George Gordon Byron

Pre-reading exercises:
1. Speak on the life of George Gordon Byron using the following points as the plan:
Education The Grand Tour
Success and scandal Marriage and self-exposed exile Italy Greece
2. Byrons life is conceded to reflect the essence of the typical Romantic hero. Which elements that support this statement could you
find in his biography?
3. What do you know about philosophical ideas Lord Byron adhered to? What notions did he introduce into the common usage?
4. What stereotype of the Romantic hero has got the name of Byronic character?
5. Byron was famous for his experiments in different genres, including poetry and drama. What do you know about his achievements
in the sphere of poetry?
6. Find some information about Byrons innovations in drama. Enumerate his most famous works in this genre.
7. Recollect the story line of Byrons drama Cain . What is peculiar about the main characters of this work?
8. What do you know about romanticism? What are the main features?
9. Recollect the plot line of the play Cain . What are the main characters? What subjects are in the play?
10. Who influenced Byron to write this play? ,
Cain
The monologue of Lucifer
LUCIFER: A superior?! Superior?!
Which it ne'er shall, till he or I be quenched!
And not made good or evil by the Giver;
No! By heaven, which he
And what can quench our immortality,
But if he gives you goodso call him; if
Holds, and the abyss, and the immensity
Or mutual and irrevocable hate?
Evil springs from him, do not name it mine,
Of worlds and life, which I hold with him
He as a conqueror will call the conquered
Till ye know better its true fount; and judge
No!
Evil, but what will be the Good he gives?
Not by words, though of Spirits, but the fruits
I have a Victortrue; but no superior.
Were I the victor, his works would be deemed Of your existence, such as it must be.
Homage he has from allbut none from me:
The only evil ones. And you, ye new
One good gift has the fatal apple given
I battle it against him, as I battled
And scare-born mortals, what have been his
Your reason: let it not be overswayed
In highest Heaventhrough all Eternity,
gifts
By tyrannous threats to force you into faith
And the unfathomable gulfs of Hades,
To you already, in your little world?
'Gainst all external sense and inward feeling:
And the interminable realms of space,
But few; and some of those but bitter.
Think and endure, and form an inner
And the infinity of endless ages,
Back with me, then, to thine earth, and try the world
All, all, will I dispute! And world by world,
rest
In your own bosom where the outward
And star by star, and universe by universe,
Of his celestial boons to you and yours.
fails;
Shall tremble in the balance, till the great
Evil and Good are things in their own
So shall you nearer be the spiritual
Conflict shall cease, if ever it shall cease,
essence,
Nature, and war triumphant with your ow

Cain
The Earth, near Eden, as in Act I.
Enter Cain and Adah.
Adah.
Hush! tread softly, Cain!
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Adah.
Cain! that proud Spirit, who withdrew thee
hence,
Hath saddened thine still deeper. I had hoped
The promised wonders which thou hast
beheld,
Visions, thou say'st, of past and present
worlds,
Would have composed thy mind into the
calm
Of a contented knowledge; but I see
Thy guide hath done thee evil: still I thank
him,
And can forgive him all, that he so soon
Hath given thee back to us.
Cain.
So soon?
Adah.
'Tis scarcely
Two hours since ye departed: two long hours
To me, but only hours upon the sun.
Cain.
And yet I have approached that sun, and seen
Worlds which he once shone on, and never
more
Shall light; and worlds he never lit: me
thought
Years had rolled o'er my absence.

ACT III. Scene I.

Adah.
Hardly hours.

Would I could die for them, so they might

live!

Cain.
The mind then hath capacity of time,
And measures it by that which it beholds,
Pleasing or painful; little or almighty.
I had beheld the immemorial works
Of endless beings; skirred extinguished
worlds;
And, gazing on eternity, me thought
I had borrowed more by a few drops of ages
From its immensity: but now I feel
My littleness again. Well said the Spirit,
That I was nothing!

Cain.
Why, so say Iprovided that one victim
Might satiate the Insatiable of life,
And that our little rosy sleeper there
Might never taste of death nor human sorrow,
Nor hand it down to those who spring from
him.

Adah.
Wherefore said he so?
Jehovah said not that.
Cain.
No: he contents him
With making us the nothing which we are;
And after flattering dust with glimpses of
Eden and Immortality, resolves
It back to dust againfor what?

Cain.
By sacrificing
The harmless for the guilty? what atonement
Were there? why, we are innocent: what have
we
Done, that we must be victims for a deed
Before our birth, or need have victims to
Atone for this mysterious, nameless sin
If it be such a sin to seek for knowledge?

Adah.
Thou know'st
Even for our parents' error.

Adah.
Alas! thou sinnest now, my Cain: thy words
Sound impious in mine ears.

Cain.
What is that
To us? they sinned, then let them die!

Cain.
Then leave me!
Adah.
Never, Though thy God left thee.

Adah.
Thou hast not spoken well, nor is that thought
Thy own, but of the Spirit who was with thee.

Adah.
How know we that some such atonement one
day
May not redeem our race?

Cain.
Say, what have we here?

Adah.
Two altars, which our brother Abel made
During thine absence, whereupon to offer
A sacrifice to God on thy return.

Blossom and budand bloom of flowers and

fruits
These are a goodly offering to the Lord,
Given with a gentle and a contrite spirit.

Cain.
And how knew he, that I would be so ready
With the burnt offerings, which he daily
brings
With a meek brow, whose base humility
Shows more of fear than worshipas a bribe
To the Creator?

