contracts/And in one year the work of ages acts" (13-14). Cromwell's vigour, decisiveness and speed are in direct contrast to the kings in the poem.
„For to be Cromwell was a greater thing/Than ought below, or yet above a king," writes Marvell in the poem (225-26). Cromwell is beyond kingship. Or as Norbrook puts it "Cromwell is great enough not to become king" (347). His status cannot be compared to that of a king, as it is neither a lower nor a higher status. Yet, Marvell also calls
Cromwell "sun-like" (8) - a simile, as Norbrook notes, traditionally used to describe kings (342). This conflict of Cromwell as a no-king, but portrayed using royal imagery is also a potential source of the confusion discussed in the following part dealing with the monarch's praise of Cromwell.
In the "Horatian Ode" the defeated Irish praise Cromwell. In the "First Anniversary", this role of a rival reluctantly praising Cromwell is given to an unnamed monarch. The king wonders how a nation "spent with both wars, under a captain dead?" could "rig a navy while we dress us late'" (350 - 51). He admits being afraid of Cromwell and praises him. But at the same time seems confused by Cromwell's no-kingship:
22 He seems a King by long Succession born,
And yet the same to be a King does scorn.
Abroad a King he seems, and something more,
At Home a Subject on the equal Floor.
O could I once him with our Title see,
So should I hope yet he might die as we. (387-92)
These lines, and more generally the full monologue of the king, can have at least three different interpretations. Jajtner reads this passage as the fear of monarchs that the "days of the 'traditional' kings and the concept of kingship they seem to represent are effectively over" (12). The monarchs cannot understand Cromwell and take his success as a sign that their "era" is ending. Norbrook, on the other hand, stresses the king's bafflement.
Cromwell and the Commonwealth do not fit into the established categories, and this makes the kings worried (349). The confusion that Norbrook notices may have been caused by two facts. As Raymond notes, the Instrument of Government significantly limited the Lord Protector, but left him unlimited authority in international relations and dealing with foreign rulers (146). In other words, while Cromwell's powers were limited in internal affairs, he enjoyed nearly king-like authority in foreign affairs. The second possible cause of the confusion was, as Smith notes, Cromwell's different appearance at home and to foreign ambassadors. Cromwell "scrupulously avoided regal trapping at home and stressed the legislative power of the Protectorate Parliament". But Cromwell also "did appear as a prince, if not a monarch to foreign ambassadors" (297n389-92). This duality of both powers and appearance could easily cause confusion and uncertainty about
Cromwell's status.
23 Internal opposition
The monarchs discussed above represented external rivals and possible threats. But there was opposition within the Protectorate as well. In lines 294 to 320 Marvell criticises various religious groups or sects. Fifth Monarchists1 are most prominent, with two of their leaders being the only two that, in the words of Worden, "the poem unexpectedly stoops to name" {Lit. Polit. Cromwellian Engl. 150). Other groups, such as the Quakers or the
Ranters, are mentioned indirectly. This passage could remind of the passage at the beginning of the poem criticising monarchs. Both could be described as a concentrated attack at a single subject - a monarchy in one case and religious sects in the other.
Cromwell's regime also faced opposition from within its own parliament. As Marvell writes:
When Cromwell tuned the ruling Instrument;
While tedious statesmen many years did hack,
Framing a liberty that still went back;
Whose num'rous gorge could swallow in an hour,
That island, which the sea cannot devour: (68 - 72)
This rivalry between the "tedious statesmen" and Cromwell is a significant change from the "Horatian Ode" and Cromwell image as a servant of the Republic and its parliament. In the "Horatian Ode", Cromwell and the parliament are on the same side, so to speak. But here, the "tedious statesmen" are trying to thwart Cromwell's work and, as
Smith puts it, "reform government in accordance with what was understood to be the ancient constitution" (289n70). Their effort is depicted as so dangerous as to threaten to destroy the whole of Britain. This negative view of the parliament was probably also in agreement with Marvell's own views. As Worden writes, "he had little faith in
1 The Fifth Monarchists were a Puritan sect which believed that the second coming of Christ was near.
24 parliaments, where, to his eyes, only a minority contended for truth and liberty. The majority was unfriendly not only to civil but to religious freedom" (Lit. Polit.
Cromwellian Engl. 149).
The message of lines 77 to 86 is more general than the two passages discussed above
- "All other matter yields, and may be ruled" but the "minds of stubborn men" (77 - 78).
It is next to impossible to change such minds. But this opposition is, in fact, beneficial to the Commonwealth:
The crassest spirits here do take their part,
Fast'ning the contignation which they thwart;
And they, whose nature leads them to divide,
Uphold, this one, and that the other side;
But the most equal still sustain the eight,
And they as pillars keep the work upright;
While the resistance of opposed minds,
The fabric as with arches stronger binds,
Which on the basis of a senate free,
Knit by the roofs protecting weight agree.
(89-98)
Those that try to destroy the Commonwealth are in fact helping it survive. Reading this passage, as Smith does, as an "imagery of Parliament as a building"(127) allows for more detailed interpretation. Those "crossest spirits" and "opposed minds", together with the "minds of stubborn men" could all refer to the "tedious statesmen". Norbrook calls
Cromwell's position here "more vague", but he also argues that the syntax hints that "the
Senate's conclusions are reached only after strong pressure from above" (346). As this
25 pressure would likely be from Cromwell, this would imply that "the roof refers to
Cromwell, although not directly.
Oliver Cromwell as a creator
"Indefatigable Cromwell" (45) is portrayed as Amphion, the legendary founder of the city of Thebes. Like Amphion, Cromwell founds a new "city" - the Protectorate. Together with the title of the poem, this stresses the image of Cromwell as the founder of a new era. As Jajtner notes, Cromwell's "power to organise the chaos and ruin of the country after years of the Civil War" is repeatedly emphasized (15). In the first part of his monologue, the monarch cannot believe that a nation "spent with both wars" (350) somehow managed to "rig a navy while we dress us late" (351).Cromwell's power to rebuild what should be a devastated nation is represented as mythical and unbelievable.
The monologue also contains one more important characteristic of Cromwell - his uniqueness. Cromwell's "one soul/moves the great bulk, and animates the whole" (379 -
80). This aspect is most evident in the passage describing Cromwell's coach incident. As
Jajtner writes, the "whole of Creation thus seems to respond to the incident" (15).
Cromwell's death "at once assayed to overturn us all" (176), and his survival "does with himself all that is good revive" (324). But the beginning of the passage returns to the issue of liberty: "Our brutish fury struggling to be free,/Hurried thy horses while they hurried thee" (177 - 78). Marvell returns to the issue of freedom versus tyranny further in the poem:
'Tis not a freedom, that where all command;
Nor a tyranny, where one does them withstand;
But who of both the bounders knows to lay,
Him as their father must the state obey. (279 - 282)
26 The idea of Marvell's "sober liberty" (289) is, as Jajtner explains, that of "liberty of conscience which balances the power of the state with respect for individual will" (14).
Marvell's own experience, as Worden notes, "first of the Long Parliament, then of the
Cavalier Parliament, taught him ... that there was less hope of religious freedom from parliaments than from a single ruler" (Lit. Polit. Cromwellian Engl. 151). Thus the argument for Cromwell as a ruler most able to secure "sober liberty" and order, which in a way repeats that from the "Horatian Ode", might be one from Marvell himself. As
Marvell himself puts it in the "First Anniversary" - "If these the time, then this must be the man." (144)
ALLUSION
In the "First Anniversary", unlike in the ode, Marvell makes much use of the Bible.
One such use, that also differentiates Marvel from his contemporaries Hall and Nedham, is within his attack on the Fifth Monarchists. As Norbrook notes, while Hall and Nedham also criticised the sect, they did so from a "mainly secular point of view". Marvell, on the other hand, assumed the role of a "godly prophet and thus as one able to distinguish between false and true prophecy" (348). Marvell calls the Fifth Monarchists the
"Chammish issue" (293) and mocks them by implying that they would gladly take the prophet Muhammad, spelt as Mahomet, as their own, if only he would remove his turban.
The comparison of Cromwell to the biblical Gideon who refused the crown of Israel in lines 249 - 53 is also notable. Apart from the comparison itself, the fact, as Smith notes, that this imagery was used by the Fifth Monarchists(294n245-56), illustrates Marvell's ability to take a passage and turn it against its former author.
