The date of Marvell's 'Hortus'

TY - JOUR

T1 - The date of Marvell's 'Hortus'

AU - Moul, Victoria

PY - 2018/6/18

Y1 - 2018/6/18

N2 - A post-Restoration dating of Marvell’s poem ‘The Garden’ and its Latin companion piece ‘Hortus’ to around 1668 has been generally accepted in recent criticism, despite some counter-arguments from those who defend the traditional dating to Marvell’s period at Nun Appleton (1650-2). None of these analyses, however, have attempted to date the Latin rather than the English poem. This article offers a new dating of ‘Hortus’ to around 1654, during Marvell’s time at Eton as tutor to John Dutton. The argument is based on a series of parallels and allusions to Latin poetry either dating from, or demonstrably particularly fashionable in, the period between 1646 and 1654, as well as close attention to the political resonance and contemporary understanding of the poem’s classical sources. As such, it is also a casestudy in the dating of neo-Latin verse, of which many thousands of examples survive from seventeenth-century England.

AB - A post-Restoration dating of Marvell’s poem ‘The Garden’ and its Latin companion piece ‘Hortus’ to around 1668 has been generally accepted in recent criticism, despite some counter-arguments from those who defend the traditional dating to Marvell’s period at Nun Appleton (1650-2). None of these analyses, however, have attempted to date the Latin rather than the English poem. This article offers a new dating of ‘Hortus’ to around 1654, during Marvell’s time at Eton as tutor to John Dutton. The argument is based on a series of parallels and allusions to Latin poetry either dating from, or demonstrably particularly fashionable in, the period between 1646 and 1654, as well as close attention to the political resonance and contemporary understanding of the poem’s classical sources. As such, it is also a casestudy in the dating of neo-Latin verse, of which many thousands of examples survive from seventeenth-century England.

KW - Andrew Marvell

KW - Cromwell

KW - garden

KW - hortus

KW - neo-Latin poetry

KW - Protectorate

U2 - 10.1080/0268117X.2018.1482228

DO - 10.1080/0268117X.2018.1482228

M3 - Article

SN - 0268-117X

JO - SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

JF - SEVENTEENTH CENTURY

ER -