Bishop Burnet, in his delightful history, supplies us with sketches of the leading Parliamentarians of Marvell's day, yet to Marvell himself he refers but once, and then not by name but as "the liveliest droll of the age," words which mean much but tell little.

In Clarendon's _Autobiography_, another book which lets the reader into the very clash and crowd of life, there is no mention of one of the author's most bitter and cruel enemies.

With Prince Rupert, Marvell was credited by his contemporaries with a great intimacy; he was a friend of Harrington's; it may be he was a member of the once famous "Rota" Club; it is impossible to resist the conviction that wherever he went he made a great impression, that he was a central figure in the lobbies of the House of Commons and a man of much account; yet no record survives either to convince posterity of his social charm or even to convey any exact notion of his personal character.
A somewhat solitary man he would appear to have been, though fond of occasional jollity.

He lived alone in lodgings, and was much immersed in business, about a good deal of which we know nothing except that it took him abroad.

His death was sudden, and when three years afterwards the first edition of his poems made its appearance, it was prefaced by a certificate signed "Mary Marvell," to the effect that everything in the book was printed "according to the copies of my late dear husband." Until after Marvell's death we never hear of Mrs.Marvell, and with this signed certificate she disappears.