The Adamus exul of Grotius; or The Prototype of Paradise Lost

This 1839 publication is Francis Barham's English translation of Hugo Grotius's Latin dramatic work Adamus Exul (Adam in Exile), originally published when Grotius was eighteen years old. The drama, drawn from Scripture, treats the Fall of Man and expulsion from Paradise as its central action. Grotius's dedicatory preface indicates he composed the tragedy to demonstrate that sacred subjects could be treated with dignity in elevated dramatic form, incorporating philosophical and metaphysical speculation on God, angels, and souls alongside moral, physical, astrological, and geographical topics. The work received substantial contemporary praise from seventeenth-century scholars including Janus Dousa, John Meursius, Enoc Potteius, and Daniel Heinsius, who commended Grotius's precocious talent and his achievement in advancing tragic drama. Barham's translator's introduction surveys theological interpretations of the Fall across patristic and medieval sources, noting divergent views on whether the account should be read literally or spiritually.