Marvell and Waller

Marvell’s appropriations, revisions, and corrections of Waller’s panegyrics on the courts of Charles I and II and on the Protector are well known, but reveal only one aspect of the connections between the two writers. The traffic went both ways: not only did Marvell appropriate Waller, Waller also responded to Marvell. And although the tension between them is now typically assigned to ideological opposition, such differences are often amplified by hindsight. The two men certainly clashed over the Second Dutch War, but both appear to have been strong early supporters of the Duke of York’s faction, which promoted the war for national glory and enrichment. The friction between Marvell and Waller may have been in large part the effect of social and institutional proximity, and perhaps involved a degree of resentment on the part of the hard-working younger poet for the apparently effortless success of his senior rival.