Chapter 18

_Enter_ CAIN _and_ ADAH.

_Adah_. Hush! tread softly, Cain!

_Cain_. I will--but wherefore?

_Adah_. Our little Enoch sleeps upon yon bed Of leaves, beneath the cypress.

_Cain_. Cypress! 'tis A gloomy tree, which looks as if it mourned O'er what it shadows; wherefore didst thou choose it For our child's canopy?

_Adah_. Because its branches Shut out the sun like night, and therefore seemed Fitting to shadow slumber.

_Cain_. Aye, the last-- And longest; but no matter--lead me to him. [_They go up to the child_. How lovely he appears! his little cheeks, 10 In their pure incarnation,[124] vying with The rose leaves strewn beneath them.

_Adah_. And his lips, too, How beautifully parted! No; you shall not Kiss him, at least not now: he will awake soon-- His hour of mid-day rest is nearly over; But it were pity to disturb him till 'Tis closed.

_Cain_. You have said well; I will contain My heart till then. He smiles, and sleeps!--sleep on, And smile, thou little, young inheritor Of a world scarce less young: sleep on, and smile! 20 Thine are the hours and days when both are cheering And innocent! _thou_ hast not plucked the fruit-- Thou know'st not thou art naked! Must the time Come thou shalt be amerced for sins unknown, Which were not thine nor mine? But now sleep on! His cheeks are reddening into deeper smiles, And shining lids are trembling o'er his long Lashes,[125] dark as the cypress which waves o'er them; Half open, from beneath them the clear blue Laughs out, although in slumber. He must dream-- 30 Of what? Of Paradise!--Aye! dream of it, My disinherited boy! 'Tis but a dream; For never more thyself, thy sons, nor fathers, Shall walk in that forbidden place of joy!

_Adah_. Dear Cain! Nay, do not whisper o'er our son Such melancholy yearnings o'er the past: Why wilt thou always mourn for Paradise? Can we not make another?

_Cain_. Where?

_Adah_. Here, or Where'er thou wilt: where'er thou art, I feel not The want of this so much regretted Eden. 40 Have I not thee--our boy--our sire, and brother, And Zillah--our sweet sister, and our Eve, To whom we owe so much besides our birth?

_Cain_. Yes--Death, too, is amongst the debts we owe her.

_Adah_. Cain! that proud Spirit, who withdrew thee hence, Hath saddened thine still deeper. I had hoped The promised wonders which thou hast beheld, Visions, thou say'st, of past and present worlds, Would have composed thy mind into the calm Of a contented knowledge; but I see 50 Thy guide hath done thee evil: still I thank him, And can forgive him all, that he so soon Hath given thee back to us.

_Cain_. So soon?

_Adah_. 'Tis scarcely Two hours since ye departed: two _long_ hours To _me_, but only _hours_ upon the sun.

_Cain_. And yet I have approached that sun, and seen Worlds which he once shone on, and never more Shall light; and worlds he never lit: methought Years had rolled o'er my absence.

_Adah_. Hardly hours.

_Cain_. The mind then hath capacity of time, 60 And measures it by that which it beholds, Pleasing or painful[126]; little or almighty. I had beheld the immemorial works Of endless beings; skirred extinguished worlds; And, gazing on eternity, methought I had borrowed more by a few drops of ages From its immensity: but now I feel My littleness again. Well said the Spirit, That I was nothing!

_Adah_. Wherefore said he so? Jehovah said not that.

_Cain_. No: _he_ contents him 70 With making us the _nothing_ which we are; And after flattering dust with glimpses of Eden and Immortality, resolves It back to dust again--for what?

_Adah_. Thou know'st-- Even for our parents' error.

_Cain_. What is that To us? they sinned, then _let them_ die!

_Adah_. Thou hast not spoken well, nor is that thought Thy own, but of the Spirit who was with thee. Would _I_ could die for them, so _they_ might live!

_Cain_. Why, so say I--provided that one victim 80 Might satiate the Insatiable of life, And that our little rosy sleeper there Might never taste of death nor human sorrow, Nor hand it down to those who spring from him.

_Adah_. How know we that some such atonement one day May not redeem our race?

_Cain_. By sacrificing The harmless for the guilty? what atonement[127] Were there? why, _we_ are innocent: what have we Done, that we must be victims for a deed Before our birth, or need have victims to 90 Atone for this mysterious, nameless sin-- If it be such a sin to seek for knowledge?

_Adah_. Alas! thou sinnest now, my Cain: thy words Sound impious in mine ears.

_Cain_. Then leave me!

_Adah_. Never, Though thy God left thee.

_Cain_. Say, what have we here?

_Adah_. Two altars, which our brother Abel made During thine absence, whereupon to offer A sacrifice to God on thy return.

_Cain_. And how knew _he_, that _I_ would be so ready With the burnt offerings, which he daily brings 100 With a meek brow, whose base humility Shows more of fear than worship--as a bribe To the Creator?

_Adah_. Surely, 'tis well done.

_Cain_. One altar may suffice; _I_ have no offering.

_Adah_. The fruits of the earth,[128] the early, beautiful, Blossom and bud--and bloom of flowers and fruits-- These are a goodly offering to the Lord, Given with a gentle and a contrite spirit.

_Cain_. I have toiled, and tilled, and sweaten in the sun, According to the curse:--must I do more? 110 For what should I be gentle? for a war With all the elements ere they will yield The bread we eat? For what must I be grateful? For being dust, and grovelling in the dust, Till I return to dust? If I am nothing-- For nothing shall I be an hypocrite, And seem well-pleased with pain? For what should I Be contrite? for my father's sin, already Expiate with what we all have undergone, And to be more than expiated by 120 The ages prophesied, upon our seed. Little deems our young blooming sleeper, there, The germs of an eternal misery To myriads is within him! better 'twere I snatched him in his sleep, and dashed him 'gainst The rocks, than let him live to----

_Adah_. Oh, my God! Touch not the child--my child! _thy_ child! Oh, Cain!

_Cain_. Fear not! for all the stars, and all the power Which sways them, I would not accost yon infant With ruder greeting than a father's kiss. 130

_Adah_. Then, why so awful in thy speech?

_Cain_. I said, 'Twere better that he ceased to live, than give Life to so much of sorrow as he must Endure, and, harder still, bequeath; but since That saying jars you, let us only say-- 'Twere better that he never had been born.

_Adah_. Oh, do not say so! Where were then the joys, The mother's joys of watching, nourishing, And loving him? Soft! he awakes. Sweet Enoch! [_She goes to the child_. Oh, Cain! look on him; see how full of life, 140 Of strength, of bloom, of beauty, and of joy-- How like to me--how like to thee, when gentle-- For _then_ we are _all_ alike; is't not so, Cain? Mother, and sire, and son, our features are Reflected in each other; as they are In the clear waters, when _they_ are _gentle_, and When _thou_ art _gentle_. Love us, then, my Cain! And love thyself for our sakes, for we love thee. Look! how he laughs and stretches out his arms, And opens wide his blue eyes upon thine, 150 To hail his father; while his little form Flutters as winged with joy. Talk not of pain! The childless cherubs well might envy thee The pleasures of a parent! Bless him, Cain! As yet he hath no words to thank thee, but His heart will, and thine own too.

