FEINBERG/WHITMAN                LITERARY FILE      Prose  "Age of Cromwell" (undated)             A.MS. draft

Box   35     Folder  29534
      Cromwell?                           A. MS. (1p. 21 x 20 1/2 cm.)

Written in purple pencil, with number in blue pencil and some of
the corrections in ink, on a piece of rough paper cut from a
larger sheet, 179 words:

                                             172
that gave forth the Scriptures."  The range of his thought, even
then cover[e]d almost every important subject of after times, antislabery,
women's rights, &c.  [He visited America in 1672.]  Though
in a low sphere, and among the masses, he [is] forms a mark[e]d feature 
[influence] in the age. (paragraph sign) And, how indeed [how] beyond all any, that
stormy and perturb[e]d [an] age!  The foundations of the old, the superstitious, 
the conventionally poetic, the credulous, all breaking 
-- the light of the new, and of science and democracy, definitely 
beginning --a mad, fierce, [agitating], almost crazy age!  The political 
struggles of the reigns of [the] the Charleses, and of the
Protectorate of Cromwell, heated to frenzy [heat] by theological
struggles.  Those were the years following the advent and practical
working of the Reformation -- but Catholicism is yet strong, and yet
                                         [more]                                                         535

seeks supremacy.  We think our age full of the flush of men and
doings, and culminations of war and peace; and so it is.  But
there could hardly be a grander [age] and more picturesque and
varied age than that.[just dead -- Charles brought to the
[blood block] & all the spirit and of its influence. [Right] to sum up all [he calls] it
was the age of Cromwell /

[*172*]
that gave forth to the Scriptures."  The range of his
thought even then cover[e]d almost every important subject of after times
anti-slavery, women's rights, &c.  [He visited America 
in 1672.] Though in a low sphere and among the 
masses. he forms [is] a mark[e]d [influence] feature in the age.
And how indeed [how] beyond any and all that stormy and perturb[e]d [an] age! The foundations
of the old, the superstitions, the conventionally 
poetic, the credulous all breaking -- the
light of the new and of science and democracy.
Definitely beginning -- a mad, fierce, [agitating]
almost crazy age!  The political struggles
of the reigns of [th] the Charleses, and of the Protectorate 
of Cromwell heated to frenzy [heat]
by theological struggles.  Those were the years
following the advent and practical working of the Reformation -- but
Catholicism is yet strong, and yet seeks supremacy.  
We think our age full of the flush
of men and doings and culminations of war
and peace; and so it is.  But there could
hardly be a grander [age] and more picturesque
and varied age than that.An opinion of W. Whitman's
late [?asking?].        # [?]