Et prout forma cœperit mutari, Sic amor; nova amica est quæsita; Quam frequens est et legere et videre Quam sedulam et me oportet esse Et postea cœpit mentem serenare, ART. VII.-The Character of a London Diurnall, with severall select Poems, by the same Author. Printed in the yeere 1647. 4to.; pp. 50. Poems, by J. C., with Additions, never before printed. Printed in the year 1657. Small octavo; pp. 107. * To what fine (end) is such love I cannot seem, Poems, by John Cleavland. With Additions, never before printed. Printed by W. Shears, 1659. Small octavo; pp. 244. J. Cleaveland Revived: Poems, Orations, Epistles, and other of his genuine incomparable Pieces, never before publisht. With some other exquisite Remains of the most eminent Wits of both the Universities that were his Contemporaries. London: printed for Nathaniel Brook, at the Angel, in Corn-hill, 1659. ̄ Small Poems, by John Cleavland. With Additions, never before printed. London: printed for John Williams, 1661. pp. 236; small octavo. Poems, by John Cleaveland. London: printed by W. Shears, 1662. Small octavo; pp. 238. J. Cleavland Revived: Poems, Orations, Epistles, and other of his genuine incomparable Pieces, &c. This fourth edition, besides many other never before publisht additions, is enriched with the Author's Midsummer Moon, or Lunacy Rampant, &c., now at last publisht from his original Copies, by some of his intrusted Friends. London: printed for Nathaniel Brooks, at the Angell, in Gresham College, 1668. Small octavo; pp. 182. Poems, by John Cleaveland; with Additions, never before printed. London: printed by J. R. for John Williams, 1666. pp. 230; small octavo. Clievelandi Vindicia; or Clieveland's Genuine Poems, Orations, Epistles, &c., purged from the many false and spurious ones which had usurped his name, and from innumerable Errours and Corruptions in the true Copies. To which are added many Additions never printed before. With an account of the Author's Life. Published according to the Author's own Copies. London: printed for Obadiah Blagrave, at the sign of the Bear, in St. Paul Church Yard, near the little north door, 1677. Octavo; pp. 239.. The Works of Mr. John Cleveland; containing his Poems, Orations, Epistles, collected into one volume, with the Life of the Author. London: printed by R. Holt, for Obadiah Blagrave, 1687. Octavo; pp. 546. While the first edition and sheets of Paradise Lost were slowly struggling through the mists of bigotry and party prejudice into public reputation, the Poems of Člieveland were poured forth in innumerable impressions. The reverse is now the singular contrast; and Clieveland has had the fate of those poets, described in Johnson's life of Cowley, who, "paying their court to temporary prejudices, have been at one time too much praised, and at another too much neglected." Clieveland was a Court poet; and Milton's nephew, Edward Phillips, appears to have been fully aware of the import of this branch of poetical business, in the following character of Clieveland, in his Theatrum Poetarum, or Com-pleat Collection of the Poets, (1675, 12mo.)—“ John Clieveland, a notable high-soaring witty loyalist of Cambridge, whose verses, in the time of the Civil War, began to be in great request, both for their wit and zeal to the king's cause, for which, indeed, he appeared the first, if not only, eminent champion in verse against the Presbyterian party; but most especially against the Kirk and Scotch Covenant, which he prosecuted with such a satirical fury, that the whole nation fares the worse for it, lying under a most grievous poetical censure. In fine, so great a man has Clieveland been in the estimation of the generality, in regard his conceits were out of the common road, and wittily far-fetched, that grave men, in outward appearance, have not spared, in my hearing, to affirm him the BEST OF ENGLISH POETS; and let them think so still, who ever pleases, provided it be made no article of faith." The County Antiquarians and Historians, for once, have agreed on a birth-place. John Clieveland was the son of the Reverend Thomas Clieveland, M.A., vicar of Hinckley, and rector of Stoke, in the county of Leicester. Our poet, his eldest son, was born in 1613, at Loughborough, where his father was then assistant to the rector. The genealogists will find ample information concerning the paternal pedigree, in Nash's History of Worcestershire, and in Nichols's History of Hinckley and to the latter work (whose ingenious author was a descendant of the family,) we are indebted for some curious