_Cain_. Bless thee, boy! If that a mortal blessing may avail thee, To save thee from the Serpent's curse!

_Adah_. It shall. Surely a father's blessing may avert A reptile's subtlety.

_Cain_. Of that I doubt; 160 But bless him ne'er the less.

_Adah_. Our brother comes.

_Cain_. Thy brother Abel.

_Enter_ ABEL.

_Abel_. Welcome, Cain! My brother, The peace of God be on thee!

_Cain_. Abel, hail!

_Abel_. Our sister tells me that thou hast been wandering, In high communion with a Spirit, far Beyond our wonted range. Was he of those We have seen and spoken with, like to our father?

_Cain_. No.

_Abel_. Why then commune with him? he may be A foe to the Most High.

_Cain_. And friend to man. Has the Most High been so--if so you term him? 170

_Abel_. _Term him!_ your words are strange to-day, my brother. My sister Adah, leave us for awhile-- We mean to sacrifice[129].

_Adah_. Farewell, my Cain; But first embrace thy son. May his soft spirit, And Abel's pious ministry, recall thee To peace and holiness! [_Exit_ ADAH, _with her child_.

_Abel_. Where hast thou been?

_Cain_. I know not.

_Abel_. Nor what thou hast seen?

_Cain_. The dead-- The Immortal--the Unbounded--the Omnipotent-- The overpowering mysteries of space-- The innumerable worlds that were and are-- 180 A whirlwind of such overwhelming things, Suns, moons, and earths, upon their loud-voiced spheres Singing in thunder round me, as have made me Unfit for mortal converse: leave me, Abel.

_Abel_. Thine eyes are flashing with unnatural light-- Thy cheek is flushed with an unnatural hue-- Thy words are fraught with an unnatural sound-- What may this mean?

_Cain_. It means--I pray thee, leave me.

_Abel_. Not till we have prayed and sacrificed together.

_Cain_. Abel, I pray thee, sacrifice alone-- 190 Jehovah loves thee well.

_Abel_. _Both_ well, I hope.

_Cain_. But thee the better: I care not for that; Thou art fitter for his worship than I am; Revere him, then--but let it be alone-- At least, without me.

_Abel_. Brother, I should ill Deserve the name of our great father's son, If, as my elder, I revered thee not, And in the worship of our God, called not On thee to join me, and precede me in Our priesthood--'tis thy place.

_Cain_. But I have ne'er 200 Asserted it.

_Abel_. The more my grief; I pray thee To do so now: thy soul seems labouring in Some strong delusion; it will calm thee.

_Cain_. No; Nothing can calm me more. _Calm!_ say I? Never Knew I what calm was in the soul, although I have seen the elements stilled. My Abel, leave me! Or let me leave thee to thy pious purpose.

_Abel_. Neither; we must perform our task together. Spurn me not.

_Cain_. If it must be so----well, then, What shall I do?

_Abel_. Choose one of those two altars. 210

_Cain_. Choose for me: they to me are so much turf And stone.

_Abel_. Choose thou!

_Cain_. I have chosen.

_Abel_. 'Tis the highest, And suits thee, as the elder. Now prepare Thine offerings.

_Cain_. Where are thine?

_Abel_. Behold them here-- The firstlings of the flock, and fat thereof-- A shepherd's humble offering.

_Cain_. I have no flocks; I am a tiller of the ground, and must Yield what it yieldeth to my toil--its fruit: [_He gathers fruits_. Behold them in their various bloom and ripeness. [_They dress their altars, and kindle aflame upon them_[130].

_Abel_. My brother, as the elder, offer first 220 Thy prayer and thanksgiving with sacrifice.

_Cain_. No--I am new to this; lead thou the way, And I will follow--as I may.

_Abel_ (_kneeling_). Oh, God! Who made us, and who breathed the breath of life Within our nostrils, who hath blessed us, And spared, despite our father's sin, to make His children all lost, as they might have been, Had not thy justice been so tempered with The mercy which is thy delight, as to Accord a pardon like a Paradise, 230 Compared with our great crimes:--Sole Lord of light! Of good, and glory, and eternity! Without whom all were evil, and with whom Nothing can err, except to some good end Of thine omnipotent benevolence! Inscrutable, but still to be fulfilled! Accept from out thy humble first of shepherds' First of the first-born flocks--an offering, In itself nothing--as what offering can be Aught unto thee?--but yet accept it for 240 The thanksgiving of him who spreads it in The face of thy high heaven--bowing his own Even to the dust, of which he is--in honour Of thee, and of thy name, for evermore!

_Cain_ (_standing erect during this speech_). Spirit whate'er or whosoe'er thou art, Omnipotent, it may be--and, if good, Shown in the exemption of thy deeds from evil; Jehovah upon earth! and God in heaven! And it may be with other names, because Thine attributes seem many, as thy works:-- 250 If thou must be propitiated with prayers, Take them! If thou must be induced with altars, And softened with a sacrifice, receive them; Two beings here erect them unto thee. If thou lov'st blood, the shepherd's shrine, which smokes On my right hand, hath shed it for thy service In the first of his flock, whose limbs now reek In sanguinary incense to thy skies; Or, if the sweet and blooming fruits of earth, And milder seasons, which the unstained turf 260 I spread them on now offers in the face Of the broad sun which ripened them, may seem Good to thee--inasmuch as they have not Suffered in limb or life--and rather form A sample of thy works, than supplication To look on ours! If a shrine without victim, And altar without gore, may win thy favour, Look on it! and for him who dresseth it, He is--such as thou mad'st him; and seeks nothing Which must be won by kneeling: if he's evil[ck], 270 Strike him! thou art omnipotent, and may'st-- For what can he oppose? If he be good, Strike him, or spare him, as thou wilt! since all Rests upon thee; and Good and Evil seem To have no power themselves, save in thy will-- And whether that be good or ill I know not, Not being omnipotent, nor fit to judge Omnipotence--but merely to endure Its mandate; which thus far I have endured.

[_The fire upon the altar of_ ABEL _kindles into a column of the brightest flame, and ascends to heaven; while a whirlwind throws down the altar of_ CAIN, _and scatters the fruits abroad upon the earths_[131]

_Abel_ (_kneeling_). Oh, brother, pray! Jehovah's wroth with thee. 280

_Cain_. Why so?

_Abel_. Thy fruits are scattered on the earth.

_Cain_. From earth they came, to earth let them return; Their seed will bear fresh fruit there ere the summer: Thy burnt flesh-offering prospers better; see How Heaven licks up the flames, when thick with blood!

_Abel_. Think not upon my offering's acceptance, But make another of thine own--before It is too late.

_Cain_. I will build no more altars, Nor suffer any----

_Abel_ (_rising_). Cain! what meanest thou?

_Cain_. To cast down yon vile flatterer of the clouds, 290 The smoky harbinger of thy dull prayers-- Thine altar, with its blood of lambs and kids, Which fed on milk, to be destroyed in blood.

_Abel_ (_opposing him_). Thou shalt not:--add not impious works to impious Words! let that altar stand--'tis hallowed now By the immortal pleasure of Jehovah, In his acceptance of the victims.

_Cain_. _His_! _His pleasure!_ what was his high pleasure in The fumes of scorching flesh and smoking blood, To the pain of the bleating mothers, which 300 Still yearn for their dead offspring? or the pangs Of the sad ignorant victims underneath Thy pious knife? Give way! this bloody record Shall not stand in the sun, to shame creation!

