The Works of Lord Byron Volume V Part 72

Scott does not add anything of the kind. The comparison with Shakespeare was written after Byron's death in May, 1824; the appreciation of Cain in December, 1821 (_vide supra_); while the allusion to "a man of quality" is to be found in an article contributed to the _Quarterly Review_ in 1816!]

[[**] The first number of _John Bull_, "For G.o.d, 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'etre_ of _John Bull_ was to write up George IV., and to write down Queen Caroline. "The national movement (in favour of the Queen) was arrested; and George IV. had mainly _John Bull_ to thank for that result."--_A Sketch_, [by J. G.

Lockhart], 1852, p. 45.]]

[87] {207}["Mysteries," or Mystery Plays, were prior to and distinct from "Moralities." Byron seems to have had some acquaintance with the archaeology of the drama, but it is not easy to divine the source or extent of his knowledge. He may have received and read the Roxburghe reprint of the _Chester Plays_, published in 1818; but it is most probable that he had read the pages devoted to mystery plays in _Warton's History of Poetry_, or that he had met with a version of the _Ludus Coventriae_ (reprinted by J. O. Halliwell Phillipps, in 1841), printed in Stevens's continuation of Dugdale's _Monasticon_, 1722, i.

139-153. There is a sixteenth-century edition of _Le Mistere du Viel Testament_, which was reprinted by the Baron James de Rothschild, in 1878 (see for "De la Mort d'Abel et de la Malediction Cayn," pp.

103-113); but it is improbable that it had come under Byron's notice.

For a quotation from an Italian Mystery Play, _vide post_, p. 264; and for Spanish "Mystery Plays," see _Teatro Completo de Juan del Encina_, "Proemio," Madrid, 1893, and _History of Spanish Literature_, by George Ticknor, 1888, i. 257. For instances of the profanity of Mystery Plays, see the _Towneley Plays_ ("Mactacio Abel," p. 7), first published by the Surtees Society in 1836, and republished by the Early English Text Society, 1897, E.S. No. lxxi.]

[88] {208}[For the contention that "the snake was the snake"--no more (_vide post_, p. 211), see _La Bible enfin Expliquee_, etc.; _uvres Completes de Voltaire_, Paris, 1837, vi. 338, note. "La conversation de la femme et du serpent n'est point racontee comme une chose surnaturelle et incroyable, comme un miracle, ou conune une allegorie." See, too, Bayle (_Hist. and Crit. Dictionary_, 1735, ii. 851, art. "Eve," note A), who quotes Josephus, Paracelsus, and "some Rabbins," to the effect that it was an actual serpent which tempted Eve; and compare _Critical Remarks on the Hebrew Scriptures_, by the Rev. Alexander Geddes, LL.D., 1800, p. 42.]

[89] [Richard Watson (1737-1816), Bishop of Llandaff, 1782, was appointed Moderator of the Schools in 1762, and Regius Professor of Divinity October 31, 1771. According to his own story (_Anecdotes of the Life of Richard Watson_, 1817, p. 39), "I determined to study nothing but my Bible.... I had no prejudice against, no predilection for, the Church of England, but a sincere regard for the _Church of Christ_, and an insuperable objection to every degree of dogmatical intolerance. I never troubled myself with answering any arguments which the opponents in the Divinity Schools brought against the articles of the Church, ...

but I used on such occasions to say to them, holding the New Testament in my hand, '_En sacrum codicem_! Here is the foundation of truth! Why do you follow the streams derived from it by the sophistry, or polluted by the pa.s.sions, of man?'" It may be conceived that Watson's appeal to "Scripture" was against the sentence of orthodoxy. His authority as "a school Divine" is on a par with that of the author of _Cain_, or of an earlier theologian who "quoted Genesis like a very learned clerk"!]

[90] [Byron breaks through his self-imposed canon with regard to the New Testament. There are allusions to the doctrine of the Atonement, act i.

sc. I, lines 163-166: act iii. sc. I, lines 85-88; to the descent into Hades, act i. sc. I, lines 541, 542; and to the miraculous walking on the Sea of Galilee, act ii. se. i, lines 16-20.]

