Andrew Marvell 'died of overdose after spurning Catholic malaria cure'

Academic finds evidence that Puritan poet took opiate-based remedy that instead caused him a lethal seizure

He famously begged his mistress not to be “coy”, warning her: “The grave’s a fine and private place/But none, I think, do there embrace.”

Now new evidence uncovered in a 350-year-old manuscript suggests that Andrew Marvell went to his own grave prematurely, after he accidentally overdosed on an opiate intended to treat his malaria.