The Works of Aphra Behn Volume I Part 136

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 G.o.dliness. 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 a.s.syria, 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). n.o.ble, 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.' and 'Hoc anno Oliverus Cromwell fecit penitentiam coram tota ecclesia.' An attempt has been made to erase these.

+Act I: Scene ii+

p. 354 _Tony._ Anthony Ashley Cooper; afterwards first Earl of Shaftesbury.

p. 357 _Wallingford House._ Stood on the site of the present Admiralty. It was so called from Sir William Knollys, Baron Wallingford, Treasurer of the Household to Elizabeth and James I.

After Cromwell's death the General Council of the Officers of the Army (Wallingford House Party) met here. Fleetwood actually lived in the house. At the Restoration it reverted to the Duke of Buckingham.

The Crown purchased it 1680, and the Admiralty was built about 1720.

+Act II: Scene i+

p. 361 _Cobler's-Stall._ Hewson, says Wood, had originally been 'an honest shoemaker in Westminster.'

p. 362 _Conventickling._ Conventicle was accentuated upon the third syllable. This, of course, led to innuendo, cf. 1 _Hudibras_ (1663) Canto ii, 437:

He used to lay about and stickle Like ram or bull at conventicle

and Dryden, in _The Medal_ (1682):--

A tyrant theirs; the heaven their priesthood paints A conventicle of gloomy sullen saints.

p. 363 _Pryn._ William Prynne (1600-69) had been sentenced to severe punishment in February, 1634, for the scandals and libels contained in his dull diatribe, _Histriomastix._ He lost both his ears in the pillory.

p. 365 _Needham._ Marchamont Nedham, 'the Commonwealth's Didaper', was a graduate of All Souls, Oxon, and sometime an usher at Merchant Taylors' school. He also seems to have been connected with the legal profession. 'The skip-jack of all fortunes', neither side has a good word for this notorious pamphleteer, the very sc.u.m of our early journalism. When _Mercurius Britannicus_ temporarily ceased publication with No. 50, 9 September, 1644, Nedham recommenced it on the 30th of the same month with No. 51 (not No. 52 as is sometimes stated). No. 92, 28 July-4 August, 1645, and the number 11-18 May, 1646, revile the King in such scurrilous terms that Nedham was haled to the bar of the House of Lords and imprisoned. Later he turned Royalist, but in 1650 published _The Case of the Commonwealth Stated_, a defence of the regicides, for which he received a pension of 100 a year. He fled to Holland, April, 1660, but being pardoned, returned to England. He died in Devereux Court, Temple Bar, November, 1678, and is buried in St. Clement Danes. Wood characterizes him as 'a most seditious, mutable and railing author,'

whilst Cleveland terms him 'that impudent and incorrigible reviler'.

p. 365 _Ireton, my best of Sons._ n.o.ble, in his _Memoirs of the Cromwell Family_, says that the fact Fleetwood had not the abilities of her first husband gave his wife much concern, as she saw with great regret the ruin his conduct must bring on herself and her children.

p. 366 _Richard's Wife._ Richard Cromwell at the age of 23 married Dorothy, daughter of Richard Major, of Hursley, Hamps.h.i.+re.

p. 366 _glorious t.i.tles._ Cromwell's wife was, as a matter of fact, very averse to all grandeur and state. The satires of the time laugh at her homeliness and parsimony.

p. 369 _Ormond._ James Butler, Duke of Ormond, was lord-lieutenant of Ireland, 1643-47.

p. 370 _Exercise._ A common term amongst the Puritans for wors.h.i.+p; a sermon or extemporary prayer. As early as 1574. Archbishop Whitgift speaks of the exercises of 'praying, singing of psalms, interpreting and prophesying', cf. Davenant, _The Wits_ (4to 1636):--

I am a new man, Luce; thou shalt find me In a Geneva band....

And squire thy untooth'd aunt to an exercise,

and also:--

[she] divides The day in exercise.

