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knowledge. When Cain has said that he has never bowed to God, Lucifer asks himwhether this is so, and Cain returns, “Could not thy mighty knowledge teach theethat?” (1.1.315). This also Lucifer does not answer.Throughout the first two acts, unanswered questions cast Lucifer’s claims andintentions into doubt, and a pattern of inverted parallel expressions undermines andcontradicts his claims, damaging his reliability as a witness against God.Another aspect of the Devil’s veracity concerns the association between himself andthe Serpent in the Garden. His own words reject the identification of the two, and thePreface notes that Genesis does not connect them (McGann 6.229.50-53), but thisrejection is called into question by the structure of the drama’s discourse, as isLucifer’s claimed sympathy with humanity.As noted above, Lucifer’s attempted disassociation from the snake drew somevigorous comment from contemporary critics, who saw the separation as an attackupon the Bible. Nonetheless, in the course of the drama, the Devil and the Serpent aredemonstrated to have a great deal in common, despite assertions such as thefollowing:LUCIFER: The snake was the snake –No more[…]I tell thee that the Serpent was no moreThan a mere serpent (1.1.222-3, 231-2).He goes on to say that future ages might “attribute /To me a shape I scorn” (1.1.236-7), further distancing himself from the reptile. The British Critic responded to thecharacter’s assertion with the claim that poet “says that which every child of fourteen,who can read and is not an idiot, will tell him confidently is not the case”. In thecourse of two entire pages on the topic, it argues that, because serpents cannot speakand Genesis never says that they ever could, and because God would not enter intoone to tempt humans to sin, only the Devil can have been responsible for the serpent’s303