A day with Cromwell: a drama of history, in five acts, by Auctor.

  • Benjamin Ward Richardson
Date:
1869
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A day with Cromwell: a drama of history, in five acts, by Auctor. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

    15/92 (page 9)
    Josh.—Truly my Lord, ’tis otherwise rather wise; he would even mingle his hlood with your Highness’s. He would win the Lady Frances! Cromwell.—Eh ! eh ! eh ! I know, I know, I know! And thou hast caught them, hast thou, Joshua? Thou crafty old fox ! I’ll promote thee, Joshua, I’ll promote thee, man; why thou should’st not he Sir Joshua, I know not. Thou’st caught them, hast thou ? Josh.—My Lord, for three morns running, hath Mr. Jeremy White thus walked in this retirement, hook in hand, buried in Aris- totle’s, or some such grammars; and at the same time, my Lady and her maid, Deborah Standupright, with her bobtail dog (so called for her slender altitude) with her: and both these read- ing also. So passed they many times, my Lord, up and down, my Lord, and sighing thus [imitates]. See, see, my Lord, here come they; stand thou here, my Lord, and thou wilt see with thine own eyes, and still not be seen. Cromwell and Joshua retire. Enter Jeremy White, walking and reading. Enter opposite, Lady Frances and Deborah, reading. Jeremy.—■[Passing, sighs deeply]. Francis.—[Passing, sighs softly J. Deborah.—[Following Frances, reads just audibly and contemptuously], “ And then without a blush, quoth she, Were I a man, a man I’d be.” [They recross the stage, and, at point of meeting a second time, Jeremy White kneels to Frances Cromwell. Jeremy.—Lady, if I thus pleading might but hope, I’d live for ever on the hope, or die. [Kisses her hand.] Cromwell. [Coming forward with Josh.]—How now, how now, who talks about dying; rot! rot! rot! What, Mr. Jeremy White, I pri’thee, meaneth this ? I take it, Sir Chaplain, thou wert better at thy prayers, considering how easy a thing it is to gape without a body on Temple Bar. Jeremy.—May it please your Highness, I have a long time courted that young gentlewoman [pointing to Deborah] and cannot prevail. I was therefore praying her ladyship to intercede for me.