Cain.

Have I not said it?-need I say it? Could not thy mighty knowledge teach thee that? Lucifer. He who bows not to him has bow'd to me! Cain. But I will bend to neither.

Lucifer.

Ne'er the less,

Thou art my worshipper: not worshipping
Him makes thee mine the same.

Cain.

Lucifer. Thou 'lt know here—and hereafter.
Cain.

Be taught the mystery of my being.

Lucifer.

Where I will lead thee.

Cain.

And what is that?

Let me but

Follow

But I must retire

What?

Why?

To offer up

Saidst thou not

To till the earth-for I had promised

Lucifer.

Cain. To cuil some first-fruits.

Lucifer.

Cain.

With Abel on an altar.

Thou ne'er hadst bent to him who made thee?

Lucifer.

Cain.

Yes

But Abel's earnest prayer has wrought upon me; The offering is more his than mine-and Adah Lucifer. Why dost thou hesitate?

Cain.

She is my sister, Born on the same day, of the same womb; and She wrung from me, with tears, this promise; and Rather than see her weep, I would, methinks, Bear all-and worship aught.

D 2

Lucifer.
Cain. I will. (1)

Adah.

Then follow me!

Enter ADAH

My brother, I have come for thee; It is our hour of rest and joy—and we Have less without thee. Thou hast labour'd not This morn; but I have done thy task: the fruits Are ripe, and glowing as the light which ripens: Come away.

Cain. Adah.

See'st thou not?

I see an angel;

We have seen many will he share our hour
Of rest?-he is welcome.

Cain.

The angels we have seen.

Adah.

But he is not like

Are there, then, others?

But he is welcome, as they were: they deign'd

To be our guests—will he?

Cain (to Lucifer).

Lucifer.

Thee to be mine.

Cain.

Adah. And leave us?

Cain.

Adah.

Cain.

Wilt thou?

I ask

I must away with him.

Ay.

And me?

Beloved Adah!

Adah. Let me go with thee.

Lucifer.

Adah.

Art thou that steppest between heart and heart?

(1) [The first interview of Lucifer with Cain is full of sublimity. JEFFREY.]

No, she must not.

Who

Adah. So did the serpent, and it lied.

Lucifer. Thou errest, Adah!-was not the tree

Of knowledge?

Adah.

Ay-to our eternal sorrow.

[that

Lucifer. And yet that grief is knowledge-so he

lied not:

And if he did betray you, 'twas with truth;
And truth in its own essence cannot be

But good.

Adah.

But all we know of it has gather'd Evil on ill: expulsion from our home,

And dread, and toil, and sweat, and heaviness; Remorse of that which was—and hope of that Which cometh not. Cain! walk not with this spirit. Bear with what we have borne, and love me—I Love thee.

Lucifer. More than thy mother, and thy sire? Adah. I do. Is that a sin, too?

Lucifer.

It one day will be in your children.

Adah.

No, not yet;

What!

Must not my daughter love her brother Enoch?

Lucifer. Not as thou lovest Cain.

Adah.

Oh, my God!

Shall they not love and bring forth things that love
Out of their love? have they not drawn their milk
Out of this bosom? was not he, their father,
Born of the same sole womb, in the same hour

With me? did we not love each other? and
In multiplying our being multiply

Things which will love each other as we love
Them? -And as I love thee, my Cain! go not
Forth with this spirit; he is not of ours.

Lucifer. The sin I speak of is not of my making, And cannot be a sin in you-whate'er

It seem in those who will replace ye in
Mortality. (1)

Adah.

What is the sin which is not

Sin in itself? Can circumstance make sin

Or virtue?—if it doth, we are the slaves
Of

[higher

Lucifer. Higher things than ye are slaves: and Than them or ye would be so, did they not Prefer an independency of torture

To the smooth agonies of adulation,

In hymns and harpings, and self-seeking prayers,
To that which is omnipotent, because

It is omnipotent, and not from love,

But terror and self-hope.

Adah.

Must be all goodness.

Lucifer.

Omnipotence

Was it so in Eden?

Adah. Fiend! tempt me not with beauty; thou

art fairer

Than was the serpent, and as false.

As true.

Lucifer. Ask Eve, your mother: bears she not the knowledge Of good and evil?

(1) [It is impossible not to be struck with the resemblance between many of these passages and others in Manfred.-E]

Adah.

Oh, my mother! thou

Hast pluck'd a fruit more fatal to thine offspring
Than to thyself; thou at the least hast pass'd
Thy youth in Paradise, in innocent

And happy intercourse with happy spirits:
But we, thy children, ignorant of Eden,
Are girt about by demons, who assume
The words of God, and tempt us with our own
Dissatisfied and curious thoughts—as thou
Wert work'd on by the snake, in thy most flush'd
And heedless, harmless wantonness of bliss.
I cannot answer this immortal thing
Which stands before me; I cannot abhor him;
I look upon him with a pleasing fear,
And yet I fly not from him: in his eye

There is a fastening attraction which
Fixes my fluttering eyes on his; my heart

Beats quick; he awes me, and yet draws me near, Nearer and nearer:- Cain-Cain-save me from him!(1)

Cain. What dreads my Adah? This is no ill spirit. Adah. He is not God-nor God's: I have beheld The cherubs and the seraphs; he looks not Like them.

Cain. But there are spirits loftier stillThe archangels.

Lucifer.

And still loftier than the archangels.

Adah. Ay-but not blessed.

"Adah,

(1) [Mr. Jeffrey's eulogium on this, perhaps the most Shakspearian speech in Lord Byron's tragedies, seems cold enough. He says, the wife of Cain, enters, and shrinks from the daring and blasphemous speech which is passing between him and the Spirit. Her account of the fascination which he exercises over her is magnificent."- E.]