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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    Doth chase the vapours. Happily for me, I am a servant only : not a man To vent my own conceits, but to declare The thing-s I bear in command from the House. I am, in simile, a gardener Who gathers flowers in his master’s garden, And out of them a nosegay straightway makes. I offer nothing but what I have culled In the fair garden of the Parliament. Smite'em.—I hate that. [Brings his carbine down smartly.] Serjeant-at-Arms.—Silence! Smite'em.—I like that. Cromwell.—We would have silence, while the Commons’ House Doth through its Speaker tell to us its will. There are some guards want guards upon their tongue : They are too full of honesty to hold A decorous peace; and though their aim is good, They do sometimes, in haste, mistake a friend, And lodge their charge in him. I pray, proceed. [ To Speaker.] The Speaker.—My Lord, I much regret a single word, That falls from me, should give or prove offence To any tender conscience here to-day. I will proceed to state the Commons’ vote As here contained. It, doth include, in all Eighteen provisions : some of minor point I will not urge in detail: some, a few^ Of weight^ moment, must be strongly urged. We-would the public revenue were placed On a fixed basis, br< ad and permanent. A We would that our Smite'em.—I like that. The Speaker.—Yet would [Cheers.~\ eligion, Protestant, For which the holy nartyrs burned their blood-:— Pidley and Latimer and other saints, By hundreds counte i, who lit up the stake: That this religion, n )bly Protestant, Should have exclusi’ e right and rule with us. - [Loud cheers ] A saving clause dd wfe : thalt add, for tender consciences, every man-may feel