Nevile, Henry

, a republican writer, the second son of sir Henry Nevile, of Billingbeare, in Berkshire, was born in 1620, and became a commoner of | Merton college, Oxford, in 1635, but appears to have left it without taking a degree. In the beginning of the rebellion, he travelled on the continent, but returned in 1645, and became an active agent for republicanism. In November 1651, he was elected one of the council of state, but when he found Cromwell aspiring to the crown, under the pretence of a protectorate, he retired. He caballed with Harrington and others for their imaginary commonwealth until the Restoration, when he was taken into custody, but soon after released. From this time he lived privately until his death, Sept. 20, 1694, at Warfi eld in Berkshire. The only one of his publications worthy of notice was, his “Plato Redivivus: or a Dialogue concerning Government,168 I, which Mr. Hollis, in his republican zeal, reprinted in 1763. His other works were, 1. “The Parliament of Ladies,1647, 4to, a kind of banter on sir Henry Blount, for certain loose sentiments respecting the female sex. 2. “Shuffling, cutting, and dealing, in a game at Piquet,1659, 4to, another satire on Cromwell. 3. “The Isle of Pines: or a late discovery of a fourth island near Terra australis incognita, by Hen. Cornelius Van Sloetten,” Lond. 1668, 4to. He was also the editor of Machiavel’s works, and the defender of his principles. Wood says he wrote some poems, inserted in various collections. One in Mr. Nichols’s collection, vol. VII. p. 1, gives us no very favourable idea of his genius or decency. 1

1

Ath. Ox. vol. II.—Nichols’s Poems.—Biog. Dram.