A Drama of Exile.
SCENE.—The outer side of the gate of Eden shut fast with clouds, from the depth of which revolves the sword of fire self-moved. A watch of innumerable Angels, rank above rank, slopes up from around it to the zenith; and the glare, cast from their brightness and from the sword, extends many miles into the wilderness. Adam and Eve are seen in the distance, flying along the glare. The Angel Gabriel and Lucifer are beside the gate.
Lucifer. Hail, Gabriel, the keeper of the gate!
Now that the fruit is plucked, prince Gabriel,
I bold that Eden is impregnable
Under thy keeping.
Gabriel.Angel of the sin,
Such as thou standest,—pale in the drear light
Which rounds the rebel's work with Maker's wrath,—
Thou shalt be an Idea to all souls;—
A monumental melancholy gloom
Seen down all ages; whence to mark despair,
And measure out the distances from good!
Go from us straightway.
Lucifer.Wherefore?
Gabriel.Lucifer,
Thy last step in this place, trod sorrow up.
Recoil before that sorrow, if not this sword.
Lucifer. Angels are in the world—wherefore not I?
Exiles are in the world—wherefore not I?
The cursed are in the world—wherefore not I!
Gabriel. Depart.
Lucifer. And where's the logic of "depart"?
Our lady Eye had half been satisfied
To obey her Maker, if I had not learnt
Now that the fruit is plucked, prince Gabriel,
I bold that Eden is impregnable
Under thy keeping.
Gabriel.Angel of the sin,
Such as thou standest,—pale in the drear light
Which rounds the rebel's work with Maker's wrath,—
Thou shalt be an Idea to all souls;—
A monumental melancholy gloom
Seen down all ages; whence to mark despair,
And measure out the distances from good!
Go from us straightway.
Lucifer.Wherefore?
Gabriel.Lucifer,
Thy last step in this place, trod sorrow up.
Recoil before that sorrow, if not this sword.
Lucifer. Angels are in the world—wherefore not I?
Exiles are in the world—wherefore not I?
The cursed are in the world—wherefore not I!
Gabriel. Depart.
Lucifer. And where's the logic of "depart"?
Our lady Eye had half been satisfied
To obey her Maker, if I had not learnt