Cain
I have toiled, and tilled, and sweaten in the
sun,
According to the curse:must I do more?
For what should I be gentle? for a war
With all the elements ere they will yield
The bread we eat? For what must I be
grateful?
For being dust, and grovelling in the dust,
Till I return to dust? If I am nothing
For nothing shall I be an hypocrite,
And seem well-pleased with pain? For what
should I
Be contrite? for my father's sin, already
Expiate with what we all have undergone,
And to be more than expiated by
The ages prophesied, upon our seed.

Adah.
Surely, 'tis well done.
Cain.
One altar may suffice; I have no offering.
Adah.
The fruits of the earth, the early, beautiful,

Little deems our young blooming sleeper,

there,
The germs of an eternal misery
To myriads is within him! better 'twere
I snatched him in his sleep, and dashed him
'gainst
The rocks, than let him live to
Adah.
Oh, my God!
Touch not the childmy child! thy child!
Oh, Cain!
Cain.
Fear not! for all the stars, and all the power
Which sways them, I would not accost your
infant
With ruder greeting than a father's kiss.
Adah.
Then, why so awful in thy speech?

I said,
'Twere better that he ceased to live, than give
Life to so much of sorrow as he must
Endure, and, harder still, bequeath; but since
That saying jars you, let us only say
'Twere better that he never had been born.
Adah.
Oh, do not say so! Where were then the joys ,
The mother's joys of watching, nourishing,
And loving him? Soft! he awakes. Sweet Enoch!
[She goes to the child.
Oh, Cain! look on him; see how full of life,
Of strength, of bloom, of beauty, and of joy
How like to mehow like to thee, when gentle
For then we are all alike; is't not so, Cain?
Mother, and sire, and son, our features are
Reflected in each other; as they are
In the clear waters, when they are gentle, and
When thou art gentle. Love us, then, my Cain!
And love thyself for our sakes, for we love thee.
Look! how he laughs and stretches out his arms,
And opens wide his blue eyes upon thine,
To hail his father; while his little form
Flutters as winged with joy . Talk not of pain!
The childless cherubs well might envy thee
The pleasures of a parent! Bless him, Cain!
As yet he hath no words to thank thee, but
His heart will, and thine own too.
Cain.
Lines Inscribed Upon A Cup Formed From A Skull
(Scull up Inscription)
Start not -nor deem my spirit fled:
In me behold the only skull
From which, unlike a living head,
Whatever flows is never dull.
I lived, I loved, I quaffed like thee;
I died: let earth my bones resign:
Fill up -thou canst not injure me;
The worm hath fouler lips than thine.
Better to hold the sparkling grape
Than nurse the earthworm's slimy brood,
And circle in the goblet's shape
The drink of gods than reptile's food.
Where once my wit, perchance, hath shone,

In aid of others' let me shine;

And when, alas! our brains are gone,
What nobler substitute than wine?
Quaff while thou canst; another race,
When thou and thine like me are sped,
May rescue thee from earth's embrace,
And rhyme and revel with the dead.
Why not -since through life's little day
Our heads such sad effects produce?
Redeemed from worms and wasting clay,
This chance is theirs to be of use.

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Comprehension questions:
1. What does Lucifer mean by saying I have a Victortrue; but no superior? -
On what condition could the Conflict cease? Conflict shall cease, if ever it shall cease, Which it ne'er shall, till he or I be
quenched
2Evil and Good are things in their own essence, and not made good or evil by the Giver What is your interpretation of this
statement?
2.
What is one good gift has the fatal apple given according to Lucifer? One good gift has the fatal apple given Your
reason: let it not be overswayed By tyrannous threats to force you into faith
3. What do you think about the following Lucifers statement: if Evil springs from him, do not name it mine, till ye know
better its true fount. Evil springs from him, do not name it mine, Till ye know better its true fount; and judge Not by
words, though of Spirits, but the fruits Of your existence, such as it must be.
1. Lucifer advices Cain to form an inner world in your own bosom. What is your understanding of this piece of advice?
2. Why does Adah say that the communication with the Spirit hath saddened thine still deeper? What was the source of
this state before Cain met the Spirit? What were the hopes of Adah? !
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What is the only thing Adah is thankful to the Spirit for?

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Why do Adah and Cain have a misunderstanding about the duration of Cains trip? What is the perception of each of
them? Why are their perceptions so different? What explanation does Cain give to this phenomenon
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What did Cain see while he was travelling with the Spirit?
Adah says to Cain Wherefore said he so? Jehovah said not that. What Cains statement does she answer in such a way? Who is he in
this quote and who is Jehovah? What does she mean by saying that? -
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Cain says that he contents him With making us the nothing which we are And after flattering dust with glimpses of Eden and Immortality,
resolves It back to dust againfor what?. In what way would you interpret this quotation?

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5. What error of their parents are Adah and Cain talking about? Who is punished for the error? Who should have been punished according to
Cain? What is Adahs attitude to such a position?
Who is described in the extract as a little rosy sleeper? , -


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What is Cains attitude to the sacrifice prepared by Abel? What according to Cain is Abels main reason for worshiping God in such a
manner? Find the word Cain uses to describe this sacrifice? Do you agree with such a position? - ?
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What kind of sacrifice is sufficient for God according to Adah? Why is Cain against such an offering?
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1. What war is Cain destined to take part in?
2. Why does Cain think that they press him to become a hypocrite?
3. What germs of an eternal misery is Cain talking about?
4. What is Cain eager to do with the child? Do you have any explanation for such a behavior?
5. Is the position of Cain and Adah different? What is Adah attitude to life? Is it worth living according to her? What does she ask her
husband? What does she consider to be the most important pleasure in life?
6. This extract ends with the approach of Abel. What happened on his coming? In what aspect the interpretation of Byron is different from the
one given in the Bible?