_Abel_. Brother, give back! thou shalt not touch my altar With violence: if that thou wilt adopt it, To try another sacrifice, 'tis thine.

_Cain_. Another sacrifice! Give way, or else That sacrifice may be----

_Abel_. What mean'st thou?

_Cain_. Give-- Give way!--thy God loves blood!--then look to it:-- 310 Give way, ere he hath _more_!

_Abel_. In _his_ great name, I stand between thee and the shrine which hath Had his acceptance.

_Cain_. If thou lov'st thyself, Stand back till I have strewed this turf along Its native soil:--else----

_Abel_ (_opposing him_). I love God far more Than life.

_Cain_ (_striking him with a brand, on the temples, which he snatches from the altar_). Then take thy life unto thy God, Since he loves lives.

_Abel_ (_falls_). What hast thou done--my brother?

_Cain_. Brother!

_Abel_. Oh, God! receive thy servant! and Forgive his slayer, for he knew not what He did--Cain, give me--give me thy hand; and tell 320 Poor Zillah--

_Cain_ (_after a moment's stupefaction_). _My_ hand! 'tis all red, and with---- What? [_A long pause.--Looking slowly round_. Where am I? alone! Where's Abel? where Cain? Can it be that I am he? My brother, Awake!--why liest thou so long on the green earth? 'Tis not the hour of slumber:--why so pale? What hast thou!--thou wert full of life this morn! Abel! I pray thee, mock me not! I smote Too fiercely, but not fatally. Ah, why Wouldst thou oppose me? This is mockery; And only done to daunt me:--'twas a blow-- 330 And but a blow. Stir--stir--nay, only stir! Why, so--that's well!--thou breathest! breathe upon me! Oh God! Oh God!

_Abel_ (_very faintly_). What's he who speaks of God?

_Cain_. Thy murderer.

_Abel_. Then may God forgive him! Cain, Comfort poor Zillah:--she has but one brother Now. [ABEL _dies_.

_Cain_. And I none!--Who makes me brotherless? His eyes are open! then he is not dead! Death is like sleep[132]; and sleep shuts down our lids. His lips, too, are apart; why then he breathes; And yet I feel it not.--His heart!--his heart!-- 340 Let me see, doth it beat? methinks----No!--no! This is a vision, else I am become The native of another and worse world. The earth swims round me:--what is this?--'tis wet; [_Puts his hand to his brow, and then looks at it_. And yet there are no dews! 'Tis blood--my blood-- My brother's and my own! and shed by me! Then what have I further to do with life, Since I have taken life from my own flesh? But he can not be dead!--Is silence death? No; he will wake; then let me watch by him. 350 Life cannot be so slight, as to be quenched Thus quickly!--he hath spoken to me since-- What shall I say to him?--My brother!--No: He will not answer to that name; for brethren Smite not each other. Yet--yet--speak to me. Oh! for a word more of that gentle voice, That I may bear to hear my own again!

_Enter_ ZILLAH.

_Zillah_. I heard a heavy sound; what can it be? 'Tis Cain; and watching by my husband. What Dost thou there, brother? Doth he sleep? Oh, Heaven! 360 What means this paleness, and yon stream?--No, no! It is not blood; for who would shed his blood? Abel! what's this?--who hath done this? He moves not; He breathes not: and his hands drop down from mine With stony lifelessness! Ah! cruel Cain! Why camest thou not in time to save him from This violence? Whatever hath assailed him, Thou wert the stronger, and shouldst have stepped in Between him and aggression! Father!--Eve!-- Adah!--come hither! Death is in the world! 370 [_Exit_ ZILLAH, _calling on her Parents, etc._

_Cain_ (_solus_). And who hath brought him there?--I--who abhor The name of Death so deeply, that the thought Empoisoned all my life, before I knew His aspect--I have led him here, and given My brother to his cold and still embrace, As if he would not have asserted his Inexorable claim without my aid. I am awake at last--a dreary dream Had maddened me;--but _he_ shall ne'er awake!

_Enter_ ADAM, EVE, ADAH, _and_ ZILLAH.

_Adam_. A voice of woe from Zillah brings me here-- 380 What do I see?--'Tis true!--My son!--my son! Woman, behold the Serpent's work, and thine! [_To_ EVE.

_Eve_. Oh! speak not of it now: the Serpent's fangs Are in my heart! My best beloved, Abel! Jehovah! this is punishment beyond A mother's sin, to take _him_ from me!

_Adam_. Who, Or what hath done this deed?--speak, Cain, since thou Wert present; was it some more hostile angel, Who walks not with Jehovah? or some wild Brute of the forest?

_Eve_. Ah! a livid light 390 Breaks through, as from a thunder-cloud! yon brand Massy and bloody! snatched from off the altar, And black with smoke, and red with----

_Adam_. Speak, my son! Speak, and assure us, wretched as we are, That we are not more miserable still.

_Adah_. Speak, Cain! and say it was not _thou_!

_Eve_. It was! I see it now--he hangs his guilty head, And covers his ferocious eye with hands Incarnadine!

_Adah_. Mother, thou dost him wrong-- Cain! clear thee from this horrible accusal, 400 Which grief wrings from our parent.

_Eve_. Hear, Jehovah! May the eternal Serpent's curse be on him! For he was fitter for his seed than ours. May all his days be desolate! May----

_Adah_. Hold! Curse him not, mother, for he is thy son-- Curse him not, mother, for he is my brother, And my betrothed.

_Eve_. He hath left thee no brother-- Zillah no husband--me _no son!_ for thus I curse him from my sight for evermore! All bonds I break between us, as he broke 410 That of his nature, _in yon_----Oh Death! Death! Why didst thou not take _me_, who first incurred thee? Why dost thou not so now?

_Adam_. Eve! let not this, Thy natural grief, lead to impiety! A heavy doom was long forespoken to us; And now that it begins, let it be borne In such sort as may show our God, that we Are faithful servants to his holy will.

_Eve_ (_pointing to Cain_). _His will!_ the will of yon Incarnate Spirit Of Death, whom I have brought upon the earth 420 To strew it with the dead. May all the curses Of life be on him! and his agonies Drive him forth o'er the wilderness, like us From Eden, till his children do by him As he did by his brother! May the swords And wings of fiery Cherubim pursue him By day and night--snakes spring up in his path-- Earth's fruits be ashes in his mouth--the leaves On which he lays his head to sleep be strewed With scorpions! May his dreams be of his victim! 430 His waking a continual dread of Death! May the clear rivers turn to blood as he[133] Stoops down to stain them with his raging lip! May every element shun or change to him! May he live in the pangs which others die with! And Death itself wax something worse than Death To him who first acquainted him with man! Hence, fratricide! henceforth that word is _Cain_, Through all the coming myriads of mankind, Who shall abhor thee, though thou wert their sire! 440 May the grass wither from thy feet! the woods Deny thee shelter! earth a home! the dust A grave! the sun his light! and heaven her God[134]! [_Exit_ EVE.

_Adam_. Cain! get thee forth: we dwell no more together. Depart! and leave the dead to me--I am Henceforth alone--we never must meet more.

_Adah_. Oh, part not with him thus, my father: do not Add thy deep curse to Eve's upon his head!

