Browning's England Part 21

[_To the +Presbyterians+._] Whichever cur of you will carry this Escapes his fellow's fate. None saves his life?

None?

[_Cries from within of "STRAFFORD!"_

Slingsby, I've loved you at least: make haste!

Stab me! I have not time to tell you why.

You then, my Bryan! Mainwaring, you then!

Is it because I spoke so hastily At Allerton? The King had vexed me.

[_To the +Presbyterians+._] You!

--Not even you? If I live over this, The King is sure to have your heads, you know!

But what if I can't live this minute through?

Pym, who is there with his pursuing smile!

[_Louder cries of "STRAFFORD!"_

The King! I troubled him, stood in the way Of his negotiations, was the one Great obstacle to peace, the Enemy Of Scotland: and he sent for me, from York, My safety guaranteed--having prepared A Parliament--I see! And at Whitehall The Queen was whispering with Vane--I see The trap!

[_Tearing off the George._

I tread a gewgaw underfoot, And cast a memory from me. One stroke, now!

[_His own +Adherents+ disarm him. Renewed cries of "STRAFFORD!"_

England! I see thy arm in this and yield.

Pray you now--Pym awaits me--pray you now!

[_STRAFFORD reaches the doors: they open wide. HAMPDEN and a crowd discovered, and, at the bar, PYM standing apart. As STRAFFORD kneels, the scene shuts._

[Ill.u.s.tration: Westminster Hall]

The history of the fourth act deals with further episodes of Strafford's trial, especially with the change in the procedure from Impeachment to a Bill of Attainder against Strafford. The details of this great trial are complicated and cannot be followed in all their ramifications here.

There was danger that the Impeachment would not go through. Strafford, himself, felt confident that in law his actions could not be found treasonable.

After Strafford's brilliant defense of himself, it was decided to bring in a Bill of Attainder. New evidence against Strafford contained in some notes which the younger Vane had found among his father's papers were used to strengthen the charge of treason. In these notes Strafford had advised the King to act "loose and absolved from all rules of government," and had reminded him that there was an army in Ireland, ready to reduce the Kingdom. These notes were found by the merest accident. The younger Vane who had just been knighted and was about to be married, borrowed his father's keys in order to look up some law papers. In his search he fell upon these notes taken at a committee that met immediately after the dissolution of the short Parliament. He made a copy and carried it to Pym who also made a copy.

According to Baillie, the "secret" of the change from the Impeachment to the Bill was "to prevent the hearing of the Earl's lawyers, who give out that there is no law yet in force whereby he can be condemned to die for aught yet objected against him, and therefore their intent by this Bill to supply the defect of the laws therein." To this may be added the opinion of a member of the Commons. "If the House of Commons proceeds to demand judgment of the Lords, without doubt they will acquit him, there being no law extant whereby to condemn him of treason. Wherefore the Commons are determined to desert the Lord's judicature, and to proceed against him by Bill of Attainder, whereby he shall be adjudged to death upon a treason now to be declared."

One of the chief results in this change of procedure, emphasized by Browning in an intense scene between Pym and Charles was that it altered entirely the King's att.i.tude towards Strafford's trial. As Baillie expresses it, "Had the Commons gone on in the former way of pursuit, the King might have been a patient, and only beheld the striking off of Strafford's head; but now they have put them on a Bill which will force the King either to be our agent and formal voicer to his death, or else do the world knows not what."

For the sake of a gain in dramatic power, Browning has once more departed from history by making Pym the moving power in the Bill of Attainder, and Hampden in favor of it; while in reality they were opposed to the change in procedure, and believed that the Impeachment could have been carried through.

The relentless, scourging force of Pym in the play, pursuing the arch-foe of England as he regarded Wentworth to the death, once he is convinced that England's welfare demands it, would have been weakened had he been represented in favor of the policy which was abandoned, instead of with the policy that succeeded. But Pym is made to intimate that he will abandon the Bill unless the King gives his word that he will ratify it, and further, Pym declares, should he not ratify the Bill his next step will be against the King himself.

_Enter HAMPDEN and VANE._

_Vane._ O Hampden, save the great misguided man!

Plead Strafford's cause with Pym! I have remarked He moved no muscle when we all declaimed Against him: you had but to breathe--he turned Those kind calm eyes upon you.

[_Enter PYM, the +Solicitor-General+ ST. JOHN, the +Managers+ of the Trial, FIENNES, RUDYARD, etc._

_Rudyard._ Horrible!

Till now all hearts were with you: I withdraw For one. Too horrible! But we mistake Your purpose, Pym: you cannot s.n.a.t.c.h away The last spar from the drowning man.

_Fiennes._ He talks With St. John of it--see, how quietly!

[_To other +Presbyterians+._] You'll join us? Strafford may deserve the worst: But this new course is monstrous. Vane, take heart!

This Bill of his Attainder shall not have One true man's hand to it.

_Vane._ Consider, Pym!

Confront your Bill, your own Bill: what is it?

You cannot catch the Earl on any charge,-- No man will say the law has hold of him On any charge; and therefore you resolve To take the general sense on his desert, As though no law existed, and we met To found one. You refer to Parliament To speak its thought upon the abortive ma.s.s Of half-borne-out a.s.sertions, dubious hints Hereafter to be cleared, distortions--ay, And wild inventions. Every man is saved The task of fixing any single charge On Strafford: he has but to see in him The enemy of England.

_Pym._ A right scruple!

I have heard some called England's enemy With less consideration.

_Vane._ Pity me!

Indeed you made me think I was your friend!

I who have murdered Strafford, how remove That memory from me?

_Pym._ I absolve you, Vane.

Take you no care for aught that you have done!

_Vane._ John Hampden, not this Bill! Reject this Bill!

He staggers through the ordeal: let him go, Strew no fresh fire before him! Plead for us!

When Strafford spoke, your eyes were thick with tears!

_Hampden._ England speaks louder: who are we, to play The generous pardoner at her expense, Magnanimously waive advantages, And, if he conquer us, applaud his skill?

_Vane._ He was your friend.

_Pym._ I have heard that before.

_Fiennes._ And England trusts you.

_Hampden._ Shame be his, who turns The opportunity of serving her She trusts him with, to his own mean account-- Who would look n.o.bly frank at her expense!

_Fiennes._ I never thought it could have come to this.

_Pym._ But I have made myself familiar, Fiennes, With this one thought--have walked, and sat, and slept, This thought before me. I have done such things, Being the chosen man that should destroy The traitor. You have taken up this thought To play with, for a gentle stimulant, To give a dignity to idler life By the dim prospect of emprise to come, But ever with the softening, sure belief, That all would end some strange way right at last.

_Fiennes._ Had we made out some weightier charge!

_Pym._ You say That these are petty charges: can we come To the real charge at all? There he is safe In tyranny's stronghold. Apostasy Is not a crime, treachery not a crime: The cheek burns, the blood tingles, when you speak The words, but where's the power to take revenge Upon them? We must make occasion serve,-- The oversight shall pay for the main sin That mocks us.

_Rudyard._ But his unexampled course, This Bill!

_Pym._ By this, we roll the clouds away Of precedent and custom, and at once Bid the great beacon-light G.o.d sets in all, The conscience of each bosom, shine upon The guilt of Strafford: each man lay his hand Upon his breast, and judge!

_Vane._ I only see Strafford, nor pa.s.s his corpse for all beyond!