Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/134

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124
The Life of

Andrew Marvel, Eſq;[1]

This ingenious gentleman was the ſon of Mr. Andrew Marvel, Miniſter and Schoolmaſter of Kingſton upon Hull in Yorkſhire, and was born in that town in the year 1620.[2] He was admitted into Trinity College in Cambridge December 14, 1633, where he had not been long before his ſtudies were interrupted by the following accident:

Some Jeſuits with whom he familiarly converſed, obſerving in him a genius beyond his years, uſed their utmoſt efforts to proſelyte him to their faith, which they imagined they could more eaſily accompliſh while he was yet young. They ſo far ſucceeded as to ſeduce him from the college, and carry him to London, where, after ſome months abſence, his father found him in a Bookſeller’s ſhop, and prevailed upon him to return to the college.

He afterwards purſued his ſtudies with the moſt indefatigable application, and in the year 1638, took the degree of bachelor of arts, and the ſame year was admitted ſcholar of the houſe, that is,

  1. A diſappointment occaſioned our throwing this life out of the chronological order. But we hope the candid reader will pardon a fault of this kind: we only wiſh he may find nothing of more conſequence to accuſe us of.
  2. Cook’s Life of Andrew Marvel, Eſq; prefixed to the firſt volume of Mr. Marvel’s Works, London 1726.
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