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