patient, pious, proud and free; Thy self-respect, grafted on innocent thoughts; Thy days of health, and nights of sleep; thy toils, By danger dignified, yet guiltless; hopes Of cheerful old age and a quiet grave, With cross and garland over its green turf, And thy grandchildren's love for epitaph; This do I see?and then I look within? It matters not?my soul was scorch'd already!
CHAMOIS HUNTER And would'st thou then exchange thy lot for mine?
MANFRED No, friend! I would not wrong thee, nor exchange My lot with living being: I can bear? However wretchedly,'tis still to bear? In life what others could not brook to dream, But perish in their slumber.
CHAMOIS HUNTER And with this? This cautious feeling for another's pain, Canst thou be black with evil? ?say not so. Can one of gentle thoughts have wreak'd revenge Upon his enemies?
MANFRED Oh! no, no, no!
My injuries came down on those who loved me? On those whom I best loved: I never quell'd0 killed An enemy, save in my just defence? My wrongs were all on those I should have cherished? But my embrace was fatal.
CHAMOIS HUNTER Heaven give thee rest! And penitence restore thee to thyself; My prayers shall be for thee.
MANFRED I need them not, But can endure thy pity. I depart? 'Tis time?farewell!?Here's gold, and thanks for thee? No words?it is thy due.?Follow me not? I know my path?the mountain peril's past:? And once again, I charge thee, follow not! [Exit MANFRED.]
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648 / GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON
SCENE 2. A lower Valley in the Alps.?A Cataract.
Enter MANFRED.
It is not noon?the sunbow's rays still arch2 The torrent with the many hues of heaven, And roll the sheeted silver's waving column O'er the crag's headlong perpendicular, And fling its lines of foaming light along, And to and fro, like the pale courser's tail, The Giant steed, to be bestrode by Death, As told in the Apocalypse.3 No eyes But mine now drink this sight of loveliness; I should be sole in this sweet solitude, And with the Spirit of the place divide The homage of these waters.?I will call her.
[MANFRED takes some of the water into the palm of his hand, and flings it in the air, mnttering the adjuration. After a pause, the WITCH OF THE ALPS rises beneath the arch of the sunbow of the torrent.]
Beautiful Spirit! with thy hair of light, And dazzling eyes of glory, in whose form The charms of Earth's least-mortal daughters grow To an unearthly stature, in an essence Of purer elements; while the hues of youth,?Carnation'd like a sleeping infant's cheek, Rock'd by the beating of her mother's heart, Or the rose tints, which summer's twilight leaves Upon the lofty glacier's virgin snow, The blush of earth embracing with her heaven,? Tinge thy celestial aspect, and make tame The beauties of the sunbow which bends o'er thee. Beautiful Spirit! in thy calm clear brow, Wherein is glass'd0 serenity of soul, reflected Which of itself shows immortality, I read that thou wilt pardon to a Son Of Earth, whom the abstruser powers permit At times to commune with them?if that he Avail him of his spells?to call thee thus, And gaze on thee a moment.
WITCH Son of Earth! I know thee, and the powers which give thee power; I know thee for a man of many thoughts, And deeds of good and ill, extreme in both, Fatal and fated in thy sufferings. I have expected this?what wouldst thou with me?
MANFRED To look upon thy beauty?nothing further. The face of the earth hath madden'd me, and I Take refuge in her mysteries, and pierce
2. This iris is formed by the rays of the sun over [Byron's note]. the lower part of the Alpine torrents: it is exactly 3. Revelation 6.8: 'And I looked, and behold a like a rainbow come to pay a visit, and so close that pale horse: and his name that sat on him was you may walk into it: this effect lasts until noon Death, and Hell followed with him.'
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IMANFRED, ACT 2 / 64 9
To the abodes of those who govern her? But they can nothing aid me. I have sought From them what they could not bestow, and now I search no further.
WITCH What could be the quest Which is not in the power of the most powerful, The rulers of the invisible?
MANFRED A boon;
But why should I repeat it? 'twere in vain. WITCH I know not that; let thy lips utter it. MANFRED Well, though it torture me,'tis but the same;
My pang shall find a voice. From my youth upwards My spirit walk'd not with the souls of men, Nor look'd upon the earth with human eyes; The thirst of their ambition was not mine, The aim of their existence was not mine; My joys, my griefs, my passions, and my powers, Made me a stranger; though I wore the form, I had no sympathy with breathing flesh, Nor midst the creatures of clay that girded me Was there but one who?but of her anon. I said, with men, and with the thoughts of men, I held but slight communion; but instead, My joy was in the Wilderness, to breathe The difficult air of the iced mountain's top, Where the birds dare not build, nor insect's wing Flit o'er the herbless granite; or to plunge Into the torrent, and to roll along On the swift whirl of the new breaking wave Of river-stream, or ocean, in their flow. In these my early strength exulted; or To follow through the night the moving moon, The stars and their development; or catch The dazzling lightnings till my eyes grew dim; Or to look, list'ning, on the scattered leaves, While Autumn winds were at their evening song. These were my pastimes, and to be alone; For if the beings, of whom I was one,? Hating to be so,?cross'd me in my path, I felt myself degraded back to them, And was all clay again. And then I dived, In my lone wanderings, to the caves of death, Searching its cause in its effect; and drew From wither'd bones, and skulls, and heap'd up dust, Conclusions most forbidden.4 Then I pass'd The nights of years in sciences untaught, Save in the old-time; and with time and toil,
4. Cf. passages from Victor Frankenstein's to death'; 'Who shall conceive the horrors of my account of his scientific investigations. 'To exam- secret toil, as I dabbled among the unhallowed ine the causes of life, we must first have recourse damps of the grave . . . ?' (chap. 4).
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