The Complete Poetical Works of Lord Byron

The Venetians appear to have had a particular turn for breaking the hearts of their Doges. The following is another instance of the kind in the Doge Marco Barbarigo: he was succeeded by his brother Agostino Barbarigo, whose chief merit is here mentioned. -"Le doge, blessé de trouver constamment un contradicteur et un censeur si amer dans son frère, lui dit un four en plein conseil: Messire Augustin, vous faites tout votre possible pour hâter ma mort: VOUS vous flattez de me succéder; mais, si les autres yous connaissent aussi bien que je vous connais ils n'auront garde de vous élire.' Là-dessus i se leva, ému de colère, rentra dans son apparte ment, et mourut quelques jours après Ce frère, contre lequel il s'était emporté, fut pré cisément le successeur qu'on lui donna. C'éta un mérite dont on aimait à tenir compte; S7tout à un parent, de s'être mis en opposition avec le chef de la république." - DARU, H. de Venise, 1821, iii. 29.

"L'ha pagata." An historical fact. See Hist. de Venise, par P. DARU, 1821, ii. 528, 520. [Daru quotes Palazzi's Fasti Ducales as his authority for this story. According to Pietro Giustiniani (Storia, lib. viii.), Jacopo Loredano was at pains to announce the decree of the Ten to the Doge in courteous and considerate terms, and begged him to pardon him for what it was his duty to do. Romanin points out that this version of the interview is inconsistent with the famous "l'ha pagata."- Storia, etc., iv. 290, note 1.]

[Here the original MS. ends. The two lines which follow were added by Gifford.]

3 [The Appendix to the First Edition of The Two Foscari consisted of (i.) an extract from P. Daru's Histoire de la République Française, 1821. ii. 520-537; (ii.) an extract from J. Ĉ. L. Simonde de Sismondi's Histoire des Républiques Italiennes du Moyen Age, 1815, x. 36-46; and (iii) a note in response to certain charges of plagiarism brought against the author in the Literary Gazette and elsewhere; and to Southey's indictment of the "Satanic School," which had recently appeared in the Preface to the Laureate's Vision of Judgment (Poetical Works of Robert Southey, 1838, X. 202-207). See too, the "Introduction to The Vision of Judgment, Poetical Works," 1891, iv. pp. 475-480.]

CAIN:1

A MYSTERY.

"Now the Serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made." Genesis, Chapter 3rd, verse 1.

ΤΟ

SIR WALTER SCOTT, BART.,

THIS MYSTERY OF CAIN

IS INSCRIBED,

BY HIS OBLIGED FRIEND
AND FAITHFUL SERVANT,
THE AUTHOR.2

PREFACE.

THE following scenes are entitled "A Mystery," in conformity with the ancient title annexed to dramas upon similar subjects, which were styled "Mysteries, or Moralities." The author

[Cain was begun, at Ravenna, July 16, finished September 9, 1821, and published, with Sardanapalus and The Two Foscari, December 19, 1821.]

[On the 13th December [1821] Sir Walter received a copy of Cain, as yet unpublished, from Murray, who had been instructed to ask whether he had any objection to having the "Mystery" dedicated to him. He replied in these words

"Edinburgh, 4th December, 1821. "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

has by no means taken the same liberties with his subject which were common formerly, as may be seen by any reader curious enough to refer to those very profane productions, whether in English, French, Italian, or Spanish. The author has endeavoured to preserve the language adapted to his characters; and where it is (and this is but rarely) taken from actual Scripture, he has made as little alteration, even of words, as the rhythm would permit. The reader will recollect that the book of Genesis does not state that Eve was tempted by a demon, but by "the Serpent; and that only because he was "the most subtil of all the beasts of the field." Whatever interpretation the Rabbins and the Fathers may have put upon this, I take the words as I find them, and

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.

"To John Murray, Esq."]

[For the contention that "the snake was the snake," see La Bible enfin Expliquée, etc.; Euvres Complètes de Voltaire, Paris, 1837, vi. 338, note.]

*[The first number of John Bull, "For God, the King, and the People," was published Sunday, December 17, 1820. Theodore Hook was the editor, and it is supposed that he owed his appointment to the intervention of Sir Walter Scott. The raison d'être of John Bull was to write up George IV., and to write down Queen Caroline.]

reply, with Bishop Watson 1 upon similar occasions, when the Fathers were quoted to him as Moderator in the schools of Cambridge, “Behold the Book!" holding up the Scripture. It is to be recollected, that my present subject has nothing to do with the New Testament, to which no reference can be here made without anachronism. With the poems upon similar topics I have not been recently familiar. Since

I was twenty I have never read Milton; but I had read him so frequently before, that this may make little difference. Gesner's "Death of Abel" I have never read since I was eight years of age, at Aberdeen. The general impression of my recollection is delight; but of the contents I remember only that Cain's wife was called Mahala, and Abel's Thirza; in the following pages I have called them "Adah" and "Zillah," the earliest female names which occur in Genesis. They were those of Lamech's wives: those of Cain and Abel are not called by their names. Whether, then, a coincidence of subject may have caused the same in expression, I know nothing, and care as little.

The reader will please to bear in mind (what few choose to recollect), 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.

mous

Note. The reader will perceive that the author has partly adopted in this poem the notion of Cuvier, that the world had been destroyed several times before the creation of man. This speculation, derived from the different strata and the bones of enorand unknown animals found in them, is not contrary to the Mosaic account, but rather confirms it; as no human bones have yet been discovered in those strata, although those of many known animals are found near the remains of the unknown. The assertion of Lucifer, that the pre-Adamite world was also peopled by rational beings much more intelligent than man, and proportionably powerful to the mammoth, etc, etc., is, of course, a poetical fiction to help him to make out his case.

I ought to add, that there is a "tramelogedia" of Alfieri, called "Abele."1 I have never read that, nor any other of the posthumous works of the writer, except his Life.

RAVENNA, Sept. 20, 1821.