FIFTH SPIRIT
I am the Rider of the wind, The Stirrer of the storm; The hurricane I left behind
Is yet with lightning warm; To speed to thee, o'er shore and sea I swept upon the blast: The fleet I met sailed well, and yet 'Twill sink ere night be past.
SIXTH SPIRIT
My dwelling is the shadow of the night, Why doth thy magic torture me with light?
SEVENTH SPIRIT
The star which rules thy destiny, Was ruled, ere earth began, by me: It was a world as fresh and fair As e'er revolved round sun in air; Its course was free and regular, Space bosom'd not a lovelier star. The hour arrived?and it became A wandering mass of shapeless flame, A pathless comet, and a curse, The menace of the universe; Still rolling on with innate force, Without a sphere, without a course, A bright deformity on high, The monster of the upper sky! And thou! beneath its influence born? Thou worm! whom I obey and scorn? Forced by a power (which is not thine, And lent thee but to make thee mine) For this brief moment to descend, Where these weak spirits round thee bend And parley with a thing like thee? What wouldst thou, Child of Clay! with me?
The SEVEN SPIRITS
Earth, ocean, air, night, mountains, winds, thy star, Are at thy beck and bidding, Child of Clay! Before thee at thy quest their spirits are? What wouldst thou with us, son of mortals-?say?
MANFRED Forgetfulness? FIRST SPIRIT Of what?of whom?and why?
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64 0 / GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON . ?-?'
MANFRED Of that which is within me; read it there? Ye know it, and I cannot utter it. SPIRIT We can but give thee that which we possess:
140 Ask of us subjects, sovereignty, the power O'er earth, the whole, or portion, or a sign Which shall control the elements, whereof We are the dominators, each and all, These shall be thine.
MANFRED Oblivion, self-oblivion? 145 Can ye not wring from out the hidden realms Ye offer so profusely what I ask? SPIRIT It is not in our essence, in our skill;
But?thou mayst die. MANFRED Will death bestow it on me? SPIRIT We are immortal, and do not forget;
iso We are eternal; and to us the past Is, as the future, present. Art thou answered?
MANFRED Ye mock me?but the power which brought ye here Hath made you mine. Slaves, scoff not at my will! The mind, the spirit, the Promethean spark,7
155 The lightning of my being, is as bright, Pervading, and far-darting as your own, And shall not yield to yours, though coop'd in clay! Answer, or I will teach you what I am.
SPIRIT We answer as we answered; our reply Is even in thine own words.
160 MANFRED Why say ye so?
SPIRIT If, as thou say'st, thine essence be as ours, We have replied in telling thee, the thing Mortals call death hath nought to do with us.
MANFRED I then have call'd ye from your realms in vain; Ye cannot, or ye will not, aid me.
165 SPIRIT Say;
What we possess we offer; it is thine: Bethink ere thou dismiss us, ask again? Kingdom, and sway, and strength, and length of days?
MANFRED Accursed! what have I to do with days? i7o They are too long already.?Hence?begone!
SPIRIT Yet pause: being here, our will would do thee service; Bethink thee, is there then no other gift Which we can make not worthless in thine eyes?
MANFRED No, none: yet stay?one moment, ere we part?
175 I would behold ye face to face. I hear Your voices, sweet and melancholy sounds, As music on the waters; and I see The steady aspect of a clear large star; But nothing more. Approach me as ye are,
iso Or one, or all, in your accustom'd forms. SPIRIT We have no forms beyond the elements
7. In Greek myth Prometheus molded man from clay, and stole fire from heaven to give it to humans.
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IMANFRED, ACT 2 / 641
Of which we are the mind and principle: But choose a form?in that we will appear.
MANFRED I have no choice; there is no form on earth Hideous or beautiful to me. Let him, Who is most powerful of ye, take such aspect As unto him may seem most fitting.?Come!
SEVENTH SPIRIT [appearing in the shape of a beautiful female figure].8
Behold!
MANFRED Oh God! if it be thus, and thou Art not a madness and a mockery, I yet might be most happy.?I will clasp thee, And we again will be? [The figure vanishes.]
My heart is crushed! [MANFRED falls senseless.]
[A voice is heard in the Incantation9 which follows.]
