Cromwell: A Drama, in Five Acts — A Closer Reading

Diction and the Weight of Blank Verse

Richards writes in unrhymed iambic pentameter, but he varies the rhythm to signal emotional states. Cromwell's speeches are often broken by dashes and exclamations: 'Too fair, too fair! / E'en to be honest fair.' The repetition and halting syntax suggest a mind under pressure. In contrast, Arthur's opening lines are measured and melancholic, with enjambments that mimic weary footsteps: 'Give me your arm, my feet tread heavily; / The sameness of this scene doth pierce my heart.'

The verse also carries biblical and political echoes. Cromwell quotes scripture—'What saith the Scripture of the faith of princes?'—and uses legalistic phrasing ('As the Lord liveth, is it not enough / To struggle with a royal hypocrite'). Richards avoids archaic padding; even minor characters speak with purpose. The host's silent watering of spirits is a comic counterpoint, rendered in prose-like stage directions, while the conspirators Wyckoff and Basil speak in clipped, nervous lines that contrast with Cromwell's rhetorical grandeur.

Dialogue as Political and Personal Conflict

Richards uses dialogue to dramatize ideological struggle within intimate settings. The confrontation between Cromwell and Elizabeth is the play's emotional core: she calls him 'dearest father' and pleads for a return to 'our natural home / At Huntingdon,' while he accuses her of 'sickly whining.' Their exchange is not mere exposition; it enacts the tension between public duty and private affection. Cromwell's line 'What is a father in your minds weigh'd with a king?' encapsulates the central dilemma.

Elsewhere, dialogue reveals character through indirection. Arthur's instructions to William—'See the old knight; but not a word to him'—and his dismissive remarks about his cousin Florence ('full of wiles') hint at a backstory of betrayal and romantic disappointment. The eavesdropping scene between Basil and Wyckoff, with its focus on the host's adulterated drink, injects a note of low comedy that offsets the high political drama. Richards balances registers: the lofty verse of Cromwell's soliloquies sits alongside the earthy complaints of soldiers and servants.

Stagecraft and Symbolic Setting

Richards's stage directions are unusually detailed for a closet drama, specifying '1st Cut' and '2nd Grooves'—theater terminology for wing positions. The settings are emblematic: a lane near a village, a dimly lit apartment with 'tables with writing materials,' a hidden plank in the floor. These are not mere backdrops but active elements. The defaced inn sign—once James, then Charles, now blank—is a visual shorthand for regime change. The hidden papers under the floorboards suggest conspiracy and secrecy.

Lighting and movement reinforce mood. Cromwell enters 'very much agitated' and paces 'across and back' before speaking. The stage direction 'practicable door and stairs' indicates that characters physically ascend or descend, perhaps symbolizing shifts in power or perspective. Richards also uses props: the host's flask of watered spirits, the dagger drawn by Basil, the letter Arthur carries. These objects carry narrative weight without needing explanation. The clock striking twelve in the conspirators' scene marks a temporal pivot, heightening tension.

Recurring Details and Thematic Threads

Several motifs recur across the excerpts. The idea of reading and interpretation appears early: Arthur compares his life to 'a strange and chequer'd story,' and later Cromwell speaks of Milton's 'bitter words.' The act of reading—whether of scripture, letters, or faces—becomes a metaphor for judgment. The word 'fair' is used ironically: Cromwell says the king spoke 'Too fair, too fair!' implying deceit. Elizabeth calls herself a 'little Royalist,' a term that domesticates political allegiance.

Another thread is the contrast between England and abroad. Arthur and William have returned from 'bright Italian skies,' but William longs for 'honest mud and wholesome English fog.' This nostalgia for a flawed homeland runs counter to the play's revolutionary setting. Cromwell's reference to 'Henrietta, that false Delilah' links foreign influence with moral corruption. The excerpts also show a preoccupation with inheritance and lineage: Arthur's 'little rosy cousin' who 'should be a woman now,' and Cromwell's worry about his son Richard's dullness. These details ground the political drama in family dynamics.

Readers should attend to Richards's manipulation of verse form: the blank verse is not uniform but shifts with character and situation. The play rewards attention to stage directions, which are as carefully crafted as the dialogue. Because the excerpts are incomplete, the full arc of Arthur's subplot and the resolution of Cromwell's conflict with Elizabeth remain uncertain. Approach the drama as a poetic exploration of conscience under political pressure, not as a historical chronicle. The language itself—its rhythms, repetitions, and silences—carries the argument.

There’s something about Richards’s Cromwell—that quiet ache of exile in Arthur Walton—that lingered with me long after the final act. It made me think of Rada: A Drama of War in One Act — Context and Discussion, where the same lonely weight of homecoming presses down, though with far fewer words. Strange, how two such different plays can share one heartbeat.