CLEVELAND (or CLEIVELAND), JOHN (1613-58), English poet and satirist, was born at Loughborough, and edu cated at Hinckley school under the Puritan, Richard Vines. At the age of 14 he entered Christ's college, Cambridge, and in 1634 was elected to a fellowship at St. John's. He opposed the candidature of Oliver Cromwell as M.P. for Cambridge, and on the triumph of the Puritan party removed (1643) to Oxford. His gifts as a satirist were already known and he was warmly received by the King, whom he followed (1645) to Newark. In that year he was formally deprived of his Cambridge fellowship as a "malignant." He was judge-advocate in the garrison at Newark, and under the governor defended the town until in 1646 Charles I. ordered the surrender of the place to Leslie.
His indignation when the Scots surrendered the King to the Parliament is expressed in "The Rebel Scot." Cleveland wan dered over the country depending on the alms of the Royalists for bread, and in 1655 spent three months in Norwich gaol. He was released early in 1656, and found his way eventually to Gray's Inn, where Aubrey says he and Samuel Butler had a "club" every night. There he died on April 29 1658.
Cleveland's poems were more highly esteemed than Milton's by his contemporaries, and his popularity is attested by the very numerous editions of his works. His poems are therefore of great value as an index to the taste of the 17th century. His verse is frequently obscure and full of the far-fetched conceits of the "metaphysical" poets; but the energy of his invective leaves no room for obscurity in such pieces as "Smectymnuus, or the Club Divines," "Rupertismus" and "The Rebel Scot." His poem "On the Memory of Mr. Edward King," is included in the collection of verse which contained Milton's "Lycidas." For a bibliographical account of Cleveland's poems see J. M. Berdan, The Poems of John Cleveland (New York, i 9o3) , in which there is a table of the contents of 23 editions, of which the 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 ... (16S9), in which the editor, E. Williamson, says he inserted poems by other authors, trusting to the critical faculty of the readers to distinguish Cleveland's work from the rest ; Clievelandi Vindiciae ... (1677), edited by two of Cleveland's former pupils, Bishop Lake and S. Drake, who profess to take out the spurious pieces ; and a careless compilation, The Works of John Cleve land ... (1687) , containing poems taken from all these sources.