Andrew Marvell | Page 7

y^t some of them are reported to be married and y^t others look not after y^eir days nor Acts shall receave no more benefitt of y^e Coll and shall be out of y^ier places unless y^ei shew just cause to y^e Coll for y^e contrary in 3 months."
Dr. Lort, in his amiable letter of 1765, already mentioned, points out that this entry contains no reflection on Marvell's morals, but shows that he was given "notice to quit" for non-residence, "then much more strictly enjoined than it is now." The days referred to in the entry were, so the master obligingly explains, "the certain number allowed by statute to absentees," whilst the "acts mean the Exercises also enjoyned by the statutes." Dr. Lort adds, "It does not appear, by any subsequent entry, whether Marvell did or did not comply with this order." We may now safely assume he did not. Marvell's Cambridge days were over.
The vacations, no inconsiderable part of the year, were probably spent by Marvell under his father's roof at Hull, where his two elder sisters were married and settled. It is not to be wondered at that Andrew Marvell should, for so many years, have represented Hull in the House of Commons, for both he and his family were well known in the town. The elder Marvell added to his reputation as a teacher and preacher the character of a devoted servant of his flock in the hour of danger. The plague twice visited Hull during the time of the elder Marvell, first in 1635 and again in 1638. In those days men might well pray to be delivered from "plague, pestilence, and famine." Hull suffered terribly on both occasions. We have seen, in comparatively recent times, the effect of the cholera upon large towns, and the plague was worse than the cholera many times over. The Hull preacher, despite the stigma of facetiousness, which still clings to him, stuck to his post, visiting the sick, burying the dead, and even, which seems a little superfluous, preaching and afterwards printing "by request" their funeral sermons. A brave man, indeed, and one reserved for a tragic end.
In April 1638 the poet's mother died. In the following November the elder Marvell married a widow lady, but his own end was close upon him. The earliest consecutive account of this strange event is in Gent's History of Hull (1735):--"This year, 1640, the Rev. Mr. Andrew Marvell, Lecturer of Hull, sailing over the Humber in company with Madame Skinner of Thornton College and a young beautiful couple who were going to be wedded; a speedy Fate prevented the designed happy union thro' a violent storm which overset the boat and put a period to all their lives, nor were there any remains of them or the vessel ever after found, tho' earnestly sought for on distant shores."
Thus died by drowning a brave man, a good Christian, and an excellent clergyman of the Reformed Church of England. The plain narrative just quoted has been embroidered by many long-subsequent writers in the interests of those who love presentiments and ghostly intimations of impending events, and in one of these versions it is recorded, that though the morning was clear, the breeze fair, and the company gay, yet when stepping into the boat "the reverend man exclaimed, 'Ho for Heaven,' and threw his staff ashore and left it to Providence to fulfil its awful warning."
So melancholy an occurrence naturally excited great attention, and long lingered in local memories. Everybody in Hull knew who was their member's father.
There is an obstinate tradition quite unverifiable that Mrs. Skinner, the mother of the beautiful young lady who was drowned with the elder Marvell, adopted the young Marvell as a son, sending to Cambridge for him after his father's death, and providing him with the means of travel, and that afterwards she bequeathed him her estate. Whether there is any truth in this story cannot now be ascertained. The Skinners were a well-known Hull family, one of them, a brother of that Cyriac Skinner who was urged by Milton in immortal verse to enjoy himself whilst the mood was on him, having been Mayor of Hull. The lady, doubtless, had money, and Andrew Marvell was in need of money, and appears to have been supplied with it. It is quite possible the tradition is true.
FOOTNOTES:
[6:1] Fuller's Worthies (1662), p. 159.
[8:1] "The Fuller Worthies Library," 4 vols., 1872. Hereafter referred to as Grosart.
[8:2] _Mr. Smirke or the Divine in Mode._--Grosart, iv. 15.
[11:1] Autobiography of Matthew Robinson. Edited by J.E.B. Mayor, Cambridge, 1856.
[12:1] Behemoth, Hobbes' Works (Molesworth), vol. vi., see pp. 168, 218, 233-6.
[12:2] Worthington's Diary, vol. i. p. 5 (Chetham Society).
[13:1] Fuller, History of Cambridge University (1655), p. 167.
[14:1] Fuller, p. 166.
[15:1] Grosart, I., xxviii.
[15:2] See Worthington's Diary, vol. i.