particulars of our biographical account. The family was originally from the North Riding of Yorkshire, and derived their name from a large tract of country still called Cleveland. Clieveland was educated at Hinckley, under the reverend Richard Vynes, subsequently so distinguished among the Presbyterian party: David Lloyd, in his Memoirs of Persons who suffered for Charles I., says that Clieveland owed "the heaving of his natural fancy, by choicest elegancies in Greek and Latin, more elegantly Englished, (an exercise he improved much by,) to Mr. Vines, there schoolmaster." In his fifteenth year our poet was removed to Cambridge, and admitted of Christ's College, 4th September, 1627, and took his degree of Bachelor of Arts in 1631. He was afterwards elected Fellow of St. John's College in the same university, to which he had migrated; and there took his degree of Master of Arts, in 1635. He resided at Cambridge many years, and was the tutor of several pupils of distinguished literary and ecclesiastical rank: Dr. John Lake, bishop of Man, Bristol, and Chichester, and Dr. Drake, vicar of Pontefract, whose initials, J. L. and S. D., are prefixed to the Clievelandi Vindicia, 1677, were his pupils; and the editors of that edition of his poems which they dedicated to Dr. Turner, bishop of Rochester and Ely, also one of Clieveland's pupils. He did not take holy orders, but was admitted on the law line, (2nd November, 1640, Register of St. John's,) and afterwards on that of physic (31st January, 1642, ibid.). He did not, however, practise either of these professions; but, remaining at College, became Rhetoric Reader, and composed the speeches of the society, and the epistles to eminent persons, many of which are inserted in his works, and particularly reputed for the purity and terseness of the Latin style. Bishop Lake says, he lived about nine years, the delight and ornament of that society. To the service he did it, the library oweth much of its learning, the chapel much of its pious decency, and the college much of its renown. Clieveland, personally and strenuously, exerted himself to prevent the re-election of Cromwell for Cambridge, in 1641 (after the first election of Cromwell for that town, by a well-known stratagem, in 1640). When the election was over, and the Puritans had succeeded in returning the future Protector, Clieveland's discernment, it is said, predicted the future. consequences: Dr. Lake, his biographer, writes, that no man had more sagacious prognosticks ;" and, as an illustration, asserts, that the poet, on the termination of the election, exclaimed, with much passionate zeal,-" that single vote had ruined both church and state." It is observable, however, that this prediction, like many other prophecies, was not published till after the event. and On the breaking out of the Civil Wars, Clieveland was the first, and, indeed, the only poetical champion of the royal cause. On the first successes of the parliament party in the eastern counties, Clieveland joined the royal army, the king's head-quarters at Oxford. He was here, of course, much admired and courted for his satirical poems on the Puritanical party. The earliest and the most popular of these satires was that on the Scottish Covenanters, intituled The Rebel Scot. In Fuller's original portrait of the poet, taken at Oxford, he is drawn holding a paper, inscribed, The Rebel Scot; an engraving of which is prefixed to the seventh volume of Nichols's Select Collection of Miscellaneous Poems, 1781, 12mo. We shall extract this poem, the title of which, to prevent the present uncourteous application, we must palliate to our Scot tish readers. It was intended for a party rather than a national satire, as evidently appears by Clieveland's excepting the loyal Scots. The poem was originally published in the anonymous quarto edition of 1647. The historical events which occasioned its composition, and the individual characters alluded to, are too well known to need any detailed narration. The Rebel Scot. "How! Providence! and yet a Scottish crew? Shall quench my rage. A poet should be fear'd, By Scotch invasion to be made a prey But that there's charm in verse, I would not quote, The name of Scot without an antidote, Unless my head were red, that I might brew Yet to express a Scot to play that prize, I must (like Hocus) swallow daggers first. With all the scorpions that should whip this age. Scratch till the blood come; they'll not hurt you then. Now as the martyrs were inforc'd to take The shapes of beasts, like hypocrites at stake, |