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[To the Spanish Soldiery.
Well, cut-throats!

What do you pause for? If you make not haste,
There will not be a link of pious gold left.
And you, too, catholics! Would ye return
From such a pilgrimage without a relic?
The very Lutherans have more true devotion:
See how they strip the shrines !

Soldiers.

By holy Peter
He speaks the truth; the heretics will bear
The best away.
Cas.

And that were shame! Go to! Assist in their conversion.

You touch me not alive.
3d Sold.

Infernal slave!

Alive or dead!

Olimp. (embracing a massive crucifix). Respect

3d Sold.

your God!

Yes, when he shines in gold.

Girl, you but grasp your dowry.

[As he advances, OLIMPIA, with a strong and sudden effort, casts down the crucifix; it strikes the Soldier, who falls.

Oh, great God!

3d Sold.
Olimp. Ah! now you recognise him.
3d Sold.

My brain's crush'd!

[He dies.

Comrades, help, ho! All's darkness!

Other Soldiers (coming up). Slay her, although she
had a thousand lives:
She hath kill'd our comrade.
Olimp.

Welcome such a death!
You have no life to give, which the worst slave.
Would take. Great God! through thy redeeming Son,
And thy Son's Mother, now receive me as

I would approach thee, worthy her, and him, and thee!

Enter ARNOLD.

Arn. What do I see? Accursed jackals!
Forbear!

Cæs. (aside and laughing). Ha! ha! here's equity!
The dogs

Have as much right as he.
Soldiers. Count, she hath
Arn.

But to the issue !
slain our comrade.

With what weapon?

Sold. The cross, beneath which he is crush'd;

behold, him

Lie there, more like a worm than man; she cast it
Upon his head.

Arn.

Even so; there is a woman
Worthy a brave man's liking. Were ye such,

Ye would have honour'd her. But get ye hence,
And thank your meanness, other God you have none,
For your existence. Had you touch'd a hair
Of those dishevell'd locks, I would have thinn'd
Your ranks more than the enemy. Away!
Ye jackals! gnaw the bones the lion leaves,
But not even these till he permits.
A Sold. (murmuring).

[The Soldiers disperse; many quit the Church, Might conquer for himself then.
others enter.

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Arn. Then learn to grant it. Have I taught you who Good words, however, are as well at times. Led you o'er Rome's eternal battlements?

Soldiers. We saw it, and we know it; yet forgive
A moment's error in the heat of conquest-
The conquest which you led to.

Arn.
Get you hence !
Hence to your quarters! you will find them fix'd

In the Colonna palace.

Olimp. (aside).

House!

Arn. Words! - Canst thou aid her?
Cæs.

I will try. A sprinkling
Of that same holy water may be useful.
[He brings some in his helmet from the font.
Arn. "Tis mix'd with blood.

Cæs.

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Arn. (to the Soldiers). Leave your arms; ye have Of such the city's render'd. And mark well You keep your hands clean, or I'll find out a stream As red as Tiber now runs, for your baptism. [obey! Soldiers (deposing their arms and departing). We Arn. (to OLIMPIA). Lady, you are safe. Olimp.

I should be so, Had I a knife even; but it matters notDeath hath a thousand gates; and on the marble, Even at the altar foot, whence I look down Upon destruction, shall my head be dash'd, Ere thou ascend it. God forgive thee, man! Arn. I wish to merit his forgiveness, and Thine own, although I have not injured thee. Olimp. No! Thou hast only sack'd my native land,

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No, thou know'st me not; I am not Of these men, though

Olimp.

I judge thee by thy mates;
It is for God to judge thee as thou art.
I see thee purple with the blood of Rome;
Take mine, 't is all thou e'er shalt have of me,
And here, upon the marble of this temple,
Where the baptismal font baptized me God's,
I offer him a blood less holy

But not less pure (pure as it left me then,
A redeem'd infant) than the holy water'
The saints have sanctified!

[OLIMPIA waves her hand to ARNOLD with dis-
dain, and dashes herself on the pavement from
the Altar.

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There is no cleaner now

How pale! how beautiful! how lifeless! Alive or dead, thou essence of all beauty, I love but thee !

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[her?

But somewhat late i' the day. Where shall we bear I say she lives.

Arn. Cæs.

And will she live?

As much

As dust can.

Arn. Cæs.

Then she is dead!

Bah bah! You are so,
And do not know it. She will come to life-
Such as you think so, such as you now are;
But we must work by human means.
Arn.

Convey her unto the Colonna palace,
Where I have pitch'd my banner.

Cas. Come then! raise her up!
Arn. Softly!
Cæs.

We will

As softly as they bear the dead, Perhaps because they cannot feel the jolting. Arn. But doth she live indeed ? Cæs.

Nay, never fear!

But, if you rue it after, blame not me.
Arn. Let her but live!
Cæs.

