Chapter 1

_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 child. But don't encourage your father. He doesn't need it. This house is all commotion as it is.

_Bridget:_ I can't help it. There's so much going on everywhere. The King doesn't deal fairly by people, I'm sure. Men like father must say it.

_Elizabeth:_ Have you put the lavender in the rooms?

_Bridget:_ No. I'll take it now.

(She takes a tray from the window and goes out.)

_Mrs. Cromwell:_ I don't know what will happen. I sometimes think the world isn't worth quarrelling about at all. And yet I'm a silly old woman to talk like that. But Oliver is a brave fellow--and John, all of them. I want them to be brave in peace--that's the way you think at eighty. (Reading.) This Mr. Donne is a very good poet, but he's rather hard to understand. I suppose that is being eighty, too. Mr. Herrick is very simple. John Hampden sent me some copies from a friend who knows Mr. Herrick. I like them better than John does. (She takes up a manuscript book and reads:)

Lord, Thou hast given me a cell Wherein to dwell; A little house, whose humble roof Is waterproof; Under the spars of which I lie Both soft and dry....

But Mr. Shakespeare was best of all, I do believe. A very civil gentleman, too. I spoke to him once--that was forty years ago, the year Oliver was born, I remember. He didn't hold with all this talk against kings.

_Elizabeth:_ There are kings and kings. Oliver finds no offence in kings--it's in a king.

_Mrs. Cromwell:_ Well, it's all very dangerous, and I'm too old for it. Not but what Oliver's brain is better than mine. But we have to sit still and watch. However-- (reading)

Lord, 'tis thy plenty-dropping hand That sows my land: All this, and better, dost thou send Me for this end: That I should render for my part A thankful heart, Which, fired with incense, I resign As wholly Thine: But the acceptance--that must be, O Lord, by Thee.

Mr. Herrick has chosen a nice name for his book. Hesperides. He has taste as well as understanding.

(The sound of horsemen arriving is heard.)

_Elizabeth:_ That will be John and Mr. Ireton.

(She looks from the window, puts her work into a box, and goes out.)

_Mrs. Cromwell_ (turning her pages):

Ye have been fresh and green, Ye have been filled with flowers, And ye the walks have been Where maids have spent their hours.

Like unthrifts, having spent Your stock, and needy grown, You're left here to lament Your poor estates alone.

(ELIZABETH comes back with JOHN HAMPDEN, aged forty-four, and HENRY IRETON, twenty-eight. They both shake hands with MRS. CROMWELL.)

_Hampden:_ How do you do, ma'am?

_Mrs. Cromwell:_ Well, John.

_Ireton:_ Good-evening, ma'am.

_Mrs. Cromwell:_ You're welcome, Master Ireton, I'm sure. If you behave yourself, young man.

_Ireton:_ How may that be, ma'am?

_Mrs. Cromwell:_ No, don't ask me. Only don't you and John come putting more notions into Oliver's head. I'm sure he's got more than he can rightly manage as it is.

_Hampden:_ We were told down there that it's to-morrow that my Lord of Bedford and his like are to claim the common rights.

_Elizabeth:_ Yes.

_Ireton:_ Mr. Cromwell is to resist, they said.

_Mrs. Cromwell:_ Now, young man, Oliver doesn't need any urging to it. He needs holding back.

_Hampden:_ But that's fine for Oliver. Every man must speak to-day--and do as well, if it comes to it.

_Mrs. Cromwell:_ Yes, but don't be so proud about it, John.

_Elizabeth:_ I think they should be proud.

_Mrs. Cromwell:_ Remember what Mr. Herbert says-- A servant with this clause Makes drudgerie divine. Who sweeps a room, as for thy laws, Makes that and th' action fine. As for thy laws, remember.

_Hampden:_ Surely, we shall remember that always.

(BRIDGET comes in.)

_Bridget:_ Cousin John.

_Hampden:_ Well, Bridget, my girl.

(He kisses her.)

_Bridget:_ How do you do, Mr. Ireton?

_Ireton_ (shaking hands): Well, I thank you, mistress.

_Bridget:_ Does father know, mother?

_Elizabeth:_ I've sent down to the field.

_Mrs. Cromwell:_ He'll be here soon enough. I'm sorry the judges were against you, John. I don't know what else you could expect, though. They are the King's judges, I suppose.

_Hampden:_ That's what we dispute, ma'am. The King says that they should serve him. We say that they should serve the laws.

_Ireton:_ It was just when Mr. Hampden was being heard. The law they said was the King's old and loyal servant: that _lex_ was not _rex_, but that none could gainsay that _rex_ was _lex_.

