These were cup-bearers undying, And my Plato, the divine one, If men know the gods aright Who mouth'd grandly the last Greek! Though the sponges on their hyssops Were distent with wine-too weak! Yet, your Chrysostom, you praised him, And we both praised our Synesius, For the fervid heart and speech! At the lyre, hung out of reach Do you mind that deed of Até, From the first line to the last? As I turn'd and look'd at you, That St. Simeon on the column Had had somewhat less to do? For we sometimes gently wrangled; The learning, then, of Miss Barrett does not stand in the way of her womanly nature, but is rather a severe discipline which refines, elevates that nature, and puts not a pebble in the way of its natural course. By this plea, that she is a woman, a true, natural woman, albeit a learned one, yet one in whom the intellect has not burnt up the heart, Miss Barrett justifies herself in approaching the great theme of the Fall of Man. "My subject was the new and strange experience of the fallen humanity, as it went forth from Paradise into the wilderness; with a peculiar reference to Eve's allotted grief, VOL. 1.-NO. I. which, considering that self-sacrifice belonged to her womanhood, and the consciousness of originating the fall to her offence, appeared to me imperfectly apprehended hitherto, and more expressible by a woman than a man. There was room at least for lyrical emotion in those first steps into the wilderness,-in that first sense of desolation after wrath,-in that first audible gathering of the recriminating groan of the whole creation,'in that first darkening of the hills from the recoiling feet of angels,-and in that first silence of the voice of God. And I took pleasure in driving in, like a pile, stroke upon stroke, the Idea of EXILE, admitting Lucifer as an extreme Adam, to represent the ultimate tendencies of sin and loss,-that it might be strong to bear up the contrary Idea of the Heavenly love and purity." The "Drama of Exile" is cast in a form resembling that of the Grecian tragedy, a form which allows great latitude to the lyrical portions and permits an argumentative metaphysical strain in the remaining passages. The ancient chorus has been the incentive to Miss Barrett's lyrical poems, and not the old English song-writing. The persons of the drama are Adam, Eve, Gabriel, Lucifer, Angels, EdenSpirits, Earth-Spirits, and Phantasms, and the Saviour introduced in a vision. The scene is the outer side of the gate of Eden within the "sword glare," and in the region immediately beyond. Gabriel, the good angel, and the malignant, sneering Lucifer, are first introduced. Lucifer. Hail, Gabriel, the keeper of the gate! Now that the fruit is pluck'd, prince Gabriel, I hold that Eden is impregnable 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 ;- Go from us straightway. Lucifer. Gabriel. Wherefore? 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? 6 Exiles are in the world-wherefore not I? The cursed are in the world-wherefore not I? Gabriel. Depart. Lucifer. "depart?" And hear thy voice chant with the morning stars; When their rays tremble round them with much song, And where's the logic of Sung in more gladness! Our lady Eve had half been satisfied To obey her Maker, if I had not learnt To fix my postulate better. Gabriel. Go... depart— Enough is sinn'd and suffer'd. Lucifer. By no means. Here's a brave earth to sin and suffer on! It holds fast still-it cracks not under curse; It holds, like mine immortal. Presently We'll sow it thick enough with graves as green Or greener, certes, than its knowledge-tree; We'll have the cypress for the tree of life, More eminent for shadow--for the rest We'll build it dark with towns and pyramids, And temples, if it please you :-we'll have feasts And funerals also, merrymakes and wars, "Till blood and wine shall mix and run along Right o'er the edges. And, good Gabriel, (Ye like that word in Heaven!) I too have strength Strength to behold Him, and not worship Him; Strength to fall from Him, and not cry on Him; Strength to be in the universe, and yet Neither God nor his servant. The red sign Burnt on my forehead, which you taunt me with, Is God's sign that it bows not unto God; The potter's mark upon his work, to show It rings well to the striker. I and the earth Can bear more curse. Gabriel. O ruin'd angel! Lucifer. O miserable earth! Well! and if it be, I CHOSE this ruin: I elected it Of my will, not of service. What I do, And overtop thy crown with my despair. Heaven; And leave me to the earth, which is mine Lucifer. Sing, my morning star! Last beautiful-last heavenly-that I loved! If I could drench thy golden locks with tears, What were it to this angel? * The mystic hydromel is spilt, and staining (Not interfused!) That brighter colors were the world's foregoing, Than shall be used. Hearken, oh hearken! ye shall hearken For years and years, Spirits of the Trees. Hark! the Eden trees are stirring, Each is throbbing in vibration Slow, and gradual, branch and head; Fare ye well, farewell! The sylvan sounds, no longer audible, Each footstep of your treading Treads out some murmur which ye heard before : Farewell! the trees of Eden Ye shall hear never more. And the Flower Spirits sing their farewell to the lost inhabitants of Eden: I do adjure thee, put me straight away, Together with my name. Sweet, punish me! O Love, be just! and, ere we pass beyond The light cast outward by the fiery sword, Into the dark which earth must be to us, Bruise my head with thy foot,-as the curse said My seed shall the first tempter's: strike with curse, As God struck in the garden! Adam. My beloved, Mine Eve and life-I have no other name For thee or for the sun than what ye are !