To us? they sinn'd, then let them die! [thought
Adah. Thou hast not spoken well, nor is that
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
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. [day
Adah. How know we that some such atonement one
May not redeem our race?

Cain. One altar may suffice; I have no offering. Adah. The fruits of the earth, 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 toil'd, and till'd, and sweaten in the sun
According to the curse: -must I do more?
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

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 't were

I snatch'd him in his sleep, and dash'd him 'gainst The rocks, than let him live to

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,
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,
To hail his father; while his little form
Flutters as wing'd 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. 1
Cain.

Bless thee, boy!

sacrifice which his brother is about to offer. Here are some passages of no common beauty. That which strikes es most is when the parents are hanging over their sleeping boy. HEBER.]

Abel.

Choose thou!

Cain.

I have chosen.

Abel.

And suits thee, as the elder. Thine offerings.

'Tis the highest, Now prepare

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 a flame upon them.

Abel. My brother, as the elder, offer first 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 temper'd with
The mercy which is thy delight, as to
Accord a pardon like a Paradise,
Compared with our great crimes:
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 fulfill'd—
Accept from out thy humble first of shepherd's
First of the first-born flocks-an offering,
In itself nothing—as what offering can be
Aught unto thee?—but yet accept it for
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:
If thou must be propitiated with prayers,
Take them! If thou must be induced with altars,
And soften'd with a sacrifice, receive them!
Two beings here erect them unto thee.
If thou lov'st blood, the shepherd's shrine, which
On my right hand, hath shed it for thy service
In the first of his flock, whose limbs now reek

[smokes

In sanguinary incense to thy skies;

Or if the sweet and blooming fruits of earth,
And milder seasons, which the unstain'd turf
I spread them on now offers in the face

Of the broad sun which ripen'd them, may seem
Good to thee, inasmuch as they have not
Suffer'd 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,
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 earth.

Abel (kneeling). Oh, brother, pray! Jehovah's wroth with thee.

[It is evident that Lord Byron had studied his subject very deeply; and, though he has varied a little from, or gone a little beyond, the letter of Scripture, which is very concise, yet he has apparently entered with great exactness into the minds of Cain and Abel in this most interesting scene and were it allowable to ascribe to the author of a dramatic work the principles or feelings of all or any of his characters, except as adopting them for his particular purpose, one would be at a loss to say, whether Lord Byron ought most to be identified with Cain, or with Abel; so appropriately has he maintained the character of each. - GRANT'S" Notes on Cain," p. 401.]

2 [As a whole, this scene is heavy and clumsily managed. It can hardly fail to strike the reader as a defect in poetry, no less than a departure from history, that the event which is the

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 tel Poor Zillah

Cain (after a moment's stupefaction). My band: 't is 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 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: —' -'t was a blowAnd but a blow. Stir-stir-nay, only stir! Why, so- that's well!-thou breath'st! breathe Oh, God! Oh, God! [upon me!

Abel (very faintly). What's he who speaks of God? Cain. Thy murderer.

Abel.

Then may God forgive him! Cain,

Comfort poor Zillah: Now.

catastrophe of the drama, is no otherwise than incidently we may say accidentally, produced by those which precede Cain, whose whole character is represented in Scripture » envious and malicious, rather than impious;-this Cam, painted by Lord Byron, has no quarrel with his brother whatever, nor, except in a single word, does he intimate jealousy of him. Two acts, and half the third, are passni without our advancing a single step towards the conchas and Abel at length falls by a random blow given in a strug of which the object is not his destruction, but the overth of Jehovah's altar. If we could suppose a reader to sit d to the perusal of the drama in ignorance of its catastrophe, be could scarcely be less surprised by its termination in sart stroke of chance-medley, than if Ábel had been made to d down in an apoplexy, or Cain to die of grief over his body HEBER.]

The earth swims round me: what is this? —'t is

[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. Life cannot be so slight, as to be quench'd Thus quickly! he hath spoken to me since What shall I say to him? - My brother! — 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.

No:

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, [thou Or what hath done this deed? - speak, Cain, since Wert present; was it some more hostile angel,

[The three last lines were not in the original MS. In forwarding them to Mr. Murray, to be added to Eve's speech, Lord Byron says-" There's as pretty a piece of imprecation

Speak, my son !

Breaks through, as from a thunder-cloud! yon brand,
Massy and bloody! snatch'd from off the altar,
And black with smoke, and red with
Adam.
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.

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,
Which grief wrings from our parent.

Eve.

It was.

Hear, Jehovah !

Curse him not, mother, for he is thy son-
Curse him not, mother, for he is my brother,
And my betroth'd.

Eve.
He hath left thee no brother.
Zillah no husband.
1-me no son! - for thus
I curse him from my sight for evermore!
All bonds I break between us! as he broke
That of his nature, in yon-Oh death! death!
Why didst thou not take me, who first incurr'd 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
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 strew'd
With scorpions! May his dreams be of his victim!
His waking a continual dread of death!
May the clear rivers turn to blood as he
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!
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! 1 [Exit EvE.

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 Z

Angel.

Am I then

Cain what hast thou done? The voice of thy slain brother's blood cries out, Even from the ground, unto the Lord!-Now art thou

Cursed from the earth, which open'd 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,
"Twill come to pass, that whoso findeth him
Shall slay him.

Would they could! but who are they
Where are these on the lone earth

Cain. Shall slay me? As yet unpeopled? Angel.

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

speech. Let me know what Gifford thinks, for I have a good opinion of the piece, as poetry; it is in my gay metaphysical style, and in the Manfred line."]

The" four rivers" which flowed round Eden, and consequently the only waters with which Cain was acquainted upon earth.

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 To him thou now see'st so besmear'd 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!

Angel.

It must not be.

[The ANGEL sets the mark on CAIN's brow

Cain. It burns 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 mourn'd for Eden.
That which I am, I am; I did not seek
For life, nor did I make myself; but could I
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.
He's gone, let us go forth;
I hear our little Enoch cry within
Our bower.

Adah.

Cain. Ah! little knows he what he weeps for!! And I who have shed blood cannot shed tears! But the four rivers 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 wouldCain (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. 2

Cain. Oh! thou dead And everlasting witness! whose unsinking Blood darkens earth and heaven! what thou now art I know not! but if thou see'st 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, drain'
The same breast, clasp'd thee often to my own,

[The catastrophe is brought about with great dramaty skill and effect. The murderer is sorrowful and contoux - his parents reprobate and renounce him,- his wife c to him with eager and unhesitating affection; and they wan forth together into the vast solitude of the universe — JEFFREY.]