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ELLEN SPOLSKY, Sent Away from the Garden? The Pastoral Logic of Tasso, Marvell, and Haley

In early modern pastoral texts the pleasure of the countryside
always needed to be argued because a stay in the countryside and
an immersion in sensual pleasure was not, for protagonists or for au-
diences, the unmarked case. City and court, even with their re-
straints, were clearly their first choice. The green world affords only
a temporary holiday though always an instructive one. Imagery and
plot, however, do not have to focus on only the sexual comforts of
the green world. Andrew Marvell’s poem “The Garden” (1650-52)
begins by questioning the conventional and mistaken elevation of
honor in civic society, and finds other pleasures outdoors.

How vainly men themselves amaze
To win the palm, the oak, or bays;
And their uncessant labours see
Crowned from some single herb or tree,
Whose short and narrow-vergèd Shade
Does prudently their toils upbraid;
While all flowers and all trees do close
To weave the Garlands of repose!

Fair Quiet, have I found thee here,
And Innocence thy sister dear?
Mistaken long, I sought you then
In busy companies of men.
Your sacred plants, if here below,
Only among the plants will grow.
Society is all but rude,
To this delicious solitude.
* * * * * *
What wondrous life in this I lead!
Ripe apples drop about my head;
The luscious clusters of the vine
Upon my mouth do crush their wine;
The nectarine, and curious peach,
Into my hands themselves do reach;
Stumbling on melons, as I pass,
Ensnared with flowers, I fall on Grass.

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