Читать книгу Manfred (With Byron's Biography) - Lord Byron - Страница 18

Manfred alone.

The stars are forth, the moon above the tops

Of the snow-shining mountains.—Beautiful!

I linger yet with Nature, for the Night165 Hath been to me a more familiar face Than that of man; and in her starry shade Of dim and solitary loveliness, I learned the language of another world. I do remember me, that in my youth, When I was wandering,—upon such a night I stood within the Coliseum's wall,16610 'Midst the chief relics of almighty Rome; The trees which grew along the broken arches Waved dark in the blue midnight, and the stars Shone through the rents of ruin; from afar The watch-dog bayed beyond the Tiber; and More near from out the Cæsars' palace came The owl's long cry, and, interruptedly,167 Of distant sentinels the fitful song Begun and died upon the gentle wind.168 Some cypresses beyond the time-worn breach20 Appeared to skirt the horizon, yet they stood Within a bowshot. Where the Cæsars dwelt, And dwell the tuneless birds of night, amidst A grove which springs through levelled battlements, And twines its roots with the imperial hearths, Ivy usurps the laurel's place of growth; But the gladiators' bloody Circus stands, A noble wreck in ruinous perfection, While Cæsar's chambers, and the Augustan halls, Grovel on earth in indistinct decay.—30 And thou didst shine, thou rolling Moon, upon All this, and cast a wide and tender light, Which softened down the hoar austerity Of rugged desolation, and filled up, As 'twere anew, the gaps of centuries; Leaving that beautiful which still was so, And making that which was not—till the place Became religion, and the heart ran o'er With silent worship of the Great of old,— The dead, but sceptred, Sovereigns, who still rule40 Our spirits from their urns. 'Twas such a night! 'Tis strange that I recall it at this time; But I have found our thoughts take wildest flight Even at the moment when they should array Themselves in pensive order.

Enter the Abbot.

Abbot. My good Lord! I crave a second grace for this approach; But yet let not my humble zeal offend By its abruptness—all it hath of ill Recoils on me; its good in the effect May light upon your head—could I say heart—50 Could I touch that, with words or prayers, I should Recall a noble spirit which hath wandered, But is not yet all lost.

Man. Thou know'st me not; My days are numbered, and my deeds recorded: Retire, or 'twill be dangerous—Away!

Abbot. Thou dost not mean to menace me?

Man. Not I! I simply tell thee peril is at hand, And would preserve thee.

Abbot. What dost thou mean?

Man. Look there! What dost thou see?

Abbot. Nothing.

Man. Look there, I say, And steadfastly;—now tell me what thou seest?60

Abbot. That which should shake me,—but I fear it not: I see a dusk and awful figure rise, Like an infernal god, from out the earth; His face wrapt in a mantle, and his form Robed as with angry clouds: he stands between Thyself and me—but I do fear him not.

Man. Thou hast no cause—he shall not harm thee—but His sight may shock thine old limbs into palsy. I say to thee—Retire!

Abbot. And I reply— Never—till I have battled with this fiend:—70 What doth he here?

Man. Why—aye—what doth he here? I did not send for him,—he is unbidden.

Abbot. Alas! lost Mortal! what with guests like these Hast thou to do? I tremble for thy sake: Why doth he gaze on thee, and thou on him? Ah! he unveils his aspect: on his brow The thunder-scars are graven; from his eye169 Glares forth the immortality of Hell— Avaunt!—

Man. Pronounce—what is thy mission?

Spirit. Come!

Abbot. What art thou, unknown being? answer!—speak!80

Spirit. The genius of this mortal.—Come!'tis time.

Man. I am prepared for all things, but deny The Power which summons me. Who sent thee here?

Spirit. Thou'lt know anon—Come! come!

Man. I have commanded Things of an essence greater far than thine, And striven with thy masters. Get thee hence!

Spirit. Mortal! thine hour is come—Away! I say.

Man. I knew, and know my hour is come, but not To render up my soul to such as thee: Away! I'll die as I have lived—alone.90

Spirit. Then I must summon up my brethren.—Rise!bg Other Spirits rise.

Abbot. Avaunt! ye evil ones!—Avaunt! I say,— Ye have no power where Piety hath power, And I do charge ye in the name—

Spirit. Old man! We know ourselves, our mission, and thine order; Waste not thy holy words on idle uses, It were in vain: this man is forfeited. Once more—I summon him—Away! Away!

