You may be looking for the candidate for authorship of Shakespeare's works, Neville's grandfather.
Henry Neville (1620-1694) was an author and politician. Largely remembered for writing The Isle of Pines, Neville was a somewhat major figure within English politics during the reign of Oliver Cromwell.
Life[]
In 1648, Neville was born in Berkshire. He was the younger brother of future Royalist general Richard Neville. A few years after King Charles I dissolved the English Parliament, Neville entered into Merton College. He later moved to University College but dropped out.
While on a trip in Europe, the English Revolution began. Neville returned to England in the later years of the war (recruiting soldiers the year before Oliver Cromwell won the English Civil War).
Shortly after the victory and beheading of King Charles, Neville anonymously published the satirical work "The Parliament of Ladies". A second similar work (The Ladies, a Second Time, Assembled in Parliament) was published, supposedly by Neville.
In the same year that Hobbes published Leviathan, Neville was invited into the Council of State. While in the Council, Henry became friendly with various "classical republicans" (most notably James Harrington) during this time but left politics after becoming suspicious of Cromwell's support for republicanism. Shortly after Cromwell became Lord Protector, he banished Neville from London.
A year after Cromwell's disollution of the Parliament, James Harrington published The Commonwealth of Oceana. Thomas Hobbes suspected that Neville had some influence over the work.
Shortly after the death of Oliver Cromwell, Neville returned to politics - becoming the MP for Reading. His opponents tried to have him arrested for atheism and blasphemy (allegedly for preferring the works of Cicero to the Bible). The charges didn't stick, and Neville was able to keep his position. During the 1660s, Neville travelled to Italy and befriended grand duke Ferdinando II de' Medici.
Three years after the return of the English monarchy, Neville was arrested for suspected involvement in the Farnley Wood Plot and imprisoned in the Tower of London. Neville was released from his imprisonment early in 1664 (due to a lack of evidence and Neville's harmlessness). Neville moved near the Bloomsbury market after this.
Four years later (and a year after Milton began publishing Paradise Lost), Neville first published The Isle of Pines (originally publishing the two parts in separate works, then in a combined pamphlet). A year after the beginning of the Third Anglo-Dutch War, Neville translated some of Niccolo Machiavelli's works (including a fabricated letter by Machiavelli).
A few years (September 20th 1694) after the abdication of King James II and the publishing of Neville's Plato Redivivus (in 1681), Neville died and was buried in a church in Warfield, Berkshire.
Writing style[]
to be added
Notable works[]
- The Parliament of Ladies
- The Ladies, a Second Time, Assembled in Parliament (supposedly written by Neville)
- Newes from the New Exchange
- Shuffling, Cutting and Dealing in a Game at Picquet
- The Isle of Pines
- Plato Redivivus
rest to be added
Sources[]
- Wikipedia
- Three Early Modern Utopias