Innocence.
And how
The earth he sowed with flowers, the heavens with stars?[370]
Immediately after the fall, and therefore, according to the common Scriptural computation, about four thousand years before she was born, the Madonna appears, and personally drives Satan down to perdition, while, at the same time, an Angel expels Adam and Eve from Paradise. The Divine Prince and the Celestial Emperor, as the Saviour and the Supreme Divinity are respectively called, then come upon the vacant stage, and, in a conference full of theological subtilties, arrange the system of man’s redemption, which, at the Divine command, Gabriel,
Accompanied with armies all of stars
To fill the air with glorious light,[371]
descending to Galilee, announces as about to be accomplished by the birth of the Messiah. This ends the first act.
The second opens with the rejoicings of the Serpent, Sin, and Death,—confident that the World is now fairly given up to them. But their rejoicings are short. Clarionets are sounded, and Divine Grace appears on the upper portion of the stage, and at once expels the sinful rout from their boasted possessions; explaining afterwards to the World, who now comes on as one of the personages of the scene, that the Holy Family are immediately to bring salvation to men.
The World replies with rapture:—
O holy Grace, already I behold them;