Cain: A Mystery
Cain: A Mystery,a verse drama in three acts by Byron , published 1821 . Cain, bewildered by the toil imposed upon him by another's fault, and by the mystery of the ‘evil’ consequences of ‘good’ knowledge, is confronted by Lucifer, who teaches him to question the wicked works and ways of God, the ‘Omnipotent tyrant’. Byron's bold intellectual speculations on the origins of matter and life are displayed as Lucifer takes Cain on a dazzling tour of the cosmos: they visit earlier worlds peopled by pre-Adamite beings, witness the extinction of species, and contemplate the populous realm of the dead. Cain curses his parents and ‘He who invented life that leads to death’. On his return to earth Cain expresses his doubts and fears to his sister-bride Adah, and is reluctant to share his favoured brother Abel's sacrifice to Jehovah. In a fit of passion, revolted by the barbaric blood-sacrifice and a God who could delight in such...
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