Manfred
A DRAMATIC POEM
'There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy.'1
DRAMATIS PERSONAE
MANFRED WITCH OF THE ALPS CHAMOIS HUNTER ARIMANES ABBOT OF ST. MAURICE NEMESIS MANUEL THE DESTINIES HERMAN SPIRITS, ETC.
The scene of the Drama is amongst the Higher Alps?partly in the Castle of Manfred, and partly in the Mountains.
Act 1
SCENE 1. MANFRED alone.?Scene, a Gothic gallery.2?Time, Midnight.
MANFRED The lamp must be replenish'd, but even then It will not burn so long as I must watch: My slumbers?if I slumber?are not sleep, But a continuance of enduring thought,
Which then I can resist not: in my heart There is a vigil, and these eyes but close To look within; and yet I live, and bear The aspect and the form of breathing men.
1. Hamlet's comment after having seen his 2. A large chamber built in the medieval Gothic father's ghost (Shakespeare, Hamlet 1.5.168?69). style with high, pointed arches.
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MANFRED, ACT 1 / 637
But grief should be the instructor of the wise; Sorrow is knowledge: they who know the most Must mourn the deepest o'er the fatal truth, The Tree of Knowledge is not that of Life. Philosophy and science, and the springs Of wonder, and the wisdom of the world, I have essayed, and in my mind there is A power to make these subject to itself? But they avail not: I have done men good, And I have met with good even among men? But this avail'd not: I have had my foes, And none have baffled, many fallen before me? But this avail'd not:?Good, or evil, life, Powers, passions, all I see in other beings, Have been to me as rain unto the sands, Since that all-nameless hour. I have no dread, And feel the curse to have no natural fear, Nor fluttering throb, that beats with hopes or wishes, Or lurking love of something on the earth.? Now to my task.?
Mysterious Agency! Ye spirits of the unbounded Universe! Whom I have sought in darkness and in light? Ye, who do compass earth about, and dwell In subtler essence?ye, to whom the tops Of mountains inaccessible are haunts, And earth's and ocean's caves familiar things? I call upon ye by the written charm Which gives me power upon you?Rise! appear! [A pause.] They come not yet.?Now by the voice of him Who is the first among you3?by this sign, Which makes you tremble?by the claims of him Who is undying,4?Bise! appear!?Appear! [A pause.] If it be so.?Spirits of earth and air, Ye shall not thus elude me: by a power, Deeper than all yet urged, a tyrant-spell, Which had its birth-place in a star condemn'd, The burning wreck of a demolish'd world, A wandering hell in the eternal space; By the strong curse which is upon my soul, The thought which is within me and around me, I do compel ye to my will.?Appear!
[A star is seen at the darker end of the gallery; it is stationary; and a voice is heard singing.]
FIRST SPIRIT5
Mortal! to thy bidding bow'd, From my mansion in the cloud,
3. Arimanes, who appears in 2.4. 5. The Spirits, successively, are those of the Air, 4. Probably God, to whom traditional magic con-Mountain, Ocean, Earth, Winds, Night, and Manjurations often allude. fred's guiding Star.
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638 / GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON . ?-?'
Which the breath of twilight builds, And the summer's sun-set gilds With the azure and vermilion, Which is mix'd for my pavilion; Though thy quest may be forbidden, On a star-beam I have ridd'n; To thine adjuration0 bow'd, summons Mortal?be thy wish avow'd!
Voice of the SECOND SPIRIT
Mont Blanc6 is the monarch of mountains, They crowned him long ago On a throne of rocks, in a robe of clouds, With a diadem of snow. Around his waist are forests braced, The Avalanche in his hand; But ere it fall, that thundering ball Must pause for my command. The Glacier's cold and restless mass Moves onward day by day; But I am he who bids it pass, Or with its ice delay. I am the spirit of the place, Could make the mountain bow And quiver to his cavern'd base? And what with me wouldst Thou?
Voice of the THIRD SPIRIT
In the blue depth of the waters, Where the wave hath no strife, Where the wind is a stranger, And the sea- snake hath life, Where the Mermaid is decking Her green hair with shells; Like the storm on the surface Came the sound of thy spells; O'er my calm Hall of Coral The deep echo roll'd? To the Spirit of Ocean Thy wishes unfold!
FOURTH SPIRIT
Where the slumbering earthquake Lies pillow'd on fire, And the lakes of bitumen0 mineral pitch Rise boilingly higher; Where the roots of the Andes Strike deep in the earth,
6. The highest mountain in the Alps. Percy Shelley paid tribute to it in a poem published in the same year as Manfred.
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MANFRED, ACT 1 / 639
As their summits to heaven Shoot soaringly forth; I have quitted my birth-place,
Thy bidding to bide?Thy spell hath subdued me, Thy wall be my guide!