Another allusion that was already mentioned earlier, but it worth focusing at is that of the legendary founder of Thebes, Amphion.As Smith notes in the headnote to the poem,
Marvell borrowed this comparison from one of Waller's poems - "Upon his Majesty's
27 Repairing of Paul's". But while Waller compares Charles I with Amphion, Marvell, yet again, transforms "an image hitherto associated with royalty and attaches it to the princely
Protector" (284). Another contrast between the "First Anniversary" and Waller's poem is that of active Cromwell and passive Charles. Marvell's version of Amphion differs from the ancient original as well. As Jajtner notes:
Marvell's "tuning of England" shows a striking perversion of the old Pythagorean
notion of musical/harmonious universe. Amphion's extraordinary charisma is
replaced with an act of power. The fitting proportion of the two conflicting parties
is tuned with a political act of issuing the "Instrument of Government" (December
1653), music is thus "established" politically (17)
As Marvell's use of the biblical Gideon, both the change from Waller and the ancient myth illustrate Marvell's practice of using the imagery of others and adapting it for his own purposes, often in direct opposition to the original.
SUMMARY
The Cromwell the "First Anniversary" is trying to present is, in accordance with contemporary propaganda, a prince abroad and a citizen at home. Marvell stresses that
Cromwell is not a king both directly, as in the monarchs' praise, and indirectly, such as by invoking the biblical Gideon. The "First Anniversary" is not as ambiguous as the
"Horatian Ode", yet its interpretation still differs depending on a specific scholar. Worden calls the "First Anniversary" "a panegyric"(LjY. Polit. Cromwellian Engl. 151). However, it is exactly this reading that Raymond labels as tempting but incorrect, although he admits the poem "was always vulnerable to being read as one because of the very difficult line that Marvell negotiates between the written constitution and the military leader"
(145). Worden's classification is echoed by Smith, who calls the "First Anniversary"
Marvell's "greatest panegyric of Cromwell" (125). But Smith also notes in his headnote
28 to the poem that other scholars, namely Wallace and Patterson, consider it an example of rhetoric (286). This difficulty to label or categorise is something all three poems have in common. This characteristic could be also presented as a proof of the earlier mentioned idea of Marvell as a poet of many voices, and thus many genres.
29 4. "A Poem upon the Death of his Late Highness the Lord
Protector"
CONTEXT
Oliver Cromwell died on 3rd September 1658. Marvell's poem was registered for publication as a part of a memorial volume on 20th January 1659 but was replaced before publication (Von Maltzahn 53). Marvell thus had to write it sometime between these two dates.
As one of the Latin Secretaries to the Council of State, Marvell took part in the funeral procession on 23rd November. As Raymond writes, "the plan for the event shows him walking with the other secretaries for foreign tongues" (148). The constitution of 1657, the "Humble Petition and Advice", among other things gave the Protector the right to nominate his heir. And while Cromwell still refused the crown, the Humble Petition and
Advice also moved the regime even closer to the traditional monarchy. As Raymond writes, poetry followed this change and "tended to portray Cromwell as a king" (148).
His extravagant public funeral contributed to the image of Cromwell as a king. His effigy was "dressed regally in purple and ermine, crowned and with a golden sceptre" and the funeral cost £60,000(Smith 149)-more than £8.5 million in current value.
ANALYSIS
Much like the "First Anniversary", Marvell's "Poem upon the Death" has been, as Smith puts it, "unjustly overlooked through the centuries" (149). Marshall agrees with Smith and argues that "this abandonment is too hasty" (499). Marshall further argues that this dismissiveness then largely depends on reading the poem's ending as "a valiant but unconvincing attempt to celebrate the second head of a new ruling family". Rest of the poem is then used primarily to support this reading (500).This illustrates the importance
30 of the ending of the poem for the interpretation of the poem as a whole and the differing readings among critics.
In both the "Horatian Ode" and the "First Anniversary" the title itself is worth focusing at. The "Poem upon the Death" is no exception. But while both the titles of the other two poems signified an aspect of the respective poem, ambiguity in the case of the "Horatian
Ode" and the power shift from the parliament to Lord Protector in the "First Anniversary", this poem differs. To quote Marshall: "Cromwell did not call himself a king, and Marvell does not call 'A Poem upon the Death of his Late Highness' an elegy" (501). Marvell's use of "A Poem upon the Death" instead of simply "Elegy" could be interpreted as hinting at the fact that Marvell's poem is not what could be called a traditional elegy. Like
Cromwell's no-kingship, Marvell's poem is what could be called a no-elegy. The poem's subject is that of an elegy - the death of "His Late Highness the Lord Protector". Thus,
Marvell's poem is an elegy in the general, or wider, sense of the word. However, as
Marshall writes, "Marvell does not slavishly conform to elegiac convention" (501).He generally eschews the "conventional stuff of martial courage and spiritual rectitude" as his main theme, and instead employs "the highly unconventional topos of domestic affection" (Augustine 61). Oliver Cromwell, the Lord Protector is a theme of the poem.
But it is Oliver Cromwell the private person and loving father, who is Marvell's main theme and focus in the poem. The fact that the only known partial copy of this poem from the 1681 edition of Miscellaneous Poems has the title "A Poem upon the Death of O. C." helps illustrate the focus of the poem.
MAIN THEMES
In the "Horatian Ode", one of the key themes was the conflict between Cromwell and
Charles. In the "First Anniversary" this conflict, or contrast, moved from Charles to
31 European monarchs in general. The "Poem upon Death" lacks such an explicit conflict.
There is, however, the contrast, as partially discussed in the analysis, of Cromwell as the
Lord Protector and Cromwell as a private citizen and loving father. The ending turns to
Oliver's son Richard and thus allows for contrasting Oliver with his son as well.
His Late Highness the Lord Protector
While, as mentioned above, Marvell focuses on Cromwell's private life, Oliver
Cromwell as the Lord Protector is present as well. The poem mentions Cromwell's military victories on several occasions. The two most notable are those at Dunbar at 1650 and Worcester at 1651. These two victories were significant because their anniversary was on the day of Cromwell's death - 3rd September. This coincidence is in the poem presented as divine providence:
The stars that for him fought had only power,
Left to determine now his fatal hour,
Which, since they might not hinder, yet they cast
To choose it worthy of his glories past. (137 - 140)
The heaven is powerless to prevent the death of "the force of angry Heaven's flame" of the "Horatian Ode". It can only choose the day of his death. And as the poem asks,
"What day should him eternize but the same/That had before immortalized his name?"
(147 - 48). The significance of the day then limits both the joy of his opponents, as well as the grief of his supporters (149-152).
The poem also mentions other Cromwell's military achievements than Dunbar and
Worcester. As Norbrook writes, the "poem's central section does chronicle Cromwell's military achievements, linking him with English monarchical tradition in comparisons with Arthur and Edward the Confessor"(338).But even though Cromwell is "in a valour lessening Arthur's deeds" and he "for holiness the Confessor exceeds" (177 - 78), he is
32 not called a king within these comparisons. Line 169 of the poem, however, refers to
Cromwell directly as "Your Monarch". This is a significant change from the civil servant of the "Horatian Ode" and the concept of no-king discussed in the "First
Anniversary". However, as mentioned earlier, this change follows the general tendency of the poetry of the time.
Oliver Cromwell
The main vehicle of presenting and exploring Oliver Cromwell the private citizen within the poem is through his relationship with his second daughter Elizabeth. As Smith writes, "Cromwell's affection for his second daughter, Elizabeth Claypole, his distress at her death on 6 August 1658, and its connection with his own deterioration, were also public knowledge". Thus, this was nothing new for the contemporary reader. Yet the degree to which the poem deals with the relationship separated it from other, more traditional, elegies, as discussed above.
Another notable aspect of the portrayal of Cromwell's fond relationship with his second daughter is how personal the lines of the poem seem to be. Augustine notes that the lines recounting Elisabeth's disease make "a strong impression of Marvell's bearing witness" (62).
A personal presence is also invoked in what is possibly the most striking part of the whole poem, "I saw him dead" (247), recounts Marvell bluntly. Marshall, Augustine and
Raymond all discuss the line and the description of Cromwell's corpse which follows it.
All three agree that the line is powerful and "personalizes both the subject of the elegy and its author" (Augustine 62). As Marshall writes, "what the public viewed in the 23
November funeral procession was an effigy" (507). This fact is important because the description in the poem is definitely not that of an effigy. Marvell's description of the body places him "in intimate proximity to the body" (Augustine 62) and thus strengthens
33 the personal aspect of the elegy. The poem's claim that Marvell was one of the few who saw the dead body of the Protector also hints at a personal connection between Cromwell and Marvell.
One theme repeated through the poem is the portrayal of Cromwell's strength and battle prowess not so much as positive, but rather as an obstacle. One such passage concerns Cromwell and his daughter Elizabeth:
Her when an infant, taken with her charms,
He oft would flourish in his mighty arms,
And, lest their force the tender burden wrong,
Slacken the vigour of his muscles strong; (31 - 34)
Cromwell must control his might, as it threatens to harm his loved daughter. Line 34 then, as Augustine puts it, augments "Marvell's brilliantly counterintuitive portrait of
Cromwell as man of feeling" (62). Other lines of the poem voice the same sentiment.
