This book explores the things which united, rather than divided, poets during the English Civil Wars, focusing less on conflicts between 'Cavaliers' and 'Roundheads' than on the friendships and shared literary enthusiasms of men of various political allegiance. Includes new readings of the early verse of John Milton and Andrew Marvell. McDowell's methodology is certainly unique [and] succeeds comprehensively in enriching and complicating the age-old debate about Marvell's political and literary loyalties. The book is a significant contribution to the field which all subsequent investigations of Marvell's historical situation will have to contend with.