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Read Ebook: The Works of Lord Byron. Vol. 5 Poetry by Byron George Gordon Byron Baron Coleridge Ernest Hartley Editor
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Ebook has 277 lines and 216897 words, and 6 pages
SCENE--The Ducal Palace, Venice.
The wreck that creaks to the wild winds, and wretch Who shrieks within its riven ribs, as gush 60 The waters through them; but this son and sire Might move the elements to pause, and yet Must I on hardily like them--Oh! would I could as blindly and remorselessly!-- Lo, where he comes!--Be still, my heart! they are Thy foes, must be thy victims: wilt thou beat For those who almost broke thee?
and "the Ten" Have made it law--who shall oppose that law?
FOOTNOTES:
In Lady Morgan's fearless and excellent work upon Italy, I perceive the expression of "Rome of the Ocean" applied to Venice. The same phrase occurs in the "Two Foscari." My publisher can vouch for me, that the tragedy was written and sent to England some time before I had seen Lady Morgan's work, which I only received on the 16th of August. I hasten, however, to notice the coincidence, and to yield the originality of the phrase to her who first placed it before the public.
The Calenture.--
Alluding to the Swiss air and its effects.--
An historical fact. See DARU , tom. ii.
CAIN:
A MYSTERY.
"Sole Positive of Night! Antipathist of Light! Fate's only essence! primal scorpion rod-- The one permitted opposite of God!"
SIR WALTER SCOTT, BART.,
THIS MYSTERY OF CAIN
IS INSCRIBED,
BY HIS OBLIGED FRIEND
AND FAITHFUL SERVANT,
PREFACE
The reader will please to bear in mind , 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 extraordinary omission he may consult Warburton's "Divine Legation;" whether satisfactory or not, no better has yet been assigned. I have therefore supposed it new to Cain, without, I hope, any perversion of Holy Writ.
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 anything of the kind, but merely to the Serpent in his serpentine capacity.
I ought to add, that there is a "tramelogedia" of Alfieri, called "Abele." I have never read that, nor any other of the posthumous works of the writer, except his Life.
DRAMATIS PERSONAE.
MEN.
ADAM. CAIN. ABEL.
SPIRITS.
ANGEL OF THE LORD. LUCIFER.
WOMEN.
EVE. ADAH. ZILLAH.
CAIN: A MYSTERY.
"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.
HEAVEN AND EARTH;
A MYSTERY.
"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
DRAMATIS PERSONAE.
ANGELS.
SAMIASA.
AZAZIEL.
RAPHAEL, THE ARCHANGEL.
MEN.
NOAH AND HIS SONS.
IRAD.
JAPHET.
WOMEN.
ANAH.
AHOLIBAMAH.
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