Lines 11 to 14 could be interpreted as a reversal of lines 37 to 40 from the "Horatian
Ode":
Nor Fate indeed can well refuse the right,
To those that lived in war, to die in fight.
But long his valour not had left that could,
Indanger him, or clemency that would.
It is Cromwell's "ancient right" to die in a fight. But even though Fate cannot refuse it, Cromwell is too strong for the right to hold, and thus it breaks. In the "Horatian Ode", the "ancient rights" depended on the strength or weakness of the men defending them.
Here, it is the strength of one man, Cromwell. But it is not his weakness that breaks the right. On the contrary, his strength proves to be too great for the right to withstand. As the Marvell writes further in the "Poem upon the Death":
34 Hence, though in battle none so brave or fierce,
Yet him the adverse steel could never pierce.
Pity it seemed to hurt him more that felt
Each wound himself which he to others dealt; (195 - 98)
Cromwell could not be killed, or even harmed, in battle. Yet, due to his compassion, the wounds he dealt hurt him as if he received them himself. And his "wondrous softness of his heart" (20) made him vulnerable to other types of harm than physical. Thus it was that "to Love and Grief the fatal writ was signed;" as to them "his breast still open lies"
(21,25).
Richard Cromwell
As discussed in the analysis, the interpretation of the ending of the poem is essential for interpreting the poem as a whole. Marshall argues that the passage is "qualified rather than conclusive" and "a continuation of a typically Marvellian assertion of power as conditional" (501). At the same time, Marshall admits that many critics read the ending as a failed but genuine effort to support Richard (499). The following lines will address this difference in interpretations.
I argue that the ending of the poem partially returns to the style of the "Horatian Ode".
As the "Horatian Ode", the ending of the "Poem upon the Death" argues for support of its subject. But, as in the "Horatian Ode", the support it offers is not unconditional. The fate of Richard and the Protectorate was uncertain, and this uncertainty is reflected in the ending of the poem.
As Norbrook writes, Richard becomes ruler only because he "inherits his father's qualities, not because of his own achievements" (388). The first two lines of the ending confirm that Richard rules because of his father: "And Richard yet, where his great parent led,/Beats on the rugged track" (305 - 6). But Oliver's legacy is not enough. As Marshall
35 writes, "though Oliver had begun to beat a 'track,' Richard must 'yet' labour" (516). In other words, Richard can use his father's legacy, but he "yet" has to work to continue his father's work on his own.
As it was his father's name that got Richard to rule, "Marvell's insistent counterpointing of Richard's mildness to Oliver's potency" (Augustine 63) may seem strange. Even more so when considered with the portrayal of Richard's father. One of
Cromwell's virtues Marvell admires thorough all the three analysed poems is his ability to act swiftly and decisively. As in the "First Anniversary" '"Tis he the force of shattered
Time contracts,/And in one year the work of ages acts" (13-14). In this context, Richard's
"milder beams" and "calm peace" cannot be readily interpreted as a true praise. Such interpretation would be, as Marshall argues, "incongruous with the rest of the elegy" (518) and, as demonstrated above, with the other two analysed poems. This "crosscurrent"
(Augustine 63) supports the argument of the poem's ending reflecting the uncertainty of the time instead of being a "valiant but unconvincing attempt to celebrate the second head of a new ruling family" (500), to use one of the interpretations Marshall argues against.
Marvell also tackles the question of Richard's capability directly in lines 311 and 12.
"But opened once, what splendour does he throw ?/A Cromwell in an hour a prince will grow". Line 312 seems to claim that while Richard may not be perfect at the moment, he will soon rise to the occasion. But, as Marshall discusses, both lines can refer not only to
Richard but also to Charles II, the son of the executed Charles 1(516). Marshall assigns this ambiguity in part to Marvell's attempt to "protect himself politically" (517). This would be understandable given Marvell's position as an MP and the uncertainty of the time. But other reason can be found as well.
In the "Horatian Ode" the "ancient rights" depend on the strength of the men protecting them and nature "must make room/where greater spirits come" (37 - 44). In the same
36 way, as Marshall puts it, lines 311 and 312 of the "Poem upon the Death" could be read as arguing that "the rule of any man (any son of any father) should be conditional upon personal merit"(518). Richard was given a chance, but he must prove himself worthy of it, Cromwell or not. And should Richard fail, Charles II should be given a chance as well.
ALLUSION
The "Horatian Ode" is referenced through the whole poem, and some of the references were already discussed earlier in this chapter. The coach incident in the "First
Anniversary", however, has its own mirror within the "Poem upon the Death". The fact that Cromwell's coach incident in the "First Anniversary" can be read as a rehearsal for the "Poem upon the Death" has been mentioned earlier. The part that most corresponds is between lineslOl and 134. As the passage in the "First Anniversary", the basis of this passage is a real event. The "great thunder" of the "Poem upon the Death" and the following storm most likely refers to the storm of 2nd September, the day before
Cromwell's death. Nature's reaction to Cromwell's death is similar in both poems - chaos and destruction. As Smith notes in his headnote, "the horses involved in the overturning of Cromwell's carriage" in the "First Anniversary" become willing sacrifices (303) as they "offer themselves in many a hecatomb" (124).
SUMMARY
Marvell's "A Poem upon the Death of His Late Highness the Lord Protector" is an elegy.
Yet Marvell defies the conventions of an elegy. Instead of focusing on an idealised image of Cromwell and his military achievements, he focuses on Oliver's private life and his well-known affection to his family, prominently his daughter Elizabeth. Thus, Oliver
Cromwell of the poem is one who, while being a successful military commander, is first and foremost a compassionate and loving father.
37 The turn to Oliver's son Richard at the end of the poem could be said to be a source of disagreement among literary critics. Some interpret the ending as a genuine, but failed, attempt to muster public support for Richard. Others, such as Marshall, however, refuse such a simple reading and claim that while the ending does support Richard, it does not do so unconditionally. In this way, the ending of the poem returns to the "Horatian Ode".
The ambiguity of the middle part of the ending could be interpreted as relating to either
Richard or Charles II, thus stressing the aforementioned concept of power as conditional and based on personal merit.
38 Conclusion
The aim of this thesis has been to address the disagreement on whether the idea of
Marvell's so called "Cromwellian Trilogy" withstands scrutiny, or not. To do so, the three poems the proposed trilogy consists of were analysed in turn. The analysis focused on the portrayal of Oliver Cromwell, as he is the declared subject of all three poems. Further attention was paid to the similarities and the differences between the three poems.
But first, the definition of "trilogy" should be at least briefly discussed. The fourth edition of the Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms defines trilogy as "a group of three connected plays or novels." J. A. Cuddon in the fifth edition of his A Dictionary of
Literary Terms and Literary Theory writes about trilogy that: "The term may also be applied to a group of three novels linked by a common theme and characters." Merriam-
Webster adds that the works within a trilogy "are closely related and develop a single theme." The entry in the Cambridge Dictionary claims that the entries within a trilogy are "written about the same situation or characters, forming a continuous story". These definitions illustrate the different degrees of strictness in the interpretations. As there is little doubt that the three poems are connected, that should mean they fulfil the definition of a trilogy according to the Oxford Dictionary of Literary Terms. On the other hand, the definitions by Merriam-Webster or the Cambridge Dictionary are considerably narrower.
To what degree the three poems fulfil these narrower definitions will be discussed further in the chapter.
Second, possible arguments for the idea of a trilogy that do not closely depend on the analysis of the poems should be mentioned, or in some cases reiterated. As has been already mentioned in the introduction, one of the reasons why the idea of the trilogy exists is the fact that all three poems were excluded from the Miscellaneous Poems and not
39 published until 1776. But while this fact speaks about the reception and expected reaction to the poems, it has little relevance to the idea of a trilogy.
Another, and even more obvious, reason to label the three poems as a trilogy is their shared declared subject - Oliver Cromwell. The Cromwell of the "Horatian Ode" is the recently appointed Lord General who just returned from a victorious campaign and is preparing for another. Cromwell in the "First Anniversary" reached the ultimate power and has been Lord Protector for a whole year. The "Poem upon the Death" deals with the loss of a unique leader - a most successful commander, yet also a most compassionate citizen. Thus, it could be said that the trilogy traces Cromwell from his rise to power, through his achievements as Lord Protector and to his death. This argument is, however, far from flawless. A simple counter-argument would be the possible characterisation of the poems as occasional - written for or as a reaction to a specific event. All three poems have such an event in their very titles. Another argument for treating the poems as occasional could be the simple fact that Marvell wrote other poems in between these three.
