Marvell, Dryden, and Commercial Fishing Propaganda during the Anglo-Dutch Wars

Abstract:During the Anglo-Dutch wars of the later seventeenth century, the commercial fishing industry was a nexus of political associations and a storehouse of nationalist sentiments. Drawing upon England's heritage as a fishing culture, Andrew Marvell and John Dryden used the North Sea herring trade to generate political fantasies about the defeat of England's enemies and England's rise as a world power. Through an analysis of Marvell's "The Character of Holland" (1652–53) and Dryden's Amboyna (1673), this article argues that political propaganda catalyzed literary innovation, and it illustrates how literary fishing narratives shaped English identity in this important historical moment, when the nation began its evolution into a maritime empire.