Q. D. B. V! Characteres Tyranni in Oliverio Cromwello, Angliae quondam, Scotiae et Hiberniae Protectore… Dissertatione Politica publico eruditorum conspectui…

A GERMAN ANALYSIS OF OLIVER CROMWELL. 4to. (2), 50 pp, (4). Bound in modern marbled wrappers. Upper margin of title-page and lower margin of final leave closely trimmed, affecting a few letters; otherwise an excellent copy. Rare sole edition of this doctoral thesis on the topic of the ‘characters of a tyrant’ found in Oliver Cromwell. Such dissertations were intended as an exposition of the breadth of the candidate’s learning, and in this case it becomes clear that Ulbrecht must have had access to an impressive array of sources. His lengthy footnotes quote texts in English, Italian, Spanish, French, and Latin; some the works referenced include Clarendon’s History of the Rebellion (1665); Anthony Wood’s History of Oxford; John Barclay’s Icon animorum (Dresden, 1680); William Allen’s Traicté politique (Leiden, 1658); William Sheridan’s Discourse of the Martyrdom of King Charles I (London, 1704); William Richards’ The English Orator; James Howell’s Familiar Letters (London, 1655); Samuel Butler’s Vindication of the Royal Martyr King Charles I annexed unto [Ned Ward’s] the secret History of the Calves-Head-Club, or the Republican Unmasked (London, 1705); and so on. Some of the thesis is rhetorically addressed to the ‘infernal tyrant’ Cromwell himself, and Ulbrecht identifies the main characters of the Civil War by rambling off a list of them (pp. 38-40): "Who is Ireton? Your son, and a co-conspirator to all of your crimes. Who is Desborough? An affiliate of yours, a stupid and dishonest little man. Who is [Catherine] Jones? A sister of yours, and likewise a tyrant… Who is Groby? A great man of yours, coerced into crime. Who is Danvers? An extravagant scoundrel, driver to despair… [etc. etc.]." Judging by Ulbrecht’s closing sentence: Statuite firmiter, tum demum liberrimos vos esse ac felicissimos, si reges augusti, benigni justeque constituti sceptro paretis. Sentitis mecum? Mecum optate: pereant Tyranni! Pereant Rebelles! Vivat Rex! The main thrust of his argument seems to be that a good king has no need to fear tyrants – but if a king is in any way unjust or at fault, then a ‘tyrant’ or ‘rebel’ has as much right to usurp the throne as anyone. The unusual subject of the present work attracted the attention of the bibliographers Hazlitt and Abbott (see below). OCLC shows two US copies at Emory and Virginia. * Hazlitt IV, 132; Abbott, A Bibliography of Oliver Cromwell, #1258.