For example, as has been mentioned in chapter two of this thesis, Marvell wrote the royalist "Tom May's Death" between the "Horatian Ode" and the "First Anniversary". I argue that the poems are occasional in their core, yet, in considerable part due to the times they were written in, share aspects that could be seen as belonging to a trilogy.
CROMWELL'S PORTRAYAL
The portrayals of Oliver Cromwell in each of the poem share core values, but at the same time, there are some differences. The "essential" Cromwell of all three poems is
"indefatigable, like lightning, tree-blasting, providential and time-defying" (Raymond
154). Cromwell of the poems is a force of chaos. He "ruins the great work of time" and, like Amphion, creates a new framework of government with his Instrument of
Government. Yet the Cromwell of the "Horatian Ode" is not only the man the
40 Commonwealth needs. The poem stresses that Cromwell sees his role as a sacrifice, he sacrifices his privacy to be the man the people need. But the poem at the same time constantly warns that Cromwell's ambitions make it unlikely that he will stay "in the
Republic's hand" (82). A warning that proved true with the forming of the Protectorate and the three military purges of Parliament.
One of Cromwell's characteristics present in all three poems is the portrayal of
Cromwell as being chosen by God. But this trait has a different aspect in each of the poems. In the "Horatian Ode", Cromwell is presented as "the force of angry heaven's flame" (26). In this, Marvell uses the idea, common at the time, that the Civil Wars were
God's punishment. Cromwell is thus presented as the instrument of God's anger. The
Cromwell of the "First Anniversary" bends to heaven's will and "ready stands to fight"
(148). But he also actively "cuts his way still nearer to the skies, / Learning a music in the region clear" (46 - 47). Cromwell in the "Poem upon the Death" changes from his portrayal in the "Horatian Ode". Instead of being the "force of angry heaven's flame," the poem claims he "angry heaven unto war had swayed" (16). Thus the image of passive instrument changes into an active agent.
It could also be said that all three poems present two "Cromwells" each. The "Horatian
Ode" presents Cromwell the humble servant of Parliament, and also Cromwell plotting to get the crown. The duality is less contrastive in the "First Anniversary", as the perception of Cromwell as a prince abroad and a citizen at home was a common thing and supported by the contemporary propaganda as well. The last of the three poems,
"Poem upon the Death" is specific in that both Oliver Cromwell and his son Richard feature in the poem. But there is a duality in the presentation of Oliver as well. The more elegiac Lord Protector and successful military leader is contrasted with the more personal image of Oliver Cromwell, a compassionate citizen and a loving father.
41 ALLUSIONS
As has been mentioned in the fifth chapter and earlier in this chapter, the "Poem upon the
Death" uses reversed versions of several passages from the "Horatian Ode". The ending of the poem also draws on the "Horatian Ode" in several aspects. Its conditional support of Richard, possibility to interpret as covert support for Charles II and the overall notion of the need to earn the right to rule personally all remind of the "Horatian Ode".
There are several references to the "First Anniversary" in the "Poem upon the Death," the most notable being the already discussed coaching incident. The "First Anniversary" is specific, however, in its numerable references to the Bible. The apocalyptic and millenarian language Marvell used in the "First Anniversary", mostly to respond to the
Fifth Monarchists, are also not present in the "Poem upon the Death". This use of a specific source to for a specific aim, countering the Fifth Monarchist's use of Bible by using it against them, supports the argument for the occasional aspect of the poem.
The reversal of passages borrowed from other works, like the passages from the
"Horatian Ode" used in the "Poem upon the Death" is a tool Marvell uses in all three poems. But Marvell uses this technique in his other works as well, such "The Second
Advice to a Painter". This, in conjunction with the previous paragraph, could be interpreted in two ways. It is possible to see this as being typical for Marvell and thus of little significance when comparing his works. Other possibility is to keep the interpretation of the technique as an aspect of occasional poetry, and thus its use by
Marvell in his other poems as a simple indication of their occasional aspect. As Marvell is recognized as, among other titles, an occasional poet, the second interpretation is much more likely.
Apart from the aspects mentioned above, the three poems are occasional in that each reacts to not just a contemporary event, but also the situation the event caused. The
42 "Horatian Ode" mentions Cromwell's victory in his Irish campaign and looks to the
Scottish one. But it also deals with the change from monarchy to Commonwealth,
Cromwell's rise and what these changes mean for the nation. The "First Anniversary" recounts the founding of the new regime and stresses the fact that Cromwell is not a king, yet greater than any king could be. The fact that Cromwell is de-facto a ruler, but refuses the crown is then used to strike confusion and fear among the traditional monarchs. The
"Poem upon the Death" lists some of Cromwell's achievements and portrays him as a successful military leader, yet one who was also a most compassionate citizen and loving father. It then looks up to Cromwell's son Richard. But, given his father uniqueness,
Richard will have to prove that he deserves and is able to be the new Lord Protector.
Returning to the definition of a trilogy, there were two core aspects - the works should be about the same character and develop the same theme or form a continuous story.
Oliver Cromwell is one of the core themes in all the three poems, albeit to what degree would be a matter of discussion. As Raymond writes: "each [of the poems] is, to a striking degree, also not a poem about Cromwell" (141). As has been mentioned above, the poems could be said to be as much about the situation at their specific time, if not even more, as about Cromwell. Nonetheless, while not necessarily the main, Cromwell is an important theme of all three poems. The second aspect - developing the same theme or story, would be much more problematic to argue for. As each of the poems are essentially occasional, they deal with a specific event or situation. Any unifying theme would thus have to be a general one, such as the declared subject of Oliver Cromwell. But this would be problematic. Claiming Cromwell as the unifying theme would beg the question why the two other poems about Cromwell that Marvell wrote in Latin are not included. Such argumentation would also have to significantly downplay the occasional aspect of the poems.
43 Possibly the best description of the relation between the poems would be, as Raymond quotes Wortham: "accidental triptych" (141). Treating the three poems as a trilogy would require glossing over aspects specific for only one of the poems. But treating each of the poems as isolated and ignoring the other two is taking the opposite extreme. While each of the poems can stand alone and is different than the other two, reading them together adds valuable context.
44 Works Cited Augustine, Matthew C. "Borders and Transitions in Marvell's Poetry." The Cambridge Companion to Andrew Marvell. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2010. 46-67. Web. Corns, T. The Cambridge Companion to English Poetry, Donne to Marv ell. Ed. Thomas N. Corns. 8th ed. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2004. Print. Jajtner, Tomáš. "Apocalyptic Kingship, Harmony and Political Expediency: The Challenges and Paradoxes of Andrew Marvell's 'First Anniversary.'" Prague Journal of English Studies 4.1 (2015): 9-23. Web. Marshall, Ashley. '"I Saw Him Dead': Marvell's Elegy for Cromwell." Studies in Philology 103.4 (2006): 499-521. Web. Marvell, Andrew. The Poems of Andrew Marvell. Ed. Nigel Smith. Revised ed. London: Routledge, 2013. Print. Norbrook, David. Writing the English Republic. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2000. Print. Raymond, Joad. "A Cromwellian Centre?" The Cambridge Companion to Andrew Marvell. Ed. Derek Hirst and Steven N. Zwicker. Cambridge: Cambridge UP, 2010. 140-157. Web. Smith, Nigel. Andrew Marvell: The Chameleon. New Haven: Yale UP, 2012. Print. Von Maltzahn, Nicholas. An Andrew Marvell Chronology. Basingstoke: Palgrave Macmillan, 2005. Print. Worden, Blair. Literature and Politics in Cromwellian England. Oxford: Oxford UP, 2011. Web. —. The English Civil Wars: 1640-1660. ebook. Weidenfeld & Nicolson, 2009. Print.
45 Resume
This thesis deals with the concept of a "Cromwellian trilogy" consisting of three poems of Andrew Marvell: "AnHoratian Ode upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland," "The First
Anniversary of the Government under His Highness Lord Protector" and "A Poem upon the Death of his Late Highness the Lord Protector." As this concept of a trilogy is a subject of disagreement between various scholars, this thesis aims to address this disagreement on whether the poems should be read as a trilogy, or not. To do so, it analyses the three poems with the help of works both dealing with all three poems and papers focusing on only one of them.
The primary objective is to determine whether the analysis supports the traditional reading of a developing trilogy. If not, whether there is a different reading, or if the concept of a trilogy itself is merely a tempting oversimplification. The secondary objective of the thesis is to characterise Oliver Cromwell as portrayed in each of the three poems. The characterisations will then be used to support the primary objective.