[91] {209}[The words enclosed in brackets are taken from an original draft of the Preface.]

[92] [The Manichaeans (the disciples of Mani or Manes, third century A.D.) held that there were two co-eternal Creators--a G.o.d of Darkness who made the body, and a G.o.d of Light who was responsible for the soul--and that it was the aim and function of the good spirit to rescue the soul, the spiritual part of man, from the possession and grasp of the body, which had been created by and was in the possession of the spirit of evil. St. Augustine pa.s.sed through a stage of Manicheism, and in after-life exposed and refuted the heretical tenets which he had advocated, and with which he was familiar. See, for instance, his account of the Manichaean heresy "de duplici terra, de regno lucis et regno tenebrarum" (_Opera_, 1700, viii. 484, c; vide ibid., i. 693, 717; x. 893, d. etc.).]

[93] [Conan the Jester, a character in the Irish ballads, was "a kind of Thersites, but brave and daring even to rashness. He had made a vow that he would never take a blow without returning it; and having ...

descended to the infernal regions, he received a cuff from the arch-fiend, which he instantly returned, using the expression in the text ('blow for blow')." Sometimes the proverb is worded thus: "'Claw for claw, and the devil take the shortest nails,' as Conan said to the devil."--_Waverley Novels_, 1829 (notes to chap. xxii. of _Waverley_), i. 241, note 1; see, too, ibid., p. 229.]

[94] [The full t.i.tle of Warburton's book runs thus: _The Divine Legation of Moses Demonstrated on the Principles of a Religious Deist; from the omission of the Doctrine of a Future State of Reward and Punishment in the Jewish Dispensation_. (See, more particularly (ed. 1741), Vol. II.

pt. ii. bk. v. sect. 5, pp. 449-461, and bk. vi. pp. 569-678.) Compare the following pa.s.sage from _Dieu et les Hommes_ (_uvres, etc._, de Voltaire, 1837, vi. 236, chap. xx.): "Notre Warburton s'est epuise a rama.s.ser dans son fatras de la Divine legation, toutes les preuves que l'auteur du _Pentateuque_, n'a jamais parle d'une vie a venir, et il n'a pas eu grande peine; mais il en tire une plaisante conclusion, et digne d'un esprit aussi faux que le sien."]

[95] {210}[See _Recherches sur les Oss.e.m.e.ns Fossiles_, par M. le B^on^ G. Cuvier, Paris, 1821, i., "Discours Preliminaire," pp. iv., vii; and for the thesis, "Il n'y a point d'os humaines fossiles," see p. lxiv.; see, too, Cuvier's _Discours sur les revolutions de la surface du globe_, ed. 1825, p. 282: "Si l'on peut en juger par les differens ordres d'animaux dont on y trouve les depouilles, ils avaient peut-etre subi jusqu' a deux ou trois irruptions de la mer." It is curious to note that Moore thought that Cuvier's book was "a most desolating one in the conclusions to which it may lead some minds" (_Life_, p. 554).]

[96] {211}[Alfieri's _Abele_ was included in his _Opere inediti_, published by the Countess of Albany and the Abbe Calma in 1804.

"In a long Preface ... dated April 25, 1796, Alfieri gives a curious account of the reasons which induced him to call it ... 'Tramelogedy.'

He says that _Abel_ is neither a tragedy, a comedy, a drama, a tragi-comedy, nor a Greek tragedy, which last would, he thinks, be correctly described as melo-tragedy. Opera-tragedy would, in his opinion, be a fitting name for it; but he prefers interpolating the word 'melo' into the middle of the word 'tragedy,' so as not to spoil the ending, although by so doing he has cut in two ... the root of the word--t?a??? [tragos]."--_The Tragedies of Vittorio Alfieri_, edited by E. A. Bowring, C. B., 1876, ii. 472.

There is no resemblance whatever between Byron's _Cain_ and Alfieri's _Abele_.]

