Colvil, Samuel

Samuel Colvil (fl.17th century), was the son of Elizabeth Melville (fl.1599-1631), known for her own religious writings, including an allegorical poem based on Calvinist doctrines, Ane Godlie Dreame . Her father was Sir James Melville of Halhill, diplomat and courtier, and she married John Colvil, commendator of the abbey at Culross. Samuel was a political satirist who came to public prominence after Cromwell's Commonwealth, with his attack on militant Puritanism in his Mock Poem . This was heavily influenced by Samuel Butler's Hudibras, itself a satire on the Cromwellians and on the Presbyterian church written by a staunch Royalist and Anglican. Colvil's version was known as the Scottish Hudibras . He also wrote The grand imposter discovered: or a historical dispute of the Papacy and Popish religion; 1. Demonstrating the newness of both; 2. By what artifices they are maintained; 3. The contradictions of the Roman doctors in defending them, published in 1673 in Edinburgh and dedicated to the duke of Lauderdale; and Prophecy anent the Union, published in 1707.

From the guide to the Transcription of part two of Samuel Colvil, Mock Poem, c.1690., c.1690, (University of St Andrews)

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