glimpse, the first, of the man in a purely human capacity is given in
the second scene with Strafford and his children. From all accounts
little Anne was a precocious child and Browning has sketched her
accordingly. The scene is like a gleam of sunshine in the gathering
gloom.

The genuine grief felt by the historical Charles over the part he played
in the ruin of Strafford is brought out in an interview between
Strafford and Charles, who is represented as coming disguised to the
prison. Strafford who has been hoping for pardon from the King learns
from Hollis, in the King's presence, that the King has signed his death
warrant. He receives this shock with the remark which history attributes
to him.

"Put not your trust
In princes, neither in the sons of men,
In whom is no salvation!"

History tells us of two efforts to rescue Strafford. One of these was an
attempt to bribe Balfour to allow him to escape from the tower. This
hint the Poet has worked up into the episode of Charles, calling Balfour
and begging him to go at once to Parliament, to say he will grant all
demands, and that he chooses to pardon Strafford. History, however, does
not say that Lady Carlisle was implicated in any plan for the rescue of
Strafford, of which Browning makes so much. According to Gardiner, she
was by this time bestowing her favors upon Pym. Devotion to the truth
here on Browning's part would have completely ruined the inner unity of
the play. Carlisle, the woman ready to devote herself to Strafford's
utmost need, while Strafford is more or less indifferent to her is the
artistic compliment of Strafford the man devoted to the unresponsive
King. The failure of the escape through Pym's intervention is a final
dramatic climax bringing face to face not so much the two individual men
as the two principles of government for which England was warring, the
Monarchical and the Parliamentary. To the last, Strafford is loyal to
the King and the Kingly idea, while Pym crushing his human feelings
under foot, calmly contemplates the sacrifice not only of Strafford, but
even of the King, if England's need demand it.

In this supreme moment of agony when Strafford and Pym meet face to face
both men are made to realize an abiding love for each other beneath all
their earthly differences. "A great poet of our own day," writes
Gardiner, "clothing the reconciling spirit of the nineteenth century in
words which never coul