_Vondel's Lucifer_.--I cannot inform your correspondent F. (No. 9 p.
142.), whether Vondel's _Lucifer_ has ever been translated into English,
but he will find reasons for its not being worth translating, in the
_Foreign Quarterly Review_ for April, 1829, where the following passage
occurs:--
"Compare with him Milton, for his _Lucifer_ gives the fairest means
of comparison. How weak are his highest flights compared with those
of the bard of Paradise! and how much does Vondel sink beneath him
in his failures! Now and then the same thought may be found in
both, but the points of resemblance are not in passages which do
Milton's reputation the highest honour."
The scene of this strange drama is laid in Heaven, and the _dramatis
personæ_ are as follows:--
Beelzebub }
Belial } Disobedient Officers.
Apollion }
Gabriel (Interpreter of God's secrets).
Troop of Angels.
Lucifer.
Luciferists (Rebellious Spirits).
Michael (Commander-in-chief).
Rafael (Guardian Angel).
Uriel (Michael's Esquire).
Act I. Scene 1. Beelzebub, Belial, Apollion, &c.