Conscience, Authority, and Andrew Marvell’s The First Anniversary

Seok Min YUN

doi:10.22901/trans.2013.6.1.161

In this essay I aim to offer a close reading of Andrew Marvell’s The First Anniversary of the Government under His Highness the Lord Protector (Hereafter The First Anniversary) as a work that addresses the poet’s moral dilemma arising out of his conscience in crisis. To this end, I begin by placing The First Anniversary within the internal progress of Marvell’s Interregnum poetry, thus tracing the poet’s development as a protestant casuist compelled to tackle a crisis of conscience in times of great transition. I then move onto an analysis of the language of The First Anniversary, while situating the text within an historical setting. In doing so, I specifically look at how Marvell’s private conscience reconciles with Cromwell’s public authority. My central claim is that Marvell develops his arguments along two different yet intricately related lines: first, the language of reformed religion or providential theology helps the poet grasp the divine purpose at work behind the statesman’s hold on power; a chiliastic sense of the present moment serves to endorse Cromwell’s reign as he is granted with a providential mandate. Second, the language of civic republicanism helps the poet reassess an ethical aspect of the statesman’s allegedly coercive rule; Cromwell thus stands out as one who superbly fulfills via media between license and tyranny—one who represents in person the most desirable type of authority. To sum up, Marvell’s Cromwell in The First Anniversary is depicted as a self-effacing ruler who is specifically called to draft a new constitution for a godly commonwealth yet to come.

Citation status

KCI Citation Counts (0)
REFERENCES (38)
열림/닫힘 버튼
* 2021년 이후 발행 논문의 참고문헌은 현재 구축 중입니다.

[book] Adamson, J. S. A / 1990 / Oliver Cromwell and the English Revolution / Longman : 49~92

[book] Carlyle, Thomas / 1861 / Oliver Cromwell’s Letters and Speeches. 4 vols / Bernhard Tauchnitz

[book] Chernaik, Warren / 1999 / Warren Chernaik and Martin Dzelzainis / Macmillan : 195~216

[book] Hill, Christopher / 1984 / The Experience of Defeat: Milton and Some Contemporaries / Viking

[book] Hirst, Derek / 1985 / The Golden & the Brazen World: Papers in Literature and History, 1650-1800 / University of California Press : 17~53

[book] Hirst, Derek / 1990 / Oliver Cromwell and the English Revolution / Longman : 119~148

[book] Hodge, R. I. V. / 1978 / Foreshortened Time: Andrew Marvell and 17th Century Revolutions / D. S. Brewer

[book] Holberton, Edward / 2008 / Poetry and the Cromwellian Protectorate: Culture, Politics, and Institutions / Oxford University Press

[book] Kenyon, J. P. / 1986 / The Stuart Constitution, 1603-1688: Documents and Commentary / Cambridge University Press

[book] Mazzeo, Joseph Anthony / 1964 / Renaissance and Seventeenth-Century Studies / Columbia University Press : 183~208

[journal] McGlamery, Gayla S. / 1990 / The Rhetoric of Apocalypse and Practical Politics in Marvell’s The First Anniversary of the Government under O.C / South Atlantic Review 55(4) : 19~35

[book] Milton, John / 1953 / Complete Prose Works of John Milton 8 vols / Yale University Press

[book] Norbrook, David / 1999 / Writing the English Republic: Poetry, Rhetoric, and Politics, 1627-1660 / Cambridge University Press

[book] Norbrook, David / 2001 / The Cambridge Companion to Writing of the English Revolution / Cambridge University Press : 233~250

[book] Patterson, Annabel. M / 1978 / Marvell and the Civic Crown / Princeton University Press

[book] Patterson, Annabel. M / 1994 / Andrew Marvell / Northcote House

[book] Pocock, J. G. A. / 1977 / The Political Works of James Harrington / Cambridge University Press : 15~42

[book] Pocock, J. G. A / 2003 / The Machiavellian Moment: Florentine Political Thought and the Atlantic Republican Tradition / Princeton University Press

[journal] Raymond, Joad / 1999 / Framing Liberty: Marvell’s First Anniversary and the Instrument of Government / Huntington Library Quarterly 62(3) : 313~350

[book] Raymond, Joad. / 2011 / The Cambridge Companion to Andrew Marvell / Cambridge University Press : 140~157

[journal] Smith, David / 2000 / Oliver Cromwell, the First Protectorate Parliament and Religious Reform / Parliamentary History 19(1) : 38~48

[book] Smith, David / 2007 / The Cromwellian Protectorate / Boydell : 14~31

[book] Smith, Nigel / 2007 / The Poems of Andrew Marvell / Pearson Education

[book] Spalding, Ruth / 1990 / The Diary of Bulstrode Whitelocke, 1605-1675 / Oxford University Press

[book] Spurr, John / 2011 / The Cambridge Companion to Andrew Marvell / Cambridge University Press : 158~173

[book] Stocker, Margarita / 1986 / Apocalyptic Marvell: The Second Coming in Seventeenth Century Poetry / Harvester Press

[book] Thomas, Keith / 1993 / Public Duty and Private Conscience in Seventeenth-Century England:Essays Presented to G. E. Aylmer / Oxford University Press : 29~56

[book] Wallace, John M. / 1968 / Destiny His Choice: The Loyalism of Andrew Marvell / Cambridge University Press

[journal] Wilson, A. J. N / 1974 / Andrew Marvell’s The First Anniversary of the Government under Oliver Cromwell: The Poem and Its Frame of Reference / The Modern Language Review 69 : 254~273

[book] Woolrych, Austin / 1974 / Milton and Cromwell: ‘A Short but Scandalous Night of Interruption’?” Achievements of the Left Hand: Essays on the Prose of John Milton / University of Massachusetts Press : 185~218

[book] Woolrych, Austin / 2000 / Commonwealth to Protectorate / Phoenix Press

[book] Worden, Blair / 1974 / The Rump Parliament, 1648-1653 / Cambridge University Press

[book] Worden, Blair / 1987 / Politics of Discourse: The Literature and History of Seventeenth-Century England / University of California Press : 147~180

[book] Worden, Blair / 1998 / Soldiers, Writers and Statesmen of the English Revolution / Cambridge University Press : 243~264

[book] Worden, Blair / 2007 / Literature and Politics in Cromwellian England: John Milton, Andrew Marvell, Marchamont Nedham / Oxford University Press

[book] Worden, Blair / 2009 / The English Civil Wars, 1640-1660 / Phoenix

[journal] Zwicker, Steven N. / 1974 / Models of Governance in Marvell’s The First Anniversary / Criticism 16 : 1~12

[book] Zwicker, Steven N / 1993 / Lines of Authority: Politics and English Literary Culture, 1649-1689 / Cornell University Press

KJC Korea
Journal Central

Statistics

Tools

Sharing

Issue List

Citation status