Man. I do defy ye,—though I feel my soul Is ebbing from me, yet I do defy ye;100 Nor will I hence, while I have earthly breath To breathe my scorn upon ye—earthly strength To wrestle, though with spirits; what ye take Shall be ta'en limb by limb.

Spirit. Reluctant mortal! Is this the Magian who would so pervade The world invisible, and make himself Almost our equal? Can it be that thou Art thus in love with life? the very life Which made thee wretched?

Man. Thou false fiend, thou liest! My life is in its last hour,—that I know,110 Nor would redeem a moment of that hour; I do not combat against Death, but thee And thy surrounding angels; my past power Was purchased by no compact with thy crew, But by superior science—penance, daring, And length of watching, strength of mind, and skill In knowledge of our Fathers—when the earth Saw men and spirits walking side by side, And gave ye no supremacy: I stand Upon my strength—I do defy—deny—120 Spurn back, and scorn ye!—

Spirit. But thy many crimes Have made thee—

Man. What are they to such as thee? Must crimes be punished but by other crimes, And greater criminals?—Back to thy hell! Thou hast no power upon me, that I feel; Thou never shalt possess me, that I know: What I have done is done; I bear within A torture which could nothing gain from thine: The Mind which is immortal makes itself Requital for its good or evil thoughts,—130 Is its own origin of ill and end— And its own place and time:170 its innate sense, When stripped of this mortality, derives No colour from the fleeting things without, But is absorbed in sufferance or in joy, Born from the knowledge of its own desert. Thou didst not tempt me, and thou couldst not tempt me; I have not been thy dupe, nor am thy prey— But was my own destroyer, and will be My own hereafter.—Back, ye baffled fiends!140 The hand of Death is on me—but not yours! The Demons disappear.

Abbot. Alas! how pale thou art—thy lips are white— And thy breast heaves—and in thy gasping throat The accents rattle: Give thy prayers to Heaven Pray—albeit but in thought,—but die not thus.

Man. 'Tis over—my dull eyes can fix thee not; But all things swim around me, and the earth Heaves as it were beneath me. Fare thee well— Give me thy hand.

Abbot. Cold—cold—even to the heart— But yet one prayer—Alas! how fares it with thee?150

Man. Old man! 'tis not so difficult to die.171 Manfred expires.

Abbot. He's gone—his soul hath ta'en its earthless flight; Whither? I dread to think—but he is gone.172

FOOTNOTES:

106 [The MS. of Manfred, now in Mr. Murray's possession, is in Lord Byron's handwriting. A note is prefixed: "The scene of the drama is amongst the higher Alps, partly in the Castle of Manfred, and partly in the mountains." The date, March 18, 1817, is in John Murray's handwriting.]

107 [So, too, Faust is discovered "in a high—vaulted narrow Gothic chamber."]

108 [Compare Faust, act i. sc. 1—

"Alas! I have explored

Philosophy, and Law, and Medicine,

And over deep Divinity have pored,

Studying with ardent and laborious zeal."

Anster's Faust, 1883, p. 88.]

ap Eternal Agency! Ye spirits of the immortal Universe!—[MS. M.]

aq Of inaccessible mountains are the haunts.—[MS. M.]

109 [Faust contemplates the sign of the macrocosm, and makes use of the sign of the Spirit of the Earth. Manfred's written charm may have been "Abraxas," which comprehended the Greek numerals 365, and expressed the all-pervading spirits of the Universe.]

110 [The Prince of the Spirits is Arimanes, vide post, act ii. sc. 4, line 1, seq.]

111 [Compare Childe Harold, Canto I. stanza lxxxiii. lines 8, 9.]

ar Which is fit for my pavilion.—[MS. M.]

as Or makes its ice delay.—[MS. M.]

112 [Compare "Creatures of clay, I receive you into mine empire."—Vathek, 1887, p. 179.]

at The Mind which is my Spirit—the high Soul.—[MS. erased.]

au Answer—or I will teach ye.—[MS. M.]

113 [So the MS., in which the word "say" clearly forms part of the Spirit's speech.]

114 [Compare "Stanzas for Music," i. 3, Poetical Works, 1900, iii 435.]

115 [It is evident that the female figure is not that of Astarte, but of the subject of the "Incantation."]

116 [The italics are not indicated in the MS.]