The thesis' first chapter provides the needed historical and political background and the following three chapters are dedicated to each of the analysed poems. A more specific context is given to each of the poems in their own chapter. The analysis focuses on main themes in each poem and important allusions. Where relevant, the analysis is contrasted with a previous poem. The thesis does not attempt to provide an exhaustive analysis of the poems, but instead focuses on key parts of the poems needed for the earlier stated aims. The thesis also includes the full text of the poems taken from Nigel Smith's annotated edition of The Poems of Andrew Marvell in its appendix.
46 Resumé
Tato bakalářská práce se zabývá problematikou takzvané „Cromwellovské trilogie" tvořené třemi básněmi, jejichž autorem je Andrew Marvell: "An Horatian Ode upon
Cromwelľs Return from Ireland," "The First Anniversary of the Government under His
Highness Lord Protector" a "A Poem upon the Death of his Late Highness the Lord
Protector." Jelikož různí odborníci mají na problematiku existence této trilogie různé názory, tato práce má za cíl napomoci vyřešení otázky, zda by se s těmito třemi básněmi mělo nakládat jako s trilogií, či nikoliv. K dosažení tohoto cíle slouží analýza jednotlivých básní s pomocí literatury zabývající se jak všemi třemi, tak i pouze jednou básní.
Primárním cílem je zjistit, zda tato analýza podporuje tradiční četbu těchto básní jako vyvíjející se trilogie. Pokud nikoliv, zda existuje jiná interpretace trilogie, či zda je samotný koncept trilogie pouhým lákavým, leč přílišným, zjednodušením. Sekundárním cílem je charakterizovat postavu Olivera Cromwella tak, jak je prezentována v každé básni. Tato charakterizace je poté použita k podpoře primárního cíle.
První kapitola této práce poskytuje nutné historické a politické pozadí, následující tři kapitoly se pak každá soustředí na jednu báseň. Na začátku každé z těchto tří kapitol je kontext specifický pro danou báseň. Analýza se pak soustředí na klíčová témata a důležité odkazy na jiné texty přítomné v dané básni. Tato práce ale nemá za cíl poskytnout vyčerpávající analýzu těchto tří básní. Místo toho se soustředí na jejich části, které jsou klíčové pro stanovené cíle. Příloha práce také obsahuje úplné texty analyzovaných básní převzaté z anotované verze Nigela Smithe The Poems of Andrew Marvell.
AI Appendix: Full Texts of Poems
"An Horatian Ode Upon Cromwell's Return from Ireland"
The forward youth that would appear
Must now forsake his Muses dear,
Nor in the shadows sing
His numbers languishing.
5 'Tis time to leave the books in dust,
And oil th'unused armour's rust,
Removing from the wall
The corslet of the hall.
So restless Cromwell could not cease
10 In the inglorious arts of peace,
But thorough advent'rous war
Urged his active star:
And like the three-forked lightning, first
Breaking the clouds where it was nursed,
15 Did through his own side
His fiery way divide.
(For 'tis all one to courage high,
The emulous or enemy;
And with such to enclose
20 Is more than to oppose.)
Then burning through the air he went,
And palaces and temples rent;
48 And Caesar's head at last
Did through his laurels blast.
25 'Tis madness to resist or blame
The force of angry Heaven's flame;
And, if we would speak true,
Much to the man is due:
Who from his private gardens, where
30 He lived reserved and austere,
As if his highest plot
To plant the bergamot,
Could by industrious valour climb
To ruin the great work of time,
35 And cast the kingdom old
Into another mould.
Though Justice against fate complain,
And plead the ancient rights in vain;
But those do hold or break
40 As men are strong or weak.
Nature that hateth emptiness
Allows of penetration less:
And therefore must make room
Where greater spirits come.
45 What field of all the civil wars
Where his were not the deepest scars?
And Hampton shows what part
49 He had of wiser art:
Where, twining subtle fears with hope,
50 He wove a net of such a scope
That Charles himself might chase
To Carisbrooke's narrow case:
That thence the royal actor born
The tragic scaffold might adorn,
55 While round the armed bands
Did clap their bloody hands.
He nothing common did or mean
Upon that memorable scene,
But with his keener eye
60 The axe's edge did try;
Nor called the gods with vulgar spite
To vindicate his helpless right;
But bowed his comely head
Down, as upon a bed.
65 This was that memorable hour
Which first assured the forced pow'r.
So when they did design
The Capitol's first line,
A bleeding head, where they begun,
70 Did fright the architects to run:
And yet in that the State
Foresaw its happy fate. And now the Irish are ashamed
To see themselves in one year tamed.
75 So much one man can do,
That does both act and know.
They can affirm his praises best,
And have, though overcome, confessed
How good he is, how just,
80 And fit for highest trust:
Nor yet grown stiffer with command,
But still in the Republic's hand:
How fit he is to sway
That can so well obey.
85 He to the Commons' feet presents
A kingdom for his first year's rents.
And, what he may, forbears
His fame, to make it theirs.
And has his sword and spoils ungirt,
90 To lay them at the public's skirt.
So when the falcon high
Falls heavy from the sky;
She, having killed, no more does search,
But on the next green bough to perch,
95 Where, when he first does lure,
The falc'ner has her sure.
What may not then our isle presume
51 While victory his crest does plume?
What may not others fear
100 If thus he crown each year?
A Caesar he ere long to Gaul,
To Italy an Hannibal,
And to all states not free
Shall climacteric be.
105 The Pict no shelter now shall find
Within his parti-coloured mind;
But from this valour sad
Shrink underneath the plaid:
Happy if in the tufted brake
110 The English hunter him mistake,
Nor lay his hounds in near
The Caledonian deer.
But thou, the War's and Fortune's son
March indefatigably on;
115 And for the last effect
Still keep thy sword erect:
Besides the force it has to fright
The spirits of the shady night;
The same arts that did gain
120 A pow'r must it maintain.
52 "The First Anniversary of the Government under His Highness the Lord Protector"
Like the vain curlings of the wat'ry maze,
Which in smooth streams a sinking weight does raise;
So Man, declining always, disappears.
In the weak circles of increasing years;
And his short tumults of themselves compose,
While flowing Time above his head does close.
Cromwell alone with greater Vigour runs,
(Sun-like) the stages of succeeding suns:
And still the day which he doth next restore,
Is the just wonder of the day before.
Cromwell alone doth with new lustre spring,
And shines the jewel of the yearly ring.
'Tis he the force of scattered Time contracts,
And in one year the work of ages acts:
While heavy monarchs make a wide return,
Longer, and more malignant then Saturn:
And though they all Platonic years should reign,
In the same posture would be found again.
Their earthly projects under ground they lay,
More slow and brittle then the China clay:
Well may they strive to leave them to their son,
For one thing never was by one king done.
Yet some more active for a frontier town,
Took in by proxy, begs a false renown;
53 25 Another triumphs at the public cost,
And will have won, if he no more have lost;
They fight by others, but in person wrong,
And only are against their subjects strong;
Their other wars seem but a feigned contest,
30 This common enemy is still oppressed;
If conquerors, on them they turn their might;
If conquered, on them they wreak their spite:
They neither build the temple in their days,
Nor matter for succeeding founders raise;
35 Nor Sacred prophecies consult within,
Much less themselves to perfect them begin;
No other care they bear of things above,
But with astrologers divine, and Jove,
To know how long their planet yet reprieves
40 From the deserved fate their guilty lives:
Thus (image-like) an useless time they tell,
And with vain sceptre strike the hourly bell;
Nor more contribute to the state of things,
Then wooden heads unto the viol's strings.
45 While indefatigable Cromwell hies,
And cuts his way still nearer to the skies,
Learning a music in the region clear,
To tune this lower to that higher sphere.
So when Amphion did the lute command,
54 50 Which the god gave him; with his gentle hand,
The rougher stones, unto his measures hewed,
Danced up in order from the quarries rude;
This took a lower, that an higher place,
As he the treble altered, or the bass:
55 No note he struck, but a new story layed,
And the great work ascended while he played.
The list'ning structures he with wonder eyed,
And still new stops to various time applied:
Now through the strings a martial rage he throws,
60 And joining straight the Theban tow'r arose;
Then as he strokes them with a touch more sweet,
The flocking marbles in a palace meet;
But, for he most the graver notes did try,
Therefore the temples reared their columns high:
65 Thus, ere he ceased, his sacred lute creates
Th' harmonious city of the seven gates.
Such was that wondrous order and consent,
When Cromwell tuned the ruling Instrument;
While tedious statesmen many years did hack,
70 Framing a liberty that still went back;
Whose num'rous gorge could swallow in an hour
That island, which the sea cannot devour:
Then our Amphion issues out and sings,
And once he struck, and twice, the pow'rful strings.
55 75 The commonwealth then first together came,
And each one entered in the willing frame;
All other matter yields, and may be ruled;
But who the minds of stubborn men can build?
