2 The Term Catalogues (Arber i. 18--the issue for November
25,1674.) It was entered at Stationers' Hall, June 20,
1674, "under the hands of Master Roger L'Estrange and Master
Warden Mean" with the statement that the translation was
made by "J. D. Gent."
3 This novel wa added by Starker to a translation of novels
by Gomez deQueverdoy Villegas published in November, 1670.
The name of the printer suggests a connection with Neville.
[35]11. Nicholas Machiavel's Letter in Vindication of himself and his
Writings. All written originally in Italian; and from thence newly and
faithfully Translated in English. In Folio. Price, bound, 18s. Printed
for J. Starkey at the Mitre in Flret street near Temple Bar.
[Same Title.] The Second Edition. Printed for J. Starkey, C. Harper, and
J. Amery, at the Miter, the Flower de luce, and the Peacock, in Flret
street. Folio. Price, bound, 16s.{1}
1 The Term Catalogues (Arber) i.199--the issue for
February, 1675. Entered at Stationers' Hall, February 4,
1674-75, "under the hands of Master Roger L'Estrange and
Master Warden Roycroft," with the statement that the
translation was made by "J.B. Salvo iure cuilibet." The
resort to L'Estrange in both instances is suggestive. 2 Ib
453--the issue for June, 1681. "The Works of that famous
Nicholas Machiavel" is announced in the Catalogues, June,
1675, for publication by R. Boulter, in Cornhill, and at the
same price of 18s., but I doubt if Neville had anything to
do with that translation.
It may be admitted that questions of government were eagerly discussed
in the seventeenth century. It was only needed to live under the Stuarts
and to pass through the Civil War and Protectorate to realize that
a transition from the divinely anointed ruler to a self-constituted
governor resting upon an army, and again to a trial of the legitimate
holder of royal prerogative, offered an education in matters of
political rule which naturally led to a constitutional monarchy, and
which could not be equalled in degree or lasting importance until the
American colonies of Great Britain questioned the policy of the mother
country toward her all too energetic children. Hobbes' "Leviathan, or
the Matter, Form and Power of a Commonwealth, Ecclesiastical and Civil,"
appeared in 1651, a powerful argument for absolutism, but cast in such
a form as to make the [36]writer an unwelcome adherent to royalty in
exile.
In 1652 Filmer published his "Observations concerning the Original of
Government," one of a series of tracts, completed by his "Patriarcha,"
printed after his death, which has made him a prophet of the extreme
supporters of the divine origin of kingship. These are only examples
of the political discussion of the day, and to them may be added
Harrington, whose "Oceanan" appeared in 1656.{1} It satisfied no party
or faction, and a second edition was not called for until 1700, when
other writings of the author were added. This compilation was, in 1737,
pirated by a Dublin printer, R. Reilly, who added Neville's "Plato
Redivivus;"{2} but the third English edition (1747), issued by the same
printer who made the second edition, omitted Neville's tract.
1 Entered at Stationers' Hall by Livewell Chapman,
September 19,1656. Eyre and Rivington, ii. 86.