The spirit of her life
Is yet within her breast, and may revive.
Count! count! I am your servant in all things,
And this is a new office:- -'tis not oft
I am employ'd in such; but you perceive
How stanch a friend is what you call a fiend.
On earth you have often only fiends for friends;
Now I desert not mine. Soft! bear her hence,
The beautiful half-clay, and nearly spirit!

I am almost enamour'd of her, as

Of old the angels of her earliest sex.
Arn. Thou!

Cas. I! But fear not. I'll not be your rival.
Arn. Rival!

Cæs.

I could be one right formidable; But since I slew the seven husbands of

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Cas. Oh! shadow of glory!

Dim image of war!

But the chase hath no story,
Her hero no star,
Since Nimrod, the founder

Of empire and chase,
Who made the woods wonder

And quake for their race.
When the lion was young,

In the pride of his might,
Then 't was sport for the strong
To embrace him in fight;

To go forth, with a pine

For a spear, 'gainst the mammoth,
Or strike through the ravine

At the foaming behemoth;
While man was in stature

As towers in our time,
The first-born of Nature,
And, like her, sublime!

CHORUS.

But the wars are over,
The spring is come;
The bride and her lover

Have sought their home:

They are happy, and we rejoice;

Let their hearts have an echo from every voice!

[Exeunt the Peasantry, singing.

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.

ΤΟ

SIR WALTER SCOTT, BART.

THIS MYSTERY OF CAIN IS INSCRIBED,

BY HIS OBLIGED FRIEND AND FAITHFUL SERVANT,

THE AUTHOR.

PREFACE.

THE following scenes are entitled "A Mystery," in conformity with the ancient title annexed to dramas

1["CAIN was begun at Ravenna, on the 16th of July, 1821-completed 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 foretell, 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 highsouled 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,

upon similar subjects, which were styled "Mysteries, or Moralities." The author has by no means taken the same liberties with his subject which were common, formerly, as may be seen by any reader curious

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."

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 eminent 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, 1829. "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.

"If Cain be 'blasphemous,' Paradise Lost is blasphe mous; 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 more in that of Lucifer in the Mystery? Cain' is nothing more than a drama, not a piece of argument. If Lucifer and Cain speak as the first murderer and the first rebel may be supposed to speak, surely all the rest of the personages talk also according to their characters -and the stronger passions have ever been permitted to the drama.

"I have even avoided introducing the Deity, as in Scripture (though Milton does, and not very wisely either); but have adopted his angel as sent to Cain instead, on purpose to avoid shocking any feelings on the subject, by falling short of what all uninspired men must fall short in, viz. giving an adequate notion of the effect of the presence of Jehovah. The old Mysteries introduced him líberally enough, and all this is avoided in the new one.

"The attempt to bully you, because they think it won't succeed with me, seems to me as atrocious an attempt as ever disgraced the times. What! when Gibbon's, Hume's, Priestley's, and Drummond's publishers have been allowed to rest in peace for seventy years, are you to be singled out for a work of fiction, not of history or argument? There must be something at the bottom of this-some private enemy of your own it is otherwise incredible.

"I can only say, Me, me; en adsum qui feci ;'- that any proceedings directed against you, I beg, may be transferred to me, who am willing, and ought, to endure them all; - that if you have lost money by the publication, I will refund any or all of the copyright; — that I desire you will say that both you and Mr. Gifford remonstrated against the publication, as also Mr. Hobhouse; - that I alone occasioned it, and I alone am the person who, either legally or otherwise, should bear the burden. If they prosecute. I will come to England; that is, if, by meeting it in my own person, I can save yours. Let

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"P.SI write to you about all this row of bad passions and absurdities with the summer moon (for here our winter is clearer than your dog-days) lighting the winding Arno, with all her buildings and bridges, so quiet and still!What nothings are we before the least of these stars!"

An individual of the name of Benbow having pirated Cain," Mr. Shadwell (now, 1836, Sir Lancelot, and ViceChancellor) applied to the Lord Chancellor (Eldon) for an injunction to protect Mr. Murray's property in the Mystery. The learned counsel, on the 9th of February, 1822, spoke as follows:

This work professes to record, in a dramatic poem of three acts, the story contained in the book of Genesis. It is meant to represent the state of Cain's mind when it received those temptations which led him to commit the murder of his brother. The actors in the poem are few: they consist of Adam and Eve, Cain and Abel, and their two wives, with Lucifer, and, in the third act, the angel of the Lord. The book only does that which was before done by Milton, and adheres more closely to the words contained in Scripture. The book, in the commencement, represents Cain in a moody, dissipated disposition, when the Evil Spirit tempts him to go forth with him to acquire knowledge. After the first act, he leads him through the abyss of space; and, in the third, Cain returns with a still more gloomy spirit. Although the poet puts passages into his mouth, which of themselves are blasphemous and impious; yet it is what Milton has done also, both in his Paradise Lost, and Regained. But those passages are powerfully combated by the beautiful arguments of his wife, Adah. It is true that the book represents what Scripture represents, -that he is, notwithstanding, instigated to destroy the altar of his brother, whom he is then led on to put to death; but then the punishment of his crime follows in the very words of the Scripture itself. Cain's mind is immediately visited with all the horror of remorse, and he goes forth a wanderer on the face of the earth. I trust I am the last person in the world who would attempt to defend a blasphemous or impious work; but I say that this poem is as much entitled to the protection of the court, in the abstract, as either the Paradise Lost or the Paradise Regained. So confident am I of this, that I would at present undertake to compare it with those works, passage by passage, and show that it is perfectly as moral as those productions of Milton. Every sentence carries with it, if I may use the expression, its own balsam. The authority of God is recognised; and Cain's impiety and crime are introduced to show that its just punishment immediately followed. I repeat, that there is no reason why this work, taken abstractedly, should not be protected as well as either of the books I have mentioned. I therefore trust that your Lordship will grant this injunction in limine, and then the defendants may come in and show cause against it."

The following is a note of the Lord Chancellor's judg

ment:

"This court, like the other courts of justice in this country, acknowledges Christianity as part of the law of the land. The jurisdiction of this court in protecting literary property is founded on this, that where an action will lie for pirating a work, there the court, attending to the imperfection of that remedy, grants its injunction; because there may be publication after publication which you may never be able to hunt down by proceeding in the other courts. But where such an action does not lie, I do not apprehend that it is according to the course of the court to grant an injunction to protect the copyright. Now this publication, if it is one intended to vilify and bring into discredit that portion of Scripture history to which it relates, is a publication with reference to which, if the principles on which the case of Dr. Priestley, at Warwick, was decided, be just principles of law, the party could not recover any damages in respect of a piracy of it. This court has no criminal jurisdiction; it cannot look on any thing as an offence; but in those cases it only administers justice for the protection of the civil rights of those who possess them, in consequence of being able to maintain an action. You have alluded to Milton's immortal work: it did happen in the course of last long vacation, amongst the solicite jucunda oblivia vitæ, I read that work from beginning to end; it is therefore quite fresh in my memory, and it appears to me that the great object of its author was to promote the cause of Christianity: there are undoubtedly a great many passages in it, of which, if that were not its object, it would be very improper by law to vindicate the publication; but, taking it all together, it is clear that the object and effect were not to bring into disrepute, but to promote, the reverence of our religion. Now the real question is, looking at the work before me, its preface, the poem, its manner of treating the subject, particularly with reference to the fall and the atonement, whether its intent be as innocent as that of the other with which you have compared it; or

The author has endeavoured to preserve the language adapted to his characters; and where it is (and this

whether it be to traduce and bring into discredit that part of sacred history. This question I have no right to try, because it has been settled, after great difference of opinion among the learned, that it is for a jury to determine that point; and where, therefore, a reasonable doubt is entertained as to the character of the work (and it is impossible for me to say I have not a doubt, I hope it is a reasonable one), another course must be taken for determining what is its true nature and character. There is a great difficulty in these cases, because it appears a strange thing to permit the multiplication of copies by way of preventing the circulation of a mischievous work, which I do not presume to determine that this is; but that I cannot help and the singularity of the case, in this instance, is more obvious, because here is a defendant who has multiplied this work by piracy, and does not think proper to appear. If the work be of that character which a court of common law would consider criminal, it is pretty clear why he does not appear, because he would come confitens reus; and for the same reason the question may perhaps not be tried by an action at law; and if it turns out to be the case, I shall be bound to give my own opinion. That opinion I express no further now than to say that, after having read the work, I cannot grant the injunction until you show me that you can maintain an action for it. If you cannot maintain an action, there is no pretence for granting an injunction; if you should not be able to try the question at law with the defendant, I cannot be charged with impropriety if I then give my own opinion upon it. It is true that this mode of dealing with the work, if it be calculated to produce mischievous effects, opens a door for its dissemination; but the duty of stopping the work does not belong to a court of equity, which has no criminal jurisdiction, and cannot punish or check the offence. If the character of the work is such that the publication of it amounts to a temporal offence, there is another way of proceeding, and the publication of it should be proceeded against directly as an offence; but whether this or any other work should be so dealt with, it would be very improper for me to form or intimate an opinion."

The injunction was refused accordingly. The reader is referred to Mr. Moore's Notices for abundant evidence of the pain which Lord Byron suffered from the virulence of the attacks on "Cain," and the legal procedure above alluded to. Sir Walter Scott announced his acceptance of the de. dication in the following letter to Mr. Murray :

"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 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."

[See note to " Hints from Horace," post; Payne Collier's "Annals of the Stage," vol. i.; the "Histoire du Théâtre Français," vol. ii., &c.]

[The pungent Sunday print so called had been established some little time before this letter was written, and had excited a sensation unequalled in the recent history of the newspaper press.]

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