No quarry bears a stone so hardly wrought,
80 Nor with such labour from its centre brought;
None to be sunk in the foundation bends,
Each in the house the highest place contends,
And each the hand that lays him will direct,
And some fall back upon the architect;
85 Yet all composed by his attractive song,
Into the animated city throng.
The common-wealth does through their centres all
Draw the circumf rence of the public wall;
The crossest spirits here do take their part,
90 Fast'ning the contignation which they thwart;
And they, whose nature leads them to divide,
Uphold, this one, and that the other side;
But the most equal still sustain the height,
And they as pillars keep the work upright;
95 While the resistance of opposed minds,
The fabric as with arches stronger binds,
Which on the basis of a senate free,
Knit by the roof's protecting weight agree.
When for his foot he thus a place had found,
56 100 He hurls e'er since the world about him round;
And in his sev'ral aspects, like a star,
Here shines in peace, and thither shoots in war.
While by his beams observing princes steer,
And wisely court the influence they fear,
105 O would they rather by his pattern won
Kiss the approaching, nor yet angry Son;
And in their numbered footsteps humbly tread
The path where holy oracles do lead;
How might they under such a captain raise
110 The great designs kept for the latter days!
But mad with reason, so miscalled, of state
They know them not, and what they know not, hate.
Hence still they sing hosanna to the whore,
And her whom they should massacre adore;
115 But Indians whom they should convert, subdue;
Nor teach, but traffic with, or burn the Jew.
Unhappy Princes, ignorantly bred,
By malice some, by error more misled;
If gracious heaven to my life give length,
120 Leisure to times, and to my weakness strength,
Then shall I once with graver accents shake
Your regal sloth, and your long slumbers wake:
Like the shrill huntsman that prevents the east,
Winding his horn to kings that chase the beast.
57 125 Till then my muse shall hollow far behind
Angelic Cromwell who outwings the wind;
And in dark nights, and in cold days alone
Pursues the monster thorough every throne:
Which shrinking to her Roman den impure,
130 Gnashes her gory teeth; nor there secure.
Hence oft I think, if in some happy hour
High grace should meet in one with highest power,
And then a seasonable people still
Should bend to his, as he to heaven's will,
135 What we might hope, what wonderful effect
From such a wished conjuncture might reflect.
Sure, the mysterious work, where none withstand,
Would forthwith finish under such a hand:
Foreshortened Time its useless course would stay,
140 And soon precipitate the latest day.
But a thick cloud about that morning lies,
And intercepts the beams of mortal eyes,
That 'tis the most which we determine can,
If these the times, then this must be the man.
145 And well he therefore does, and well has guessed,
Who in his age has always forward pressed:
And knowing not where heaven's choice may light,
Girds yet his sword, and ready stands to fight;
But men alas, as if they nothing cared,
58 150 Look on, all unconcerned, or unprepared;
And stars still fall, and still the dragon's tail
Swinges the volumes of its horrid flail.
For the great justice that did first suspend
The world by sin, does by the same extend.
155 Hence that blest day still counterpoised wastes,
The ill delaying, what th' elected hastes;
Hence landing Nature to new seas it tossed,
And good designs still with their authors lost.
And thou, great Cromwell, for whose happy birth
160 A mould was chosen out of better earth;
Whose saint-like mother we did lately see
Live out an age, long as a pedigree;
That she might seem, could we the Fall dispute,
T'have smelt the blossom, and not eat the fruit;
165 Though none does of more lasting parents grow,
But never any did them honour so;
Though thou thine heart from evil still unstained,
And always hast thy tongue from fraud refrained,
Thou, who so oft through storms of thund'ring lead
170 Hast born securely thine undaunted head,
Thy breast through poniarding conspiracies,
Drawn from the sheath of lying prophecies;
Thee proof beyond all other force or Skill,
Our sins endanger, and shall one day kill.
59 175 How near they failed, and in thy sudden fall
At once assayed to overturn us all.
Our brutish fury struggling to be free,
Hurried thy horses while they hurried thee.
When thou hadst almost quit thy mortal cares,
180 And soiled in dust thy crown of silver hairs.
Let this one sorrow interweave among
The other glories of our yearly song.
Like skilful looms which through the costly thread
Of purling ore, a shining wave do shed:
185 So shall the tears we on past grief employ,
Still as they trickle, glitter in our joy.
So with more modesty we may be true,
And speak as of the dead the praises due:
While impious men deceived with pleasure short,
190 On their own hopes shall find the fall retort.
But the poor beasts wanting their noble guide,
(What could they move?) shrunk guiltily aside.
First winged fear transports them far away,
And leaden sorrow then their flight did stay.
195 See how they each his tow'ring crest abate,
And the green grass, and their known mangers hate,
Nor through wide nostrils snuff the wanton air,
Nor their round hoofs, or curled manes compare;
With wand'ring eyes, and restless ears they stood,
60 200 And with shrill neighings asked him of the wood.
Thou Cromwell falling, not a stupid tree,
Or rock so savage, but it mourned for thee:
And all about was heard a panic groan,
As if that Nature's self were overthrown.
205 It seemed the earth did from the centre tear;
It seemed the sun was fall'n out of the sphere:
Justice obstructed lay, and Reason fooled;
Courage disheartened, and Religion cooled.
A dismal silence through the palace went,
210 And then loud shrieks the vaulted marbles rent.
Such as the dying chorus sings by turns,
And to deaf seas, and ruthless tempests mourns,
When now they sink, and now the plund'ring streams
Break up each deck, and rip the oaken seams.
215 But thee triumphant hence the fiery car,
And fiery steeds had borne out of the war,
From the low world, and thankless men above,
Unto the kingdom blest of peace and love:
We only mourned ourselves, in thine ascent,
220 Whom thou hadst lest beneath with mantle rent.
For all delight of life thou then didst lose,
When to command, thou didst thyself depose;
Resigning up thy privacy so dear,
To turn the headstrong people's charioteer;
61 225 For to be Cromwell was a greater thing,
Then ought below, or yet above a king:
Therefore thou rather didst thyself depress,
Yielding to rule, because it made thee less.
For, neither didst thou from the first apply
230 Thy sober spirit unto things too high,
But in thine own fields exercised'st long,
An healthful mind within a body strong;
Till at the seventh time thou in the skies,
As a small cloud, like a man's hand didst rise;
235 Then did thick mists and winds the air deform,
And down at last thou poured'st the fertile storm;
Which to the thirsty land did plenty bring,
But though forewarned, o'ertook and wet the king.
What since he did, an higher force him pushed
240 Still from behind, and it before him rushed,
Though undiscerned among the tumult blind,
Who think those high decrees by man designed.
'Twas heaven would not that his pow'r should cease,
But walk still middle betwixt war and peace;
245 Choosing each stone, and poising every weight,
Trying the measures of the breadth and height;
Here pulling down, and there erecting new,
Founding a firm state by proportions true.
When Gideon so did from the war retreat,
62 250 Yet by conquest of two kings grown great,
He on the peace extends a warlike power,
And Israel silent saw him raze the tower;
And how he Succoth's Elders durst suppress,
With thorns and briars of the wilderness.
255 No king might ever such a force have done;
Yet would not he be Lord, nor yet his son.
Thou with the same strength, and an heart as plain,
Didst (like thine olive) still refuse to reign;
Though why should others all thy labour spoil,
260 And brambles be anointed with thine oil,
Whose climbing flame, without a timely stop,
Had quickly levelled every cedar's top.
Therefore first growing to thy self a law,
Th'ambitious shrubs thou in just time didst awe.
265 So have I seen at sea, when whirling winds,
Hurry the bark, but more the seamen's minds,
Who with mistaken course salute the sand,
And threat'ning rocks misapprehend for land;
While baleful Tritons to the shipwrack guide,
270 And corposants along the tacklings slide.
The passengers all wearied out before,
Giddy, and wishing for the fatal shore;
Some lusty mate, who with more careful eye
Counted the hours, and every star did spy,
63 275 The helm does from the artless steersman strain,
And doubles back unto the safer main.
What though a while they grumble discontent,
Saving himself he does their loss prevent.
Tis not a freedom, that where all command;
280 Nor tyranny, where one does them withstand:
But who of both the bounders knows to lay
Him as their father must the state obey.
Thou, and thine house, like Noah's eight did rest,
Left by the wars' flood on the mountain's crest:
285 And the large vale lay subject to thy will,
Which thou but as an husbandman wouldst till:
And only didst for others plant the vine
Of liberty, not drunken with its wine.
That sober liberty which men may have,
290 That they enjoy, but more they vainly crave:
And such as to their parent's tents do press,
May show their own, not see his nakedness.
