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Article: England deflowered and unmanned: the sexual image of politics in Marvell's "Last Instructions." (Andrew Marvell)
- Article from:
- Studies in English Literature, 1500-1900
- Article date:
- January 1, 1995
- Author:
CopyrightCOPYRIGHT 1995 Rice University. This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan. All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group. (Hide copyright information)
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Again Crispinus comes; and yet again, And oft, shall he be summoned to sustain His dreadful part - the monster of our times Without one virtue to redeem his crimes: Diseased, emaciate, weak in all but lust
- Juvenal, Satire 4
Andrew Marvell's late satire "The Last Instructions to a Painter" was written when Marvell was actively involved in national politics. In recent years, it has generally been mined by critics for its topical material on the conflicts and controversies of Charles II's reign or dismissed as a sprawling and disjointed triumph of outrage over art.(1) It has yet to be analyzed for its use of poetic language to achieve, in ways that a tract ...