117 N.B.—Here follows the "Incantation," which being already transcribed and (I suppose) published I do not transcribe again at present, because you can insert it in MS. here—as it belongs to this place: with its conclusion the 1st Scene closes.

[The "Incantation" was first published in "The Prisoner of Chillon and Other Poems. London: Printed for John Murray, Albemarle Street, 1816." Immediately below the title is a note: "The following Poem was a Chorus in an unpublished Witch Drama, which was begun some years ago."]

118[Manfred was done into Italian by a translator "who was unable to find in the dictionaries ... any other signification of the 'wisp' of this line than 'a bundle of straw.'" Byron offered him two hundred francs if he would destroy the MS., and engage to withhold his hand from all past or future poems. He at first refused; but, finding that the alternative was to be a horsewhipping, accepted the money, and signed the agreement.—Life, p. 375, note.]

av I do adjure thee to this spell.—[MS. M.]

119 [Compare—

ὦ δῖος αἰθὴρ, κ.τ.λ.

Æschylus, Prometheus Vinctus, lines 88-91.]

120 [Compare Hamlet's speech to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (Hamlet, act ii. sc. 2, lines 286, sq.).]

121 [The germs of this and of several other passages in Manfred may be found, as Lord Byron stated, in the Journal of his Swiss tour, which he transmitted to his sister. "Sept. 19, 1816.—Arrived at a lake in the very nipple of the bosom of the Mountain; left our quadrupeds with a Shepherd, and ascended further; came to some snow in patches, upon which my forehead's perspiration fell like rain, making the same dints as in a sieve; the chill of the wind and the snow turned me giddy, but I scrambled on and upwards. Hobhouse went to the highest pinnacle. ... The whole of the Mountain superb. A Shepherd on a very steep and high cliff playing upon his pipe; very different from Arcadia, (where I saw the pastors with a long Musquet instead of a Crook, and pistols in their Girdles).... The music of the Cows' bells (for their wealth, like the Patriarchs', is cattle) in the pastures, (which reach to a height far above any mountains in Britain), and the Shepherds' shouting to us from crag to crag, and playing on their reeds where the steeps appeared almost inaccessible, with the surrounding scenery, realized all that I have ever heard or imagined of a pastoral existence:—much more so than Greece or Asia Minor, for there we are a little too much of the sabre and musquet order; and if there is a Crook in one hand, you are sure to see a gun in the other:—but this was pure and unmixed—solitary, savage, and patriarchal.... As we went, they played the 'Ranz des Vaches' and other airs, by way of farewell. I have lately repeopled my mind with Nature" (Letters, 1899, in. 354, 355).]

122 [Compare—

"Like an unbodied joy, whose race is just begun."

To a Skylark, by P. B. Shelley, stanza iii. line 5.]

123 ["Passed whole woods of withered pines, all withered; trunks stripped and barkless, branches lifeless; done by a single winter,—their appearance reminded me of me and my family" (Letters, 1899, iii. 360).]

124 ["Ascended the Wengen mountain.... Heard the Avalanches falling every five minutes nearly—as if God was pelting the Devil down from Heaven with snow balls" (Letters, 1899, in. 359).]

aw Like foam from the round ocean of old Hell.—[MS. M.]

125 ["The clouds rose from the opposite valley, curling up perpendicular precipices like the foam of the Ocean of Hell, during a Spring-tide—it was white, and sulphury, and immeasurably deep in appearance. The side we ascended was (of course) not of so precipitous a nature; but on arriving at the summit, we looked down the other side upon a boiling sea of cloud, dashing against the crags on which we stood (these crags on one side quite perpendicular) ... In passing the masses of snow, I made a snowball and pelted Hobhouse with it" (ibid, pp. 359. 360).]

126 [The fall of the Rossberg took place September 2, 1806. "A huge mass of conglomerate rock, 1000 feet broad and 100 feet thick, detached itself from the face of the mountain (Rossberg or Rufiberg, near Goldau, south of Lake Zug), and slipped down into the valley below, overwhelming the villages of Goldau, Busingen, and Rothen, and part of Lowertz. More than four hundred and fifty human beings perished, and whole herds of cattle were swept away. Five minutes sufficed to complete the work of destruction. The inhabitants were first roused by a loud and grating sound like thunder ... and beheld the valleys shrouded in a cloud of dust; when it had cleared away they found the face of nature changed."—Handbook of Switzerland, Part 1. pp 58, 59.]

