years later Marston lost a sincere friend and literary comrade in the gifted and unhappy James Thomson [q. v.] His sight had also become extinct, and his pecuniary means were greatly diminished.
The sadness of his poetry is therefore no subject for surprise, and is chiefly to be regretted as a barrier in the way of a literary renown which might have stood much higher under happier circumstances. The three volumes of poetry published in his lifetime, 'Song-Tide and other Poems' (1871), 'All in All' (1875), and 'Wind Voices' (1883), abound with beautiful thoughts expressed in beautiful language, but soon become tedious from the monotony, not merely of sentiment, but of diction and poetical form. The sonnet was undoubtedly best adapted to render his usual vein of feeling; and that or allied forms of verse became so habitual with him that he seemed to experience a difficulty in casting his thoughts into any other mould. Supreme excellence, however, is at once so indispensable in the sonnet and so difficult to attain, that although Marston did not always fall short of it, the greater part of his work in this department can only be classed as second-rate. He also suffered from the too faithful following, degenerating into imitation, of a greater master, Rossetti. It was, however, Rossetti's kindly appreciation of his disciple, and like generosity on the part of Mr. Swinburne, that formed the main solace of Marston's infelicitous life. His own generous and open disposition procured him many warm friends, among them his subsequent editors and biographers, Mrs. Louise Chandler Moulton, the American poetess, and Mr. William Sharp. The former was especially instrumental in finding a public in America for the numerous short stories by which the author partly supported himself, and which, after his death, were collected by Mr. Sharp under the title of 'For a Song's Sake and other Stories' (1887, 8vo).
Marston's relations with his father also were singularly affectionate; he usually accompanied him in a summer tour, and it was an one of these excursions that he received the sunstroke which accelerated the paralytic attack that befell him early in 1887, and proved fatal on 13 Feb. His memory was honoured by a fine elegy from Mr. Swinburne's pen, printed in the 'Fortnightly Review' for January 1891; and two posthumous collections of his poems were published by Mrs. Moulton, under the titles of 'Garden Secrets' (1887) and 'A Last Harvest' (1891 ). She also published in 1892 'The Collected Poems of Philip Bourke Marston, with Biographical Sketch and Portrait.'
[Memoirs of Philip Bourke Marston, by L. C. Moulton and W. Sharp, prefixed to A Last Harvest and For a Song's Sake; personal knowledge.]
MARTEN. [See also Martin, Martine, and Martyn.]
MARTEN, Sir HENRY (1562?–1641), civilian, son of Anthony Marten by Margaret, daughter of John Yate of Lyford, Berkshire, born in the parish of St. Michael Bassishaw, London, probably in 1562, was educated at Winchester School and New College, Oxford, where he matriculated 24 Nov. 1581, aged 19, and was elected to a fellowship in 1582. He had also a little property in London, left him by his father, worth 40l. a year. By the advice of Lancelot Andrewes [q. v.] he applied himself to the study of the civil and canon law, and adopted the practice of holding weekly disputations on moot points raised by cases pending in the high commission court. He graduated B.C.L. in 1587 and D.C.L. in 1592, and was admitted a member of the College of Advocates on 16 Oct. 1596. In August 1605 he took part in the disputations held before the king at Oxford. Marten early acquired an extensive practice in the admiralty, prerogative, and high commission courts, and was appointed official of the archdeaconry of Berkshire. On 3 March 1608-9 he was made king's advocate, and in March 1612-13 he was employed on a mission to the Palatinate in connection with the marriage settlement of the Lady Elizabeth. He was appointed chancellor of the diocese of London in 1616, was knighted at Hampton Court on 16 Jan. 1616-17, and in the following October was made judge of the admiralty court. He was one of the commissioners appointed in January 1618-19 to negotiate a treaty of peace between the English and Dutch East India Companies, and in common with his colleagues was thought to have sold the interests of the English company for money (Court and Times of James I, ii. 183).
On 29 April 1620 Marten was placed on the high commission. He also sat on the special commission which in October 1621 tried and determined in the negative the curious question whether Archbishop Abbot was incapacitated for his functions by his involuntary homicide. As judge of the admiralty court the case of Sir John Eliot and the pirate Nutt came before him in July 1623, but only on a special reference to take the necessary evidence and report to the privy council. His conduct in keeping strictly within the terms of the reference, and expressing no opinion on the merits of
