When in 1667 the Dutch fleet sailed up the Thames, Marvell expressed his wrath at the gross mismanagement of public affairs in the broadside, "Last Instructions to a Painter." He had no scruples in the choice of the weapons he employed in his warfare against the corruption of the court, which he paints even blacker than do contemporary memoir writers; and his satire often descends to the level of the lampoon. The most inexcusable of his scandalous verses are perhaps those on the duchess of York. In the same year he attacked Lord Clarendon, evidently hoping that with the removal of the "betrayer of England and Flanders" mat ters would improve. But in 1672 when he wrote his "Poem on the Statue in the Stocks-Market" he had no illusions left about Charles, whom he describes as too of ten "purchased and sold," though he concludes with "Yet we'd rather have him than his bigoted brother." "An Historical Poem," "Advice to a Painter," and "Britannia and Raleigh" urge the same advice. These and other equally bold satires were probably handed round in ms., or secretly printed, and it was not until of ter the Revolution that they were collected with those of other writers in Poems on, Affairs of State (3 pts., 1689; 4 pts., 1703-07). Marvell's con troversial prose writings are wittier than his verse satires, and are free from the scurrility which defaces the "Last Instructions to a Painter." A short and brilliant example of his irony is "His Majesty's Most Gracious Speech to both Houses of Parliament" (printed in Grosart, ii. 431 seq.), in which Charles is made to take the house into the friendliest confidence on his domestic affairs.
Marvell was among the masters of Jonathan Swift, who, in the "Apology" prefixed to the Tale of a Tub, wrote that his answer to Samuel Parker could be still read with pleasure, although the pamphlets that provoked it were long since forgotten.
His Mr. Smirke, or the Divine in Mode . . . (1676) was a defence of Herbert Croft, bishop of Hereford. An Account of the Growth of Popery and Arbitrary Government in England, more particularly from the Long Prorogation of Parliament . . . (1677) was written in the same outspoken tone as the verse satires, and brought against the court the indictment of nursing designs to establish absolute monarchy and the Roman Catholic religion at the same time. A reward was offered for the author, and it is
said that Marvell was in danger of assassination. He died on Aug. 16, 1678, in consequence of an overdose of an opiate taken during an attack of ague. He was buried in the church of St. Giles-in-the Fields, London. Joint administration of his estate was granted to one of his creditors, and to his widow, Mary Marvell.
Marvell had friends among the republican thinkers of the times. Aubrey says that he was intimate with James Harrington, the author of Oceana, and he was probably a member of the "Rota" club. He kept his political virtue unspotted. There is a story that his old schoolfellow, Danby, was sent by the king to offer the incorruptible poet a place at court and a gift of LI,000, which Marvell refused with the words : "I live here to serve my constituents : the ministry may seek men for their purpose ; I am not one." Among Marvell's works is also a Defence of John Howe on God's Prescience . . . (1678), and among the spurious works fathered on him are: A Seasonable Argument . . . for a new Parliament (1677), A Seasonable Question and a Useful Answer . . . (1676), A Letter from a Parliament Man . . . (1675) , and a translation of Suetonius (1672). Marvell's satires were no doubt first printed as broadsides, but few are extant in that form. Earlier editions of his works were superseded by Dr. A. B. Grosart's laborious work, The Complete Works in Verse and Prose of Andrew Marvell, M.P. (4 vols., 1872-75) in the "Fuller Worthies Library," and by the Oxford edition of the Poems and Letters, edited (1927) by H. M. Margoliouth. See also the admirable edition of the Poems and Satires of Andrew Marvell . . (2 vols., 1892) in the "Muses' Library," where a full bibliography of his works and of the commentaries on them is provided ; The Poems and some Satires of Andrew Marvell (ed. Edward Wright, 1904) ; Andrew Marvell (19o5), by Augustine Birrell in the "English Men of Letters" series; and W. H. Bagguley, Andrew Marvell, 1621-1675 Tercentenary Tributes (1922) .