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.

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    Scene I.—An Audience Room in the Palace of Whitehall. The Cabinet of Cromwell. Cromwell. [ Alone.']—What will men say of me when I am dead? Will they say, Cromwell lived for England’s fame, Fought hut for England’s glory, laid his life A thousand times before the ark of death For England and her priceless liberty? Will Englishmen when they, in after times, Pass by the ruined castles I have razed, Take off their hats and hail him with acclaim, Who ground these haunts of tyranny to dust ? Will they cry, Hail to Cromwell! when they read He was the first that dared to break the spell Of right divine, and kill the thing called King, When the thing broke the law it should enshrine ? Or will they, blind to truth, and vengeance mad, Confound the details of an anxious life, And terrible demands of cruel fate, With principles of action; and thus see Evil so mixed with good that good is evil ? Or will they reading naught but mortal sin. Treason and murder ; no ! not murder, no ! Condemn me in their histories to hell ? Alas ! I know not; hut myself I know. It is enough. I have obeyed my call. Enter Herbert Lee. Herbert.—My Lord, your Highness. Cromwell.—Heighso ! Heighso ! Who speaks ? Herbert. [_Advancing.] My Lord, on the opening of the door of the northern entrance we did discover nailed to the lintel this packet. ’Tis for your Highness.