127 [The critics of the day either affected to ignore or severely censured (e.g. writers in the Critical, European, and Gentleman's Magazines) the allusions to an incestuous passion between Manfred and Astarte. Shelley, in a letter to Mrs. Gisborne, November 16, 1819, commenting on Calderon's Los Cabellos de Absalon, discusses the question from an ethical as well as critical point of view: "The incest scene between Amon and Tamar is perfectly tremendous. Well may Calderon say, in the person of the former—

Si sangre sin fuego hiere

Qua fara sangre con fuego.'

Incest is, like many other incorrect things, a very poetical circumstance. It may be the defiance of everything for the sake of another which clothes itself in the glory of the highest heroism, or it may be that cynical rage which, confounding the good and the bad in existing opinions, breaks through them for the purpose of rioting in selfishness and antipathy."—Works of P. B. Shelley, 1880, iv. 142.]

ax ——and some insaner sin.—[MS. erased.]

128 [Compare Childe Harold, Canto III. stanza v. lines 1, 2.]

129 This iris is formed by the rays of the sun over the lower part of the Alpine torrents; it is exactly like a rainbow come down to pay a visit, and so close that you may walk into it: this effect lasts till noon. ["Before ascending the mountain, went to the torrent (7 in the morning) again; the Sun upon it forming a rainbow of the lower part of all colours, but principally purple and gold; the bow moving as you move; I never saw anything like this; it is only in the Sunshine" (Letters, 1899, iii, 359).]

130 ["Arrived at the foot of the Mountain (the Yung frau, i.e. the Maiden); Glaciers; torrents; one of these torrents nine hundred feet in height of visible descent ... heard an Avalanche fall, like thunder; saw Glacier—enormous. Storm came on, thunder, lightning, hail; all in perfection, and beautiful.... The torrent is in shape curving over the rock, like the tail of a white horse streaming in the wind, such as it might be conceived would be that of the 'pale horse' on which Death is mounted in the Apocalypse. It is neither mist nor water, but a something between both; it's immense height ... gives it a wave, a curve, a spreading here, a condensation there, wonderful and indescribable" (ibid., pp. 357, 358).]

ay Wherein seems glassed——.—[MS. of extract, February 15, 1817.]

131 [Compare Childe Harold, Canto III. stanza lxxii. lines 2, 3, note 2.]

132 [Compare Childe Harold, Canto IV. stanza clxxxiv. line 3, note 2.]

133 [Compare—

"The moving moon went up the sky."

The Ancient Mariner, Part IV. line 263.

Compare, too—

"The climbing moon."

Act iii. sc. 3, line 40.]

134 [Compare Childe Harold, Canto II. stanzas v.-xi.]

135 The philosopher Jamblicus. The story of the raising of Eros and Anteros may be found in his life by Eunapius. It is well told. ["It is reported of him," says Eunapius, "that while he and his scholars were bathing in the hot baths of Gadara, in Syria, a dispute arising concerning the baths, he, smiling, ordered his disciples to ask the inhabitants by what names the two lesser springs, that were fairer than the rest, were called. To which the inhabitants replied, that 'the one was called Love, and the other Love's Contrary, but for what reason they knew not.' Upon which Iamblichus, who chanced to be sitting on the fountain's edge where the stream flowed out, put his hand on the water, and, having uttered a few words, called up from the depths of the fountain a fair-skinned lad, not over-tall, whose golden locks fell in sunny curls over his breast and back, so that he looked like one fresh from the bath; and then, going to the other spring, and doing as he had done before, called up another Amoretto like the first, save that his long-flowing locks now seemed black, now shot with sunny gleams. Whereupon both the Amoretti nestled and clung round Iamblichus as if they had been his own children ... after this his disciples asked him no more questions."—Eunapii Sardiani Vitæ Philosophorum et Sophistarum (28, 29), Philostratorum, etc., Opera, Paris, 1829, p. 459, lines 20-50.]

136 [There may be some allusion here to "the squall off Meillerie" on the Lake of Geneva (see Letter to Murray, June 27, 1816, Letters, 1899, iii. 333).]

137 [Compare the concluding sentence of the Journal in Switzerland (ibid., p. 364).]

az And live—and live for ever.—[Specimen sheet.]

ba As from a bath—.—[MS, erased.]

138 The story of Pausanias, king of Sparta, (who commanded the Greeks at the battle of Platea, and afterwards perished for an attempt to betray the Lacedæmonians), and Cleonice, is told in Plutarch's life of Cimon; and in the Laconics of Pausanias the sophist in his description of Greece.

[The following is the passage from Plutarch: "It is related that when Pausanias was at Byzantium, he cast his eyes upon a young virgin named Cleonice, of a noble family there, and insisted on having her for a mistress. The parents, intimidated by his power, were under the hard necessity of giving up their daughter. The young woman begged that the light might be taken out of his apartment, that she might go to his bed in secresy and silence. When she entered he was asleep, and she unfortunately stumbled upon the candlestick, and threw it down. The noise waked him suddenly, and he, in his confusion, thinking it was an enemy coming to assassinate him, unsheathed a dagger that lay by him, and plunged it into the virgin's heart. After this he could never rest. Her image appeared to him every night, and with a menacing tone repeated this heroic verse—

'Go to the fate which pride and lust prepare!'

The allies, highly incensed at this infamous action, joined Cimon to besiege him in Byzantium. But he found means to escape thence; and, as he was still haunted by the spectre, he is said to have applied to a temple at Heraclea, where the manes of the dead were consulted. There he invoked the spirit of Cleonice, and entreated her pardon. She appeared, and told him 'he would soon be delivered from all his troubles, after his return to Sparta:' in which, it seems, his death was enigmatically foretold." "Thus," adds the translator in a note, "we find that it was a custom in the pagan as well as in the Hebrew theology to conjure up the spirits of the dead, and that the witch of Endor was not the only witch in the world."—Langhorne's Plutarch, 1838, p. 339.

The same story is told in the Periegesis Græcæ, lib. iii. cap. xvii., but Pausanias adds, "This was the deed from the guilt of which Pausanias could never fly, though he employed all-various purifications, received the deprecations of Jupiter Phyxius, and went to Phigalea to the Arcadian evocators of souls."—Descr. of Greece (translated by T. Taylor), 1794, i. 304, 305.]

139 [Compare—

"But I have seen the soaring Jungfrau rear

Her never-trodden snow."

Childe Harold, Canto IV. stanza lxxiii. lines 6, 7.

Byron did not know, or ignored, the fact that the Jungfrau was first ascended in 1811, by the brothers Meyer, of Aarau.]

140 [Compare—

"And who commanded (and the silence came)

Here let the billows stiffen and have rest?

Motionless torrents! silent cataracts."

Hymn before Sunrise, etc., by S.T. Coleridge, lines 47, 48, 53.

"Arrived at the Grindenwald; dined, mounted again, and rode to the higher Glacier—twilight, but distinct—very fine Glacier, like a frozen hurricane" (Letters, 1899, iii. 360).]

141 [The idea of the Witches' Festival may have been derived from the Walpurgisnacht on the Brocken.]

142 [Compare—

"Freedom ne'er shall want an heir;

When once more her hosts assemble,

Tyrants shall believe and tremble—

Smile they at this idle threat?

Crimson tears will follow yet."

Ode from the French, v. 8, 11-14. Poetical Works, 1900, iii. 435.

Compare, too, Napoleon's Farewell, stanza 3, ibid., p. 428. The "Voice" prophesies that St. Helena will prove a second Elba, and that Napoleon will "live to fight another day."]

143 [Byron may have had in his mind Thomas Lord Cochrane (1775-1860), "who had done brilliant service in his successive commands—the Speedy, Pallas, Impérieuse, and the flotilla of fire-ships at Basque Roads in 1809." In his Diary, March 10, 1814, he speaks of him as "the stock-jobbing hoaxer" (Letters, 1898, ii. 396, note 1).]

144 [Arimanes, the Aherman of Vathek, the Arimanius of Greek and Latin writers, is the Ahriman (or Angra Mainyu, "who is all death," the spirit of evil, the counter-creator) of the Zend-Avesta, "Fargard," i. 5 (translated by James Darmesteter, 1895, p. 4). Byron may have got the form Arimanius (vide Steph., Thesaurus) from D'Herbelot, and changed it to Arimanes.]

