CAIN, A MYSTERY. "Now the Serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made."- Gen. ch. iii. ver. 1. - ["CAIN" was begun at Ravenna, on the 16th of July, 1821completed on the 9th of September - and published, in the same volume with "Sardanapalus" and "The Two Foscari," in December. Perhaps no production of Lord Byron has been more generally admired, on the score of ability, than this" Mystery;" certainly none, on first appearing, exposed the author to a fiercer tempest of personal abuse. Besides being unmercifully handled in most of the critical journals of the day, "Cain" was made the subject of a solemn separate essay, entitled " A Remonstrance addressed to Mr. Murray respecting a recent Publication- by Oxoniensis;" of which we may here preserve a specimen : "There is a method of producing conviction, not to be found in any of the treatises on logic, but which I am persuaded you could be quickly made to understand; it is the argumentum ad crumenam; and this, I trust, will be brought home to you in a variety of ways; not least, I expect, in the profit you hope to make by the offending publication. As a bookseller, I conclude you have but one standard of poetic excellence- the extent of your sale. Without assuming any thing beyond the bounds of ordinary foresight, I venture to foretel, that in this case you will be mistaken: the book will disappoint your cupidity, as much as it discredits your feeling and discretion. Your noble employer has deceived you, Mr. Murray: he has profited by the celebrity of his name to palm upon you obsolete trash, the very off-scourings of Bayle and Voltaire, which he has made you pay for as though it were first-rate poetry and sound metaphysics. But I tell you (and, if you doubt it, you may consult any of the literary gentlemen who frequent your reading-room) that this poem, this Mystery,' with which you have insulted us, is nothing more than a cento from Voltaire's novels, and the most objectionable articles in Bayle's Dictionary, served up in clumsy cuttings of ten syllables, for the purpose of giving it the guise of poetry. "Still, though 'Cain' has no claims to originality, there are other objects to which it may be made subservient; and so well are the noble author's schemes arranged, that in some of them he will be sure to succeed. "In the first place, this publication may be useful as a financial measure. It may seem hard to suspect, that the high-souled philosophy, of which his Lordship makes profession, could be servile to the influence' of money; but you could tell us, Sir, if you would, what sort of a hand your noble friend is at a bargain; whether Plutus does not sometimes go shares with Apollo in his inspirations." "In the second place (second I mean in point of order, for I do not presume to decide which motive predominates in his Lordship's mind), the blasphemous impieties of Cain,' though nothing more in reality than the echo of often refuted sophisms, by being newly dressed and put forth in a form easy to be remembered, may produce considerable effect; that is, they may mislead the ignorant, unsettle the wavering, or confirm the hardened sceptic in his misbelief. These are consequences which Lord Byron must have contemplated; with what degree of complacency he alone can tell. "But, in the third place, if neither of these things happens, and 'Cain' should not prove either lucrative or mischievous, there is another point which Lord Byron has secured to himself, so that he cannot be deprived of it, the satisfaction of insulting those from whom he differs both in faith and practice. ... Now, at last, he quarrels with the very conditions of humanity, rebels against that Providence which guides and governs all things, and dares to adopt the language which had never before been attributed to any being but one, Evil, be thou my good.' Such, as far as we can judge, is Lord Byron." eminent This critic's performance is thus alluded to in one of Lord Byron's letters to Mr. Douglas Kinnaird : "I know nothing of Rivington's Remonstrance' by the Churchman;' but I suppose the man wants a living." On hearing that his publisher was threatened with more serious annoyances, in consequence of the appearance of the "Mystery," Lord Byron addressed the following letter to Mr. Murray : "Pisa, February 8. 1822. "Attacks upon me were to be expected; but I perceive one upon you in the papers, which I confess that I did not expect. How, or in what manner, you can be considered responsible for what I publish, I am at a loss to conceive. * *This letter was thus versified at the time in Blackwood's Noctes Ambrosianæ : "Attacks on me were what I look'd for, Murray; But why the devil do they badger you? These godly newspapers seem hot as curry; They'll be so glad to see you in a flurry I mean those canting Quacks of your Review — Of being more than accoucheur to Cain; "If Cain' be blasphemous,' Paradise Lost is blasphemous; and the very words of the Oxford gentleman, Evil, be thou my good,' are from that very poem, from the mouth of Satan; and is there any thing But here why, really, no great lengths I've gone - The thing's a drama, not a sermon-book; Here stands the Murderer- that's the Old One there- Which now-a-days would make a Bishop stare; I only bring your angels on the stage. To bully You, yet shrink from battling Me, Is baseness-nothing baser stains The Times: ' While Jeffrey in each catalogue I see — While no one talks of priestly Playfair's crimes,- Depend on't, Piso, 'tis some private pique 'Mong those that cram your Quarterly with Greek. If this goes on, I wish you 'd plainly tell 'em, Is it less sin to write such books than sell 'em? There's muscle! I'm resolved I'll see you righted. Come, Dr. Sewell*, show you have been knighted!- You may tell all who come into your shop, You and your Bull-dog both remonstrated; [* Mr. Sharpe and Sir John Sewell, LL.D., managers of the Constitutional Association.] |