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The Poetical Works of Robert Browning: Paracelsus. Strafford.
The Poetical Works of Robert Browning Paracelsus Strafford Author:Robert Browning Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: STRAFFORD, ACT I. Scene I.—A House near Whitehall. Hampden, Hollis, the younger Vane, Rudyard, Fiennes and many oj the Presbyterian Party: LOUDON and other... more » Scots Commissioners. Vane. I say, if he be here— Rudyard. (And he is here !)— Hollis. For England's sake let every man be still Nor speak of him, so much as say his name, Till Pym rejoin us ! Rudyard ! Henry Vane ! One rash conclusion may decide our course And with it England's fate—think—England's fate ! Hampden, for England's sake they should be still ! Vane. You say so, Hollis ? Well, I must be still. It is indeed too bitter that one man, Any one man's mere presence, should suspend England's combined endeavour : little need To name him ! Rudyard. For you are his brother, Hollis ! Hampden. Shame on you, Rudyard ! time to tell him that, When he forgets the Mother of us aH. Rudyard. Do I forget her ? Hampden. You talk idle hate Against her foe : is that so strange a thing ? Is hating Wentworth all the help she needs ? A Puritan. The Philistine strode, cursing as he went: But David—five smooth pebbles from the brook Within his scrip . . . Rudyard. Be you as still as David ! Fiennes. Here 's Rudyard not ashamed to wag a tongue Stiff with ten years' disuse of Parliaments ; Why, when the last sat, Wentworth sat with us ! Rudyard. Let's hope for news of them now he returns— He that was safe in Ireland, as we thought! —But I 'll abide Pym's coming. Vane. Now, by Heaven Then may be cool who can, silent who will— Some have a gift that way ! Wentworth is here, Here, and the King 's safe closeted with him Ere this. And when I think on all that's past Since that man left us, how his single arm Rolled the advancing good of England back And set the woeful past up in its place, ...« less