surely such was his sleep beside his wife
or was it a nightmare of horrid sport
he just dreamt- at exuberant strife
twisting that Capitano’s nose and warts
imagine if Death were general
and like in Rome this man’s imago
were worn at the State’s constant funerals -
none could take his place to embargo
Europe - generalissimo the powers -
where Death made its peculiar imprint
and the man stopped - cold peace somehow flowers
his abdication only imminent
held in the same suspense he held the State
the Sword of the Lord cleaned and sheathed too late
Blackwell’s
Oxford
22 August 2018.
David Loggan’s death-mask of the Lord Protector is on display in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford. “Il Capitano” was a stock ex-soldier character in Commedia dell’Arte, rather like the Atellan Farce character Manducus. Cromwell’s nose was askew. Romans had the practice of attending funerals wearing the ” imagines” of their ancestors, if the family had standing.