Constructing Cromwell Constructing Cromwell traces the complex and shifting popular images of Oliver Cromwell from his first appearance as a public figure in the mid-1640s through the period of his power to his death and eventual disinterment after the restoration of the monarchy. The meaning and impact of this enigmatic figure have long been debated in the context of mid-seventeenth-century crisis but contemporary representations of Cromwell have largely been neglected. Cromwellian print, Laura Knoppers argues, transformed the courtly forms of Caroline ceremony, portraiture, and panegyric and in turn complicated and altered the cultural forms available to Charles II. The book draws on extensive archival research, including manuscript sources, startling print ephemera, and visual artifacts. Placing canonical authors such as Milton, Marvell, Waller, and Dryden alongside such neglected writers as George Wither and Payne Fisher, Knoppers demonstrates how literary texts both respond and contribute to political and cultural change. laura lunger knoppers is Associate Professor of English at Pennsylvania State University. She is author of Historicizing Milton: Spectacle, Power, and Poetry in Restoration England (1994).
Constructing Cromwell Ceremony, Portrait, and Print 1645 1661 Laura Lunger Knoppers
CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, São Paulo, Delhi Cambridge University Press The Edinburgh Building, Cambridge CB2 8RU, UK Published in the United States of America by Cambridge University Press, New York Information on this title: /9780521117852 2000 This publication is in copyright. Subject to statutory exception and to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements, no reproduction of any part may take place without the written permission of Cambridge University Press. First published 2000 This digitally printed version 2009 A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Knoppers, Laura Lunger. Constructing Cromwell: ceremony, portrait, and print, 1645 1661. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0 521 66261 3 (hardback) 1. Cromwell, Oliver, 1599 1658 Public opinion. 2. Great Britain History Commonwealth and Protectorate, 1649 1660 Historiography. 3. English literature Early modern, 1500 1700 History and criticism. 4. Rites and ceremonies Great Britain History 17th century. 5. Public opinion Great Britain History, 17th century. 6. Political satire, English History and criticism. 7. Great Britain History Restoration, 1660 1688. 8. Heads of state Public opinion Great Britain. 9. Cromwell, Oliver, 1599 1658 In literature. 10. Cromwell, Oliver, 1599 1658 Portraits. 11. Puritans Public opinion Great Britain. 12. Cromwell, Oliver, 1599 1658 Death. I. Title. DA427.K66 2000 941.06 4 092 dc21 [B] 99-16228 CIP ISBN 978-0-521-66261-1 hardback ISBN 978-0-521-11785-2 paperback
For Gary, Theresa, and David
Contents List of illustrations [ix] Acknowledgments [xi] A note on texts [xiii] Introduction [1] 1 A Coffin for King Charles, A Crowne for Cromwell : royalist satire and the regicide [10] 2 Portraiture, print, and the republican heroic [31] 3 Riding in Triumph : ceremony and print in the early Protectorate [69] 4 Contesting Cromwell in the late Protectorate [107] 5 I saw him dead : Cromwell s death and funeral [132] 6 Ceremony, print, and punishment in the early Restoration [167] Afterword [194] Notes [196] Works cited [219] Index [242]
Illustrations 11 Romeyn de Hooghe, The Coronation of Oliver Cromwell (1649). The British Museum [22] 12 Robert Walker, Oliver Cromwell (1649). By courtesy of the National Portrait Gallery, London [33] 13 The High and Mighty Monarch Charles, from Military Orders, and Articles Established by his Majestie (1643). By permission of the British Library. Shelfmark 100b.16 [36] 14 Charles par la grace de Dieu, from The Divine Right of Government Naturall and Politique (1647). This item is reproduced by permission of The Huntington Library, San Marino, California [37] 15 Charles I, from Eikon Basilike (1649). By permission of Rare Books and Special Collections, The Pennsylvania State University Libraries [38] 16 Engraving after Weesop, Execution of Charles I (1649). By permission of the British Library. Shelfmark 669 f.12 (87) [40] 17 The Royall Oake of Brittayne, from Clement Walker, Anarchia Anglicana (1649). By permission of the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford. Shelfmark 4 Z 75 Jur (2), pp. 112 13 [42] 18 Oliver Cromwell, attributed Robert Walker (n.d.). By