Contemporary with Denham was the comparatively unknown poet, Chamberlayne-an author whose genius was imbued with a depth of poetical spirit to which the former was an entire stranger. Denham could reason fluently in verse, without any glaring faults of style; but such a description of a summer morning as the following, from Chamberlayne, was altogether beyond his powers:--- The morning hath not lost her virgin blush, Nor step, but mine, soil'd the earth's tinsell'd robe. How full of heaven this solitude appears, This healthful comfort of the happy swain; Who from his hard but peaceful bed roused up, In 's morning exercise saluted is By a full quire of feather'd choristers, Wedding their notes to the enamour'd air! Here nature in her unaffected dress Plaited with valleys, and emboss'd with hills WILLIAM CHAMBERLAYNE was born at Shaftesbury, Dorsetshire, in 1619. Of his family, and of his early education, nothing is now definitely known. He studied the medical profession, and afterward practiced as a physician in his native place; but he appears to have wielded the sword as well as the lancet, as he was present, and took part with the royalists, in the famous battle of Newbury. His circumstances, like those of Vaughan, seem to have been, during his whole life, far from flourishing; and he bitterly complains that his continuous poverty debarred him from the society of the congenial wits of the age. The latter part of his life was passed in the toils of his laborious profession, and his death occurred in 1688, the memorable year that witnessed the downfall of James the Second. The principal works of Chamberlayne are Love's Victory, a tragic-comedy, published in 1658; and Pharonnida, a Heroic Poem, which appeared in the following year. The scene of the first is laid in the island of Sicily, and that of 'Pharonnida,' partly in Sicily and partly in Greece. With no court connection, no light or witty copies of verses to float him into popularity, relying solely on his too long and comparatively unattractive works--to appreciate which, through all the windings of romantic love, plots, escapes, and adventures, more time is required than the author's busy age could afford-we should not be surprised that Chamberlayne was an unsuccessful poet. His works were, indeed, almost entirely forgotten, till Campbell, in his 'Specimens of the Poets,' published in 1819, by quoting largely from 'Pharonnida,” and pointing out the 'rich breadth and variety of its scenes,' and the power and pathos of its characters and situations, drew attention to the passion, the imagery, the purity of sentiment, and the tenderness of description, which lay, 'like metals in the mine' in the neglected volume of this author. We do not, however, think that the works of Chamberlayne can ever be popular; for though his genius is of a very high order, his beauties are constantly marred by infelicities of execution. But fine passages, like the description of morning already quoted, and that which follows, abound in every part of his works: Where every bough Maintain'd a feather'd chorister to sing To drop it in those wounds, which the cleft earth Of virgin purity, he says, with singular beauty of expression The morning pearls, Dropt in the lily's spotless bosom, are Less chastely cool, ere the meridian sun In a grave narrative passage of 'Pharonnida,' the beauties of morning, of which, like Milton, he seems to have been peculiarly fond, are thus sweetly touched off The glad birds had sung A lullaby to-night, the lark was fled, On dropping wings, up from his dewy bed To fan them in the rising sunbeams. We shall close these brief extracts with the following finely executed description of a dream : A strong prophetic dream, Diverting by enigmas nature's stream, Long hovering through the portals of her mind On vain fantastic wings, at length did find The glimmerings of obstructed reason, by A brighter beam of pure divinity Fix'd in the flaming centre of the world, The heart o' th' microcosm, about which is hurl'd An adamantine world she sees, more pure, More glorious far than this-fram'd to endure This passage so strikingly resembles the splendid opening lines of Dryden's Religio Laici, as to leave the impression that it must have suggested them. ANDREW MARVELL, the assistant of Milton as Latin secretary under the protectorate of Cromwell, was the son of a clergyman, and was born at Kingston, upon Hull, where his father officiated, in 1620. He early evinced. great aptness for learning, and such was his proficiency in his studies that before he reached the thirteenth year of his age he was admitted into Trinity College, Cambridge. Some monks, however, of the Jesuit order, who resided near the university, prevailed upon him to relinquish his studies and repair to London, where they placed him, as a clerk, in a bookstore. Here his father found him, and having convinced him of his error, easily persuaded him to return to Cambridge and resume his studies. In 1638, Marvell took the degree of bachelor of arts; and about the same time he had the misfortune to lose his excellent father, who was unfortunately drowned, while crossing the Humber, in attendance upon the daughter of an intimate female friend, to her marriage in Lincolnshire. The lady, thus rendered childless, sent for young Marvell, and in order to render him all the return in her power for his sad bereavement, conferred upon him a very considerable fortune. Possessed thus of ample means for the purpose, he resolved to enlarge his information by foreign travel; and he accordingly visited, in succession, all the polite countries of the continent. At Rome he passed some time in close and severe study, and thence went to Constantinople, as secretary to the English embassy at that court. Marvell's expenses abroad had drawn so very considerably upon his fortune, that, on his return to England, in 1653, he accepted the situation of tutor in languages to the daughter of General Fairfax; and four years after he became assistant to Milton, the Latin secretary of state, upon the recommendation of that great poet himself. Shortly before the Restoration, Marvell was elected member of parliament for his native city; and though not like Waller, an eloquent speaker, yet his consistency and integrity caused him to be highly esteemed and greatly respected. He is supposed to have been the last English member of parliament who was remunerated by his constituents for his services in the house. Charles the Second delighted in his society, and believing that every man had his price, he resolved to win Marvell over to his interest. With this view he sent his treasurer, Lord Danby, to wait upon him, with an offer of a place at court, and an immediate present of a thousand pounds. But the inflexible patriot resisted his offers, and it is said humorously illustrated his independence by calling his servant to witness that he had dined for three days successively on a shoulder of mutton! Marvell preserved his integrity to the last, and till his death, continued to satirize, with great wit and pungency, the profligacy and arbitrary measures of the court. He died on the sixteenth of August, 1678, without any previous illness or visible decay, which gave rise to a report that he had been poisoned. The town of Hull voted an appropriate sum to erect a monument to his memory; but the court interfered, and forbade the votive tribute. As an author, Marvell's reputation rested, in his day, much more upon his prose than upon his poetry. As his prosaic works were, however, chiefly written for temporary purposes, they have passed out of mind with the circumstances that produced them. In 1672, he attacked the future Bishop Parker, in a piece entitled The Rehearsal Transposed, and with great force of argument vindicated the fair fame of Milton, who he says, was and is a man of as great learning and sharpness of wit as any man living. One of Marvell's treatises, An Account of the Growth of Popery and Arbitrary Government in England, was considered so formidable that a reward was offered for the discovery of the author and printer. Among the first, if not the very first traces of that vein of sportive humor and raillery on national manners and absurdities, which was afterward carried to perfection by Addison, Steele, and others, may be found in Marvell. He wrote with great liveliness, point and vigor, though he was often too coarse and personal. His poetry is easy and elegant, rather than elevated and forcible: it was an embellishment to his character of patriot and controversialist, but not a ‘substantive ground of honor and distinction.' Yet none but a good and amiable man could have written verses so full of tenderness and pathos as the following:- THE EMIGRANTS IN BERMUDAS. Where the remote Bermudas ride He lands us on a grassy stage, Safe from the storms and prelates, rage. He gave us this eternal spring Which here enamels every thing, And sends the fowls to us in care, On daily visits through the air. But apples, plants of such a price, |