_Hampden:_ That's what we shall have to decide, and before long, I think.

_Bridget:_ Father says that.

_Mrs. Cromwell:_ This house is ready for any kind of revolution, John.

_Ireton:_ But you find it everywhere, ma'am. All along the countryside, in the markets, in the church porches--everywhere.

_Elizabeth:_ Is the vine doing well this year, John?

_Hampden:_ It's the best year I remember.

_Elizabeth:_ Ours, too.

_Bridget:_ Were you there, Mr. Ireton, when Cousin John's case was tried?

_Ireton:_ Yes.

_Bridget:_ It was splendid, wasn't it--although he lost, I mean?

_Ireton:_ It was the note of deliverance.

_Bridget:_ I wish I could have been there, Cousin John.

_Mrs. Cromwell:_ Will you give me my shawl, Henry Ireton. (He does so.) There's Oliver coming. Now you can all be thunder.

_Bridget:_ Now, grandmother, you know you don't think it's just that.

_Mrs. Cromwell:_ So you have hope for me yet, miss?

_Bridget:_ Grandmother.

(CROMWELL comes in. He is in plain country dress. His age is forty.)

_Cromwell:_ John--it's good to see you. You're an hour before reckoning. (Taking HAMPDEN'S hand.)

_Hampden:_ Yes, Oliver. Is all well?

_Cromwell:_ Not that--but our courage is well enough. You are very welcome, Henry. (Taking his hand.) Was it good travelling?

_Ireton:_ Not a bad mile on the journey.

_Bridget:_ Father, Mr. Ireton heard Cousin John's case tried. Wasn't he lucky?

_Cromwell:_ Whoever heard that heard history being made, John. It was a great example to set.

_Hampden:_ One works from the spirit, Oliver.

_Cromwell:_ That's what we must do. You've heard about this affair down here?

_Hampden:_ The common? Yes.

_Cromwell:_ There's to be no yielding about that.

_Hampden:_ I'm glad of it, Oliver.

_Mrs. Cromwell:_ What will it all come to, John?

_Cromwell:_ There are times, mother, when we may not count the cost.

_Mrs. Cromwell:_ You're very vexatious sometimes, Oliver.

_Cromwell:_ But you know I'm right in this, mother.

_Mrs. Cromwell:_ Being right doesn't make you less vexatious.

_Elizabeth:_ Have they finished in Long Close?

_Cromwell:_ Yes. They will be here soon.

_Bridget:_ They all come up from the field for prayers, Mr. Ireton, at the day's end.

_Hampden:_ Is your hay good, Oliver?

_Cromwell:_ I haven't much down this year. What there is, is good.

_Hampden:_ We got the floods too late. But it has mended well enough.

_Bridget:_ The dancers came for some money, father.

_Elizabeth:_ Shall I give them something?

_Cromwell:_ To be sure.

_Elizabeth:_ How much?

_Cromwell:_ Oh--a crown or two.

_Hampden:_ Dancers?

_Cromwell:_ Aye, John. Don't you hold with them?

_Hampden:_ They're no offence, perhaps--but I'm never quite sure.

_Cromwell:_ Oh, but be sure, John. We must make no mistake about that. They are lovely, the dancers. I'm all for singing and dancing. The Lord is one to sing and dance, I'll be bound.

_Mrs. Cromwell:_ Now you talk sense, Oliver. Mr. Herrick is very clear about that. So was David.

_Ireton:_ Who is Mr. Herrick, ma'am?

_Mrs. Cromwell:_ He's a poet, young man. And he's for being quiet, and not bustling about everywhere. You ought to read him.

_Ireton:_ Do you know Mr. Herrick's work, Mr. Hampden?

_Hampden:_ I've nothing to say against that, though it's not very serious.

_Mrs. Cromwell:_ Don't be silly, Mr. Hampden--if you excuse me for saying so. Mr. Herrick is very serious indeed, only he isn't always telling us of it.

_Hampden:_ Yes: perhaps you're right, ma'am. I prefer George Herbert.

_Bridget:_ Yes, I like his book, too, Cousin John.

_Mrs. Cromwell:_ Well, it's no bad judgment to stand for Mr. Herbert. Only I won't have nonsense talked about Mr. Herrick.

_Elizabeth:_ Are you ready, Oliver? They are coming.

_Oliver:_ Yes. (To HAMPDEN and IRETON.) Friends, you are welcome to this house.

(The labourers from the farm are gathering outside the window. The people in the room form towards them.)

