OLIVER CROMWELL, 333' I* 
liis studies he was very eccentric and inconsistent, now applying him- 
self with unremitting assiduity for a few weeks^ then becoming 
indolent for as many months. Traits of his character would also at 
this time break out. When he was at the grammar school, it was a 
custom for the scholars to perform a play once a year. Upon one of 
these occasions the comedy of Lingua, or The Combat of the Tongue 
and the Five Senses for the Superiority, was fixed upon. The plan of 
this play, which was printed in 1607, is,— Lingua gives a crown and 
royal robe to be contested for by the Senses. Tactus, one of the 
principal persons of the piece, having stumbled over the crown and 
robe as they lay on the ground, it gives rise to the following soliloquy, — 
which so accorded wdth the sentiments of Oliver, even at this early 
period of his life, that he could not conceal the pleasure he received 
from it; and nothing would satisfy him but his being permitted to 
personate the character of Tactus. As this speech gives such a striking 
picture of the first development of an ambitious mind, the whole of it 
is here transcribed : 
t 
Scene VI. A Soliloquy. 
TACTUS. 
Tactus, thy sneering somewhat did portend ; 
Was ever rna,n so fortunate as I, 
To break rny shins at such a stumbling block? 
Roses and bays, back hence ;— this crown and robe. 
My brows and body circles and invests! 
How gallantly it fits me ! Sure the slave 
Measured my head, that wrought this coronet. 
They lie, who say complexions cannot change; 
My blood’s ennobled, and I am transformed. 
Under the sacred temper of a King, 
Methinks I hear my noble parasites 
Styling me Coesar, or Great Alexander ; 
Licking my feet, and w'ondering where I got 
This precious ointment. How my pace is mended ! 
How princely do I speak I How sharp I threaten! 
Peasants, I’ll curb your head — strong impudence. 
And make you tremble when the lion roars. 
Ye earth-bred worms! Oh, for a looking glass ! 
Poets will write whole volumes of this change ! 
Where’s my attendants ? Come hither, sirrah, quickly. 
Or by the wings of Hermes— 
From Huntingdoii grammar-school, Oliver was removed, about tne 
•beginning of the year 1616, to Sydney Sussex. College in Cambridge, 
•where, his genius being little fitted for the calm and elegant occupa- 
tions of learning, he made no great progress in his studies. His 
course of life, on the contrary, was dissolute; and he became more 
famous, while at college, for foot-ball, cricket, wrestling, cudgelling, 
and other gymnastic amusements, than for his application to the in- 
struction of his tutors. He did not, however, totally neglect his 
studies ; he obtained a tolerable knowledge of the Latin language, and 
likewise of the Greek and Roman histories ; and as he was afterwards 
