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    Oliver Cromwell: A Play
    Oliver Cromwell: A Play
    Oliver Cromwell: A Play
    Ebook134 pages1 hour

    Oliver Cromwell: A Play

    By John Drinkwater

    ()

    Read preview
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateNov 27, 2013
    Oliver Cromwell: A Play

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      Book preview

      Oliver Cromwell - John Drinkwater

      The Project Gutenberg EBook of Oliver Cromwell, by John Drinkwater

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

      almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or

      re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

      with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

      Title: Oliver Cromwell

      Author: John Drinkwater

      Release Date: November 18, 2005 [EBook #17091]

      Language: English

      *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OLIVER CROMWELL ***

      Produced by Louise Hope, Juliet Sutherland and the Online

      Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net

      OLIVER

      CROMWELL

      A Play

      By

      John Drinkwater

      BOSTON AND NEW YORK

      HOUGHTON MIFFLIN COMPANY

      TO

      BERNARD SHAW

      WITH HOMAGE TO THE

      MASTER DRAMATIST OF HIS AGE

      AND WITH THE GRATITUDE THAT IS HIS DUE

      FROM EVERY YOUNGER WRITER FOR

      THE ENGLISH THEATRE

      Contents

      Characters

      Scene I

      Ely, 1639

      Scene II

      The Commons, November 1641

      Scene III

      Ely, 1642

      Scene IV

      Naseby, after dawn, July 14, 1645

      Scene V

      Naseby, night, July 14, 1645

      Scene VI

      Hampton Court, November 1647

      Scene VII

      London, January 30, 1649

      Scene VIII

      Whitehall, November 1654

      Copyright Notice (1921)

      THE CHARACTERS ARE

      SCENE I

      Cromwell's house at Ely, about the year 1639. An early summer evening. The window of the room opens on to a smooth lawn, used for bowling, and a garden full of flowers.

      Oliver's wife, Elizabeth Cromwell, is sitting at the table, sewing. In a chair by the open window Mrs. Cromwell, his mother, is reading. She is eighty years of age.

      Mrs. Cromwell:

      Oliver troubles me, persuading everywhere. Restless like this.

      Elizabeth:

      He says that the time is uneasy, and that we are part of it.

      Mrs. Cromwell:

      There's a man's house. It's enough surely.

      Elizabeth:

      I know. But Oliver must be doing. You know how when he took the magistracy he would listen to none of us. He knows best.

      Mrs. Cromwell:

      What time is John coming?

      Elizabeth:

      By nightfall he said. Henry Ireton is coming with him.

      Mrs. Cromwell:

      John Hampden is like that, too. He excites the boy.

      Elizabeth:

      Yes, but mother, you will do nothing with Oliver by thinking of him as a boy.

      Mrs. Cromwell:

      Of course he's a boy.

      Elizabeth:

      He's forty.

      Mrs. Cromwell:

      Methuselah.

      Elizabeth:

      What?

      Mrs. Cromwell:

      I said Methuselah.

      Elizabeth:

      He says John's the bravest man in England.

      Mrs. Cromwell:

      Just because he won't pay a tax. How if everybody refused to pay taxes? If you don't have taxes, I don't see how you are to have a government. Though I can't see that it governs anybody, except those that don't need it.

      Elizabeth:

      Oliver says it's a wrong tax, this ship money.

      Mrs. Cromwell:

      There's always something wrong. It keeps men busy, I suppose.

      Elizabeth:

      But it was brave of John.

      Mrs. Cromwell:

      I know, I know. But why must he come here to-night of all in the year? Oliver's like somebody out of the Bible about to-morrow as it is. This will make him worse. I wish John no harm, but—well, I hope he's got a bad horse.

      Elizabeth:

      Oliver's mind is made up about the common, whatever happens. John will make no difference.

      Mrs. Cromwell:

      You can't pretend he'll make him more temperate.

      Elizabeth:

      It's very wrong to take away the common from the people. I think Oliver is right.

      Mrs. Cromwell:

      Of course he's right. But I'm too old. I've seen too many broken heads. He'll be no righter for a broken head.

      (

      Bridget Cromwell

      , a girl, comes. She takes some eggs from her apron and puts them on a dish on a shelf.)

      Bridget:

      Why, grandmother, whose head is to be broken?

      Mrs. Cromwell:

      Your father's is like to be.

      Bridget:

      You mean to-morrow?

      Elizabeth:

      At the meeting, yes.

      Bridget:

      But he must do it. Why, the people have fished and kept cattle there longer than any one can remember. Who is an Earl of Bedford to take it away from them? I know I would let my head be broken first.

      Elizabeth:

      It is said that the King gave leave.

      Bridget:

      Then the King gave what wasn't his to give.

      Mrs. Cromwell:

      Now, child, don't you encourage your father, too. He's eager enough without that.

      Bridget:

      But I must, grandmother. There's too much of this kind of interference everywhere. Father says that Cousin John Hampden says—

      Mrs. Cromwell:

      And that's three of you in one house. And this young Mr. Ireton has ideas, too, I believe.

      Bridget:

      Mr. Ireton is twenty-eight.

      Mrs. Cromwell:

      That accounts for it.

      Bridget:

      You don't think they just ought to be allowed to take the common away, do you, grandmother?

      Mrs. Cromwell:

      It makes no matter what I think.

      Bridget:

      Of course you don't. None of us do. We couldn't.

      Elizabeth:

      You mustn't tease your grandmother, Bridget.

      Mrs. Cromwell:

      She's a very old lady, and can't speak for herself.

      Bridget:

      I meant no ill manners, grandmother.

      Mrs. Cromwell:

      Never mind your manners

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