Lucifer monologue (Act 3) — Vondel's Lucifer

'Tis we That are opposed. Were unto Adam's race But given a rank and throne, even similar To that the Angels own, 'twere to be borne. Now fly, instead, o'er all the roofs of Heaven The sparks blown from this burning in the skies. Peace! Angels all, and reverentially Your homage bring, for all that you possess, To Adam and his seed. To strive 'gainst man 330 Is the Godhead to oppose! Oh! how could God, Within His heart, so low, so deep degrade Him whom He for the mightiest sceptre formed: A worthiness once sanctified to rule, So sadly thus abase for one so low, And thus disrobe of all its splendid pomp, And cause it thus to curse the glorious dawn Of its ascent--to wish far rather that It had remained a shadow without hue, A nothing without life? For not to be 340 Is better thousand times than such a fall.