SCENE IV.-The Piazza and Piazzetta of First Citizen. I have gain'd the gate, and can discern the Ten, Robed in their gowns of state, ranged round the Doge. Second Citizen. I cannot reach thee with mine utmost effort. How is it? let us hear at least, since sight Is thus prohibited unto the people, Now-now-he kneels and now they form a circle Round him, and all is hidden - but I see The lifted sword in air-Ah! hark! it falls! [The people murmur. Third Citizen. Then they have murder'd him who would have freed us. Fourth Citizen. He was a kind man to the commons ever. Fifth Citizen. Wisely they did to keep their portals barr'd. Would we had known the work they were preparing Ere we were summon'd here; we would First Citizen. One has approached the Weapons, and forced them! The ducal bonnet from his head-and now 'Twas but a murmur- Curse upon the His words are inarticulate, but the voice Swells up like mutter'd thunder; would we could But gather a sole sentence! Second Citizen. Hush! we perhaps may catch the sound. Sixth Citizen. Are you sure he's dead? First Citizen. I saw the sword fall-Lo! what have we here? Enter on the Balcony of the Palace which fronts Saint Mark's Place a CHIEF OF THE TEN, with a bloody sword. He waves it thrice before the People, and exclaims, "Justice hath dealt upon the mighty Traitor!" [The gates are opened; the populace The gory head rolls down the "Giant's CAIN, A MYSTERY. "Now the Serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field taken the same liberties with his subject which were common formerly, as may be seen by any reader curious enough to refer to those very profane productions, whether in English, French, Italian, or Spanish. The author has endeavoured to preserve the language adapted to his characters; and where it is (and this is but rarely) taken from actual Scripture, he has made as little alteration, even of words, as the rhythm would permit. The reader will recollect that the book of Genesis does not state that Eve was tempted by a demon, but by "the Serpent;" and that only because he was "the most subtil of all the beasts of the field." Whatever interpretation the Rabbins With regard to the language of Lucifer, it was difficult for me to make him talk like a Clergyman upon the same subjects; but I have done what I could to restrain him within the bounds of spiritual politeness. If he disclaims having tempted Eve in the shape of the Serpent, it is only because the book of Genesis has not the most distant allusion to any thing of the kind, but merely to the Serpent in his serpentine capacity. and the Fathers may have put upon this, | to Cain, without, 1 hope, any perversion I must take the words as I find them, and of Holy Writ. reply with Bishop Watson upon similar occasions, when the Fathers were quoted to him, as Moderator in the Schools of Cambridge, "Behold the Book!"-holding up the Scripture. It is to be recollected that my present subject has nothing to do with the New Testament, to which no reference can be here made without anachronism. With the poems upon similar topics I have not been recently familiar. Since I was twenty, I have never read Milton; but I had read him so frequently before, that this may make little difference. Gesner's "Death of Abel" I have never read since I was eight years of age, at Aberdeen. The general impression of my recollection is delight; but of the contents I remember only that Cain's wife was called Mahala, and Abel's Thirza.-- In the following pages I have called them Adah and Zillah, the earliest female names which occur in Genesis; they were those of Lamech's wives: those of Cain and Abel are not called by their names. Whether, then, a coincidence of subject may have caused the same in expression, I know nothing, and care as little. The reader will please to bear in mind (what few choose to recollect) that there is no allusion to a future state in any of the books of Moses, nor indeed in the Old Testament. For a reason for this extra- I ought to add, that there is a "Trameloordinary omission he may consult "War-gedie" of Alfieri, called "Abel."-I have burton's Divine Legation;" whether satis- never read that nor any other of the factory or not, no better has yet been posthumous works of the writer, except assigned. I have therefore supposed it new his Life. Note. The reader will perceive that the author has partly adopted in this poem the notion of Cuvier, that the world had been destroyed several times before the creation of man. This speculation, derived from the different strata and the bones of enormous and unknown animals found in them, is not contrary to the Mosaic account, but rather confirms it; as no human bones have yet been discovered in those strata, although those of many known animals are found near the remains of the unknown. The assertion of Lucifer, that the pre-adamite world was also peopled by rational beings much more intelligent than man, and proportionably powerful to the mammoth, is, of course, a poetical fiction to help him to make out his case. Eve. God! who didst name the day, and separate SCENE I.