=Instans Tyrannus= == The Threatening Tyrant. (_Men and Women_, 1855; _Dramatic Romances_, 1868.) The title of this poem was suggested by Horace's Ode on the Just Man (_Od._ iii. 3. 1):--
"Justum et tenacem propositi virum, Non civium ardor prava jubentium, Non vultus instantis tyranni," etc.
('The just man, firm to his purpose, is not to be shaken from his fixed resolve by the fury of a mob laying upon him their impious behests, nor by the frown of a threatening tyrant, etc.') These lines are said to have been repeated by the celebrated De Witte while he was subject to torture. When men or causes are suppressed by tyranny, the tyrant knows well in his heart that force alone, and not justice, enables him to crush opposition to his will; and he is the first to see, even if he do not acknowledge, the Divine Arm thrust forth from the heavens to protect his victims and avenge their wrongs. From some undefined cause a poor, contemptible man was the object of a tyrant's hate: he struck him, tried to bribe him, tempted his blood and his flesh. Having tried every way to extinguish the man, he contrived thunder above and mine below him to destroy, as a rat in a hole, this friendless wretch, when suddenly the man saw God's arm across the sky. The man
--"caught at God's skirts, and prayed! So, _I_ was afraid!"
[Archdeacon Farrar refers the incidents of this poem to the persecution of the early Christians.--_Browning Society Papers_, Pt VII., p. 22*.]
=In Three Days.= (_Men and Women_, 1855; _Dramatic Lyrics_, 1868.) A lover anticipates that in three days he shall see his lady. He is aware that three days may change his future, as has often been changed the history of the world in the time. He knows, too, that though three days may cast no shadow in his way, still the years to follow may bring changes and chances of unimagined end. He reiterates that in three days he shall see her, and fear of all that the future may have in store is absorbed in the blissful anticipation.