Page:The lives of the poets of Great Britain and Ireland to the time of Dean Swift - Volume 4.djvu/145

Rh But Mr. Cooke informs us, ‘that theſe were publiſhed with a mercenary view; and indeed not at all to the honour of the deceaſed, by a woman with whom he lodged, who hoped by this ſtratagem to ſhare in what he left behind him.’

He was never married, and the ſame gentleman obſerves in another place, that in the editions of 1681, there are ſuch groſs errors, eſpecially in the Latin Poems, as make ſeveral lines unintelligible; and that in the volume of Poems on Affairs of State, the ſame miſtakes are as frequent; and in thoſe, ſome pieces are attributed to our author, which he never wrote. Moſt of his Poems printed in Dryden’s Miſcellanies are ſo imperfect, that whole ſtanzas are omitted in many places.

Theſe Mr. Cooke has reſtored in his edition of the works of Andrew Marvel, Eſq; printed at London 1726, in two volumes, and corrected ſuch faults as in either of the two former editions obſcure the ſenſe: in this edition are alſo added, ſome poems from original manuſcripts. Great care has likewiſe been taken by Mr. Cooke, to retrench ſuch pieces as he was ſure were not genuine.

Mr. Marvel, conſidered as a ſtateſman, makes a more conſpicuous figure than any of the age in which he lived, the preceeding, or the ſubſequent: He poſſeſſed the firſt quality of a ſtateſman, that is, inviolable integrity, and a heart ſo confirmed againſt corruption, that neither indigence, a love of pomp, or even dangers the moſt formidable, could move his ſettled purpoſe, to purſue in every reſpect, the intereſt of his country.

That Marvel underſtood the true intereſt of his country, is abundantly clear, from the great reverence paid to his opinion, by ſuch perſons as were moſt able to diſcern, and moſt diſpoſed to promote its welfare. He