-The Land without Paradise. Morning from night, till then divided never— Time, Sunrise. ADAM, EVE, CAIN, ABEL, ADAH, ZILLAH, offering a Sacrifice. Adam. GOD, the Eternal! Infinite! All Wise! Who out of darkness on the deep didst make Who didst divide the wave from wave, and call Part of thy work the firmament—all hail! Abel. God! who didst call the elements into Earth ocean_air_and fire, and with the day And night,and worlds which these illuminate Or shadow, madest beings to enjoy them, And love both them and thee-all hail! all hail! Adah. God, the Eternal! Parent of all things! Who didst create these best and beauteous Zillah. Wilt thon not, my brother? Abel. Why wilt thou wear this gloom upon thy brow, Which can avail thee nothing, save to rouse beings, To be beloved, more than all, save thee-The eternal anger? Let me love thee and them:-All hail! all hail! Zillah. Oh, God! who loving, making, blessing all, Yet didst permit the serpent to creep in, Cain. Why should I speak! Cain. Have ye not pray'd? Adam. We have, most fervently. Have heard you. Adam. So will God, I trust. Abel. Amen! Adam. But thou, my eldest-born, silent still. Cain. Tis better I should be so. Cain. I have nought to ask. Adam. Dost thou not live? Cain. Must I not die! Eve. Alas! The fruit of our forbidden tree begins Adah. My beloved Cain, I fain would be alone a little while. Adah. If not, I will Abel. The peace of God Be on your spirit, brother! [Exeunt Abel, Zillah, and Adah. Cain (solus). And this is Life!-Toil! and wherefore should I toil?— because art My father could not keep his place in Eden. What had I done in this?-I was unborn, I sought not to be born; nor love the state To which that birth has brought me. Why did he Adam. And we must gather it again. Oh, God! why didst thou plant the tree of knowledge? Cain. And wherefore pluck'd ye not the tree of life? Ye might have then defied him. Adam. Oh! my son. Blaspheme not: these are serpents' words. The snake spoke truth: it was the tree of It was the tree of life: - knowledge is good, Before thy birth: let me not see renew'd Adam. Our orisons completed, let us hence, Her fruits with little labour. Eve. Cain, my son, Behold thy father cheerful and resign'd, Yield to the serpent and the woman? or, Which I must feed on for a fault not mine. Yet of a sterner and a sadder aspect Whom I see daily wave their fiery swords Why should I quail from him who now Yet he seems mightier far than they, nor less Enter LUCIFER. Lucifer. Mortal! Cain. Spirit, who art thou? Lucifer. Master of spirits. Lucifer. I know the thoughts Of dust, and feel for it, and with you. You know my thoughts? Lucifer. They are the thoughts of all Worthy of thoughts; - 'tis your immortal part Which speaks within you. Cain. What immortal part? Was pluck'd too soon; and all the fruit Lucifer. They have deceived thee; thou shalt live. Cain. I live, But live to die: and, living, see no thing A loathsome and yet all invincible The earth, which is thine outward cov'ring,is Cain No less! and why No more? Cain. And what is that? Lucifer. Souls who dare use their im- Souls who dare look the omnipotent tyrant in Sit on his vast and solitary throne, Let him crowd orb on orb: he is alone He ever granted: but let him reign on, By the unbounded sympathy of all- Cain. Thou speakst to me of things In visions through my thought: I never could Lucifer. It may be thou shalt be as we. My father and my mother talk to me Cain. And ye? Lucifer. Are everlasting. Cain. Are ye happy? Lucifer. We are mighty. Cain. How should I be so? Look on me! And thou pretendest to be wretched! Thou! might, what art thou? Lucifer. One who aspired to be what Would not have made thee what thou art. Thou lookst almost a god; and— Lucifer. I am none: And having fail'd to be one, would be nought And all that in them is. So I have heard Of being that which I am--and thou art- Of serpents, and of fruits and trees: I see weight Of daily toil, and constant thought; I look This misery was mine.- My father is Of an eternal curse; my brother is A watching shepherd-boy, who offers up Lucifer. And hadst thou not been fit by For such companionship, I would not now Had been enough to charm ye, as before. Cain. Ah! didst thou tempt my mother? Lucifer. I tempt none, Save with the truth: was not the tree, the tree Of knowledge? and was not the tree of life Gods; and even He who thrust ye forth, so thrust ye Because "ye should not eat the fruits of life, And become gods as we." Were those his words? Cain. They were, as I have heard from those who heard them In thunder. Lucifer. Then who was the demon? He Who would not let ye live, or he who would Have made ye live for ever in the joy And power of knowledge? Cain. Would they had snatch'd both Lucifer. One is yours already, Lucifer. By being Yourselves, in your resistance. Nothing can Quench the mind, if the mind will be itself And centre of surrounding things - 'tis made To sway. Cain. But didst thou tempt my parents? Lucifer. I? Poor clay! what should I tempt them for, or how? Cain. They say the serpent was a spirit. Lucifer. Who Saith that? It is not written so on high: The proud One will not so far falsify, Though man's vast fears and little vanity Would make him cast upon the spiritual nature His own low failing. The snake was the snake No more; and yet not less than those he tempted, In nature being earth also-more in wisdom, Cain. But the thing had a demon? In those he spake to with his forky tongue. sand ages Have roll'd o'er your dead ashes, and your seed's, The seed of the then world may thus array Their earliest fault in fable, and attribute To me a shape I scorn, as I scorn all That bows to him who made things but to bend Before his sullen, sole eternity; Was there to envy in the narrow bounds With all thy tree of knowledge. Speak aught of knowledge which I would not know, And do not thirst to know, and bear a mind Lucifer. And heart to look on? Lucifer. Dar'st thou look on Death? Cain. Thoughts unspeakable Crowd in my breast to burning, when I hear Of this almighty Death, who is, it seems, Inevitable. Could I wrestle with him? I wrestled with the lion, when a boy, In play, till he ran roaring from my gripe. Lucifer. It has no shape; but will absorb all things That bear the form of earth-born being. I thought it was a being: who could do Lucifer. The Maker-call him Which name thou wilt; he makes but to destroy. Cain. I knew not that, yet thought it, |