I now depart a debtor. Fare ye well! [Exit MANFRED.]
[Scene closes.]
Act 3 SCENE 1. A Hall in the Castle of MANFRED. MANFRED and HERMAN,
MANFRED What is the hour? HERMAN It wants but one till sunset,
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IMANFRED, ACT 2 / 65 9
And promises a lovely twilight.
MANFRED Say, Are all things so disposed of in the tower As I directed?
HERMAN All, my lord, are ready; Here is the key and casket. MANFRED It is well: Thou mayst retire. [Exit HERMAN.]
MANFRED [alone] There is a calm upon me? Inexplicable stillness! which till now Did not belong to what I knew of life. If that I did not know philosophy To be of all our vanities the motliest,8 The merest word that ever fool'd the ear From out the schoolman's jargon, I should deem The golden secret, the sought 'Kalon,'9 found, And seated in my soul. It will not last, But it is well to have known it, though but once: It hath enlarged my thoughts with a new sense, And I within my tablets would note down That there is such a feeling. Who is there?
Re-enter HERMAN. HERMAN My lord, the abbot of St. Maurice' craves To greet your presence.
Enter the ABBOT OF ST. MAURICE. ABBOT Peace be with Count Manfred! MANFRED Thanks, holy father! welcome to these walls;
Thy presence honours them, and blesseth those Who dwell within them. ABBOT Would it were so, Count!- ?
But I would fain confer with thee alone. MANFRED Herman, retire. What would my reverend guest? [Exit HERMAN.] ABBOT Thus, without prelude:?Age and zeal, my office,2
And good intent, must plead my privilege; Our near, though not acquainted neighbourhood, May also be my herald. Rumours strange, And of unholy nature, are abroad, And busy with thy name; a noble name For centuries; may he who bears it now Transmit it unimpair'd!
MANFRED Proceed,?I listen.
ABBOT 'Tis said thou holdest converse with the things Which are forbidden to the search of man; That with the dwellers of the dark abodes, The many evil and unheavenly spirits Which walk the valley of the shade of death, Thou communest. I know that with mankind,
8. 'The most diverse' or, possibly, 'the most fool-9. Greek for both 'the Beautiful' and 'the Good.' ish' (viotley was the multicolored suit worn by a 1. In the Rhone Valley in Switzerland. court jester). 2. Position in the church.
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66 0 / GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON
40 Thy fellows in creation, thou dost rarely Exchange thy thoughts, and that thy solitude Is as an anchorite's,3 were it but holy.
MANFRED And what are they who do avouch these things? ABBOT My pious brethren-?the scared peasantry? 45 Even thy own vassals-?who do look on thee
With most unquiet eyes. Thy life's in peril. MANFRED Take it. ABBOT I come to save, and not destroy?
I would not pry into thy secret soul; But if these things be sooth, there still is time 50 For penitence and pity: reconcile thee With the true church, and through the church to heaven.
MANFRED I hear thee. This is my reply; whate'er I may have been, or am, doth rest between Heaven and myself.?I shall not choose a mortal
55 To be my mediator. Have I sinn'd Against your ordinances? prove and punish!
ABBOT My son! I did not speak of punishment, But penitence and pardon;?with thyself The choice of such remains?and for the last,
60 Our institutions and our strong belief Have given me power to smooth the path from sin To higher hope and better thoughts; the first I leave to heaven?'Vengeance is mine alone!' So saith the Lord,4 and with all humbleness
65 His servant echoes back the awful word.
MANFRED Old man! there is no power in holy men, Nor charm in prayer?nor purifying form Of penitence?nor outward look?nor fast-? Nor agony?nor, greater than all these,
70 The innate tortures of that deep despair, Which is remorse without the fear of hell, But all in all sufficient to itself . Would make a hell of heaven?can exorcise From out the unbounded spirit, the quick sense
75 Of its own sins, wrongs, sufferance, and revenge Upon itself; there is no future pang Can deal that justice on the self-condemn'd He deals on his own soul.
ABBOT All this is well; For this will pass away, and be succeeded
so By an auspicious hope, which shall look up With calm assurance to that blessed place, Which all who seek may win, whatever be Their earthly errors, so they be atoned: And the commencement of atonement is
85 The sense of its necessity.?Say on ?
3. A person who, for religious reasons, lives in 4. Romans 12.19: 'Vengeance is mine; I will seclusion. repay, saith the Lord.'
