In such a tangle it is not easy to know how to proceed, and I had made and discarded several plans before I fixed upon that actually adopted. I have taken the edition of 1653, which, with its reprints almost unaltered to 1657, represents the latest text current during the author's life and during a full lustrum of that. The contents of this I have printed, putting its few spuria in italic, in the order in which they there appear. Next, I have given a few additions from 1677 (the only one of the later accessible editions which even pretends to give Cleveland, the whole Cleveland, and nothing but Cleveland) and other sources. As was notified above, complete apparatus criticus is not attempted in a text with such a history, for this would only suit a complete edition of Cleveland's whole works: but variants of apparent importance are supplied. I should add that while I myself have for many years possessed the textus quasi-receptus of 1677, the exceeding kindness of Mr. Case left on my shelves—for a time disgracefully long as far as I am concerned—copies of 1653 itself, 1654, 1659, 1662 (with the 'exquisite remains' of Dick, Tom, and Harry), 1665, 1668, 1669 (with the letters added), and the omnium gatherums of 1687 and 1699. The Bodleian copies of the Poems of 1647, 1651, 1653, 1654, 1657, 1659, 1662, 1668, 1669, 1677, 1687 have also been used to check the collations; and the stitched quartos of The King's Disguise (undated, but known to be 1647) and the News from Newcastle, 1651. The British Museum broadside of The Scots' Apostasy has also been collated. Mr. Berdan's edition I have already mentioned. I have treated the text, as far as modernization of spelling goes, on the same principles as in preceding volumes.[†]

[*] This is apparently peculiar to some, perhaps to one, copy. The British Museum, Bodleian, &c. copies have it not.

[†] Since the above Introduction was first written an additional revision of the texts has been made by Mr. Percy Simpson with assistance from Mr. Thorn-Drury, as referred to in the General Preface of this volume. There can be no doubt that their labours, superadded to those of Professor Case, have enabled me to put forth in this edition a text infinitely superior to any previous one, though my part of the credit is the least. Yet, after all, I dare say Cleveland remains, as he has been impartially described, 'a terrible tangle'.

CONTENTS

PAGE
[Preface of Cleaveland Revived][15]
[Preface of Clievelandi Vindiciae][17]
Poems from the 1653 Edition:
[To the State of Love][19]
[The Hecatomb to his Mistress][21]
[Upon Sir Thomas Martin][24]
[On the Memory of Mr. Edward King][26]
[Upon an Hermaphrodite][28]
[The Author's Hermaphrodite][30]
[* To the Hectors upon the unfortunate death of H. Compton][32]
[Square-Cap][33]
[Upon Phillis walking in a morning before sun-rising][35]
[Upon a Miser that made a great feast, and the next day died for grief][36]
[A Young Man to an Old Woman courting him ][39]
[To Mrs. K. T.][41]
[A Fair Nymph scorning a Black Boy courting her][42]
[A Dialogue between two Zealots upon the &c. in the Oath][43]
[Smectymnuus, or the Club-Divines][45]
[The Mixed Assembly][49]
[The King's Disguise][52]
[The Rebel Scot][56]
[The Scots' Apostasy][60]
[Rupertismus][62]
[Epitaph on the Earl of Strafford][67]
[An Elegy upon the Archbishop of Canterbury][68]
[* On I. W. A. B. of York][69]
[Mark Antony][71]
[The Author's Mock Song to Mark Antony][72]
[How the Commencement grows new][73]
[The Hue and Cry after Sir John Presbyter][75]
[The Antiplatonic][77]
[Fuscara, or the Bee Errant][79]
[* An Elegy upon Doctor Chad[d]erton, the first Master of Emanuel College in Cambridge][81]
[* Mary's Spikenard][82]
[To Julia to expedite her Promise][83]
Poems in 1677 But Not in 1653:
[Upon Princess Elizabeth, born the night before New Year's Day][85]
[The General Eclipse][85]
[Upon the King's Return from Scotland][86]
Poems certainly or probably genuine, not in 1653 or 1677:
[An Elegy on Ben Jonson][87]
[News from Newcastle][88]
[An Elegy upon King Charles the First][92]

As stated above, it has been thought better to follow the miscellaneous arrangement of 1653 than the classified but not strictly chronological one of 1677. For those, however, who may desire it, the chronological order of the political poems is here added: 1637-8, Princess Elizabeth's Birth; 1640, A Dialogue; 1641, Epitaph on Strafford, Smectymnuus, The King's Return; 1642, Rupertismus; 1643, Upon Sir Thomas Martin, The Mixed Assembly; 1643-4, The Rebel Scot, The Scots' Apostasy; 1645, The Hue and Cry, Elegy on Laud, The General Eclipse, The King's Disguise; 1649, Elegy on Charles I.

Preface of Cleaveland Revived
To the Discerning Reader.

〈Prefixed to Cleaveland Revived, 1659[1]〉