_Cromwell:_ Brethren in God, at the end of another day's labour we are met to praise Him from whom are the means to labour and its rewards. As we go about these fields, He is with us. As you deal by me, and I by you, His eye sees us. Nothing good befalls us but it is by His will, no affliction is ours but His loving mercy will hear us. The Lord God walks at our hand. He is here now in our midst. His desires are our freedom, His wrath our tyranny one over another. Be very merciful in all your ways, for mercy is His name. May His counsel be always with our little fellowship. If I should fail towards any man, let him speak. May we be as brothers always, one to another. And may we serve Him to serve whom alone is wisdom. In Jesus Christ's name, Amen. "All people that on earth do dwell."

(They sing:)

All people that on earth do dwell, Sing to the Lord, with cheerful voice; Him serve with fear, his praise forth tell, Come ye before Him and rejoice.

The Lord, we know, is God indeed. Without our aid He did us make; We are his folk, He doth us feed, And for his sheep He doth us take.

O enter then his gate with praise, Approach with joy his courts unto; Praise, laud, and bless his name always, For it is seemly so to do.

(As the men move away, one of them, SETH TANNER, comes forward.)

_Seth:_ As I came up from Long Close I stopped at the ale-house. Two fellows were there from the Earl of Bedford. Talking they were.

_Cromwell:_ What had they to say?

_Seth:_ It seems they know you are going to stand out for the people to-morrow.

_Cromwell:_ Well?

_Seth:_ Treason, they call it.

_Cromwell:_ Treason.

_Seth:_ Seeing that my Lord of Bedford has the King's authority, as it were.

_Cromwell:_ Thank you, Seth.

_Seth:_ They were coming here, they said. To warn you, and persuade you against it if it might be.

_Cromwell:_ Thank you, Seth.

_Seth_ (to HAMPDEN): If I might be so bold, sir?

_Hampden:_ What, my friend?

_Seth:_ That was a brave thing to do, sir, that about the ship money. We common folk know what it means. I'm sure we thank you with all our hearts.

_Hampden:_ I don't know about brave, but I know it is good to be thanked like that.

_Seth:_ Yes, sir. That's all. Good-even, sir; good-even, mistress.

(He is moving away as two of BEDFORD'S agents appear at the window, followed by the other labourers, who have returned with them.)

_First Agent:_ Is this Mr. Oliver Cromwell's?

_Cromwell:_ It is.

_Mrs. Cromwell:_ The door is along there, to the right.

_Cromwell:_ It's no matter, mother. What do you want?

_First Agent:_ To see Mr. Cromwell.

_Cromwell:_ You are speaking to him.

_Second Agent:_ May we come in?

_Cromwell:_ Why, yes.

(They do so. The labourers gather round the window again. They follow the coming argument with close personal concern.)

_Second Agent:_ May we speak with you alone?

_Cromwell:_ These are all my friends. I have nothing to say that I would not have them hear.

_First Agent:_ It is discretion for your sake.

_Cromwell:_ I do not desire your interest. What have you to say?

_Second Agent:_ It is said that you will oppose the proclamation to-morrow.

_Cromwell:_ Assuredly.

_Second Agent:_ The Earl of Bedford and those with him have not drained these commons for nothing.

_Cromwell:_ Well?

_Second Agent:_ They have earned the rights to be proclaimed to-morrow.

_Cromwell:_ By whose will?

_First Agent:_ By the King's.

_Cromwell:_ These rights of pasture belong to the people. It is within no man's powers to take them away.

_Second Agent:_ The King decrees it.

_Cromwell:_ I know not how that may be. I know that these rights are the people's, above any earl or king whatsoever. The King is to defend our rights, not to destroy them.

_First Agent:_ This is plain treason.

_Cromwell:_ It is plain sense.

_Second Agent:_ What will you do?

_Cromwell:_ To-morrow you will proclaim these rights from the people to my lord of Bedford. To-morrow I shall tell the people that I alone, if needs be, will oppose it. I will fight it from court to court. I will make these rights my rights--as they are. These people of Ely shall speak through me. They shall pay me a groat a year for each head of cattle they graze, and they shall enjoy every foot of the land as long as I have a word or a pound left for resistance.

_Second Agent:_ You are very arrogant, Mr. Cromwell. There are lessons to be learnt.

_Cromwell:_ Aye, there are lessons. I do not speak to you, but to your master--to the King himself if it comes to that. You may tell him all that I have said. We folk of Ely will use our own commons, and let the Earl of Bedford keep within his own palings. There are lessons, say you. This is Mr. John Hampden. Will you speak to him of lessons? Mr. Hampden's ship money will be a King's lesson, I tell you.

