Explore "Halbert and Hob" by Robert Browning on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
Here is a thing that happened. Like wild beasts whelped, for den, / In a wild part of North England, there lived once two wild men / Inhabiting one homestead, neither a hovel nor hut, / Time out of mind their birthright: father and son, these -- but -- / Such a son, such a father! Most wildness by degrees / Softens away: yet, last of their line, the wildest and worst were / these.
Criminals, then? Why, no: they did not murder and rob; / But, give them a word, they returned a blow -- old Halbert as young / Hob: / Harsh and fierce of word, rough and savage of deed, / Hated or feared the more -- who knows? -- the genuine wild-beast breed.