“That lie of state”: Andrew Marvell, the Earl of Arlington, and Restoration newswriting

Journal article

Archival evidence reveals how literary conventions shaped Restoration newswriting. These conventions were developed through an ongoing exchange between news, poetry and drama. Identifying this interaction in practice provides an opportunity to recognise Marvell’s interrogation of the intertextual features of newswriting in his “Painter” satires. As an example, I demonstrate how the persona constructed around General Monck to explain the Restoration – of prudent, self-enclosed ratiocination – was consolidated between news and literature. Using unique archival materials, I map how this literary construction governed Secretary Arlington’s revisions to a manuscript draft of the news pamphlet A True Narrative (1666). In his narrative of the same battle in the Third Advice satire Marvell also made recourse to this formula. While he sought to interrogate the Monck persona, it was not rejected but repurposed as an antidote to administrative malpractice. Placing Marvell’s satire in this new context reveals a more nuanced engagement with state newswriting.

Authors: Avery, J

• Publication status: Published
• Peer review status: Peer reviewed
• Publisher: Taylor and Francis
• Journal: The Seventeenth Century
• Volume: 36
• Issue: 1
• Pages: 81-104
• Publication date: 2019-10-08
• Acceptance date: 2019-09-17
• DOI: 10.1080/0268117x.2019.1670237
• EISSN: 2050-4616
• ISSN: 0268-117X
• Language: English
• Keywords: FFR; Monck; satire; news; Arlington; Marvell