Manfred (With Byron's Biography). Lord Byron

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