_Adam_. I curse him not: his spirit be his curse. Come, Zillah!

_Zillah_. I must watch my husband's corse[135]. 450

_Adam_. We will return again, when he is gone Who hath provided for us this dread office. Come, Zillah!

_Zillah_. Yet one kiss on yon pale clay, And those lips once so warm--my heart! my heart! [_Exeunt_ ADAM _and_ ZILLAH _weeping_.

_Adah_. Cain! thou hast heard, we must go forth. I am ready, So shall our children be. I will bear Enoch, And you his sister. Ere the sun declines Let us depart, nor walk the wilderness Under the cloud of night.--Nay, speak to me. To _me--thine own_.

_Cain_. Leave me!

_Adah_. Why, all have left thee. 460

_Cain_. And wherefore lingerest thou? Dost thou not fear To dwell with one who hath done this?

_Adah_. I fear Nothing except to leave thee, much as I Shrink from the deed which leaves thee brotherless. I must not speak of this--it is between thee And the great God.

_A Voice from within exclaims_. Cain! Cain!

_Adah_. Hear'st thou that voice?

_The Voice within_. Cain! Cain!

_Adah_. It soundeth like an angel's tone.

_Enter the_ ANGEL _of the Lord_.[136]

_Angel_. Where is thy brother Abel?

_Cain_. Am I then My brother's keeper?

_Angel_. Cain! what hast thou done? The voice of thy slain brother's blood cries out, 470 Even from the ground, unto the Lord!--Now art thou Cursed from the earth, which opened late her mouth To drink thy brother's blood from thy rash hand. Henceforth, when thou shalt till the ground, it shall not Yield thee her strength; a fugitive shalt thou Be from this day, and vagabond on earth!

_Adah_. This punishment is more than he can bear. Behold thou drivest him from the face of earth, And from the face of God shall he be hid. A fugitive and vagabond on earth, 480 'Twill come to pass, that whoso findeth him Shall slay him.

_Cain_. Would they could! but who are they Shall slay me? Where are these on the lone earth As yet unpeopled?

_Angel_. Thou hast slain thy brother, And who shall warrant thee against thy son?

_Adah_. Angel of Light! be merciful, nor say That this poor aching breast now nourishes A murderer in my boy, and of his father.

_Angel_. Then he would but be what his father is. Did not the milk of Eve give nutriment 490 To him thou now seest so besmeared with blood? The fratricide might well engender parricides.-- But it shall not be so--the Lord thy God And mine commandeth me to set his seal On Cain, so that he may go forth in safety. Who slayeth Cain, a sevenfold vengeance shall Be taken on his head. Come hither!

_Cain_. What Wouldst thou with me?

_Angel_. To mark upon thy brow[cl] Exemption from such deeds as thou hast done.

_Cain_. No, let me die!

_Angel_. It must not be. [_The_ ANGEL _sets the mark on_ CAIN'S _brow_.

_Cain_. It burns 500 My brow, but nought to that which is within it! Is there more? let me meet it as I may.

_Angel_. Stern hast thou been and stubborn from the womb, As the ground thou must henceforth till; but he Thou slew'st was gentle as the flocks he tended.

_Cain_. After the fall too soon was I begotten; Ere yet my mother's mind subsided from The Serpent, and my sire still mourned for Eden. That which I am, I am; I did not seek For life, nor did I make myself; but could I 510 With my own death redeem him from the dust-- And why not so? let him return to day, And I lie ghastly! so shall be restored By God the life to him he loved; and taken From me a being I ne'er loved to bear.

_Angel_. Who shall heal murder? what is done, is done; Go forth! fulfil thy days! and be thy deeds Unlike the last! [_The_ ANGEL _disappears_.

_Adah_. He's gone, let us go forth; I hear our little Enoch cry within Our bower.

_Cain_. Ah! little knows he what he weeps for! 520 And I who have shed blood cannot shed tears! But the four rivers[137] would not cleanse my soul. Think'st thou my boy will bear to look on me?

_Adah_. If I thought that he would not, I would----

_Cain_ (_interrupting her_). No, No more of threats: we have had too many of them: Go to our children--I will follow thee.

_Adah_. I will not leave thee lonely with the dead-- Let us depart together.

_Cain_. Oh! thou dead And everlasting witness! whose unsinking Blood darkens earth and heaven! what thou _now_ art 530 I know not! but if _thou_ seest what _I_ am, I think thou wilt forgive him, whom his God Can ne'er forgive, nor his own soul.--Farewell! I must not, dare not touch what I have made thee. I, who sprung from the same womb with thee, drained The same breast, clasped thee often to my own, In fondness brotherly and boyish, I Can never meet thee more, nor even dare To do that for thee, which thou shouldst have done For me--compose thy limbs into their grave-- 540 The first grave yet dug for mortality. But who hath dug that grave? Oh, earth! Oh, earth! For all the fruits thou hast rendered to me, I Give thee back this.--Now for the wilderness! [ADAH _stoops down and kisses the body of_ ABEL.

_Adah_. A dreary, and an early doom, my brother, Has been thy lot! Of all who mourn for thee, I alone must not weep. My office is Henceforth to dry up tears, and not to shed them; But yet of all who mourn, none mourn like me, Not only for thyself, but him who slew thee. 550 Now, Cain! I will divide thy burden with thee.

_Cain_. Eastward from Eden will we take our way; 'Tis the most desolate, and suits my steps.

_Adah_. Lead! thou shalt be my guide, and may our God Be thine! Now let us carry forth our children.

_Cain_. And _he_ who lieth there was childless! I Have dried the fountain of a gentle race, Which might have graced his recent marriage couch, And might have tempered this stern blood of mine, Uniting with our children Abel's offspring! 560 O Abel!

_Adah_. Peace be with him!

_Cain_. But with _me!_---- [_Exeunt_.

FOOTNOTES:

[86] {205}[On the 13th December [1821] Sir Walter received a copy of Cain, as yet unpublished, from Murray, who had been instructed to ask whether he had any objection to having the "Mystery" dedicated to him. He replied in these words--

"Edinburgh, _4th December_, 1821.

"My Dear Sir,--I accept, with feelings of great obligation, the flattering proposal of Lord Byron to prefix my name to the very grand and tremendous drama of 'Cain.'[*] I may be partial to it, and you will allow I have cause; but I do not know that his Muse has ever taken so lofty a flight amid her former soarings. He has certainly matched Milton on his own ground. Some part of the language is bold, and may shock one class of readers, whose line will be adopted by others out of affectation or envy. But then they must condemn the 'Paradise Lost,' if they have a mind to be consistent. The fiend-like reasoning and bold blasphemy of the fiend and of his pupil lead exactly to the point which was to be expected,--the commission of the first murder, and the ruin and despair of the perpetrator.

"I do not see how any one can accuse the author himself of Manicheism. The Devil talks the language of that sect, doubtless; because, not being able to deny the existence of the Good Principle, he endeavours to exalt himself--the Evil Principle--to a seeming equality with the Good; but such arguments, in the mouth of such a being, can only be used to deceive and to betray. Lord Byron might have made this more evident, by placing in the mouth of Adam, or of some good and protecting spirit, the reasons which render the existence of moral evil consistent with the general benevolence of the Deity. The great key to the mystery is, perhaps, the imperfection of our own faculties, which see and feel strongly the partial evils which press upon us, but know too little of the general system of the universe, to be aware how the existence of these is to be reconciled with the benevolence of the great Creator.

