"Sir _Henry Capel_. The blow given Harcourt was with his hat; the Speaker cast his eye upon both of them, and both respected him. He would not aggravate the thing. Marvell submits, and he would have you leave the thing as it is.
"_Sir Robert Holmes_ saw the whole action. Marvell flung about three or four times with his hat, and then gave Harcourt a box on the ear.
"Sir _Henry Capel_ desires, now that his honour is concerned, that Holmes may explain, whether he saw not Marvell with his hat only give Harcourt the stroke 'at that time.' Possibly 'at another time' it might be.
"The _Speaker_. Both Holmes and Capel are in the right. But Marvell struck Harcourt so home, that his fist, as well as his hat, hit him.
"Sir _R. Howard_ hopes the house will not have Harcourt say he received a blow, when he has not. He thinks what has been said by them both sufficient.
"Mr. _Garraway_ hopes, that by the debate we shall not make the thing greater than it is. Would have them both reprimanded for it.
"Mr. Sec. _Williamson_ submits the honour of the house to the house. Would have them made friends, and give that necessary assurance to the house, and he, for his part, remains satisfied.
"Sir _Tho. Meres_. By our long sitting together, we lose, by our familiarity and acquaintance, the decencies of the house. He has seen 500 in the house, and people very orderly; not so much as to read a letter, or set up a foot. One could scarce know anybody in the house, but him that spoke. He would have the Speaker declare that order ought to be kept; but as to that gentleman (Marvell) to rest satisfied."
The general impression left upon the mind is that of a friendly-familiar but choleric gentleman, full of likes and dislikes, readier with his tongue in the lobby than with "set" speeches in the Chamber. A solitary politician with a biting pen. Satirists must not complain if they have enemies.
Marvell's vein of satire was never worked out, and the political poems of his last decade are fuller than ever of a savage humour. How he kept his ears is a repeated wonder. He is said to have been on terms of intimate friendship with Prince Rupert, and it is a steady tradition that the king was one of his amused readers. It is hard to believe that even Charles the Second could have seen any humour, good or bad, in such a couplet:--