The Muses' Library : The Poems of Andrew Marvell. Edited
by G. A. Aitken. (Lawrence and Bullen.)—One might be almost inclined to believe that there were two Marvells,—the poet who wrote "The Coronet," "The Nymph and her Fawn," and the "Horatian Ode ;" and the gross satirist who wrote "Last Instructions to a Painter." The dainty volume before us contains all, and more than all, the verse of Marvell that is really worthy of preserva- tion, and Mr. Aitken has done well to print the satires as a separate publication. Marvell has gained an incontestable seat among the poets, but he has won it by a very small amount of really exquisite work ; and it may said of him with even more truth than of Thomas Gray, that no poet has attained immortality with so small a book under his arm. There are 166 pages of. English verse in this beautifully printed volume, but the pages rich in true poetry are few indeed. For these, however, we may be thankful, since in the realms of gold a poet's estate is none the less precious because it is contracted. Mr. Aitken's biographical and critical introduction is satisfactory, the notes will be found helpful, and "the poems have been printed after a fresh collation with the earliest texts." Every reader of Marvell's verse must regret that so little is known about him. The few fresh facts which the editor has been able to supply are of slight importance.
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