56
A DRAMA OF EXILE.
Lucifer rises in the circle.
Lucifer. Who talks here of a complement of grief?
Of expiation wrought by loss and fall?
Of hate subduable to pity? Eve?
Take counsel from thy counsellor the snake,
And boast no more-in grief, nor hope from pain,
My docile Eve! I teach you to despond,
Who taught you disobedience. Look around;—
Earth-spirits and phantasms hear you talk, unmoved,
As if ye were red clay again, and talked!
What are your words to them? your griefs to them?
Your deaths, indeed, to them? Did the hand pause
For their sake, in the plucking of the fruit,
That they should pause for you, in hating you?
Or will your grief or death, as did your sin,
Bring change upon their final doom? Behold,
Your grief is but your sin in the rebound,
And cannot expiate for it.
Adam.It is true.
Lucifer. Ay, it is true. The clay-king testifies
To the snake's counsel,—hear him!—very true.
Earth Spirits. I wail, I wail!
Lucifer.And certes, that is true,
Ye wail, ye all wail. Peradventure I
Could wail among you. O thou universe,
That boldest sin and woe,—more room for wail!
Distant starry voice. Ai, ai, Heosphoros!
Earth Spirits. I wail,I wail!
Adam. Mark Lucifer. He changes awfully.
Eve. It seems as if he looked from grief to God,
And could not see Him;—wretched Lucifer!
Adam. How he stands—yet an angel!
Earth Spirits.I wail—wail!
Lucifer (after a pause). Dost thou remember, Adam, when the curse
Took us in Eden? On a mountain-peak
Lucifer. Who talks here of a complement of grief?
Of expiation wrought by loss and fall?
Of hate subduable to pity? Eve?
Take counsel from thy counsellor the snake,
And boast no more-in grief, nor hope from pain,
My docile Eve! I teach you to despond,
Who taught you disobedience. Look around;—
Earth-spirits and phantasms hear you talk, unmoved,
As if ye were red clay again, and talked!
What are your words to them? your griefs to them?
Your deaths, indeed, to them? Did the hand pause
For their sake, in the plucking of the fruit,
That they should pause for you, in hating you?
Or will your grief or death, as did your sin,
Bring change upon their final doom? Behold,
Your grief is but your sin in the rebound,
And cannot expiate for it.
Adam.It is true.
Lucifer. Ay, it is true. The clay-king testifies
To the snake's counsel,—hear him!—very true.
Earth Spirits. I wail, I wail!
Lucifer.And certes, that is true,
Ye wail, ye all wail. Peradventure I
Could wail among you. O thou universe,
That boldest sin and woe,—more room for wail!
Distant starry voice. Ai, ai, Heosphoros!
Earth Spirits. I wail,I wail!
Adam. Mark Lucifer. He changes awfully.
Eve. It seems as if he looked from grief to God,
And could not see Him;—wretched Lucifer!
Adam. How he stands—yet an angel!
Earth Spirits.I wail—wail!
Lucifer (after a pause). Dost thou remember, Adam, when the curse
Took us in Eden? On a mountain-peak
