134 MANFRED EVOCATION OF THE ALPINE SPIRIT. C. Hun. What dost thou mean? thy senses wander from thee. Man. I say 'tis blood-my blood! the pure warm stream Which ran in the veins of my fathers, and in ours When we were in our youth, and had one heart, as we should not love! And this was shed: but still it rises up, Colouring the clouds that shut me out from Heaven, C. Hun. Man of strange words, and some half-maddening sin, &c. It doth; but actions are our epochs: mine Have made my days and nights imperishable, Barren and cold, on which the wild waves break, C. Hun. Alas! he's mad - but yet I must not leave him, C. Hun. What is it That thou dost see, or think thou look'st upon? Man. Myself, and thee- a peasant of the Alps- And spirit patient, pious, proud, and free; Thy self-respect, grafted on innocent thoughts; Thy days of health, and nights of sleep; thy toils, Of cheerful old age and a quiet grave, my soul was scorch'd already!"— p. 27 — 29. The following scene is one of the most poetical and most sweetly written in the poem. There is a still and delicious witchery in the tranquillity and seclusion of the place, and the celestial beauty of the Being who reveals herself in the midst of these visible enchantments. In a deep valley among the mountains, Manfred appears alone before a lofty cataract, pealing in the quiet sunshine down the still and everlasting rocks; and says BEAUTIFUL APPARITION. The Giant steed, to be bestrode by Death, The homage of these waters.- -I will call her. 135 [He takes some of the water iuto the palm of his hand, and Man. Beautiful Spirit! with thy hair of light, Of purer elements; while the hues of youth, The blush of earth embracing with her heaven, — The beauties of the sunbow which bends o'er thee! Of Earth, whom the abstruser Powers permit 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! And deeds of good and ill, extreme in both, Fatal and fated in thy I have expected this sufferings. what wouldst thou with me? Man. To look upon thy beauty!-nothing further."- p. 31, 32. There is something exquisitely beautiful, to our taste, in all this passage; and both the apparition and the dialogue are so managed, that the sense of their improbability is swallowed up in that of their beauty; and, without actually believing that such spirits exist or communicate themselves, we feel for the moment as if we stood in their presence. What follows, though extremely powerful, and more laboured in the writing, has less charm for us. He tells his celestial auditor the brief story of his misfortune; and when he mentions 136 MANFIELD MISPLACED SATIRE. the death of the only being he had ever loved, the beauteous Spirit breaks in with her superhuman pride. "And for this A being of the race thou dost despise, The gifts of our great knowledge, and shrink'st back Away! Man. Daughter of Air! I tell thee, since that hour- Or watch my watchings - Come and sit by me! My solitude is solitude no more, But peopled with the Furies! - I have gnash'd For madness as a blessing-'tis denied me. Of elements the waters shrunk from me, And fatal things pass'd harmless."-p. 36, 37, The third scene is the boldest in the exhibition of supernatural persons. The three Destinies and Nemesis meet, at midnight, on the top of the Alps, on their way to the hall of Arimanes, and sing strange ditties to the moon, of their mischiefs wrought among men. Nemesis being rather late, thus apologises for keeping them waiting. I was detain'd repairing shattered thrones, And making them repent their own revenge; We have outstaid the hour-mount we our clouds!" This we think is out of place at least, if we must not say out of character; and though the author may tell us that human calamities are naturally subjects of derision to the Ministers of Vengeance, yet we cannot be persuaded that satirical and political allusions are at all compatible with the feelings and impressions which it was here his business to maintain. When the Fatal HIS PROUD BEARING AMONG THE IMMORTALS. 137 Sisters are again assembled before the throne of Arimanes, Manfred suddenly appears among them, and refuses the prostrations which they require. The first Destiny thus loftily announces him. Prince of the Powers invisible! This man Is of no common order, as his port And presence here denote; his sufferings Our own; his knowledge and his powers and will, Which clogs the etherial essence, have been such Which is another kind of ignorance. This is not all; — the passions, attributes Of earth and heaven, from which no power, nor being, Nor breath, from the worm upwards, is exempt, Have pierced his heart; and in their consequence Made him a thing, which I, who pity not, Yet pardon those who pity. He is mine, And thine, it may be - be it so, or not, No other Spirit in this region hath A soul like his or power upon his soul.". -p. 47, 48. At his desire, the ghost of his beloved Astarte is then called up, and appears - but refuses to speak at the command of the Powers who have raised her, till Manfred breaks out into this passionate and agonizing address. 66 Hear me, hear me - so much endure Astarte! my beloved! speak to me! I have so much endured Look on me! the grave hath not changed thee more Than I am changed for thee. Thou lovedst me 138 MANFRED-ASTARTE. I feel but what thou art and what I am; And I would hear yet once, before I perish, The voice which was my music. - Speak to me ! Startled the slumbering birds from the hush'd boughs, Which answered me many things answered me Yet speak to me! I have outwatched the stars, - - but say I wreck not what- but let me hear thee once I live but in the sound-it is thy voice! Phan. Manfred! To-morrow ends thine earthly ills. Man. One word for mercy! Phan. Manfred! Say, thou lovest me! [The Spirit of ASTARTE disappears. Nem. She's gone, and will not be recalled."— p. 50 — 52. The last act, though in many passages very beautifully written, seems to us less powerful. It passes altogether in Manfred's castle, and is chiefly occupied in two long conversations between him and a holy abbot, who comes to exhort and absolve him, and whose counsel he repels with the most reverent gentleness, and but few bursts of dignity and pride. The following passages are full of poetry and feeling: "Ay father! I have had those earthly visions To make my own the mind of other men, |