“NED BRATTS” was suggested by the remembrance of a passage in John Bunyan’s “Life and Death of Mr. Badman.”  Bunyan relates there that some twenty years ago, “at a summer assizes holden at Hertford, while the judge was sitting on the Bench,” a certain old Tod came into the Court, and declared himself “the veriest rogue that breathes upon the earth”—­a thief from childhood, &c., &c.; that the judge first thought him mad, but after conferring with some of the justices, agreed to indict him “of several felonious actions;” and that as he heartily confessed to all of these, he was hanged, with his wife, at the same time.  Mr. Browning has turned Hertford into Bedford; made the time of the occurrence coincide with that of Bunyan’s imprisonment; and supposed the evident conversion of this man and woman to be among the many which he effected there.  The blind daughter of Bunyan, who plays an important part in “Ned Bratts,” is affectingly spoken of in her father’s work; and the tag-laces, which have subserved the criminal purposes of Bratts and his wife, represent an industry by which he is known to have supported himself in prison.  Mr. Browning, finally, has used the indications Bunyan gives, of the incident taking place on a very hot day, so as to combine the sense of spiritual stirring with one of unwholesome and grotesque physical excitement; and this, as he describes it, is the genuine key-note of the situation.

The character of Ned Bratts is made a perfect vehicle for these impressions.  His “Tab” (Tabitha) has had an interview with John Bunyan, and been really moved by his majestic presence, and warning, yet hope-inspiring words.  But he himself has been principally worked upon by the reading of the “Pilgrim’s Progress;” and we see in him throughout, an unregenerate ruffian, whose carnal energies have merely transferred themselves to another field; and whose blood is fired to this act of martyrdom both by yesterday’s potations, and to-day’s virtuously endured thirst.  “A mug,” he cries, in the midst of his confessions; or, “no (addressing his wife), a prayer!”

       “Dip for one out of the Book!...” (vol. xv. p. 67.)

The precarious nature of his conversion is, indeed, vividly present to his own mind.  It is borne in upon him that he is “Christmas,” and must escape from the City of Destruction.  He would like nothing better, in his present mood, than to undertake the whole Pilgrimage, and, as it were, cudgel his way through; and since it is late in the day for this, he chooses the short cut by the gallows, as the next best thing.  But he is, above all, desirous to be taken while the penitent fit is on him:  and urgently sets forth those past misdeeds, which constitute his and his wife’s claim to a speedy despatch, such as will place them beyond the danger of backsliding.  Already, he declares, Satan is whispering to him of the pleasures he is leaving behind; and the seductions of to-morrow’s brawl and bear-baiting are threatening to turn the scale.  Another moment, and instead of going up to heaven, like Faithful, in a chariot and pair, he will be the Lost Man in the Iron Cage!