Enter the ANGEL of the Lord.

Angel. Where is thy brother Abel?

Cain.

My brother's keeper?

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 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,

'Twill come to pass, that whoso findeth him

Shall slay him.

Cain.

Shall slay me?

Would they could! but who are they
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

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!

Cain.

Wouldst thou with me?

Angel.

What

To mark upon thy brow

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 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!

Adah.

[The ANGEL disappears. let us go forth;

He's gone,

I hear our little Enoch cry within

Our bower.
Cain.

Ah! little knows he what he weeps for! And I who have shed blood cannot shed tears! But the four rivers (1) 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. (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'd
The same breast, clasp'd thee often to my own,
In fondness brotherly and boyish, I

Can never meet thee more, nor even dare

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

(2) [The catastrophe is brought about with great dramatic skill and effect. The murderer is sorrowful and confounded, his parents reprobate and renounce him, his wife clings to him with eager and unhesitating affection; and they wander forth together into the vast solitude of the universe. — JEFFREY.]

To do that for thee, which thou shouldst have done For me-compose thy limbs into their graveThe first grave yet dug for mortality.

But who hath dug that grave? Oh, earth! Oh, earth! For all the fruits thou hast render'd 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.
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 temper'd this stern blood of mine, Uniting with our children Abel's offspring!

O Abel!

Adah. Peace be with him!
Cain.

But with me!

[Exeunt.(1)

(1) [THE reader has seen what Sir Walter Scott's general opinion of "Cain" was, in the letter appended to the dedication, antè, p. 9. Mr. Moore's was conveyed to Lord Byron in these words:

If I

"I have read Foscari and Cain. The former does not please me so highly as Sardanapalus. It has the fault of all those violent Venetian stories; being unnatural and improbable, and therefore, in spite of all your fine management of them, appealing but remotely to one's sympathies. But Cain is wonderful-terrible- never to be forgotten. am not mistaken, it will sink deep into the world's heart; and while many will shudder at its blasphemy, all must fall prostrate before its grandeur. Talk of Eschylus and his Prometheus! - here is the true spirit both of the Poet- and the Devil."

Lord B.'s answer to Mr. Moore on this occasion contains the substance of all that he ever thought fit to advance in defence of the assaulted points in his "Mystery:

"With respect to religion," he says, 66 can I never convince you that I hold no such opinions as the characters in that drama, which seems to have frightened every body? My ideas of a character may run away with me: like all imaginative men, I, of course, embody myself with the cha racter while I draw it, but not a moment after the pen is from off the paper."

He thus alludes to the effects of the critical tempest excited by "Cain," in the eleventh canto of " Don Juan."

"In twice five years the greatest living poet,'
Like to the champion in the fisty ring,

Is call'd on to support his claim, or show it,
Although 'tis an imaginary thing.
Even I-albeit I'm sure I did not know it,

Nor sought of foolscap subjects to be king

Was reckon'd, a considerable time,

The Grand Napoleon of the realms of rhyme.

"But Juan was my Moscow, and Faliero

My Leipsic, and my Mont Saint Jean seems Cain."

We shall now present the reader with a few of the most elaborate summaries of the contemporary critics, — favourable and unfavourable, beginning with the Edinburgh Review.

Mr. Jeffrey says, "Though Cain' abounds in beautiful passages, and shows more power, perhaps, than any of the author's dramatical compositions, we regret very much that it should ever have been pub lished. It will give very great scandal and offence to pious persons in general, and may be the means of suggesting the most painful doubts and distressing perplexities to hundreds of minds that might never otherwise have been exposed to such dangerous disturbance. Lord Byron has no priestlike cant or priestlike reviling to apprehend from us. We do not charge him with being either a disciple or an apostle of Lucifer; nor