permission of the Cromwell Museum, Huntingdon [44] 19 Samuel Cooper, Oliver Cromwell (c. 1650). By permission of His Grace, the Duke of Buccleuch [45] 10 Oliver Cromwell, A Perfect Table of One Hundred Forty and Five Victories (1650). By permission of the British Library. Shelfmark 669 f.15 [51] 11 Oliver Cromwell, Dunbar medal (1650). The British Museum [57] 12 Oliver Cromwell, from A Perfect List of all the Victories Obtained (1651). By permission of the British Library. Shelfmark 669 f.16 (27) [59] 13 Equestrian engraving of Cromwell, from Payne Fisher, Irenodia Gratulatoria (1652). By permission of the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford. Shelfmark 4 Rawl. 265 [60] 14 Engraving of Cromwell, after Walker, from Payne Fisher, Irenodia Gratulatoria (1652). By permission of the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford. Shelfmark 4 Rawl. 265 [62] ix
x List of illustrations 15 Peter Lely, Oliver Cromwell (1654). Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery [81] 16 Lord Protector medal (1654). The British Museum [82] 17 Anonymous equestrian painting of Cromwell (c. 1654). By permission of the Cromwell Museum, Huntingdon [83] 18 Engraving of Oliver Cromwell, half-length (n.d.). The British Museum [84] 19 Engraving of Oliver Cromwell, with heads (n.d.). The British Museum [86] 20 Oliver Cromwel, Proteckteur Geeweest (1654). The British Museum [87] 21 Etching of second protectoral installation, from A Further Narrative of the Passages of the Times (1657), p. 28. By permission of the Folger Shakespeare Library [125] 22 Edward Mascall, Oliver Cromwell (1657). By permission of the Cromwell Museum, Huntingdon [131] 23 Effigy of Oliver Cromwell, lying-in-state, from Some Farther Intelligence of the Affairs of England (1658). By permission of the Folger Shakespeare Library [141] 24 Upright effigy of Oliver Cromwell (1658). The British Museum [142] 25 Cromwell s death mask (1658). By permission of the Cromwell Museum, Huntingdon [154] 26 Death medal of Cromwell (1658). The British Museum [155] 27 Posthumous engraving of a regal Cromwell (1658). The British Museum [156] 28 Title page with woodcut ghost of Cromwell, from The World in a Maize (1659). By permission of the British Library. Shelfmark e983(23) [160] 29 Ghosts of Charles I and Oliver Cromwell, woodcut and title page of A Dialogue Betwixt the Ghosts (1659). By permission of the British Library. Shelfmark e985(24) [162 63] 30 Charles I in heaven and Oliver Cromwell in hell, from The Court Career (1659). By permission of the British Library. Shelfmark e989(26) [165] 31 Charles II, reaching for crown (c. 1660). This item is reproduced by permission of The Huntington Library, San Marino, California [171] 32 Charles II in armor, wearing crown, from William Walwyn, God Save the King (1660). By permission of the British Library. Shelfmark e1033(10) [172] 33 Woodcut heads of Oliver and Elizabeth Cromwell, from The Case is Altered (1660). By permission of the British Library. Shelfmark e1869(2) [177] 34 Cromwell s council in hell, frontispiece to The Devils Cabinet Councell Discovered (1660). The British Museum [179] 35 Engraving of Cromwell stealing the crown, from John Gauden, Cromwell s Bloody Slaughter-house (1660). By permission of the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford. Shelfmark Bliss a52 [180] 36 Cromwell as Jeroboam from Anthony Sadler, The Subjects Joy (1660). By permission of the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford. Shelfmark Mal. 194 (4) [183] 37 Woodcut of Cromwell and the gallows (c. 1661). Ashmolean Museum, Oxford [189] 38 Satiric frontispiece of Oliver Cromwell from James Heath, Flagellum (1663). By permission of the Bodleian Library, University of Oxford. Shelfmark Vet. a3.f.41 [190]
Acknowledgments In researching and writing this book, I have incurred many debts. A timely fellowship from the Pew Foundation, Evangelical Scholars Fund, made it possible for me to spend 1995 96 in Oxford undertaking research at the Bodleian and at a range of other libraries, galleries, and museums in Britain. A sabbatical from Penn State provided the time to complete the initial draft of the manuscript. Research and travel in both the early and late stages of the project were generously funded by the Office of Research and Graduate Studies, College of Liberal Arts, Penn State, and The Institute for the Arts and Humanistic Studies, Penn State; I want especially to thank the Director of the Institute, Robert Edwards, for