Vondel's Lucifer (Act II, lines 192-276) - Joost van den Vondel

Lucifer:

Shall then on high

A worm, an alien, wield the greatest power?

Must they who native are to Heaven thus yield

To foreign rule? Shall man then found a throne

Even o'er the Throne of God?

Gabriel:

Content thee with

Thy lot, the rank and state and worthiness

Once granted thee by God. For thee He made

The head of all the Hierarchies, though not

To envy others' glory or renown.

Rebellion flattens both her crown and head,

Whene'er she rears her crest 'gainst God's commands.

Thy splendor owes its lustre to God's power

Alone.

Lucifer:

Till now my crown hath bowed to none

But God.

Gabriel:

Then also bow before this last

Decree of God, who leadeth all that have

Their being from naught, yea, all that e'er shall live,

Unto their end and certain destiny,

Though we may fail to comprehend His plan.

Lucifer:

Thus to see man into the light of God

Exalted, to behold him deified

With God on His high Throne, to see towards him

The censers swinging 'mid the joyous tones

Of thousand thousand holy choristers,

With one voice pealing symphonies of praise—

Such grandeur doth bedim the lofty splendors,

And diamond rays of our own morning-star,

That dazzles then no more, while Heaven's joy

Shall pine in grief away.

Gabriel:

The highest bliss

Alone in calm contentment can be found

And in agreement with God's will, in full

Compliance with His law.

Lucifer:

The majesty

Of God and of the Godhead is debased,

If with the blood of man his nature ever

Unites, combines, or otherwise is bound.

We Spirits to God and His deep nature come

Far closer, as children from one father sprung;

And are like Him, if unto us it be

Allowed to bring in such similitude

This inequality of endless powers

With those determinate, of definite might

With might indefinite. Should once the sun

Err from his orbit's path, and veil himself

Behind a mist, to light the globe of Earth

Through clouds of smoke and darkling damps, how soon

The joys of Earth would die! How would the race

Below then want all light and life! How too

The sun would lack his dazzling majesty,

Circling his daily round! I see the skies

Piled up with gloom, the stars confused with fright.

Disorders fell and chaos, where now law

And order reign, should once the fount of light

Plunge with its splendors into some dark fen.

Think not too harshly then, I do beseech

Thee, Gabriel, if now thy trumpet's voice,

The new-made law given by the High Command,

I do resist, or seemingly oppose.

We strive for God's own honor, yea, to give

To God His Right, should I become thus daring

And wander far beyond the narrow path

Of my obedience.

Gabriel:

Thou art, indeed,

Most zealous for the glory of God's name;

Though truly without weighing well that God,

The point wherein His majesty doth lie,

Far better knows than we. Cease therefore now

This inquisition. For when God as man

Shall have become, He shall this book of His

Own mysteries, now sealed with seven seals.

Himself unseal. To taste the kern within

Is not for thee; thou seest the shell alone.

Then of this long concealment we shall learn

The cause and hidden reason, all the while

Deep-gazing; in the unveiled Holy of Holies.

It now behooves us ever to obey

And to revere this rising dawn, to use

Our light with thankfulness until the time

When knowledge in her power shall drive all doubt

Away, even as the sun the night. Now learn

We gradually, with modest reverence,

God's Wisdom to approach. And this to us

Reveals, by slow degrees, the light of truth

And knowledge, and requires that, on his watch,

Each shall submit himself to reason's rule,

Lord Stadtholder, be calm. Be foremost, thou,

Now to maintain the law. God sends me hence.

I must away.

Lucifer:

I shall observe it well!

---

Joost van den Vondel (1587 – 1679) The Netherlands

Translated by Charles Leonard van Noppen

Act II, lines 192-276

Source: Project Gutenberg: J. van Vondel's Lucifer A tragedy 1654

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