He immediately began to plan out a great historical play, and selected for his subject "Strafford." In Browning's treatment of the subject there is something more than a trace of his Puritan and Liberal upbringing.

It is one of the very earliest of the really important works in English literature which are based on the Parliamentarian reading of the incidents of the time of Charles I.It is true that the finest element in the play is the opposition between Strafford and Pym, an opposition so complete, so lucid, so consistent, that it has, so to speak, something of the friendly openness and agreement which belongs to an alliance.

The two men love each other and fight each other, and do the two things at the same time completely.

This is a great thing of which even to attempt the description.

It is easy to have the impartiality which can speak judicially of both parties, but it is not so easy to have that larger and higher impartiality which can speak passionately on behalf of both parties.