Cromwellian Lachrymosity
It was rather a search to find the places in Hume's History of
England wherein Cromwellian lachrymosity is mentioned. I suspect
it is this footnote that Bentham had in mind, but I also found the
following paragraph (17) in Chapter 59:
This artful and audacious conspirator had conducted himself in the
Parliament with such profound dissimulation, with such refined
hypocrisy, that he had long deceived those wbo, being themselves very
dexterous practitioners in the same arts, should naturally have
entertained the more suspicion against others. At every intelligence
of disorders in the army he was moved to the highest pitch of grief
and of anger. He wept bitterly; he lamented the
misfortunes of his country; he advised every violent measure for
suppressing the mutiny; and by these precipitate counsels at once
seemed to evince his own sincerity and inflamed those discontents of
which he intended to make advantage. He obtested heaven and earth that
his devoted attachment to the Parliament had rendered him so odious in
the army that his life while among them was in the utmost danger, and
he had very narrowly escaped a conspiracy formed to assassinate
him. But information being brought that the most active officers and
agitators were entirely his creatures, the parliamentary leaders
secretly resolved that next day, when he should come to the House, an
accusation should be entered against him and he should be sent to the
Tower. Cromwell, who in the conduct of his desperate enterprises,
frequently approached to the very brink of destruction, knew how to
make the requisite turn with proper dexterity and boldness. Being
informed of this design, he hastened to the camp, where he was
received with acclamations, and was instantly invested with the
supreme command, both of general and army. [Emphasis mine---Paul Lyon]
Then there is this passage in Chapter 60 (paragraph 46):
It was expected that Fairfax, who still retained the name of general,
would continue to act against Scotland, and appear at the head of the
forces---a station for which he was well qualified, and where alone he
made any figure. But Fairfax, though be had allowed the army to make
use of his name in murdering their sovereign and offering violence to
the Parliament, had entertained insurmountable scruples against
invading the Scots, whom he considered as zealous Presbyterians, and
united to England by the sacred bands of the covenant. He was further
disgusted at the extremities into which be had already been hurried;
and was confirmed in his repugnance by the exhortations of his wife,
who had great influence, over him, and was herself much governed by
the Presbyterian clergy. A committee of Parliament was sent to reason
with him, and Cromwell was of the number. In vain did they urge that
the Scots had first broken the covenant by their invasion of England
under Hamilton, and that they would surely renew their hostile
attempts if not prevented by the vigorous measures of the
commonwealth. Cromwell, who knew the rigid inflexibility of Fairfax in
everything which he regarded as matter of principle, ventured to
solicit him with the utmost earnestness, and went so far as to
shed tears of grief and vexation on the occasion. No
one could suspect any ambition in the man who labored so zealously to
retain his general in that high office which, he knew, he himself was
alone entitled to fill. The same warmth of temper which made Cromwell
a frantic enthusiast rendered him the most dangerous of hypocrites;
and it was to this turn of mind, as much as to his courage and
capacity, that he owed all his wonderful successes. By the contagious
ferment of his zeal he engaged every one to co-operate with him in his
measures; and, entering easily and affectionately into every part
which he was disposed to act, he was enabled, even after multiplied
deceits, to cover, under a tempest of passion, all his crooked schemes
and profound artifices. [Emphasis mine---Paul Lyon]
Finally, later on in Chapter 61 there is this (paragraph 57):
With the pretended saints of all denominations Cromwell was familiar
and easy. Laying aside the state of protector, which, on other
occasions, he well knew how to maintain, he insinuated to them that
nothing but necessity could ever oblige him to invest himself with
it. He talked spiritually to them. He sighed, he
wept, he canted, he prayed. He even entered with them into an
emulation of ghostly gifts; and these men, instead of grieving to be
outdone in their own way, were proud that his highness, by his
princely example, had dignified those practices in which they
themselves were daily occupied. [Emphasis mine---Paul Lyon]
Now, the following passage from Antonia Fraser's biography of Cromwell
(Cromwell, Our Chief of Men, Weidenfield and Nicolson,
London, 1973, pages 188--189) offers a bit more (such as a possible
source) about Cromwell's propensity to public weeping:
Of all his many capabilities, political foresight was one that
Cromwell never did show much signs of possessing although at times he
displayed a lucky knack for political opportunism which his angry
opponents sometimes confused with conspiracy. Clarendon later detailed
the charges against him: he pretended disgust at the insolence of the
soldiers, inveighed bitterly against their presumption and suggested
that their mutinous spirits should be quieted by the imposition of
penalties, most hypocritical of all, ``when he spake of the nation's
being to be involved in new troubles, he would weep bitterly, and
appear the most afflicted man in the world.'' Most of this can be
read as a reliable report of Cromwell's behaviour. No doubt he did
weep---he was prone to tears at such moments and although as Protector
he was to be accused by rumour of producing ``tears at
will'' and weeping in Council to get his own way, the real
truth seems to have been that even at this early stage Cromwell was a
naturally emotional orator. No doubt Cromwell did also feel both lost
and afflicted, and disgusted with the Army's sullen attitude. It was
the dissimulation which Clarendon insisted in adding into the equation
which was the mistake: Cromwell in the spring of 1647 was genuinely
unhappy.
[Emphasis mine---Paul Lyon]
The reference here is the The History of the rebellion and
civil wars, begun in the year 1641by Edward Hyde, Earl of
Clarendon, who lived from 1609--1674 and lived thru the events he
described.
[Paul Lyon]