"To drop these speculations, you have much occasion for some mighty spirit, like Lord Byron, to come down and trouble the waters; for, excepting 'The John Bull,'[**] you seem stagnating strangely in London.

"Yours, my dear Sir,

"Very truly,

"WALTER SCOTT.

"To John Murray, Esq."-_Memoirs of the Life of Sir Walter Scott_, by J. G. Lockhart, Esq., 1838, iii. 92, 93.

[[*] "However, the praise often given to Byron has been so exaggerated as to provoke, perhaps, a reaction in which he is unduly disparaged. 'As various in composition as Shakespeare himself, Lord Byron has embraced,' says Sir Walter Scott, 'every topic of human life, and sounded every string on the divine harp, from its slightest to its most powerful and heart-astounding tones.... In the very grand and tremendous drama of Cain,' etc.... 'And Lord Byron has done all this,' Scott adds, 'while managing his pen with the careless and negligent ease of a man of quality.'"--_Poetry of Byron, chosen and arranged by Matthew Arnold_, 1881, p. xiii.

Scott does not add anything of the kind. The comparison with Shakespeare was written after Byron's death in May, 1824; the appreciation of Cain in December, 1821 (_vide supra_); while the allusion to "a man of quality" is to be found in an article contributed to the _Quarterly Review_ in 1816!]

[[**] The first number of _John Bull_, "For God, the King, and the People," was published Sunday, December 17, 1820. Theodore Hook was the editor, and it is supposed that he owed his appointment to the intervention of Sir Walter Scott. The _raison d'être_ of _John Bull_ was to write up George IV., and to write down Queen Caroline. "The national movement (in favour of the Queen) was arrested; and George IV. had mainly _John Bull_ to thank for that result."--_A Sketch_, [by J. G. Lockhart], 1852, p. 45.]]

[87] {207}["Mysteries," or Mystery Plays, were prior to and distinct from "Moralities." Byron seems to have had some acquaintance with the archæology of the drama, but it is not easy to divine the source or extent of his knowledge. He may have received and read the Roxburghe reprint of the _Chester Plays_, published in 1818; but it is most probable that he had read the pages devoted to mystery plays in _Warton's History of Poetry_, or that he had met with a version of the _Ludus Coventriæ_ (reprinted by J. O. Halliwell Phillipps, in 1841), printed in Stevens's continuation of Dugdale's _Monasticon_, 1722, i. 139-153. There is a sixteenth-century edition of _Le Mistère du Viel Testament_, which was reprinted by the Baron James de Rothschild, in 1878 (see for "De la Mort d'Abel et de la Malediction Cayn," pp. 103-113); but it is improbable that it had come under Byron's notice. For a quotation from an Italian Mystery Play, _vide post_, p. 264; and for Spanish "Mystery Plays," see _Teatro Completo de Juan del Encina_, "Proemio," Madrid, 1893, and _History of Spanish Literature_, by George Ticknor, 1888, i. 257. For instances of the profanity of Mystery Plays, see the _Towneley Plays_ ("Mactacio Abel," p. 7), first published by the Surtees Society in 1836, and republished by the Early English Text Society, 1897, E.S. No. lxxi.]

[88] {208}[For the contention that "the snake was the snake"--no more (_vide post_, p. 211), see _La Bible enfin Expliquée_, etc.; _[OE]uvres Complètes de Voltaire_, Paris, 1837, vi. 338, note. "La conversation de la femme et du serpent n'est point racontée comme une chose surnaturelle et incroyable, comme un miracle, ou conune une allégorie." See, too, Bayle (_Hist. and Crit. Dictionary_, 1735, ii. 851, art. "Eve," note A), who quotes Josephus, Paracelsus, and "some Rabbins," to the effect that it was an actual serpent which tempted Eve; and compare _Critical Remarks on the Hebrew Scriptures_, by the Rev. Alexander Geddes, LL.D., 1800, p. 42.]

[89] [Richard Watson (1737-1816), Bishop of Llandaff, 1782, was appointed Moderator of the Schools in 1762, and Regius Professor of Divinity October 31, 1771. According to his own story (_Anecdotes of the Life of Richard Watson_, 1817, p. 39), "I determined to study nothing but my Bible.... I had no prejudice against, no predilection for, the Church of England, but a sincere regard for the _Church of Christ_, and an insuperable objection to every degree of dogmatical intolerance. I never troubled myself with answering any arguments which the opponents in the Divinity Schools brought against the articles of the Church, ... but I used on such occasions to say to them, holding the New Testament in my hand, '_En sacrum codicem_! Here is the foundation of truth! Why do you follow the streams derived from it by the sophistry, or polluted by the passions, of man?'" It may be conceived that Watson's appeal to "Scripture" was against the sentence of orthodoxy. His authority as "a school Divine" is on a par with that of the author of _Cain_, or of an earlier theologian who "quoted Genesis like a very learned clerk"!]

[90] [Byron breaks through his self-imposed canon with regard to the New Testament. There are allusions to the doctrine of the Atonement, act i. sc. I, lines 163-166: act iii. sc. I, lines 85-88; to the descent into Hades, act i. sc. I, lines 541, 542; and to the miraculous walking on the Sea of Galilee, act ii. se. i, lines 16-20.]

[91] {209}[The words enclosed in brackets are taken from an original draft of the Preface.]

[92] [The Manichæans (the disciples of Mani or Manes, third century A.D.) held that there were two co-eternal Creators--a God of Darkness who made the body, and a God of Light who was responsible for the soul--and that it was the aim and function of the good spirit to rescue the soul, the spiritual part of man, from the possession and grasp of the body, which had been created by and was in the possession of the spirit of evil. St. Augustine passed through a stage of Manicheism, and in after-life exposed and refuted the heretical tenets which he had advocated, and with which he was familiar. See, for instance, his account of the Manichæan heresy "de duplici terrâ, de regno lucis et regno tenebrarum" (_Opera_, 1700, viii. 484, c; vide ibid., i. 693, 717; x. 893, d. etc.).]

[93] [Conan the Jester, a character in the Irish ballads, was "a kind of Thersites, but brave and daring even to rashness. He had made a vow that he would never take a blow without returning it; and having ... descended to the infernal regions, he received a cuff from the arch-fiend, which he instantly returned, using the expression in the text ('blow for blow')." Sometimes the proverb is worded thus: "'Claw for claw, and the devil take the shortest nails,' as Conan said to the devil."--_Waverley Novels_, 1829 (notes to chap. xxii. of _Waverley_), i. 241, note 1; see, too, ibid., p. 229.]

[94] [The full title of Warburton's book runs thus: _The Divine Legation of Moses Demonstrated on the Principles of a Religious Deist; from the omission of the Doctrine of a Future State of Reward and Punishment in the Jewish Dispensation_. (See, more particularly (ed. 1741), Vol. II. pt. ii. bk. v. sect. 5, pp. 449-461, and bk. vi. pp. 569-678.) Compare the following passage from _Dieu et les Hommes_ (_[OE]uvres, etc._, de Voltaire, 1837, vi. 236, chap. xx.): "Notre Warburton s'est épuisé a ramasser dans son fatras de la Divine légation, toutes les preuves que l'auteur du _Pentateuque_, n'a jamais parlé d'une vie a venir, et il n'a pas eu grande peine; mais il en tire une plaisante conclusion, et digne d'un esprit aussi faux que le sien."]

