THE DEATH OF CAIN
Lamech, violent and venal, polygamist and adulterer, braggart and glutton, son of Methushael, descendant of Cain, goes hunting though he is all but blind. A creature covered in a black pelt breaks cover. With the help of his servant, Lamech lines up on it and looses an arrow. The creature is mortally wounded. It is Cain. Lamech is torn by regret, though Cain curses him and his children. Cain then laments his life as an outcast, but allows that it was punishment for killing his brother. Intrigued, Lamech asks Cain why he murdered Abel.
From the Cornish of William Jordan, circa 1611: an adaptation of a passage from Gwreans an Bys or The Creacion of the World.
Because he had a mouth on him like sulphur;
because he gave me no respect;
because I was ever brother and no other;
because he smiled even as he slept
(or so she said); because my heart
carries a weight of hatred that will never
lift nor leave me even when I’m dead.
Although in all the world I stand apart
and live within the shadow of my name,
God’s curse on my head and on my head
the curses of my mother and my father,
although I lie here at your feet
speaking through blood and bile, I don’t regret it;
each night I dream of even blacker fame,
then bad luck wakes me and I rise to greet it.
Lamech, I’m close enough to smell your sin.
I’ll see you in hell where all the unforgiven,
the unforgiving, are sworn to come together
bare-headed under a murderous sun
or naked in never-ending winter weather.
