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CLEVELAND (or CLEIVELAND), JOHN (1613...

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Originally appearing in Volume V06, Page 501 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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CLEVELAND (or CLEIVELAND), See also:JOHN (1613—1658)  , See also:English poet and satirist, was See also:born at See also:Loughborough, where he was baptized on the loth of See also:June 1613 . His See also:father was assistant to the See also:rector and afterwards See also:vicar of See also:Hinckley . See also:John See also:Cleveland was educated at Hinckley school under See also:Richard Vines, who is described by See also:Fuller as a See also:champion of the Puritan party . In his fifteenth See also:year he was entered at See also:Christ's See also:College, See also:Cambridge, and in 1634 was elected to a fellowship at St John's . He took his M.A. degree in 1635, and was appointed college See also:tutor and reader in See also:rhetoric . His Latinity and oratorical See also:powers were warmly praised by Fuller, who also commends the " lofty See also:fancy " of his See also:verse . He eagerly opposed the candidature of See also:Oliver See also:Cromwell as M.P. for Cambridge, and when the Puritan party triumphed there Cleveland, like many other Cambridge students, found his way (1643) to See also:Oxford . His gifts as a satirist were already known, and he was warmly received by the See also:king, whom he followed (1645) to See also:Newark . In that year he was formally deprived of his Cambridge fellowship as a " See also:malignant." He was See also:judge-See also:advocate in the See also:garrison at Newark, and under" the See also:governor defended the See also:town until in 1646 See also:Charles I. ordered the surrender of the See also:place to See also:Leslie; when there is a curious See also:story that the Scottish See also:general contemptuously dismissed him as a See also:mere ballad-monger . He saw Charles's See also:error in giving himself into the hands of the Scots, and his indignation when they surrendered the king to the See also:Parliament is expressed in the vigorous verses of " The See also:Rebel See also:Scot," the sting of which survives even now . Cleveland wandered over the See also:country depending on the See also:alms of the Royalists for See also:bread . He at length found a See also:refuge at See also:Norwich in the See also:house of See also:Edward See also:Cooke, but in 1655 he was arrested as being of no particular occupation, and moreover a See also:man whose See also:great abilities " rendered him able to do the greater disservice." He spent three months in See also:prison at See also:Yarmouth, but was released by See also:order of Cromwell, to whom he addressed a manly See also:appeal, in which he declared his fidelity to the royal house, pointing out at the same See also:time that his poverty and inoffensiveness were sufficient assurance that his freedom was no menace to Cromwell's See also:government .

He was released See also:

early in 1656, and seems to have renewed his wanderings, finding his way eventually to See also:Gray's See also:Inn, where See also:Aubrey says he and See also:Samuel See also:Butler had a " See also:club " every See also:night . There he died on the 29th of See also:April 1658 . Cleveland's poems were more highly esteemed than See also:Milton's by his contemporaries, and his popularity is attested by the very numerous See also:editions of his See also:works . His poems are therefore of great value as an See also:index to the See also:taste of the 17th See also:century . His verse is frequently obscure and full of the far-fetched conceits of the " metaphysical " poets, none of whom surpassed the ingenuity of " Fuscara, or the See also:Bee Errant." His satires are vigorous See also:personal attacks, the See also:interest of which is, from the nature of the subject, often ephemeral; but the See also:energy of his invective leaves no See also:room for obscurity in such pieces as " Smectymnuus, or the Club Divines," " Rupertismus " and " The Rebel Scot." Cleveland's works are: " See also:Character of a See also:London Diurnal," a See also:broadside; Monumentum regale ... (1649), chiefly by Cleveland, containing three of his elegies on the king; " The King's Disguise " (1646); " On the Memory of Mr Edward King," in the collection of verse which also included Milton's " Lycidas," and many detached poems . For a See also:bibliographical See also:account of Cleveland's peoms see J . M . Berdan, The Poems of John Cleveland (New See also:York, 1903), in which there is a table of the contents of twenty-three editions, of which the See also:chief are: The Character of a London Diurnal, with Several Select Poems (1647); Poems . By John Cleavland . With additions, never before printed (1659); J . Cleaveland Revived .

. . (1659), in which the editor, E . See also:

Williamson, says he inserted poems by other authors, trusting to the See also:critical See also:faculty of the readers to distinguish Cleveland's See also:work from the See also:rest; Clievelandi Vindiciae . (1677), edited by two of Cleveland's former pupils, See also:Bishop See also:Lake and S . See also:Drake, who profess to take out the See also:spurious pieces; and a careless compilation, The Works of John Cleveland . . . (1687), containing poems taken from all these See also:sources . A prefatory See also:note by Williamson makes it clear that only a small proportion of Cleveland's See also:political poems have survived, many of them having been dispersed in MS. among his See also:friends and so lost, and that he refused to authenticate an edition of his works, although most of the earlier collections were genuine .

End of Article: CLEVELAND (or CLEIVELAND), JOHN (1613—1658)
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