[95] {210}[See _Recherches sur les Ossemens Fossiles_, par M. le B^on^ G. Cuvier, Paris, 1821, i., "Discours Préliminaire," pp. iv., vii; and for the thesis, "Il n'y a point d'os humaines fossiles," see p. lxiv.; see, too, Cuvier's _Discours sur les révolutions de la surface du globe_, ed. 1825, p. 282: "Si l'on peut en juger par les differens ordres d'animaux dont on y trouve les dépouilles, ils avaient peut-être subi jusqu' á deux ou trois irruptions de la mer." It is curious to note that Moore thought that Cuvier's book was "a most desolating one in the conclusions to which it may lead some minds" (_Life_, p. 554).]

[96] {211}[Alfieri's _Abele_ was included in his _Opere inediti_, published by the Countess of Albany and the Abbé Calma in 1804.

"In a long Preface ... dated April 25, 1796, Alfieri gives a curious account of the reasons which induced him to call it ... 'Tramelogedy.' He says that _Abel_ is neither a tragedy, a comedy, a drama, a tragi-comedy, nor a Greek tragedy, which last would, he thinks, be correctly described as melo-tragedy. Opera-tragedy would, in his opinion, be a fitting name for it; but he prefers interpolating the word 'melo' into the middle of the word 'tragedy,' so as not to spoil the ending, although by so doing he has cut in two ... the root of the word--[Greek: tragos]."--_The Tragedies of Vittorio Alfieri_, edited by E. A. Bowring, C. B., 1876, ii. 472.

There is no resemblance whatever between Byron's _Cain_ and Alfieri's _Abele_.]

[97] {216}[Compare--

" ... his form had not yet lost All her original brightness, nor appears Less than Arch-angel mind, and the excess Of glory obscure."

_Paradise Lost_, i. 591-593.

Compare, too--

" ... but his face Deep scars of thunder had intrenched, and care Sat on his faded cheek."

Ibid., i., 600-602.]

[98] [According to the Manichæans, the divinely created and immortal soul is imprisoned in an alien and evil body. There can be no harmony between soul and body.]

[99] {218}[Compare--

"Let him unite above Star upon star, moon, Sun; And let his God-head toil To re-adorn and re-illume his Heaven, Since in the end derision Shall prove his works and all his efforts vain."

_Adam, a Sacred Drama_, by Giovanni Battista Andreini; Cowper's _Milton_, 1810, iii. 24, sqq.]

[100] {219}[Lines 163-166 ("perhaps" ... "sacrifice"), which appear in the MS., were omitted from the text in the first and all subsequent editions. In the edition of 1832, etc. (xiv. 27), they are printed as a variant in a footnote. The present text follows the MS.]

[101] [According to the _Encyclopædia Biblica_, the word "Abel" signifies "shepherd" or "herdman." The Massorites give "breath," or "vanity," as an equivalent.]

[by]

_A drudging husbandman who offers up_ _The first fruits of the earth to him who made_ _That earth_----.--[MS. M. erased.]

[bz] {220}

_Have stood before thee as I am; but chosen_ _The serpents charming symbol_.--[MS. M. erased.]

[102] {221}[_Vide ante_, "Preface," p. 208.]

[103] {223}[Compare--

"If, as thou sayst thine essence be as ours, We have replied in telling thee, the thing Mortals call Death hath nought to do with us."

_Manfred_, act i. sc. 1, lines 161-163, _Poetical Works_, 1901, iv. 90.]

[104] {224}[Dr. Arnold, speaking of _Cain_, used to say, "There is something to me almost awful in meeting suddenly, in the works of such a man, so great and solemn a truth as is expressed in that speech of Lucifer, 'He who bows not to God hath bowed to me'" (Stanley's _Life of Arnold_, ed. 1887, i. 263, note). It may be awful, but it is not strange. Byron was seldom at a loss for a text, and must have been familiar with the words, "He that is not with Me is against Me." Moreover, he was a man of genius!]

[105] {226}["The most common opinion is that a son and daughter were born together; and they go so far as to tell us the very name of the daughters. Cain's twin sister was called Calmana (see, too, _Le Mistère du Viel Testament_, lines 1883-1936, ed. 1878), or Caimana, or Debora, or Azzrum; that of Abel was named Delbora or Awina."--Bayle's _Dictionary_, 1735, ii. 854, art. "Eve," D.]

[106] {227}[It is impossible not to be struck with the resemblance between many of these passages and others in _Manfred_, _e.g._ act ii. sc. 1, lines 24-28, _Poetical Works_, 1901, iv. 99, note 1.]

[ca] {228} _What can_ he be _who places love in ignorance?_--[MS. M.]

[107] {228}["One of the second order of angels of the Dionysian hierarchy, reputed to excel specially in knowledge (as the seraphim in love). See Bacon's _Advancement of Learning_, i. 28: 'The first place is given to the Angels of loue, which are tearmed Seraphim, the second to the Angels of light, which are tearmed Cherubim,'"-_N. Eng. Dict._, art. "Cherub."]

[cb] {229} _But it was a lie no doubt_.--[MS. M. erased.]

[cc] {230}_What else can be joy?_----.--[MS. M.]

[108] {231}[Compare--"She walks in Beauty like the night." _Hebrew Melodies_, i. 1, _Poetical Works_, 1900, iii. 381.]

[109] {232}[Lucifer was evidently indebted to the Manichæans for his theory of the _duplex terra_--an infernal as well as a celestial kingdom.]

[110] {233}["According to the prince of the power of the air" (_Eph_. ii. 2).]

[cd] _An hour, when walking on a petty lake_.--[MS. M. erased.]

[ce] {234}

_Yon round blue circle swinging in far ether_ _With an inferior circlet dimmer still_.--[MS. M. erased.]

[111] [Compare--

"And, fast by, hanging in a golden chain, This pendent World, in bigness as a star Of smallest magnitude, close by the moon."

_Paradise Lost_, ii. 1051-1053.

Compare, too--

"The magic car moved on. Earth's distant orb appeared The smallest light that twinkles in the heavens; Whilst round the chariot's way Innumerable systems rolled, And countless spheres diffused An ever-varying glory."

Shelley's _Queen Mab, Poetical Works_, 1829, p. 106.]

[112] {235}["Several of the ancient Fathers, too much prejudiced in favour of virginity, have pretended that if Man had persevered in innocence he would not have entered into the carnal commerce of matrimony, and that the propagation of mankind would have been effected quite another way." (See St. Augustine, _De Civitate Dei_, xiv. cap. xxi.; Bayle's _Dictionary_, art. "Eve," 1735, ii. 853, note C.)]

[113] {236}[Compare--

"Below lay stretched the universe! There, far as the remotest line That bounds imagination's flight, Countless and unending orbs In many motions intermingled, Yet still fulfilled immutably Eternal Nature's laws."

Shelley's _Queen Mab_, ii. _ibid._, p. 107.]

[cf] {239} _And with serpents too?_--[MS. M.]

[cg] {240} _Rather than things to be inhabited_.--[MS. M.]

