[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.’ 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: