The play Lucifer is a 1654 tragedy set in Heaven, written by the Dutch playwright and poet Joost van den Vondel, and premiered on 2 February in the city theater of Amsterdam.

Lucifer then avenges himself on earth by seducing Adam and Eve to commit original sin, causing their banishment from the Garden of Eden.

Dedicated to kaiser Ferdinand III of the Holy Roman Empire, the play is written in alexandrines, with the choirs concluding each act in four- to three-foot iambes.

The structure follows the five stages of classical Greek drama, yet timeless and spaceless Heaven does not accommodate all three of Aristotle's unities of time, place, and plot.

Scholarly concentration upon the theological background of the play gradually gave way to study of themes such as free will, and the relation of belief versus reason.

In 1825 a British theory was launched, holding that Lucifer was a source for John Milton's Paradise Lost, which after initial acceptance was discredited in 1895.

Still under the impression of the beauty of both Paradise and Eve, he reports to Belzebub, who is concerned that men's capacity for reproducing will in time overshadow the power of the angels.

As soon as Gabriel leaves, Lucifer vows at all cost to prevent man's elevation, even if the world order must be destroyed.

He then calls for Apollion, and announces his plan to eliminate archangel Michael, the commander of God's army of angels.

As the smell of incense reaches the highest realm of heaven, Gabriel informs Michael that it is time to confront Lucifer and his gang.

His servant Uriël brings his weaponry, while archangel Rafael, who personifies God's mercy, tries to make Lucifer change his mind.

Rafael warns Lucifer for the penalty of not only being cast out of heaven, but acquiring the appearance of an ugly dragon in the process.

But he still believes mercy is impossible, and when Gabriel sounds his trumpet that the battle is to begin, Lucifer is ready for war.

On earth, Lucifer lost no time seeking his revenge, and already succeeded in seducing Adam and Eve to eat from the forbidden tree.

Robert Southey wrote, possibly at the suggestion of his friend the Dutch poet Willem Bilderdijk, that Milton would have been familiar with both Vondel's Lucifer and his Adam in Exile.

Milton would then be sooner familiar with Grotius' Adamus exul than with Vondel's emulation of that tragedy, Adam in Exile.

A. Fishel confirmed Beddoes's suggestion, prompting a debate between twelve Dutch, British, Germans, and French scholars that ran until 1903.

"[8] Moolhuizen showed that the so-called parallel verses by Vondel were of Edmundson's own making by way of additions and eliminations in his translation.

"[9] Since then, the consensus among Dutch scholars is that the similarities between the two works of literature are of too general a nature to speak of direct influence: Vondel and Milton just chose the same Biblical material to build upon.

Price states in neutral terms that Vondel in Lucifer treats the same problems as Milton does in Paradise Lost.