[97] {216}[Compare--

" ... his form had not yet lost All her original brightness, nor appears Less than Arch-angel mind, and the excess Of glory obscure."

_Paradise Lost_, i. 591-593.

Compare, too--

" ... but his face Deep scars of thunder had intrenched, and care Sat on his faded cheek."

Ibid., i., 600-602.]

[98] [According to the Manichaeans, the divinely created and immortal soul is imprisoned in an alien and evil body. There can be no harmony between soul and body.]

[99] {218}[Compare--

"Let him unite above Star upon star, moon, Sun; And let his G.o.d-head toil To re-adorn and re-illume his Heaven, Since in the end derision Shall prove his works and all his efforts vain."

_Adam, a Sacred Drama_, by Giovanni Battista Andreini; Cowper's _Milton_, 1810, iii. 24, sqq.]

[100] {219}[Lines 163-166 ("perhaps" ... "sacrifice"), which appear in the MS., were omitted from the text in the first and all subsequent editions. In the edition of 1832, etc. (xiv. 27), they are printed as a variant in a footnote. The present text follows the MS.]

[101] [According to the _Encyclopaedia Biblica_, the word "Abel"

signifies "shepherd" or "herdman." The Ma.s.sorites give "breath," or "vanity," as an equivalent.]

[by]

_A drudging husbandman who offers up_ _The first fruits of the earth to him who made_ _That earth_----.--[MS. M. erased.]

[bz] {220}

_Have stood before thee as I am; but chosen_ _The serpents charming symbol_.--[MS. M. erased.]

[102] {221}[_Vide ante_, "Preface," p. 208.]

[103] {223}[Compare--

"If, as thou sayst thine essence be as ours, We have replied in telling thee, the thing Mortals call Death hath nought to do with us."

_Manfred_, act i. sc. 1, lines 161-163, _Poetical Works_, 1901, iv. 90.]

[104] {224}[Dr. Arnold, speaking of _Cain_, used to say, "There is something to me almost awful in meeting suddenly, in the works of such a man, so great and solemn a truth as is expressed in that speech of Lucifer, 'He who bows not to G.o.d hath bowed to me'" (Stanley's _Life of Arnold_, ed. 1887, i. 263, note). It may be awful, but it is not strange. Byron was seldom at a loss for a text, and must have been familiar with the words, "He that is not with Me is against Me."

Moreover, he was a man of genius!]

[105] {226}["The most common opinion is that a son and daughter were born together; and they go so far as to tell us the very name of the daughters. Cain's twin sister was called Calmana (see, too, _Le Mistere du Viel Testament_, lines 1883-1936, ed. 1878), or Caimana, or Debora, or Azzrum; that of Abel was named Delbora or Awina."--Bayle's _Dictionary_, 1735, ii. 854, art. "Eve," D.]

[106] {227}[It is impossible not to be struck with the resemblance between many of these pa.s.sages and others in _Manfred_, _e.g._ act ii. sc.

1, lines 24-28, _Poetical Works_, 1901, iv. 99, note 1.]

[ca] {228} _What can_ he be _who places love in ignorance?_--[MS. M.]

[107] {228}["One of the second order of angels of the Dionysian hierarchy, reputed to excel specially in knowledge (as the seraphim in love). See Bacon's _Advancement of Learning_, i. 28: 'The first place is given to the Angels of loue, which are tearmed Seraphim, the second to the Angels of light, which are tearmed Cherubim,'"-_N. Eng. Dict._, art.

"Cherub."]

[cb] {229} _But it was a lie no doubt_.--[MS. M. erased.]

[cc] {230}_What else can be joy?_----.--[MS. M.]

[108] {231}[Compare--"She walks in Beauty like the night." _Hebrew Melodies_, i. 1, _Poetical Works_, 1900, iii. 381.]

[109] {232}[Lucifer was evidently indebted to the Manichaeans for his theory of the _duplex terra_--an infernal as well as a celestial kingdom.]

[110] {233}["According to the prince of the power of the air" (_Eph_.