Scarica Estratti da Manfred di Lord Byron e più Appunti in PDF di Inglese solo su Docsity! Manfred By George Gordon, Lord Byron There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, Than are dreamt of in your philosophy. [Hamlet, I.v.166-67] DRAMATIS PERSONAE MANFRED CHAMOIS HUNTER ABBOT OF ST MAURICE MANUEL HERMAN WITCH OF THE ALPS ARIMANES NEMESIS THE DESTINIES SPIRITS, etc. The Scene of the Drama is amongst the Higher Alps -- partly in the Castle of Manfred, and partly in the Mountains. Act I SCENE I. MANFRED alone -- Scene, a Gothic gallery -- Time, Midnight. MANFRED The lamp must be replenish'd, but even then It will not burn so long as I must watch: My slumbers -- if I slumber -- are not sleep, But a continuance of enduring thought, Which then I can resist not: in my heart There is a vigil, and these eyes but close To look within; and yet I live, and bear The aspect and the form of breathing men. But grief should be the instructor of the wise; Sorrow is knowledge: they who know the most 10 Must mourn the deepest o'er the fatal truth, The Tree of Knowledge is not that of Life. Philosophy and science, and the springs Of wonder, and the wisdom of the world, I have essayed, and in my mind there is A power to make these subject to itself-- But they avail not: I have done men good, And I have met with good even among men-- But this avail'd not: I have had my foes, And none have baffled, many fallen before me-- 20 But this avail'd not: -- Good, or evil, life, Powers, passions, all I see in other beings, Have been to me as rain unto the sands, Since that all-nameless hour. I have no dread, And feel the curse to have no natural fear, Nor fluttering throb, that beats with hopes or wishes, Or lurking love of something on the earth.-- Now to my task.-- Mysterious Agency! Ye spirits of the unbounded Universe! Whom I have sought in darkness and in light-- 30 Ye, who do compass earth about, and dwell In subtler essence -- ye, to whom the tops Of mountains inaccessible are haunts, And earth's and ocean's caves familiar things-- I call upon ye by the written charm Which gives me power upon you -- Rise! appear! [A pause They come not yet. -- Now by the voice of him Who is the first among you -- by this sign, Which makes you tremble -- by the claims of him Who is undying, -- Rise! appear! Appear! [A pause 40 If it he so. -- Spirits of earth and air, Ye shall not thus elude me: by a power, Deeper than all yet urged, a tyrant-spell, Which had its birth-place in a star condemn'd, The burning wreck of a demolish'd world, A wandering hell in the eternal space; By the strong curse which is upon my soul, The thought which is within me and around me, I do compel ye to my will. -- Appear! From Act II, Scene 2 MANFRED Well, though it torture me, 'tis but the same; My pang shall find a voice. From my youth upwards 50 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, 60 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, 70 The stars and their developement; 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 80 From wither'd bones, and skulls, and heap'd up dust, Conclusions most forbidden. Then I pass'd The nights of years in sciences untaught,
