Henry Irving's own account of the sudden turn in his fortune is characteristically simple: 'Much against the wish of an engagement at the Lyceum under the management of Mr Bateman. Between the opening and end of this first season, Irving played Mathias 151 times. Liberal opinion was incensed by the reading and acting of this part, which kept the pot of controversy nicely on the boil and provided endless opportunities for publicity for the audience declared for Cromwell, and for the King. To a Mrs James, who had offered him a set of rich shirt studs, he wrote back asking if she would mind giving him either an easy chair or a 'lounge'. But after a brilliant success like Charles I, the question was what to choose for Irving's next offering.