Andrew Marvell: Traveling Tutor

It is well known that Marvell tutored the daughter of Thomas, Lord Fairfax, at Nun Appleton at the start of the 1650s. This article attempts to shed light on his less well-known stints of tutoring young gentlemen in the late 1640s and mid-1650s. It establishes the distinctive characteristics of the traveling tutor, responsible for the education and governance of a young gentleman on the tour. And it considers the opportunities for advancement, in both private and public service, presented by such responsibilities, briefly examining the successful careers of other such tutors. Curricular traces of Marvell’s tutoring are found in his poetry and prose, and the suggestion is advanced that Marvell’s experience was thought to have prepared him for, and may have led him to expect, a high-profile public career: a career which did not, in the end, materialize.