BIOGRAPHY: Andrew Marvell: The ChameleonBy Nigel Smith, Yale University Press, 400pp. £25

ANDREW MARVELL is best known to readers of English poetry as the author of several wonderful poems about gardens and of one of the great erotic lyrics of all time, To His Coy Mistress– "Had we but world enough, and time, This coyness, lady, were no crime." (The point is, of course, that we do not have all the time in the world, that we should therefore make love without delay, "And tear our pleasures with rough strife, Thorough the iron gates of life".) He also wrote great, but complex and puzzling, political poems. In the pantheon of 17th-century English poetry he is right at the top, with Milton, Donne and Dryden.

Any discussion of Marvell's work leads to a consideration of his life: who was this man who wrote great poems in praise of both Cromwell and Charles II? How did someone who had known Milton well and worked as a senior civil servant for the Protectorate regime remain an MP in the Restoration Parliament and take an active part in the political crises of the 1660s and 1670s? How could the author of such a sexy poem as To His Coy Mistressapparently have had no sexual relationships? Why did Marvell cover up the details of his private life so thoroughly? Was he secretly married? Was he a spy and if so, for whom and when? What really drove this reclusive and enigmatic man to undertake such vigorous satirical and controversial writing? How was he regarded by his contemporaries?

In Andrew Marvell: The ChameleonNigel Smith, editor of the definitive edition of Marvell's poetry, addresses all these questions (and many more) by weaving close examination of Marvell's texts into an outline of his life. Smith also tries to untangle the complex political and social events behind the composition of the poems and the prose. The result is a monumental book that sheds new light not only on Marvell but also on the shifting political world of mid-17th-century England – a world that must have been thoroughly confusing to live through: during Marvell's lifetime England moved from the autocratic reign of Charles I to civil war and the execution of the king, to the Commonwealth, to the Protectorate and finally to the restored monarchy of Charles II, with its favourites, its corruptions and its military and natural disasters.

The outline of Marvell’s life seems simple enough. Born near Hull in 1621 and educated at Cambridge, he spent his early adult years travelling on the Continent, probably accompanying young noblemen as a tutor and certainly learning several languages. Back in England he was picked out by Milton as a suitable candidate for the civil service and eventually joined the Protectorate’s administration as a senior Latin secretary; he was later a diplomatic secretary, his skill at languages serving him well in his public functions. He was elected MP for Hull, a position he regained after the restoration of Charles II, in 1660, and was heavily involved in the political intrigues of the 1660s and 1670s. He died, probably unmarried, in 1678.

As TS Eliot noted, and as Smith reiterates, Marvell's best poetry is the product of European (or Latin) culture. Like his great Roman forebears he was a public poet; much of his verse, and all his prose, was written for specific occasions, mostly political ones. To understand the significance of his work we need to have a considerable body of contextual information; references need clarification, and the allegiances and counter-allegiances of pre- and post-Restoration politics need to be explained. Smith explicates this confusing and rapidly changing environment with assurance and skill, writing from a position of unrivalled knowledge of the machinations of Marvell and his opponents; all this detail makes for heavy reading in places, however, and one is further hampered without the texts of Marvell's work to hand, as Smith often refers to lines of poems not printed in the book. The decision to follow a strictly chronological sequence also leads to some awkwardness as we move too rapidly from subject to subject (for instance on pp248-50, where the third Dutch war, the epitaph for Frances Jones, the problems of a lighthouse near Hull, parliamentary politics and Marvell's great poem The Rehearsal Transpos'drush upon one another in confusing variety).

But for the stout-hearted, particularly those who already know a lot about Restoration politics and the links between art and public life in the age, this is a great book. Marvell’s garden poems make sense once one understands the worlds in which his patrons lived: his political satires and lampoons spring to life when their references are explained. His conscientiousness as an MP is perhaps a surprise – he served on more than 120 committees, including the committee inquiring into the cause of the Fire of London – and constantly fought for his constituents in Hull. But while Marvell the politician had to take sides and fight battles, Marvell the poet managed to observe the world with an ironic detachment.

Still, even Nigel Smith must leave many questions about Marvell’s life, opinions and true motivations unanswered – I can’t recall ever reading a scholarly book so full of question marks.

Andrew Carpenter is emeritus professor of English at University College Dublin. His most recent book (co-edited with Marc Caball) is Oral and Print Cultures in Ireland 1600-1900