[114] {241}["I have ... supposed Cain to be shown in the _rational_ pre-Adamites, beings endowed with a higher intelligence than man, but totally unlike him in form, and with much greater strength of mind and person. You may suppose the small talk which takes place between him and Lucifer upon these matters is not quite canonical."--Letter to Moore, September 19, 1821, _Letters_, 1901, v. 368.]

[115] {243}[Compare the "jingle between king and kine," in _Sardanapalus_, act v. sc. I, lines 483, 484. It is hard to say whether Byron inserted and then omitted to erase these blemishes from negligence and indifference, or whether he regarded them as permissible or even felicitous.]

[116] ["_Let_ He." There is no doubt that Byron wrote, or that he should have written, "Let Him."]

[ch] {246} _And being of all things the sole thing sure_.--[MS. M.]

[ci] _Which seems like water and which I should deem_.--[MS. M.]

[117] {247}[Lucifer's candour and disinterested advice are "after" and in the manner of Mephistopheles.]

[118] {250}["If you say that God permitted sin to manifest His wisdom, which shines the more brightly by the disorders which the wickedness of men produces every day, than it would have done in a state of innocence, it may be answered that this is to compare the Deity to a father who should suffer his children to break their legs on purpose to show to all the city his great art in setting their broken bones; or to a king who should suffer seditions and factions to increase through all his kingdom, that he might purchase the glory of quelling them.... This is that doctrine of a Father of the Church who said, 'Felix culpa quæ talem Redemptorem meruit!'"--Bayle's _Dictionary_, 1737, art. "Paulicians," note B, 25, iv. 515.]

[119] {251}[Lucifer does not infect Cain with his cynical theories as to the origin and endurance of love. For the antidote, compare Wordsworth's sonnet "To a Painter" (No. II), written in 1841--

"Morn into noon did pass, noon into eve, And the old day was welcome as the young, As welcome, and as beautiful--in sooth More beautiful, as being a thing more holy," etc.

_Works_, 1889, p. 772.]

[cj] {252} _Which my sire shrinks from--Death_----.--[MS. erased.]

[120] {254}[In Byron's Diary for January 28, 1821, we find the following entry--

"_Thought for a speech of Lucifer, in the Tragedy of Cain_.

"Were _Death_ an _evil_, would _I_ let thee _live_? Fool! live as I live--as thy father lives. And thy sons' sons shall live for evermore!"

_Letters_, 1901, v. 191.]

[121] [Matthew Arnold (_Poetry of Byron_, 1881, p. xxii.) quotes these lines as an instance of Byron's unknowingness and want of humour. It cannot be denied that he leaves imbedded in his fabric lumps of unshapen material, which mar the symmetry of his art. Lucifer's harangue involves a reference to "hard words ending in _ism_." The _spirit_ of error, not the Manichæan heresy, should have proceeded out of his lips.]

[122] ["Cain is a proud man: if Lucifer promised him kingdoms, etc., it would _elate_ him: the object of the Demon is to _depress_ him still further in his own estimation than he was before, by showing him infinite things and his own abasement, till he falls into the frame of mind that leads to the catastrophe, from mere _internal_ irritation, _not_ premeditation, or envy of Abel (which would have made him contemptible), but from the rage and fury against the inadequacy of his state to his conceptions, and which discharges itself rather against Life, and the author of Life, than the mere living."--Letter to Moore, November 3, 1821, _Letters_, 1901, v. 470. Here, no doubt, Byron is speaking _in propriâ personâ_. It was this sense of limitation, of human nothingness, which provoked an "internal irritation ... a rage and fury against the inadequacy of his state to his conceptions." His "spirit beats its mortal bars," not, like Galahad, to be possessed by, but to possess the Heavenly Vision.]

[123] {255}[Compare--

"What though the field be lost, All is not lost; th' unconquerable will And study of revenge, immortal hate, And courage never to submit or yield."

_Paradise Lost_, i. 105-108.]

[124] {257}[An obsolete form of _carnation_, the colour of "flesh."]

[125] [Compare--

"Her dewy eyes are closed, And on their lids, whose texture fine Scarce hides the dark-blue orbs beneath, The baby Sleep is pillowed."

Shelley's _Queen Mab_, i., _ibid._, p. 104.]

[126] {258}["Time is our consciousness of the succession of ideas in our mind.... One man is stretched on the rack during twelve hours, another sleeps soundly in his bed. The difference of time perceived by these two persons is immense: one hardly will believe that half an hour has elapsed, the other could credit that centuries had flown during his agony."--Shelley's note to the lines--

" ... the thoughts that rise In time-destroying infiniteness."

_Queen Mab_, viii., _ibid._, p. 136.]

[127] {259}[_Vide ante_, p. 208.]

[128] {260}[It is Adah, Cain's wife, who suggests the disastrous compromise, not a "burnt-offering," but the "fruits of the earth," which would cost the giver little or nothing--an instance in point of Lucifer's cynical reminder (_vide ante_, act ii. sc. 2, line 210, p. 247) "that there are some things still which woman may tempt man to."]

[129] {262}["From the beginning" the woman is ineligible for the priesthood--"He for God only, she for God in him" (_Paradise Lost_, iv. 299). "Let the women keep silence in the churches" (_Corinthians_, i. xiv. 34).]

[130] {264}[Compare the following passage from _La Rapresentatione di Abel et di Caino_ (in Firenze l'anno MDLIV.)--

"Abel parla a dio fatto il sacrifitio, Rendendogli laude. Signor per cui di tanti bene abondo Liquali tu sommamente mi concedi Tanto mi piace, et tanto me' giocondo Quanto delle mie greggie che tu vedi El piu grasso el migliore el piu mondo Ti do con lieto core come tu vedi Tu vedi la intentione con lequal vegno," etc.]

[ck] {265} _Which must be won with prayers--if he be evil_.--[MS. M.]

[131] {266}[See Gessner's _Death of Abel_.]

[132] {268}[Compare--

"How wonderful is Death-- Death and his brother Sleep!"

_Queen Mab_, i. lines 1, 2.]

[133] {271}[Compare--

"And Water shall hear me, And know thee and fly thee; And the Winds shall not touch thee When they pass by thee.... And thou shalt seek Death To release thee in vain."

_The Curse of Kehama_, by R. Southey, Canto II.]

[134] [The last three lines of this terrible denunciation were not in the original MS. In forwarding them to Murray (September 12, 1821, _Letters_, 1901, v. 361), to be added to Eve's speech, Byron says, "There's as pretty a piece of Imprecation for you, when joined to the lines already sent, as you may wish to meet with in the course of your business. But don't forget the addition of these three lines, which are clinchers to Eve's speech."]

[135] [If Byron had read his plays aloud, or been at pains to revise the proofs, he would hardly have allowed "corse" to remain in such close proximity to "curse."]

[136] {272}["I have avoided introducing the Deity, as in Scripture (though Milton does, and not very wisely either); but have adopted his angel as sent to Cain instead, on purpose to avoid shocking any feelings on the subject, by falling short of what all uninspired men must fall short in, viz. giving an adequate notion of the effect of the presence of Jehovah. The Old Mysteries introduced him liberally enough, and this is avoided in the New."--Letter to Murray, February 8, 1822, _Letters_, 1901, vi. 13. Byron does not seem to have known that in the older portions of the Bible "Angel of the Lord" is only a name for the Second Person of the Trinity.]

