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CAIN
A monologue from the play by Lord Byron
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NOTE: This monologue is reprinted from Lord Byron: Six Plays. Lord Byron. Los Angeles: Black Box Press, 2007. |
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- EVE: Hear, Jehovah!
- May the eternal Serpent's curse be on him!
- For he was fitter for his seed than ours.
- May all his days be desolate!
- He hath left thee no brother, Adah—
- Zillah no husband—me no son! for thus
- I curse him from my sight for evermore!
- All bonds I break between us, as he broke
- That of his nature, in yon—Oh Death! Death!
- Why didst thou not take me, who first incurred thee?
- Why dost thou not so now?
- [Pointing to CAIN.]
- Why dost thou not take yon Incarnate Spirit
- Of Death, whom I have brought upon the earth
- To strew it with the dead. May all the curses
- Of life be on him! and his agonies
- Drive him forth o'er the wilderness, like us
- From Eden, till his children do by him
- As he did by his brother! May the swords
- And wings of fiery Cherubim pursue him
- By day and night—snakes spring up in his path—
- Earth's fruits be ashes in his mouth—the leaves
- On which he lays his head to sleep be strewed
- With scorpions! May his dreams be of his victim!
- His waking a continual dread of Death!
- May the clear rivers turn to blood as he
- Stoops down to stain them with his raging lip!
- May every element shun or change to him!
- May he live in the pangs which others die with!
- And Death itself wax something worse than Death
- To him who first acquainted him with man!
- Hence, fratricide! henceforth that word is Cain,
- Through all the coming myriads of mankind,
- Who shall abhor thee, though thou wert their sire!
- May the grass wither from thy feet! the woods
- Deny thee shelter! earth a home! the dust—
- A grave! the sun his light! and heaven her God!
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