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And all our church can teach thee shall be taught; And all we can absolve thee, shall be pardon'd. MANFRED When Rome's sixth Emperor5 was near his last, The victim of a self-inflicted wound,
90 To shun the torments of a public death From senates once his slaves, a certain soldier, With show of loyal pity, would have staunch'd The gushing throat with his officious robe; The dying Roman thrust him back and said?
95 Some empire still in his expiring glance,
'It is too late?is this fidelity?' ABBOT And what of this? MANFRED I answer with the Roman?
'It is too late!' ABBOT It never can be so, To reconcile thyself with thy own soul,
IOO And thy own soul with heaven. Hast thou no hope? 'Tis strange?even those who do despair above, Yet shape themselves some phantasy on earth, To which frail twig they cling, like drowning men.
MANFRED Ay?father! I have had those earthly visions
105 And noble aspirations in my youth, To make my own the mind of other men, The enlightener of nations; and to rise I knew not whither?it might be to fall; But fall, even as the mountain-cataract,
110 Which having leapt from its more dazzling height, Even in the foaming strength of its abyss, (Which casts up misty columns that become Clouds raining from the re-ascended skies) Lies low but mighty still.?But this is past, My thoughts mistook themselves.
115 ABBOT And wherefore so?
MANFRED I could not tame my nature down; for he Must serve who fain would sway?and soothe?and sue? And watch all time?and pry into all place? And be a living lie?who would become
120 A mighty thing amongst the mean, and such The mass are; I disdained to mingle with A herd, though to be leader?and of wolves. The lion is alone, and so am I.
ABBOT And why not live and act with other men?
125 MANFRED Because my nature was averse from life; And yet not cruel; for I would not make, But find a desolation:?like the wind, The red-hot breath of the most lone Simoom,6 Which dwells but in the desart, and sweeps o'er
5. Byron transfers to Otho, the sixth emperor, a 6. A hot, sand-laden wind in the Sahara and Arastory that the historian Suetonius tells about the bian deserts, death of an earlier emperor, Nero.
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662 / GEORGE GORDON, LORD BYRON
130 The barren sands which bear no shrubs to blast, And revels o'er their wild and arid waves, And seeketh not, so that it is not sought, But being met is deadly; such hath been The course of my existence; but there came Things in my path which are no more.
135 ABBOT Alas! I 'gin to fear that thou art past all aid From me and from my calling; yet so young, I still would?
MANFRED Look on me! there is an order Of mortals on the earth, who do become
140 Old in their youth, and die ere middle age, Without the violence of warlike death; Some perishing of pleasure?some of study? Some worn with toil?some of mere weariness? Some of disease?and some insanity?
145 And some of withered, or of broken hearts; For this last is a malady which slays More than are numbered in the lists of Fate, Taking all shapes, and bearing many names. Look upon me! for even of all these things
150 Have I partaken; and of all these things, One were enough; then wonder not that I Am what I am, but that I ever was, Or, having been, that I am still on earth.
ABBOT Yet, hear me still? MANFRED Old man! I do respect
155 Thine order, and revere thine years; I deem Thy purpose pious, but it is in vain: Think me not churlish; I would spare thyself, Far more than me, in shunning at this time All further colloquy?and so?farewell. [Exit MANFRED.]
i6o ABBOT This should have been a noble creature: he Hath all the energy which would have made A goodly frame of glorious elements, Had they been wisely mingled; as it is, It is an awful chaos?light and darkness?
165 And mind and dust?and passions and pure thoughts, Mix'd, and contending without end or order, All dormant or destructive: he will perish, And yet he must not; I will try once more, For such are worth redemption; and my duty
170 Is to dare all things for a righteous end. I'll follow him?but cautiously, though surely. [Exit ABBOT.]
SCENE 2 . Another Chamber, MANFRED and HERMAN.
HERMAN My Lord, you bade me wait on you at sunset: He sinks beyond the mountain. MANFRED Doth he so?
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I will look on him.
[MANFRED advances to the Window of the Hall.]
Glorious Orb! the idol Of early nature, and the vigorous race Of undiseased mankind, the giant sons Of the
