With such a combination of interests, political, historical, poetical (as regards school and period), and prosodic, it will hardly be denied that Cleveland deserves his place here. But I must repeat that I am here endeavouring to deal with him strictly on the general principles of this Collection, and am in no way trying to occupy the ground so as to keep out a more elaborate edition. I have had help from my friends Professors Firth and Case in information and correction of contemporary facts; but full comment on Cleveland, from the historical side, would nearly fill this volume: and the problems of the work attributed to him would suffice for a very substantial bibliographical monograph. Neither of these, nor any exhaustive apparatus, even of the textual kind, do I pretend to supply. I simply endeavour--and have spent not a little time and trouble in endeavouring--to provide the student and lover of English literature with an accessible copy, sufficient in amount and fairly trustworthy in substance, of a curious and memorable figure in English verse.[11] [Footnote 1: _Poems of John Cleveland_, by John M. Berdan, New York, 1903.] [Footnote 2: It has been said that we ought to adopt this spelling because of its connexion with a district of Yorkshire, which, before it was ransacked for iron ore, was both wild and beautiful. But as everybody now spells _this_ 'Cleveland', and as the title derived from it has always been so spelt, the argument seems an odd one.] [Footnote 3: I am not certain that I have seen a copy of this, and its existence has been denied: but I have certainly seen it catalogued somewhere. It should perhaps be added that _1699_ is only _1687_ with a fresh title.] [Footnote 4: The most important treatments besides Johnson's, treatments usefully separated in date, are contained in the _Retrospective Review_ (vol. xii), Mr. Gosse's remarks in _From Shakespeare to Pope_, and Mr. Berdan's in the edition above mentioned.] [Footnote 5: They were both St. John's men; and Benlowes must have been a benefactor of the College (see Evelyn's _Diary_) while Cleveland was Fellow. Also Cleveland's Poems had been published, and again and again republished, years before _Theophila_ appeared.]