103-113); but it is
improbable
that it had come under Byron's notice.
Byron
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'etre_ 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
archaeology 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 Coventriae_ (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 Mistere 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 Expliquee_, etc. ; _OEuvres
Completes de Voltaire_, Paris, 1837, vi. 338, note. "La conversation de
la femme et du serpent n'est point racontee comme une chose surnaturelle
et incroyable, comme un miracle, ou conune une allegorie. " 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 Manichaeans (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 Manichaean heresy "de duplici terra, 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_ (_OEuvres, etc. _, de
Voltaire, 1837, vi. 236, chap. xx. ): "Notre Warburton s'est epuise a
ramasser dans son fatras de la Divine legation, toutes les preuves que
l'auteur du _Pentateuque_, n'a jamais parle 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 Preliminaire," 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 revolutions 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 depouilles, ils avaient peut-etre
subi jusqu' a 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 Abbe 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--? ? ? ? ? ? [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 Manichaeans, 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 _Encyclopaedia 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 Mistere
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.
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'etre_ 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
archaeology 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 Coventriae_ (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 Mistere 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 Expliquee_, etc. ; _OEuvres
Completes de Voltaire_, Paris, 1837, vi. 338, note. "La conversation de
la femme et du serpent n'est point racontee comme une chose surnaturelle
et incroyable, comme un miracle, ou conune une allegorie. " 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 Manichaeans (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 Manichaean heresy "de duplici terra, 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_ (_OEuvres, etc. _, de
Voltaire, 1837, vi. 236, chap. xx. ): "Notre Warburton s'est epuise a
ramasser dans son fatras de la Divine legation, toutes les preuves que
l'auteur du _Pentateuque_, n'a jamais parle 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 Preliminaire," 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 revolutions 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 depouilles, ils avaient peut-etre
subi jusqu' a 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 Abbe 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--? ? ? ? ? ? [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 Manichaeans, 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 _Encyclopaedia 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 Mistere
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.
