As a specimen of what old Anthony calls “a jerking flirting way of writing,” I transcribe the titles of these answers which Marvell received. As Marvell had nicknamed Parker, Bayes, the quaint humour of one entitled his reply, “Rosemary and Bayes;” another, “The Transproser Rehearsed, or the Fifth Act of Mr. Bayes’s Play;” another, “Gregory Father Greybeard, with his Vizard off;” another formed “a Commonplace Book out of the Rehearsal, digested under heads;” and lastly, “Stoo him Bayes, or some Animadversions on the Humour of writing Rehearsals.”—Biog. Brit. p. 3055.
This was the very Bartlemy-fair of wit!
The title will convey some notion of its intolerant principles: “A Discourse of Ecclesiastical Polity, wherein the authority of the Civil Magistrate over the Consciences of Subjects, in matters of external Religion, is asserted.”
Milton had become acquainted with Marvell when travelling in Italy, where he had gone to perfect his studies. He returned to England in 1653, and was connected with the Cromwellian party, through the introduction of Milton, in 1657. The great poet was at that time secretary to Cromwell, and he became his assistant-secretary. He afterwards represented his native town of Hull in Parliament.—Ed.
Vanus, pannosus, et famelicus poetaster œnopolis quovis vapulans, fuste et calce indies petulantiæ pœnas tulit—are the words in Parker’s “De Rebus sui Temporis Commentariorum,” p. 275.