The Works of Lord Byron Volume IV Part 25

[146] {114}[Compare--

"Sorrow is Knowledge."

Act I. sc. 1, line 10, _vide ante_, p. 85.

Compare, too--

"Well didst thou speak, Athena's wisest son!

'All that we know is, nothing can be known.'"

_Childe Harold_, Canto II. stanza vii. lines 1, 2, _Poetical Works_, 1899, ii. 103.]

[147] {115}[Astarte is the cla.s.sical form (_vide_ Cicero, _De Natura Deorum_, iii. 23, and Lucian, _De Syria Dea_, iv.) of Milton's

"Mooned Ashtaroth, Heaven's queen and mother both."

Cicero says that she was married to Adonis, alluding, no doubt, to the myth of the Phoenician Astoreth, who was at once the bride and mother of Tammuz or Adonis.]

[bc] {116}_Or dost Qy?_--[Marginal reading in MS.]

[148] [Compare--

" ... illume With hectic light, the Hesperus of the dead, Of her consuming cheek the autumnal leaf-like red."

_Childe Harold_, Canto IV. stanza cii. lines 7-9.]

[149] {118}[Compare--

" ... a firm will, and a deep sense, Which even in torture can descry Its own concentered recompense."

_Prometheus_, iii. 55-57, _vide ante_, p. 51.]

[150] {119}[On September 22, 1816 (_Letters_, 1899, iii. 357, note 2), Byron rode from Neuhaus, at the Interlaken end of Lake Thun, to the Staubbach. On the way between Matten and Mullinen, not far from the village of Wilderswyl, he pa.s.sed the baronial Castle of Unspunnen, the traditional castle of Manfred. It is "but a square tower, with flanking round turrets, rising picturesquely above the surrounding brushwood." On the same day and near the same spot he "pa.s.sed a rock; inscription--two brothers--one murdered the other; just the place for it." Here, according to the Countess Guiccioli, was "the origin of _Manfred_." It is somewhat singular that, on the appearance of _Manfred_, a paper was published in the June number of the _Edinburgh Monthly Magazine_, 1817, vol. i. pp. 270-273, ent.i.tled, "Sketch of a Tradition related by a Monk in Switzerland." The narrator, who signs himself P. F., professes to have heard the story in the autumn of 1816 from one of the fathers "of Capuchin Friars, not far from Altorf." It is the story of the love of two brothers for a lady with whom they had "pa.s.sed their infancy." She becomes the wife of the elder brother, and, later, inspires the younger brother with a pa.s.sion against which he struggles in vain. The fate of the elder brother is shrouded in mystery. The lady wastes away, and her paramour is found dead "in the same pa.s.s in which he had met his sister among the mountains." The excuse for retelling the story is that there appeared to be "a striking coincidence in some characteristic features between Lord Byron's drama and the Swiss tradition."]

[151] [The "revised version" makes no further mention of the "key and casket;" but in the first draft (_vide infra_, p. 122) they were used by Manfred in calling up Astaroth (_Selections from Byron_, New York, 1900, p. 370).]

[152] {120}[Byron may have had in his mind a sentence in a letter of C.

Ca.s.sius to Cicero (_Epist.,_ xv. 19), in which he says, "It is difficult to persuade men that goodness is desirable for its own sake (t? ?a??? d?

a?t? a??et?? [Greek: to kalon di) au)to ai(reton]); and yet it is true, and may be proved, that pleasure and calm are won by virtue, justice, in a word by goodness (t? ?a?? [Greek: to~| kalo~|])."]

[153] St. Maurice is in the Rhone valley, some sixteen miles from Villeneuve. The abbey (now occupied by Augustinian monks) was founded in the fourth century, and endowed by Sigismund, King of Burgundy.

[154] {121}[Thus far the text stands as originally written. The rest of the scene as given in the first MS. is as follows:--

_Abbot_. Then, hear and tremble! For the headstrong wretch Who in the mail of innate hardihood Would s.h.i.+eld himself, and battle for his sins, There is the stake on earth--and beyond earth Eternal--

_Man_. Charity, most reverend father, Becomes thy lips so much more than this menace, That I would call thee back to it: but say, What would'st thou with me?

_Abbot_. It may be there are Things that would shake thee--but I keep them back, And give thee till to-morrow to repent. 10 Then if thou dost not all devote thyself To penance, and with gift of all thy lands To the Monastery----

_Man_. I understand thee,--well!

_Abbot_. Expect no mercy; I have warned thee.

_Man_. (_opening the casket_). Stop-- There is a gift for thee within this casket.

[MANFRED _opens the casket, strikes a light, and burns some incense._ Ho! Ashtaroth!

_The_ DEMON ASHTAROTH _appears, singing as follows:--_

The raven sits On the Raven-stone,[*]

And his black wing flits O'er the milk--white bone; 20 To and fro, as the night--winds blow, The carca.s.s of the a.s.sa.s.sin swings; And there alone, on the Raven-stone, The raven flaps his dusky wings.

The fetters creak--and his ebon beak Croaks to the close of the hollow sound; And this is the tune, by the light of the Moon, To which the Witches dance their round-- Merrily--merrily--cheerily--cheerily-- Merrily--merrily--speeds the ball: 30 The dead in their shrouds, and the Demons in clouds, Flock to the Witches' Carnival.

_Abbot_. I fear thee not--hence--hence-- Avaunt thee, evil One!--help, ho! without there!

_Man_. Convey this man to the Shreckhorn--to its peak-- To its extremest peak--watch with him there From now till sunrise; let him gaze, and know He ne'er again will be so near to Heaven.

But harm him not; and, when the morrow breaks, Set him down safe in his cell--away with him! 40

_Ash_. Had I not better bring his brethren too, Convent and all, to bear him company?

_Man_. No, this will serve for the present. Take him up.

_Ash_. Come, Friar! now an exorcism or two, And we shall fly the lighter.

ASHTAROTH _disappears with the_ ABBOT, _singing as follows:_--

A prodigal son, and a maid undone,[-]

And a widow re-wedded within the year; And a worldly monk, and a pregnant nun, Are things which every day appear.

MANFRED _alone._

_Man_. Why would this fool break in on me, and force 50 My art to pranks fantastical?--no matter, It was not of my seeking. My heart sickens, And weighs a fixed foreboding on my soul.

But it is calm--calm as a sullen sea After the hurricane; the winds are still, But the cold waves swell high and heavily, And there is danger in them. Such a rest Is no repose. My life hath been a combat, And every thought a wound, till I am scarred In the immortal part of me.--What now?] 60

[*] "Raven-stone (Rabenstein), a translation of the German word for the gibbet, which in Germany and Switzerland is permanent, and made of stone." [Compare _Werner,_ act ii. sc. 2. Compare, too, Anster's _Faust,_ 1883, p. 306.]

_A prodigal son--and a pregnant nun, nun,_ _And a widow re-wedded within the year--_ _And a calf at gra.s.s--and a priest at ma.s.s._ _Are things which every day appear_.--[MS. erased.]

[155] {122}[A supplementary MS. supplies the text for the remainder of the scene.]

[156] {124}[For the death of Nero, "Rome's sixth Emperor," _vide_ _C.

Suet. Tranq_., lib. vi. cap. xlix.]

[bd]

/ _not loss of life, but_ _To shun_ <> _public death_--[MS. M.]

_the torments of a_ /