Rachel Jevon
{{Infobox person
| birth_place = Broome, Worcestershire, England
| baptised = 23 January 1627
| occupation = poet
| notable_works = Exultationis Carmen To the Kings Most Excellent Majesty upon his most Desired Return (1660)
}}
{{Short description|English poet}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=April 2022}}{{Use British English|date=April 2025}}
Rachel Jevon (1627 – ?) was an English poet of the mid-17th century. She most known for her poem Exultationis Carmen To the Kings Most Excellent Majesty upon his most Desired Return, published in Latin and English versions in 1660.Crowley, Joseph P. (3 January 2008) {{Cite ODNB|id=69960|title=Jevon, Rachel|url=https://doi.org/10.1093/ref:odnb/69960}}
Biography
Jevon was probably born in Broome, Worcestershire, where she was baptised on 23 January 1627.{{cite book |last1=Ostovich |first1=Helen |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1T6TAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA339 |title=Reading Early Modern Women: An Anthology of Texts in Manuscript and Print, 1550-1700 |last2=Sauer |first2=Elizabeth |date=2 August 2004 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-135-88769-8 |pages=339}} Her father, Daniell Jevon (died 1654), was the rector of Broom, and Rachel's mother was called Elizabeth, maiden name unknown. According to a petition presented to the king in 1662, Rachel's father was a Royalist supporter during the English Civil War who had been imprisoned for his loyalty to the crown. Very little else is known about her family or life, but her writings suggest she was well educated, as it was rare for women of the period to publish in Latin.{{Cite book |last=Hobby |first=Elaine |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UosLAQAAMAAJ&q=jevon |title=Virtue of Necessity: English Women's Writing, 1649-88 |date=1989 |publisher=University of Michigan Press |isbn=978-0-472-10125-2 |pages=18–19 |language=en}}
Jevon's poem Exultationis Carmen To the Kings Most Excellent Majesty upon his most Desired Return consisted of 190 lines of iambic pentameter couplets and was written in both English and Latin versions. It was written to celebrate the Stuart Restoration of King Charles II of England,{{Cite book |last=Sharpe |first=Kevin |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=MfUMAAAAQBAJ&dq=rachel+jevon&pg=PA491 |title=Rebranding Rule: The Restoration and Revolution Monarchy, 1660-1714 |date=2013-06-30 |publisher=Yale University Press |isbn=978-0-300-16491-6 |language=en}} and narrates his royal lineage, his escape to France after defeat at the Battle of Worcester in 1651, his travels on the European continent and his triumphal return to England. It includes allusions to biblical and classical literature and depicts the King as a spirit of peace, the spring, wearing five crowns, as a royal lion, as a royal oak, as Biblical figure King David, as a bridegroom, and as the sun. She claims that she was helpless to resist celebrating the king's return in verse.{{Cite book |last=LeGates |first=Marlene |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=K5jDe38ll7IC&dq=rachel+jevon&pg=PA70 |title=In Their Time: A History of Feminism in Western Society |date=2001 |publisher=Psychology Press |isbn=978-0-415-93097-0 |pages=70 |language=en}}
According to the subtitle of the poem, it was "presented with her own hand" on 16 August of 1660. It was printed by John Macock.{{cite web|url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/e/eebo2/A87584.0001.001?view=toc|title=Exultationis carmen to the Kings most Excellent Majesty upon his most desired return|website=Early English Books|date=9 July 1660 |publisher=Text Creation Partnership|access-date=2 September 2020}}
Early in Charles's reign, after his marriage to Catherine of Braganza in May 1662, Rachel presented two petitions seeking employment as a servant in the royal household. It is unknown if she was appointed to a position.