145 [The "formidable Eblis" sat on a globe of fire—"in his hand ... he swayed the iron sceptre that causes ... all the powers of the abyss to tremble."—Vathek, by William Beckford, 1887, p. 178.]

bb The comets herald through the burning skies.—[Alternative reading in MS.]

146 [Compare—

"Sorrow is Knowledge."

Act I. sc. 1, line 10, vide ante, p. 85.

Compare, too—

"Well didst thou speak, Athena's wisest son!

'All that we know is, nothing can be known.'"

Childe Harold, Canto II. stanza vii. lines 1, 2, Poetical Works, 1899, ii. 103.]

147 [Astarte is the classical form (vide Cicero, De Naturâ Deorum, iii. 23, and Lucian, De Syriâ Deâ, iv.) of Milton's

"Moonéd Ashtaroth,

Heaven's queen and mother both."

Cicero says that she was married to Adonis, alluding, no doubt, to the myth of the Phoenician Astoreth, who was at once the bride and mother of Tammuz or Adonis.]

bc Or dost Qy?—[Marginal reading in MS.]

148 [Compare—

" ... illume

With hectic light, the Hesperus of the dead,

Of her consuming cheek the autumnal leaf-like red."

Childe Harold, Canto IV. stanza cii. lines 7-9.]

149 [Compare—

" ... a firm will, and a deep sense,

Which even in torture can descry

Its own concentered recompense."

Prometheus, iii. 55-57, vide ante, p. 51.]

150 [On September 22, 1816 (Letters, 1899, iii. 357, note 2), Byron rode from Neuhaus, at the Interlaken end of Lake Thun, to the Staubbach. On the way between Matten and Müllinen, not far from the village of Wilderswyl, he passed the baronial Castle of Unspunnen, the traditional castle of Manfred. It is "but a square tower, with flanking round turrets, rising picturesquely above the surrounding brushwood." On the same day and near the same spot he "passed a rock; inscription—two brothers—one murdered the other; just the place for it." Here, according to the Countess Guiccioli, was "the origin of Manfred." It is somewhat singular that, on the appearance of Manfred, a paper was published in the June number of the Edinburgh Monthly Magazine, 1817, vol. i. pp. 270-273, entitled, "Sketch of a Tradition related by a Monk in Switzerland." The narrator, who signs himself P. F., professes to have heard the story in the autumn of 1816 from one of the fathers "of Capuchin Friars, not far from Altorf." It is the story of the love of two brothers for a lady with whom they had "passed their infancy." She becomes the wife of the elder brother, and, later, inspires the younger brother with a passion against which he struggles in vain. The fate of the elder brother is shrouded in mystery. The lady wastes away, and her paramour is found dead "in the same pass in which he had met his sister among the mountains." The excuse for retelling the story is that there appeared to be "a striking coincidence in some characteristic features between Lord Byron's drama and the Swiss tradition."]

151 [The "revised version" makes no further mention of the "key and casket;" but in the first draft (vide infra, p. 122) they were used by Manfred in calling up Astaroth (Selections from Byron, New York, 1900, p. 370).]

152 [Byron may have had in his mind a sentence in a letter of C. Cassius to Cicero (Epist., xv. 19), in which he says, "It is difficult to persuade men that goodness is desirable for its own sake (τὸ καλὸν δἰ αὐτὸ αἱρετὸν); and yet it is true, and may be proved, that pleasure and calm are won by virtue, justice, in a word by goodness (τῷ καλῷ)."]

153 St. Maurice is in the Rhone valley, some sixteen miles from Villeneuve. The abbey (now occupied by Augustinian monks) was founded in the fourth century, and endowed by Sigismund, King of Burgundy.

154 [Thus far the text stands as originally written. The rest of the scene as given in the first MS. is as follows:—

Abbot. Then, hear and tremble! For the headstrong wretch Who in the mail of innate hardihood Would shield himself, and battle for his sins, There is the stake on earth—and beyond earth Eternal—

Man. Charity, most reverend father, Becomes thy lips so much more than this menace, That I would call thee back to it: but say, What would'st thou with me?

Abbot. It may be there are Things that would shake thee—but I keep them back, And give thee till to-morrow to repent.10 Then if thou dost not all devote thyself To penance, and with gift of all thy lands To the Monastery——

Man. I understand thee,—well!

Abbot. Expect no mercy; I have warned thee.

Man. (opening the casket). Stop— There is a gift for thee within this casket. Manfred opens the casket, strikes a light, and burns some incense. Ho! Ashtaroth!

The Demon Ashtaroth appears, singing as follows:—

The raven sits

On the Raven-stone,[A] And his black wing flits O'er the milk—white bone;20 To and fro, as the night—winds blow, The carcass of the assassin swings; And there alone, on the Raven-stone, The raven flaps his dusky wings.

The fetters creak—and his ebon beak

Croaks to the close of the hollow sound;

And this is the tune, by the light of the Moon,

To which the Witches dance their round—

Merrily—merrily—cheerily—cheerily—

Merrily—merrily—speeds the ball:30

The dead in their shrouds, and the Demons in clouds,

Flock to the Witches' Carnival.

Abbot. I fear thee not—hence—hence— Avaunt thee, evil One!—help, ho! without there!

Man. Convey this man to the Shreckhorn—to its peak— To its extremest peak—watch with him there From now till sunrise; let him gaze, and know He ne'er again will be so near to Heaven. But harm him not; and, when the morrow breaks, Set him down safe in his cell—away with him!40

Ash. Had I not better bring his brethren too, Convent and all, to bear him company?

Man. No, this will serve for the present. Take him up.

Ash. Come, Friar! now an exorcism or two, And we shall fly the lighter.

Ashtaroth disappears with the Abbot, singing as follows:—

A prodigal son, and a maid undone,[B] And a widow re-wedded within the year; And a worldly monk, and a pregnant nun, Are things which every day appear.

Manfred alone.

Man. Why would this fool break in on me, and force50 My art to pranks fantastical?—no matter, It was not of my seeking. My heart sickens, And weighs a fixed foreboding on my soul. But it is calm—calm as a sullen sea After the hurricane; the winds are still, But the cold waves swell high and heavily, And there is danger in them. Such a rest Is no repose. My life hath been a combat, And every thought a wound, till I am scarred In the immortal part of me.—What now?]60

[A] "Raven-stone (Rabenstein), a translation of the German word for the gibbet, which in Germany and Switzerland is permanent, and made of stone." [Compare Werner, act ii. sc. 2. Compare, too, Anster's Faust, 1883, p. 306.]

[B]

A prodigal son—and a pregnant nun, nun, And a widow re-wedded within the year— And a calf at grass—and a priest at mass. Are things which every day appear.—[MS. erased.]

155 [A supplementary MS. supplies the text for the remainder of the scene.]

156 [For the death of Nero, "Rome's sixth Emperor," vide C. Suet. Tranq., lib. vi. cap. xlix.]

bd

To shun { not loss of life, but the torments of a } public death—[MS. M.]

157 [A reminiscence of the clouds of spray from the Fall of the Staubbach, which, in certain aspects, appear to be springing upwards from the bed of the waterfall.]

158 [Compare The Giaour, lines 282-284. Compare, too, Don Juan, Canto IV. stanza lvii. line 8.]

159 [Here, as in so many other passages of Manfred, Byron is recording his own feelings and forebodings. The same note is struck in the melancholy letters of the autumn of 1811. See, for example, the letter to Dallas, October 11, "It seems as though I were to experience in my youth the greatest misery of age," etc. (Letters, 1898, ii. 52).]

160 ["Pray, was Manfred's speech to the Sun still retained in Act third? I hope so: it was one of the best in the thing, and better than the Colosseum."—Letter to Murray, July 9, 1817, Letters, 1900, iv. 147. Compare Byron's early rendering of "Ossian's Address to the Sun 'in Carthon.'"—Poetical Works, 1898, i. 229.]

161 "And it came to pass, that the Sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair," etc.—"There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the Sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown."—Genesis, ch. vi. verses 2 and 4.

162 [For the "Chaldeans" and "mountain-tops," see Childe Harold, Canto III, stanza xiv. line i, and stanza xci. lines 1-3.]

be Some strange things in these far years.—[MS. M.]

163 [The Grosse Eiger is a few miles to the south of the Castle of Unspunnen.]

164 The remainder of the act in its original shape, ran thus—

Her. Look—look—the tower— The tower's on fire. Oh, heavens and earth! what sound, What dreadful sound is that? A crash like thunder.

Manuel. Help, help, there!—to the rescue of the Count,— The Count's in danger,—what ho! there! approach! The Servants, Vassals, and Peasantry approach stupifed with terror. If there be any of you who have heart And love of human kind, and will to aid Those in distress—pause not—but follow me— The portal's open, follow. Manuel goes in.

