ntal.
Indeed, sentimentality is the curse of the play. Strafford's love of the
king is almost maudlin. The scenes between Strafford and Pym in which
their ancient friendship is introduced are over-sentimentalised, not
only for their characters, but for the great destinies at stake. Even at
the last, when Pym and Strafford forgive each other and speak of meeting
hereafter, good sense is violated, and the natural dignity of the scene,
and the characters of the men. Strafford is weaker here, if that were
possible, than he is in the rest of the drama. Nothing can be more
unlike the man.

Pym is intended to be especially strong. He is made a blusterer. He was
a gentleman, but in this last scene he is hateful. As to Charles, he was
always a selfish liar, but he was not a coward, and a coward he becomes
in this play. He, too, is sentimentalised by his uxoriousness. Lady
Carlisle is invented. I wish she had not been. Stratford's misfortunes
were deep enough without having her in love with him. I do not believe,
moreover, that any woman in the whole world from the very beginning was
ever so obscure in her speech to the man she loves as Lady Carlisle was
to Strafford. And the motive of her obscurity--that if she discloses the
King's perfidy she robs Strafford of that which is dearest to him--his
belief in the King's affection for him--is no doubt very fine, but the
woman was either not in love who argued in that way, or a fool; for
Strafford knew, and lets her understand that he knew, the treachery of
the King. But Browning meant her to be in love, and to be clever.

* * * * *

The next play Browning wrote, undeterred by the fate of _Strafford_, was
_King Victor and King Charles_. The subject is historical, but it is
modified by Browning, quite legitimately, to suit his own purposes. In
itself the plot is uninteresting. King Victor, having brought the
kingdom to the verge of ruin, abdicates and hands the crown to his son,
believing him to be a weak-minded person whose mistakes will bring
him--Victor--back to the throne, when he can throw upon the young king
the responsibility of the mess he has himself made of the kingdom.
Charles turns out to be a strong character, sets right the foreign
affairs of the kingdom, and repairs his father's misgovernment. Then
Victor, envious and longing for power, conspires to resume the throne,
and taken prisoner, begs back the crown. Charles, touched as a son, and