Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Calver, Edward
CALVER, EDWARD (fl. 1649), poet, was a puritan; the inscription under his portrait describes him as a ‘Gent. of Wilbie, in the county of Suffolk.’ It is said that he was a relation of Bernard Calver, or Calvert, of Andover, who went from Southwark to Calais on 17 July 1620, and back again the same day. His works are: 1. ‘Passion and Discretion, in Youth and Age,’ London, 1641, 4to. The work is divided into two books, the second of which is preceded by a prose epistle to his friend and kinsman, Master John Strut. The work is written in a plain and serious style, and abounds in pious and moral reflections on the passions, expressed in tame and prosaic language. The copy in the Grenville library has four appropriate plates, by Stent, which are rarely met with. 2. ‘Divine Passions, piously and pathetically expressed, in three books,’ London, 1643, 4to. 3. ‘Englands Sad Posture; or, A true Description of the present Estate of poore distressed England, and of the lamentable Condition of these distracted times, since the beginning of this Civill and unnaturall Warr. Presented to the Right Honourable, Pious, and Valiant Edward Earle of Manchester,’ London, 1644, 8vo. With portraits of the Earl of Manchester, engraved by Cross, and of the author, engraved by Hollar. 4. ‘Calvers Royal Vision; with his most humble addresses to his majesties royall person,’ in verse, London, 1648, 4to. 5. ‘Englands Fortresse, exemplified in the most renowned and victorious, his Excellency the Lord Fairfax. Humbly presented unto his Excellency by E. C., a lover of peace,’ a eulogium in verse, London, 1648, 8vo. 6. ‘Zion's thankfull Echoes from the Clifts of Ireland. Of the little Church of Christ in Ireland, warbling out the humble and gratefull addresses to her elder sister in England. And in particular to the Parliament, to his Excellency, and to his Army, or that part assigned to her assistance, now in her low, yet hopeful condition,’ London, 1649, 4to.
[Addit. MSS. 19122 f. 107, 19165 f. 199, 24492 f. 26; Granger's Biog. Hist. of England (1824), iii. 106; Bromley's Cat. of Engr. Portraits, 77; Corser's Collect. Anglo-Poetica, iii. 237–42; Bibl. Anglo-Poetica, 433; Cat. of Printed Books in Brit. Mus.; Bibl. Grenvilliana, ii. 82.]