Her. Come—who follows? What, none of ye?—ye recreants! shiver then10 Without. I will not see old Manuel risk His few remaining years unaided. Herman goes in.

Vassal. Hark!— No—all is silent—not a breath—the flame Which shot forth such a blaze is also gone: What may this mean? Let's enter!

Peasant. Faith, not I,— Not but, if one, or two, or more, will join, I then will stay behind; but, for my part, I do not see precisely to what end.

Vassal. Cease your vain prating—come.

Manuel (speaking within). 'Tis all in vain— He's dead.

Her. (within). Not so—even now methought he moved;20 But it is dark—so bear him gently out— Softly—how cold he is! take care of his temples In winding down the staircase.

Re-enter Manuel and Herman, bearing Manfred in their arms.

Manuel. Hie to the castle, some of ye, and bring What aid you can. Saddle the barb, and speed For the leech to the city—quick! some water there!

Her. His cheek is black—but there is a faint beat Still lingering about the heart. Some water. They sprinkle Manfred with water: after a pause, he gives some signs of life.

Manuel. He seems to strive to speak—come—cheerly, Count! He moves his lips—canst hear him! I am old,30 And cannot catch faint sounds. Herman inclining his head and listening.

Her. I hear a word Or two—but indistinctly—what is next? What's to be done? let's bear him to the castle. Manfred motions with his hand not to remove him.

Manuel. He disapproves—and 'twere of no avail— He changes rapidly.

Her. 'Twill soon be over.

Manuel. Oh! what a death is this! that I should live To shake my gray hairs over the last chief Of the house of Sigismund.—And such a death! Alone—we know not how—unshrived—untended— With strange accompaniments and fearful signs—40 I shudder at the sight—but must not leave him.

Manfred (speaking faintly and slowly). Old man! 'tis not so difficult to die. Manfred, having said this, expires. Her. His eyes are fixed and lifeless.—He is gone.—

Manuel. Close them.—My old hand quivers.—He departs— Whither? I dread to think—but he is gone!

End of Act Third, and of the poem."]

bf Sirrah! I command thee.—[MS.]

165 [Compare Childe Harold, Canto III. stanza lxxxvi. line 1; stanza lxxxix. lines 1, 2; and stanza xc. lines 1, 2.]

166 ["Drove at midnight to see the Coliseum by moonlight: but what can I say of the Coliseum? It must be seen; to describe it I should have thought impossible, if I had not read Manfred.... His [Byron's] description is the very thing itself; but what cannot he do on such a subject, when his pen is like the wand of Moses, whose touch can produce waters even from the barren rock?"—Matthews's Diary of an Invalid, 1820, pp. 158, 159. (Compare Childe Harold, Canto IV. stanzas cxxviii.-cxxxi.)]

167 [Compare Childe Harold, Canto IV. stanzas cvi.-cix.]

168 [For "begun," compare Don Juan, Canto II. stanza clxvii. line 1.]

169 [Compare—

" ... but his face

Deep scars of thunder had intrenched."

Paradise Lost, i. 600.]

bg Summons——.—[MS. M.]

170 "The mind is its own place, and in itself Can make a Heaven of Hell, a Hell of Heaven."

Paradise Lost, i. 254, 255.]

171 [In the first edition (p. 75), this line was left out at Gifford's suggestion (Memoirs, etc., 1891, i. 387). Byron was indignant, and wrote to Murray, August 12, 1817 (Letters, 1900, iv. 157), "You have destroyed the whole effect and moral of the poem, by omitting the last line of Manfred's speaking."]

172 [For Goethes translation of the following passages in Manfred, viz (i) Manfred's soliloquy, act 1. sc. 1, line 1 seq.; (ii) "The Incantation." act i. sc. 1, lines 192-261; (iii)Manfred's soliloquy, act ii, sc. 2 lines 164-204; (iv.) the duologue between Manfred and Astarte, act ii. sc. 4, lines 116-155; (v) a couplet, "For the night hath been to me," etc., act iii. sc. 4, lines 3, 4;—see Professor A. Brandl's Goethe-Jahrbuch. 1899, and Goethe's Werke, 1874, iii. 201, as quoted in Appendix II., Letters, 1901. v. 503-514.]