Note 259 — ACT IV., SCENE 1.

Alluding to the acts of Oliver Cromwell's parliament for punishing adultery, incest, and fornication; by which it was declared that the two former should be punishable with death on the first offence, and the latter upon the second conviction. "These acts," an excellent writer (Mr Barrington on the Statutes) observes, "could not have continued long unrepealed, even if Charles II. had not succeeded to the throne." It has been doubted whether there were any instances of carrying them into execution, notwithstanding the rigidness of the times wherein they were enacted. A newspaper, however, of that period furnishes an example which, from the extraordinary circumstances attending it, may perhaps be considered as not unworthy of being preserved. In Mercurius Politicus, No. 168, from Thursday, Aug. 25, to Thursday, Sept. 1, 1653, p. 2700, is the following passage:—"At Monmouth Assize an old man of eighty-nine years was put to death for adultery, committed with a woman above sixty."