Act I: Scene I

p. 344 Gad and the Lord Fleetwood. Fleetwood, even in an age of Tartuffes, was especially distinguished for the fluency of his canting hypocrisy and godliness. He was a bitter persecutor of Catholics, a warm favourer of Anabaptists and the extremer fanatics of every kidney.

p. 345 Vane. Sir Harry Vane (1613-62), the prominent Parliamentarian and a leading member of the Committee of Safety was executed as a regicide, June, 1662.

p. 345 Fifth Monarchy. The Fifth Monarchy men were a sect of wild enthusiasts who declared themselves ‘subjects only of King Jesus’, and held that a fifth universal monarchy (like those of Assyria, Persia, Greece, and Rome) would be established by Christ in person, until which time no single person must presume to rule or be king.

p. 346 Haslerig. Sir Arthur Heselrige, one of the Five Members whom Parliament refused to yield to Charles I in January, 1642, was a republican of the most violent type. He died a prisoner in the Tower, 7 January, 1661.

p. 349 an errant Heroick. A term for a cavalier or Royalist, cf. Edward Waterhouse’s A Short Narrative of the late Dreadful Fire in London (1667, 12mo): ‘Even so, O Lord, rebuke the evil spirit of these Sanballats, and raise up the spirit of the Nehemiahs and other such Heroicks of Kindness and Ability to consider London.’ Tatham, in The Rump (4to, 1660; 1661), Act ii, 1, has ‘The very names of the Cromwells will become far more odious than ever Needham could make the Heroicks’.

p. 349 cuckold the Ghost of Old Oliver. The intrigue between Cromwell and Lambert’s wife is affirmed in ‘Newes from the New Exchange; or, the Commonwealth of Ladies ... London; printed in the year of women without grace, 1650’ (4to). Noble, in his Memoirs of the Cromwell Family (8vo, London, 1787, 3rd edit., Vol. II, p. 369), says that the lady ‘was an elegant and accomplished woman’, she was ‘suppos’d to have been partial to Oliver the Protector.’ A scarce poem, Iter Australe (London, 1660, 4to), declares of Cromwell that some

Would have him a David, ’cause he went To Lambert’s wife, when he was in his tent.

Some six months before Cromwell’s death, when Lambert visited him, Noll ‘fell on his neck, kissed him, inquired of dear Johnny for his jewel (so he called Mrs. Lambert) and for all his children by name.’ Cromwell’s immoralities in youth, when a brewer at Ely, were notorious. Although the parish registers of S. John’s, Huntingdon, have been tampered with, the following, under the years 1621 and 1628, remain: ‘Oliverus Cromwell reprehensus erat coram tota Ecclesia pro factis.’ 454 and ‘Hoc anno Oliverus Cromwell fecit penitentiam coram tota ecclesia.’ An attempt has been made to erase these.