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

Abstract

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.