This brief drama addressed to Lord Byron, whose Cain, a Mystery appeared in 1821, treats the themes of revenge, atonement, forgiveness, and self-annihilation through the reactions of Adam, Eve, Satan, and Jehovah to the first murder. The two plates of the work were etched in relief in 1822.
William Blake (1757 – 1827) was a British poet, painter, visionary mystic, and engraver, who illustrated and printed his own books. Blake proclaimed the supremacy of the imagination over the rationalism and materialism of the 18th-century. Largely unrecognised during his lifetime, Blake is now considered a seminal figure in the history of both the poetry and visual arts of the Romantic Age.