Plato Redivivus, Or, A Dialogue Concerning Government

Henry Neville (1620-1694) was an English author and satirist, best remembered for his tale of shipwreck and dystopia, The Isle of Pines: An Essay in Bibliography, published in 1668. He spent most of the period of the English Civil War traveling on the European continent. In April 1649 he was elected to Parliament to fill a vacancy as MP for Abingdon. By the end of 1651, he was a member of the Council of State, but found himself so hostile to Cromwell that he temporarily retired from active politics. However, he returned to Parliament in 1656, representing Reading, having become a member of Harrington's republican group. After the Restoration, he was arrested for treasonable practices in 1663 but was released without punishment. He spent the rest of his life in quiet writing and scholarship. Neville wrote a number of satires, the best known being The Parliament of Ladies. He also published translations from Latin and Italian, including works of Machiavelli.

Neville is best known for satires on the genders and The Isle of Pines, but he also wrote Plato Redivivus, a political dialogue arguing that the growing number of property owners in England necessitated a wider distribution of political power. Neville explained the purpose of this treatise, stating, “Wherein, By Observations Drawn From Other Kingdoms And States, Both Ancient And Modern, An Endeavor Is Used To Discover The Present Politic Distemper Of Our Own, With Causes And Remedies.”

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