--Mayne's _City Match_ (1639), iv, v.

p. 372 _Duke of Glocester._ Henry of Oatlands, Duke of Gloucester, youngest son of Charles I. Born 8 July, 1639, he died of smallpox at Whitehall 13 September, 1660. The Parliament sent him to the continent on 11 February, 1653.

p. 373 _he should have been bound Prentice._ A proposition was actually made in Parliament that the young Duke of Gloucester should be bound to a trade, in order, as it was impudently expressed, 'that he might earn his bread honestly.' Fortunately, saner counsels prevailed, in which his fate was happier than that of the Dauphin committed to the cruelties of Citizen Simon, cordwainer.

p. 373 _Old Thurlo._ John Thurloe (1616-68), Secretary of State to Cromwell; M.P. for Ely, 1654 and 1656. He died 21 February, 1668.

+Act III: Scene i+

p. 378 _Highness's Funeral._ A large portion of the debt incurred for Oliver Cromwell's magnificently extravagant funeral ceremonies fell on Richard, who was obliged to retire for a while to the continent to avoid arrest and await some settlement. These obsequies cost in all the huge sum of 60,000, which there was a great difficulty in paying. The chief undertaker's name was Rolt. See note on _The Widow Ranter_ --'Trusting for Old Oliver's funeral,' Act i.

(Vol. IV.)

p. 378 _Walter Frost._ Walter Frost, secretary to the Republican Council of State, was quondam manciple of Emmanuel, Cambridge, and acted as spy-master and manager of the 'committee hackneys,' which hunted down and betrayed Royalists. This infamous fellow, who dubbed himself Esquire and Latinized his name to Gualter, was authorized to publish (i.e. write) 'intelligence every week upon Thursday according to an Act of Parliament for that purpose.' He licensed _A Briefe Relation_ (No 1, 2 October, 1649) from its second number until 22 October, 1650. This is certainly one of the most evil and lying of the Republican diurnals.

p. 378 _Hutchinson._ Richard Hutchinson, deputy treasurer to Sir Henry Vane. He succeeded as Treasurer to the Navy in 1651 and continued to hold office after the Restoration. He is several times mentioned by Pepys.

p. 379 _Jacobus._ A gold coin value 25s., first current in the reign of James I.

p. 379 _Mr. Ice._ Perhaps Stephen Isles who was appointed a Commissioner for the London Militia, 7 July, 1659. The name 'Mr.

Ice' occurs in Tatham's _Rump_ in the same context.

p. 379 _Loether._ Sir Gerard Lowther, who, once a loyalist, became a republican, and in 1654 was one of the Three Commissioners of the Great Seal in Ireland. He acquired large estates and died very wealthy on the eve of the Restoration.

p. 381 _Duke of Buckingham's Estate ... with Chelsey House._ Bulstrode Whitelocke actually had obtained the Duke's sequestered estate, and stood for Bucks in Parliament. During the Commonwealth Chelsea House was bestowed upon him as an official residence, and he lived there till the Restoration, when it reverted to the Duke, to whose father it had been granted in 1627 by Charles I. He sold it in 1664 to the trustees of George Digby, Earl of Bristol. In 1682 it became the property of Henry, Marquis of Worcester, afterwards Duke of Beaufort, and was renamed Beaufort House. Sir Hans Sloane purchased it in 1738, and it was demolished two years later.

p. 381 _Hugh Peters._ This divine, who had been chaplain to Sir Thomas Fairfax, was notorious for his fanatical and ranting sermons.

Having openly advocated and preached the death of Charles I, he was, at the Restoration, excluded from the general amnesty, tried for high treason, and executed 16 October, 1660.

p. 382 _Scobel._ Henry Scobell, clerk to the Long Parliament. His name appeared as the licenser of various newsbooks, and he superintended the publication of _Severall Proceedings in Parliament_, No. 1, 25 Sept.-9 Oct., 1649. Scobell died in 1660, his will being proved 29 Sept. of that year.

+Act IV: Scene ii+

p. 394 _Vails._ Avails; profits. Money given to servants: 'tips'.

+Act IV: Scene iii+

p. 398 _Cus.h.i.+on-Dance._ A merry old English round action dance common in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.