— Shall I who had not virtue to stand straight Eve. Because I was not near to make them sad, Or soil the rustling of their innocence. Adam. They know me. I am deepest in the guilt, If last in the transgression. O my God! I, standing here between the glory and dark, Lift up to Thee the hands from whence hath fallen Only creation's sceptre,-thanking Thee That rather Thou hast cast me out with her, Than left me lorn of her in Paradise. Music, "tender as a watering dew," from a chorus of invisible angels follows. Lucifer appears tortured with metaphysical doubts and agonies, the Miltonic punishment of fallen angels, and the morning star, the beloved of Lucifer, takes his farewell in a song of fine imaginative power. They go further on. A wild open country is seen vaguely in the approaching night. Adam. How doth the wide and melan- Gather her hills around us, gray and ghast, Nay. Adam. And yet the cedars and the junipers Rock slowly through the mist, without a noise; And shapes, which have no certainty of shape, Drift duskly in and out between the pines, Eve. O Life, Which is not man's nor angels! What is this? Adam wanders in terror with Eve till the surrounding phantasms figure them. selves in the sign of the zodiac. That phantom, there, Presents a lion,-albeit, twenty times As large as any lion,-with a roar Set soundless in his vibratory jaws, And a strange horror stirring in his mane! And there, a pendulous shadow seems to weigh Good against ill, perchance; and there, a crab Puts coldly out its gradual shadow-claws, Like a slow blot that spreads,-till all the ground, Crawled over by it, seems to crawl itself; A bull stands horned here with gibbous glooms; And a ram likewise; and a scorpion writhes Its tail in ghastly slime, and stings the dark! This way a goat leaps, with wild blank of beard; And here fantastic fishes duskly float, Using the calm for waters, while their fins Throb out slow rhythms along the shallow air! The spirits of organic and inorganic nature arise from the ground, and, as in the bold figures of a Hebrew psalm, the beasts, rivers, birds "with viewless wings of harmonies," the "calm cold fishes of a silver being," witness against man. The pathetic appeal of Eve in reply is exceedingly beautiful: Sweet, dreadful Spirits! I pray you humbly in the name of God; Not to say of these tears, which are im pure the ground And all the birds sing, till, for joy of song, They lift their trembling wings, as if to heave The too-much weight of music from their heart And float it up the other! I am 'ware But rather coupled darkly, and made ashamed, By my percipiency of sin and fall, Not ruffled-smooth and still with your reproof, And peradventure better, while more sad. For look to it, sweet Spirits -look well to it; At that last sunset seen in Paradise, Of sudden angel-faces, face by face, Held them suspended,-was I not, that hour, The lady of the world, princess of life, Mistress of feast and favor? Could I touch A rose with my white hand, but it became A moment underneath a cornel-tree, Because I stood there? Could I turn to look With these twain eyes of mine, now weeping fast, Now good for only weeping-upon man, Angel, or beast, or bird, but each rejoiced Because I looked on him? Alas, alas! And is not this much wo, to cry "alas !" Speaking of joy! And is not this more shame, To have made the wo myself, from all that joy? To have stretch'd my hand, and pluck'd it from the tree, And chosen it for fruit? Nay, is not this Still most despair,-to have halved that bitter fruit, And ruined, so, the sweetest friend I have, Turning the GREATEST to mine enemy? The vision of CHRIST appears, and Adam blesses Eve in that Presence. But, go to thy love Shall chant itself its own beatitudes, After its own life-working. A child's kiss, Set on thy sighing lips, shall make thee glad: A poor man, served by thee, shall make thee rich; An old man, helped by thee, shall make thee strong; Thou shalt be served thyself by every sense Of service which thou renderest. Such a crown I set upon thy head,-Christ witnessing With looks of prompting love-to keep thee clear Of all reproach against the sin foregone, From all the gene. ations which succeed. Thy hand which plucked the apple, I clasp close; Thy lips which spake wrong counsel, I kiss close, I bless thee in the name of Paradise, And by the blessed nightingale, which threw Its melancholy music after us ;- And by the flowers, whose spirits full of |