_King Victor and King Charles_, which followed it, is a political play, the study of a despotic instinct much meaner than that of Strafford.

_Colombe's Birthday_, again, is political as well as romantic.

Politics in its historic aspect would seem to have had a great fascination for him, as indeed it must have for all ardent intellects, since it is the one thing in the world that is as intellectual as the _Encyclopaedia Britannica_ and as rapid as the Derby.
One of the favourite subjects among those who like to conduct long controversies about Browning (and their name is legion) is the question of whether Browning's plays, such as _Strafford_, were successes upon the stage.

As they are never agreed about what constitutes a success on the stage, it is difficult to adjudge their quarrels.

But the general fact is very simple; such a play as _Strafford_ was not a gigantic theatrical success, and nobody, it is to be presumed, ever imagined that it would be.