_Hampden:_ You should tell your masters all that you see and hear. Do not flatter them. Let it be the truth. Say that men talk everywhere, more and more openly. Tell them that you heard John Hampden say that the King's Star Chamber was an abomination, that the King soiled his majesty in treating Mr. Prynne and Mr. Bastwick so. Say that you and your like are reviled by all honest men.

_Ireton:_ And you can say that it is no fear of earls or kings that spared you the whipping you would deserve if you were better than shadows.

_Bridget:_ Well said, Mr. Ireton.

(There is a demonstration of anger from the labourers, but CROMWELL checks it.)

_Mrs. Cromwell:_ Now, Henry Ireton, these gentlemen may be bears, but I won't have you make this room into a bear-pit.

_Cromwell:_ No, friends, these men say but what they are sent to say. (To the agents.) I should not speak to you but in the hope that you will report it to those that should know. I am a plain burgess of this city. I farm a few lands and am known to none. But I have a faith that the people of this country are born to be, under God, a free people. That is the fundamental principle of this English life, If your masters, be they who they may, forget that, then, as you say, there will be lessons to be learnt. Here in Ely it is my part to see that my fellows do not lose their birthright. You shall not find us ignorant nor afraid. I would have no violence; let all be by persuasion and tolerance. But these just liberties must not be touched. Will you ask my Lord of Bedford to reconsider this?

_Second Agent:_ His Lordship will reconsider nothing. The proclamation is to-morrow.

_Cromwell:_ I have no more to say.

_First Agent:_ Be you wary, Mr. Cromwell. These arrogances have their penalties. The King's anger is not light.

_Cromwell:_ You threaten idly. My word is one spoken throughout the land. You can say so.

_Second Agent:_ Mr. Cromwell, we do not--

_Cromwell:_ My mind is fixed. I think I have made my intention clear. That is all. You may go.

(There is again a movement against them as they go, followed by the labourers.)

_Cromwell:_ Seth.

_Seth:_ Yes, sir.

_Cromwell:_ Ask your father to stay, will you? We shall want a song after that.

_Seth:_ Yes, sir. (He calls from the window.) Father. Master wants you to sing.

(AMOS TANNER comes back.)

_Cromwell:_ Thank you, Amos. Just a minute, will you? When will supper be, wife?

_Elizabeth:_ In half an hour.

_Cromwell:_ How would a turn at bowling be, John?

_Hampden:_ Done.

_Cromwell:_ Henry, you, too?

_Ireton:_ Yes; and, Mr. Cromwell--

_Cromwell:_ Yes.

_Ireton:_ I don't know how things are going. But I feel that great events are making and that you and Mr. Hampden here may have power to use men. If it should be so, I would be used. That is all.

_Cromwell:_ John's the man. I'm likely enough to stay the rest of my days in Ely.

_Ireton:_ I don't think so, sir.

_Cromwell:_ No? Well. A glass of sherry, John--or gin?

_Hampden:_ Sherry, Oliver.

(CROMWELL pours out the sherry.)

_Cromwell:_ Henry?

_Ireton:_ Thank you.

_Cromwell_ (giving glasses): Amos?

_Amos:_ I'd liefer have a pot of ale, master, if might be.

_Cromwell:_ Yes, yes. Bridget, girl.

(BRIDGET goes.)

_Mrs. Cromwell:_ Oliver, boy, you were quite right--all that you said to those men, I mean. I don't approve, mind you, but you were quite right.

_Cromwell:_ Thank you, mother. I knew you would think so.

_Elizabeth:_ I wonder what will come of it. You never know, once you begin like this.

_Cromwell:_ You never know, wife.

_Hampden:_ There are lessons to be learnt.

_Cromwell:_ That's what they said.

(BRIDGET returns with a foaming pot of ale, which she gives to AMOS.)

_Cromwell_ (drinking): To freedom, John. That's good sherry. I respect not such ill reasoners as would keep all wine out of the country lest men should be drunk. Now, Amos. Come along, John, my touch was good last night. I shall beat you.

(He goes out on to the lawn beyond the window, with HAMPDEN and IRETON. They are seen passing to and fro, playing bowls.)

_Amos_ (singing:) When I shall in the churchyard lie, Poor scholar though I be, The wheat, the barley, and the rye Will better wear for me.

For truly have I ploughed and sown, And kept my acres clean; And written on my churchyard stone This character be seen:

"His flocks, his barns, his gear he made His daily diligence, Nor counted all his earnings paid In pockets full of pence."

(As he finishes, the bowlers stand listening at the window.)

THE SCENE CLOSES