Yet such a Chammish issue still does rage,
The shame and plague both of the land and age,
295 Who watched thy halting, and thy fall deride,
Rejoicing when thy foot had slipped aside;
That their new king might the fifth sceptre shake,
And make the world, by his example, quake:
Whose frantic army should they want for men
64 300 Might muster heresies, so one were ten.
What thy misfortune, they the Spirit call,
And their religion only is to fall.
Oh Mahomet! now couldst thou rise again,
Thy falling-sickness should have made thee reign,
305 While Feake and Simpson would in many a tome,
Have writ the comments of thy sacred foam:
For soon thou mightst have past among their rant
Were't but for thine unmoved tulipant;
As thou must needs have owned them of thy band
310 For Prophecies fit to be Alcoran'd.
Accursed locusts, whom your king does spit
Out of the centre of th'unbottomed pit;
Wand'rers, adult'rers, liars, Miinzer's rest,
Sorc'rers, atheists, Jesuits, possessed;
315 You who the scriptures and the laws deface
With the same liberty as points and lace;
Oh race most hypocritically strict!
Bent to reduce us to the ancient pict;
Well may you act the Adam and the Eve;
320 Ay, and the serpent too that did deceive.
But the great captain, now the danger's o'er,
Makes you for his sake tremble one fit more;
And, to your spite, returning yet alive
Does with himself all that is good revive.
65 325 So when first man did through the morning new
See the bright sun his shining race pursue,
All day he follow'd with unwearied sight,
Pleas'd with that other world of moving light;
But thought him when he missed his setting beams,
330 Sunk in the hills, or plunged below the streams.
While dismal blacks hung round the universe,
And stars (like tapers) burned upon his hearse:
And owls and ravens with their screeching noise
Did make the fun'rals sadder by their joys.
335 His weeping eyes the doleful vigils keep,
Not knowing yet the night was made for sleep:
Still to the west, where he him lost, he turned,
And with such accents, as despairing, mourned:
'Why did mine eyes once see so bright a ray;
340 Or why day last no longer than a day?'
When straight the sun behind him he descried,
Smiling serenely from the further side.
So while our star that gives us light and heat,
Seemed now a long and gloomy night to threat,
345 Up from the other world his flame he darts,
And princes, shining through their windows, starts;
Who their suspected Counsellors refuse,
And credulous Ambassadors accuse.
'Is this,' saith one, 'the nation that we read
66 350 Spent with both wars, under a captain dead?
Yet rig a navy while we dress us late;
And ere we dine, raze and rebuild our state.
What oaken forests, and what golden mines!
What mints of men, what union of designs!
355 Unless their ships, do, as their fowl proceed
Of shedding leaves, that with their ocean breed.
Their's are not ships, but rather arks of war,
And beaked promontories sailed from far;
Of floating islands a new-hatched nest;
360 A fleet of worlds, of other worlds in quest;
An hideous shoal of wood-Leviathans,
Armed with three tire of brazen hurricanes;
That through the centres shoot their thund'ring side
And sink the earth that does at anchor ride.
365 What refuge to escape them can be found,
Whose wat'ry leaguers all the world surround?
Needs must we all their tributaries be,
Whose navies hold the sluices of the sea.
The ocean is the fountain of command,
370 But that once took, we captives are on land.
And those that have the waters for their share,
Can quickly leave us neither earth nor air.
Yet if through these our fears could find a pass;
Through double oak, and lined with treble brass;
67 375 That one man still, although but named, alarms
More than all men, all navies, and all arms.
Him, all the day, him, in late night I dread,
And still his sword seems hanging o'er my head.
The nation had been ours, but his one soul
380 Moves the great bulk, and animates the whole.
He secrecy with number hath enchased,
Courage with age, maturity with haste:
The valiant's terror, riddle of the wise;
And still his falchion all our knots unties.
385 Where did he learn those arts that cost us dear?
Where below earth, or where above the sphere?
He seems a king by long succession born,
And yet the same to be a king does scorn.
Abroad a king he seems, and something more,
390 At home a subject on the equal floor.
0 could I once him with our title see,
So should I hope yet he might die as we.
But let them write his praise that love him best,
It grieves me sore to have thus much confessed.'
395 Pardon, great prince, if thus their fear or spite
More then our love and duty do thee right.
1 yield, nor further will the prize contend;
So that we both alike may miss our end:
While thou thy venerable head dost raise
68 As far above their malice as my praise.
And as the angel of our commonweal,
Troubling the waters, yearly mak'st them heal. "A Poem upon the Death of his Late Highness the Lord Protector"
That Providence which had so long the care
Of Cromwell's head, and numbered ev'ry hair,
Now in itself (the glass where all appears)
Had seen the period of his golden years:
5 And thenceforth only did attend to trace
What death might least so fair a life deface.
The people, which what most they fear esteem,
Death when more horrid, so more noble deem;
And blame the last act, like spectators vain,
10 Unless the prince whom they applaud be slain.
Nor Fate indeed can well refuse that right
To those that lived in war, to die in fight.
But long his valour none had left that could
Indanger him, or clemency that would.
15 And he whom Nature all for peace had made,
But angry heaven unto war had swayed,
And so less useful where he most desired,
For what he least affected was admired,
Deserved yet an end whose every part,
20 Should speak the wondrous softness of his heart.
To Love and Grief the fatal writ was signed;
(Those nobler weaknesses of human kind,
From which those powers that issued the decree,
Although immortal, found they were not free),
70 25 That they, to whom his breast still open lies,
In gentle passions should his death disguise:
And leave succeeding ages cause to mourn,
As long as Grief shall weep, or Love shall burn.
Straight does a slow and languishing disease
30 Eliza, Nature's and his darling, seize.
Her when an infant, taken with her charms,
He oft would flourish in his mighty arms;
And, lest their force the tender burden wrong,
Slacken the vigour of his muscles strong;
35 Then to the Mother's breast her softly move,
Which while she drained of milk, she filled with love.
But as with riper years her virtue grew,
And ev'ry minute adds a lustre new;
When with meridian height her beauty shined,
40 And thorough that sparkled her fairer mind;
When she with smiles serene in words discreet
His hidden soul at every turn could meet;
Then might y'ha'daily his affection spied,
Doubling that knot which destiny had tied.
45 While they by sense, not knowing, comprehend
How on each other both their fates depend.
With her each day the pleasing hours he shares,
And at her aspect calms his growing cares;
Or with a grandsire's joy her children sees
71 50 Hanging about her neck or at his knees.
Hold fast, dear infants, hold them both or none!
This will not stay when once the other's gone.
A silent fire now wastes those limbs of wax,
And him within his tortured image racks.
55 So the flow'r with'ring which the garden crowned,
The sad root pines in secret under ground.
Each groan he doubled and each sigh he sighed,
Repeated over to the restless night.
No trembling string composed to numbers new,
60 Answers the touch in notes more sad, more true.
She, lest he grieve, hides what she can her pains,
And he to lessen her's his sorrow feigns:
Yet both perceived, yet both concealed their skills,
And so diminishing increased their ills:
65 That whether by each other's grief they fell,
Or on their own redoubled, none can tell.
And now Eliza's purple locks were shorn,
Where she so long her father's fate had worn:
And frequent lightning to her soul that flies,
70 Divides the air, and opens all the skies:
And now his life, suspended by her breath,
Ran out impetuously to hasting death.
Like polished mirrors, so his steely breast
Had every figure of her woes expressed;
72 75 And with the damp of her last gasp obscured,
Had drawn such stains as were not to be cured.
Fate could not either reach with single stroke,
But the dear image fled, the mirror broke.
Who now shall tell us more of mournful swans,
80 Of halcyons kind, or bleeding pelicans?
No downy breast did ere so gently beat,
Or fan with airy plumes so soft an heat.
For he no duty by his height excused,
Nor though a prince, to be a man refused:
85 But rather than in his Eliza's pain
Not love, not grieve, would neither live nor reign:
And in himself so oft immortal tried,
Yet in compassion of another died.
So have I seen a vine, whose lasting age
90 Of many a winter hath survived the rage.
Under whose shady tent men every year
At its rich blood's expense their sorrow cheer,
If some dear branch where it extends its life
Chance to be pruned by an untimely knife,
95 The parent-tree unto the grief succeeds,
And through the wound its vital humour bleeds,
Trickling in wat'ry drops, whose flowing shape
Weeps that it falls ere fixed into a grape.
So the dry stock, no more that spreading vine,
73 100 Frustrates the autumn and the hopes of wine.
A secret cause does sure those signs ordain
Foreboding princes' falls, and seldom vain.
Whether some kinder powers that wish us well,
What they above cannot prevent, foretell;
105 Or the great world do by consent presage,
As hollow seas with future tempests rage;
Or rather heav'n, which us so long foresees,
Their fun'rals celebrates while it decrees.