[cl] {273} _On thy brow_----.--[MS.]

[137] {274}[The "four rivers" which flowed round Eden, and consequently the only waters with which Cain was acquainted upon earth.]

HEAVEN AND EARTH;

A MYSTERY.

FOUNDED ON THE FOLLOWING PASSAGE IN GENESIS, CHAP. VI. 1, 2.

"And it came to pass ... that the sons of God saw the daughters of men that they were fair; and they took them wives of all which they chose."

"And woman wailing for her demon lover." Coleridge [_Kubla Khan_, line 16]

INTRODUCTION TO _HEAVEN AND EARTH_.

_Heaven and Earth_ was begun at Ravenna October 9, 1821. "It occupied about fourteen days" (Medwin's _Conversations_, 1824, p. 231), and was forwarded to Murray, November 9, 1821. "You will find _it_," wrote Byron (_Letters_, 1901, v. 474), "_pious_ enough, I trust--at least some of the Chorus might have been written by Sternhold and Hopkins themselves for that, and perhaps for the melody." It was on "a scriptural subject"--"less speculative than _Cain_, and very pious" (_Letters_, 1901, v. 475; vi. 31). It was to be published, he insists, at the same time, and, if possible, in the same volume with the "others" (_Sardanapalus_, etc.), and would serve, so he seems to have _reflected_ ("The moment he reflects, he is a child," said Goethe), as an antidote to the audacities, or, as some would have it, the impieties of _Cain_!

He reckoned without his publisher, who understood the temper of the public and of the Government, and was naturally loth to awaken any more "reasonable doubts" in the mind of the Chancellor with regard to whether a "scriptural drama" was irreverent or profane. The new "Mystery" was revised by Gifford and printed, but withheld from month to month, till, at length, "the fire kindled," and, on the last day of October, 1821, Byron instructed John Hunt to "obtain from Mr. Murray _Werner: a Drama_, and another dramatic poem called _Heaven and Earth_." It was published in the second number of _The Liberal_ (pp. 165-206), January 1, 1823.

The same subject, the unequal union of angelic lovers with the daughters of men, had taken Moore's fancy a year before Byron had begun to "dramatize the Old Testament." He had designed a long poem, but having discovered that Byron was at work on the same theme, he resolved to restrict himself to the production of an "episode," to "give himself the chance of ... an _heliacal rising_," before he was outshone by the advent of a greater luminary. Thanks to Murray's scruples, and the "translation" of MSS. to Hunt, the "episode" took the lead of the "Mystery" by eight days. The _Loves of the Angels_ (see _Memoirs_, etc., 1853, iv. 28) was published December 23, 1822. None the less, lyric and drama were destined to run in double harness. Critics found it convenient to review the two poems in the same article, and were at pains to draw a series of more or less pointed and pungent comparisons between the unwilling though not unwitting rivals.

Wilson, in _Blackwood_, writes, "The first [the _Loves, etc._] is all glitter and point like a piece of Derbyshire spar, and the other is dark and massy like a block of marble.... Moore writes with a crow-quill, ... Byron writes with an eagle's plume;" while Jeffrey, in the _Edinburgh_, likens Moore to "an _aurora borealis_" and Byron to "an eruption of Mount Vesuvius"!

There is, indeed, apart from the subject, nothing in common between Moore's tender and alluring lyric and Byron's gloomy and tumultuous rhapsody, while contrast is to be sought rather in the poets than in their poems. The _Loves of the Angels_ is the finished composition of an accomplished designer of Amoretti, one of the best of his kind, _Heaven and Earth_ is the rough and unpromising sketch thrown off by a great master.

Both the one and the other have passed out of the ken of readers of poetry, but, on the whole, the _Loves of the Angels_ has suffered the greater injustice. It is opined that there may be possibilities in a half-forgotten work of Byron, but it is taken for granted that nothing worthy of attention is to be found in Moore. At the time, however, Moore scored a success, and Byron hardly escaped a failure. It is to be noted that within a month of publication (January 18, 1823) Moore was at work upon a revise for a fifth edition--consulting D'Herbelot "for the project of turning the poor 'Angels' into Turks," and so "getting rid of that connection with the Scriptures," which, so the Longmans feared, would "in the long run be a drag on the popularity of the poem" (_Memoirs, etc._, 1853, iv. 41). It was no wonder that Murray was "timorous" with regard to Byron and his "scriptural dramas," when the Longmans started at the shadow of a scriptural allusion.

Byron, in his innocence, had taken for his motto the verse in _Genesis_ (ch. vi. 2), which records the intermarriage of the "sons of God" with the "daughters of men." In _Heaven and Earth_ the angels _are_ angels, members, though erring members, of Jehovah's "thundering choir," and the daughters of men are the descendants of Cain. The question had come up for debate owing to the recent appearance of a translation of the _Book of Enoch_ (by Richard Laurence, LL.D., Oxford, 1821); and Moore, by way of safeguarding himself against any suspicion of theological irregularity, is careful to assure his readers ("Preface" to _Loves of the Angels_, 1823, p. viii. and note, pp. 125-127) that the "sons of God" were the descendants of Seth, and not beings of a supernatural order, as a mis-translation by the LXX., assisted by Philo and the "rhapsodical fictions of the _Book of Enoch_" had induced the ignorant or the profane to suppose. Nothing is so dangerous as innocence, and a little more of that _empeiria_ of which Goethe accused him, would have saved Byron from straying from the path of orthodoxy.

It is impossible to say for certain whether Laurence's translation of the whole of the _Book of Enoch_ had come under Byron's notice before he planned his new "Mystery," but it is plain that he was, at any rate, familiar with the well-known fragment, "Concerning the 'Watchers'" [[Greek: Peri\ tôn E)grêgo/rôn]], which is preserved in the _Chronographia_ of Georgius Syncellus, and was first printed by J. J. Scaliger in _Thes. temp. Euseb._ in 1606. In the prophecy of the Deluge to which he alludes (_vide post_, p. 302, note 1), the names of the delinquent seraphs (Semjâzâ and Azâzêl), and of the archangelic monitor Raphael, are to be found in the fragment. The germ of _Heaven and Earth_ is not in the _Book of Genesis_, but in the _Book of Enoch_.

Medwin, who prints (_Conversations_, 1824, pp. 234-238) what purports to be the prose sketch of a Second Part of _Heaven and Earth_ (he says that Byron compared it to Coleridge's promised conclusion of _Christabel_--"that, and nothing more!"), detects two other strains in the composition of the "Mystery," an echo of Goethe's Faust and a "movement" which recalls the _Eumenides_ of Æschylus. Byron told Murray that his fourth tragedy was "more lyrical and Greek" than he at first intended, and there is no doubt that with the _Prometheus Vinctus_ he was familiar, if not at first hand, at least through the medium of Shelley's rendering. But apart from the "Greek choruses," which "Shelley made such a fuss about," Byron was acquainted with, and was not untouched by, the metrical peculiarities of the _Curse of Kehama_, and might have traced a kinship between his "angels" and Southey's "Glendoveers," to say nothing of _their_ collaterals, the "glumms" and "gawreys" of _Peter Wilkins_ (see notes to Southey's _Curse of Kehama_,