In his own day John Cleveland was one of the most popular living British poets. Between 1647 and 1687 there appeared at least twenty-five editions of his poetry, remarkable testimony to the wide appeal of his work. Contemporaries viewed him as a witty lyricist and brilliant satirist, as a genius in producing strong lines, and as a leading spokesperson for the Royalist faction in the dark days of the civil wars and their aftermath. An influence on many other authors, Cleveland most obviously affected Andrew Marvell and Samuel Butler. In the years after his death Cleveland's style was too extravagant for John Dryden, and Samuel Johnson in the eighteenth century chastised his conceits. In the twentieth century he has received attention as one of the last and most decadent of the Metaphysical poets. In recent years Cleveland has also been treated as an important figure in the history of political...