[p. 343] Corbet. Although this name is here given as Corbet, Colonel Cobbet occurs Act i, II (p. 355), and we have Cobbet again Act iii, I (p. 374). This character is certainly not Miles Corbet the regicide, but Ralph Cobbet, who was both a colonel and a member of the Committee of Safety. Ralph Cobbet is frequently alluded to in the satires of the time, e.g. The Gang; or, The Nine Worthies and Champions (17 January, 1659-60):—
A man of stomack in the next deal,
With a hey down, &c.
Was hungry Colonel Cobbet;
He would eat at a meale
A whole commonweale,
And make a joint but a gobbet.
[p. 343] Whitlock. Bulstrode Whitelock (1605-75), keeper of the Great Seal, and in August, 1659, president of the Council of State, was always inclined to royalism, and even advised Cromwell to restore Charles II. At the Restoration he was allowed to retire to Chilton Park, Hungerford, Wilts, and died there 28 July, 1675. According to some accounts his death took place at Fawley, Bucks.
[p. 343] Lady Lambert. Lady Lambert was Frances, daughter of Sir William Lister, knight, of Thornton in Craven, Yorks. She was married 10 September, 1639. Contemporaries attribute Lambert’s ambition to the influence of his wife, whose pride is frequently alluded to. e.g. Memoirs of Colonel Hutchinson, edited by C. H. Firth (Nimmo, 1885), Vol. II, p. 189, ‘There went a story that as my Lady Ireton was walking in St. James’ Park the Lady Lambert, as proud as her husband, came by where she was, and as the present princess always has precedency of the relict of the dead prince, so she put my Lady Ireton below; who, notwithstanding her piety and humility, was a little grieved at the affront.’
[p. 343] Lady Desbro. Desborough’s second wife, whom he married April, 1658, is said, on the dubious authority of Betham, to have been Anne, daughter of Sir Richard Everard, Bart., of Much Waltham. Mrs. Behn’s amorous lady, Maria, is, of course, purely fictional.