his consideration and support. Colleagues and friends on both sides of the Atlantic have offered encouragement and advice. For their interest and hospitality during my year in England, I want to thank Thomas Corns, David Norbrook, Joad Raymond, Nigel Smith, Gerald MacLean, Michael Millard, John Morrill, Kevin Sharpe, and Blair Worden. Closer to home, I have benefited from the insights offered by the fall 1996 Milton seminar, hosted at Yale University by Annabel Patterson. My former dissertation director, Barbara Lewalski, continues to provide a model of exemplary scholarship and to offer clear-sighted and sensible counsel. I have appreciated conversations on the book project with other friends from my Harvard graduate school days, especially Mary Crane, Emily Bartels, Naomi Miller, and John Farrell. My Penn State department head, Don Bialostosky, has consistently and strongly supported my work. My colleagues in the early modern period at Penn State have provided a stimulating and sustaining atmosphere in which to work, and I would like to thank in particular Dan Beaver, Philip Jenkins, Francesca Royster, Garrett Sullivan, and Linda Woodbridge. I owe much to Patrick Cheney, who kindly read the manuscript in its entirety, responding with cogent and judicious advice. As my research assistant in 1997 98, Don-John Dugas did outstanding work investigating the visual xi
xii Acknowledgments materials, and also made careful and thoughtful recommendations on an early version of the manuscript. Chad Hayton s incisive reading of a late version of the manuscript helped me to sharpen and clarify my argument. Other graduate students have been attentive to my ideas about Oliver Cromwell and insightful in their responses and observations; I particularly want to thank Jane Baston, Richard Cunningham, and Anne Fisher. I also appreciate the librarians and curators in Britain and America whose patience in answering questions and resourcefulness in tracking down out-ofthe way materials facilitated my work on manuscripts and visual artifacts. I am particularly grateful to John Goldsmith, curator of the Cromwell Museum, Huntingdon, for his assistance and generosity in providing access to a wide range of archival materials in the museum s holdings. For their courteous assistance, I would also like to thank the staffs at the Bodleian Library, Oxford; the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; the British Museum; the British Library; Cambridge University Library; the Museum of London; the University of Aberdeen; Westminster Abbey Library; the National Portrait Gallery Picture Library; the Folger Shakespeare Library; Beinecke Rare Books Library; the Huntington Library; and the Penn State Rare Books Room. The Latin translations and notes for Payne Fisher s Irenodia Gratulatoria and Inauguratio Olivariana were meticulously done by Jennifer Ebbeler. My own translations, for the remaining Latin texts, were much aided by the erudition and kind advice of Paul Harvey, my colleague in ancient history and classics. Two anonymous readers for Cambridge University Press provided trenchant criticism and detailed and valuable direction on the manuscript. It has been a pleasure to work with Josie Dixon, who has been unfailingly helpful, attentive, and kind. My husband, Gary, read multiple drafts of various chapters with perspicuity and care. He has borne the various prolonged stages of this project with patience and good humor, and I owe much to his emotional and intellectual support. I am dedicating this book to Gary and to our two children, Theresa and David, who for the past five years have heard a great deal about Oliver Cromwell and about this project, warts and all. Portions of the book appeared earlier in The Politics of Portraiture: Oliver Cromwell and the Plain Style, Renaissance Quarterly 51 (1998), 1283 319 and are reproduced by permission. Also broadly related to this book project are two forthcoming studies: Noll s Nose: Body Politics in Cromwellian England, in Amy Boesky and Mary Crane, eds., Form and Reform in Renaissance England: Essays in Honor of Barbara Kiefer Lewalski (University of Delaware Press), and Sing old Noll the brewer : Royalist Satire and Social Inversion in Cromwellian England, 1648 1664. The Seventeenth Century.
A note on texts When quoting from early texts, I have retained the original spelling and punctuation but have modernized u and v, i and j. Dates are given as old style, although the year has been taken to begin on 1 January. xiii