But never yet was any human fate
110 By Nature solemnized with so much state.
He unconcerned the dreadful passage crossed;
But oh what pangs that death did Nature cost!
First the great thunder was shot off, and sent
The signal from the starry battlement:
115 The winds receive it, and its force outdo,
As practising how they could thunder too:
Out of the binder's hand the sheaves they tore,
And thrashed the harvest in the airy floor;
Or of huge trees, whose growth with his did rise,
120 The deep foundations opened to the skies.
Then heavy show'rs the winged tempests lead,
And pour the deluge o'er the chaos' head.
The race of warlike horses at his tomb
Offer themselves in many a hecatomb;
74 125 With pensive head towards the ground they fall,
And helpless languish at the tainted stall.
Numbers of men decrease with pains unknown,
And hasten, not to see his death, their own.
Such tortures all the elements unfixed,
130 Troubled to part where so exactly mixed:
And as through air his wasting spirits flowed,
The universe laboured beneath their load.
Nature it seemed with him would Nature vie;
He with Eliza, it with him would die.
135 He without noise still travelled to his end,
As silent suns to meet the night descend.
The stars that for him fought had only power
Left to determine now his final hour;
Which, since they might not hinder, yet they cast
140 To choose it worthy of his glories past.
No part of time but bare his mark away
Of honour; all the year was Cromwell's day:
But this, of all the most auspicious found,
Twice had in open field him victor crowned:
145 When up the armed mountains of Dunbar
He marched, and through deep Severn ending war.
What day should him eternize but the same
That had before immortalized his name?
That so who ere would at his death have joyed,
75 150 In their own griefs might find themselves employed;
But those that sadly his departure grieved,
Yet joyed, rememb'ring what he once achieved.
And the last minute his victorious ghost
Gave chase to Ligny on the Belgic coast.
155 Here ended all his mortal toils: he laid
And slept in place under the laurel shade.
O Cromwell, Heaven's Favourite! To none
Have such high honours from above been shown:
For whom the elements we mourners see,
160 And heav'n itself would the great herald be;
Which with more care set forth his obsequies
Than those of Moses hid from human eyes:
As jealous only here lest all be less,
That we could to his memory express.
165 Then let us to our course of mourning keep:
Where heaven leads, 'tis piety to weep.
Stand back ye seas, and shrunk beneath the veil
Of your abyss, with covered head bewail
Your monarch: we demand not your supplies
170 To compass in our isle; our tears suffice;
Since him away the dismal tempest rent,
Who once more joined us to the continent;
Who planted England on the Flandric shore,
And stretched our frontier to the Indian ore;
76 175 Whose greater truths obscure the fables old,
Whether of British saints or worthies told;
And in a valour less'ning Arthur's deeds,
For holiness the Confessor exceeds.
He first put arms into Religion's hand,
180 And tim'rous Conscience unto Courage manned:
The soldier taught that inward mail to wear,
And fearing God how they should nothing fear.
'Those strokes,' he said, 'will pierce through all below
Where those that strike from heaven fetch their blow.'
185 Astonished armies did their flight prepare,
And cities strong were stormed by his prayer;
Of that, forever Preston's field shall tell
The story, and impregnable Clonmel;
And where the sandy mountain Fenwick scaled,
190 The sea between, yet hence his prayer prevailed.
What man was ever so in heav'n obeyed
Since the commanded sun o'er Gideon stayed?
In all his wars needs must he triumph when
He conquered God, still ere he fought with men:
195 Hence, though in battle none so brave or fierce,
Yet him the adverse steel could never pierce.
Pity it seemed to hurt him more that felt
Each wound himself which he to others dealt;
Danger itself refusing to offend
77 200 So loose an enemy, so fast a friend.
Friendship, that sacred virtue, long does claim
The first foundation of his house and name:
But within one its narrow limits fall;
His tenderness extended unto all.
205 And that deep soul through every channel flows,
Where kindly Nature loves itself to lose.
More strong affections never reason served,
Yet still affected most what best deserved.
If he Eliza loved to that degree,
210 (Though who more worthy to be loved than she?)
If so indulgent to his own, how dear
To him the children of the highest were?
For her he once did Nature's tribute pay:
For these his life adventured ev'ry day.
215 And 'twould be found, could we his thoughts have cast,
Their griefs struck deepest, if Eliza's last.
What prudence more than human did he need
To keep so dear, so differing minds agreed?
The worser sort, as conscious of their ill,
220 Lie weak and easy to the ruler's will;
But to the good (too many or too few)
All law is useless, all reward is due.
Oh! ill-advised, if not for love, for shame,
Spare yet your own, if you neglect his fame;
78 225 Lest others dare to think your zeal a mask,
And you to govern, only heaven's task.
Valour, Religion, Friendship, Prudence died
At once with him, and all that's good beside;
And we Death's refuse, Nature's dregs, confined
230 To loathsome life, alas! are left behind.
Where we (so once we used) shall now no more,
To fetch the day, press about his chamber door;
From which he issued with that awful state,
It seemed Mars broke through Janus' double gate:
235 Yet always tempered with an air so mild,
No April suns that e'er so gently smiled;
No more shall hear that powerful language charm,
Whose force oft spared the labour of his arm;
No more shall follow where he spent the days
240 In war, in counsel, or in prayer and praise;
Whose meanest acts he would himself advance,
As ungirt David to the ark did dance.
All, all is gone of our or his delight
In horses fierce, wild deer, or armour bright;
245 Francisca fair can nothing now but weep,
Nor with soft notes shall sing his cares asleep.
I saw him dead. A leaden slumber lies
And mortal sleep over those wakeful eyes:
Those gentle rays under the lids were fled,
79 250 Which through his looks that piercing sweetness shed;
That port which so majestic was and strong,
Loose and deprived of vigour, stretched along:
All withered, all discoloured, pale and wan,
How much another thing, nor more that man?
255 Oh human glory vain, Oh death, Oh wings,
Oh worthless world, Oh transitory things!
Yet dwelt that greatness in his shape decayed,
That still, though dead, greater than death he laid:
And in his altered face you something feign
260 That threatens death he yet will live again.
Not much unlike the sacred oak which shoots
To heaven its branches and through earth its roots;
Whose spacious bought are hung with trophies round,
And honoured wreaths have oft the victor crowned.
265 When angry Jove darts lightning through the air,
At mortals' sins, nor his own plant will spare;
(It groans, and bruises all below, that stood
So many years the shelter of the wood.)
The tree erewhile foreshortened to our view,
270 When fall'n shows taller yet than as it grew.
So shall his praise to after times increase,
When truth shall be allowed, and faction cease,
And his own shadows with him fall. The eye
Detracts from object than itself more high:
80 275 But when death takes them from that envied seat,
Seeing how little, we confess how great.
Thee, many ages hence, in martial verse
Shall th'English soldier, ere he charge, rehearse:
Singing of thee, inflame themselves to fight,
280 And with the name of Cromwell armies fright.
As long as rivers to the seas shall run,
As long as Cynthia shall relieve the sun,
While stags shall fly unto the forests thick,
While sheep delight the grassy downs to pick,
285 As long as future times succeeds the past,
Always thy honour, praise, and name shall last.
Thou in a pitch how far beyond the sphere
Of human glory tower'st, and reigning there
Despoiled of mortal robes, in seas of bliss,
290 Plunging dost bathe, and tread the bright abyss:
There thy great soul yet once a world does see,
Spacious enough, and pure enough for thee.
How soon thou Moses hast, and Joshua found,
And David, for the sword and harp renowned;
295 How straight canst to each happy mansion go?
(Far better known above than here below)
And in those joys dost spend the endless day,
Which in expressing, we ourselves betray.
For we, since thou art gone, with heavy doom,
81 300 Wander like ghosts about thy loved tomb;
And lost in tears, have neither sight nor mind
To guide us upward through this region blind.
Since thou art gone, who best that way couldst teach,
Only our sighs, perhaps, may thither reach.
305 And Richard yet, where his great parent led,
Beats on the rugged track: he, virtue dead,
Revives, and by his milder beams assures;
And yet how much of them his grief obscures.
He, as his father, long was kept from sight
310 In private, to be viewed by better light:
But opened once, what splendour does he throw?
A Cromwell in an hour a prince will grow.
How he becomes that seat, how strongly strains,
How gently winds at once the ruling reins?
315 Heav'n to this choice prepared a diadem,
Richer than any eastern silk or gem:
A pearly rainbow, where the sun enchased
His brows, like an imperial jewel graced.
We find already what those omens mean,
320 Earth ne'er more glad, nor heaven more serene:
Cease now our griefs, calm peace succeeds a war,
Rainbows to storms, Richard to Oliver.
Tempt not his clemency to try his power,
He threats no deluge, yet foretells a shower.
82 83