Page images
PDF
EPUB

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,

[blocks in formation]

as we should not love!

And this was shed: but still it rises up,

Colouring the clouds that shut me out from Heaven,
Where thou art not—and I shall never be!

C. Hun. Man of strange words, and some half-maddening sin, &c.
Man. Think'st thou existence doth depend on time?

It doth; but actions are our epochs: mine

Have made my days and nights imperishable,
Endless, and all alike, as sands on the shore,
Innumerable atoms; and one desert,

Barren and cold, on which the wild waves break,
But nothing rests, save carcases and wrecks,
Rocks, and the salt-surf weeds of bitterness.

C. Hun. Alas! he's mad - but yet I must not leave him,
Man. I would I were - for then the things I see
Would be but a distempered dream.

C. Hun.

What is it

That thou dost see, or think thou look'st upon?

Man. Myself, and thee- a peasant of the Alps-
Thy humble virtues, hospitable home,

And spirit patient, pious, proud, and free;

Thy self-respect, grafted on innocent thoughts;

Thy days of health, and nights of sleep; thy toils,
By danger dignified, yet guiltless; hopes

Of cheerful old age and a quiet grave,
With cross and garland over its green turf,
And thy grandchildren's love for epitaph;
This do I see- and then I look within
It matters not

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

[ocr errors][merged small]

BEAUTIFUL APPARITION.

The Giant steed, to be bestrode by Death,
As told in the Apocalypse. No eyes
But mine now drink this sight of loveliness;
I should be sole in this sweet solitude,
And with the Spirit of the place divide

The homage of these waters.- -I will call her.

135

[He takes some of the water iuto the palm of his hand, and
flings it in the air, muttering the adjuration. After a pause,
the WITCH OF THE ALPS rises beneath the arch of the sun-
bow of the torrent.]

Man. Beautiful Spirit! with thy hair of light,
And dazzling eyes of glory! in whose form
The charms of Earth's least-mortal daughters grow
To an unearthly stature, in an essence

[ocr errors]

Of purer elements; while the hues of youth,
Carnation'd like a sleeping infant's cheek,
Rock'd by the beating of her mother's heart,
Or the rose tints, which summer's twilight leaves
Upon the lofty glacier's virgin snow,

The blush of earth embracing with her heaven, —
Tinge thy celestial aspect, and make tame

The beauties of the sunbow which bends o'er thee!
Beautiful Spirit! in thy calm clear brow,
Wherein is glass'd serenity of soul,
Which of itself shows immortality,
I read that thou wilt pardon to a Son

Of Earth, whom the abstruser Powers permit
At times to commune with them

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!
I know thee for a man of many thoughts,

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 order which thine own would rise above,
Mingling with us and ours, thou dost forego

The gifts of our great knowledge, and shrink'st back
To recreant mortality

Away!

Man. Daughter of Air! I tell thee, since that hour-
But words are breath! Look on me in my sleep,

Or watch my watchings - Come and sit by me!

My solitude is solitude no more,

But peopled with the Furies! - I have gnash'd
My teeth in darkness till returning morn,
Then cursed myself till sunset;
I have pray'd

For madness as a blessing-'tis denied me.
I have affronted Death-but in the war

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.

[ocr errors]

I was detain'd repairing shattered thrones,
Marrying fools, restoring dynasties,
Avenging men upon their enemies,

And making them repent their own revenge;
Goading the wise to madness; from the dull
Shaping out oracles to rule the world
Afresh; for they were waxing out of date,
And mortals dared to ponder for themselves,
To weigh kings in the balance, and to speak
Of freedom, the forbidden fruit Away!

We have outstaid the hour-mount we our clouds!"

[blocks in formation]

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.

[ocr errors]

Prince of the Powers invisible! This man

Is of no common order, as his port

And presence here denote; his sufferings
Have been of an immortal nature, like

Our own; his knowledge and his powers and will,
As far as is compatible with clay,

Which clogs the etherial essence, have been such
As clay hath seldom borne; his aspirations
Have been beyond the dwellers of the earth,
And they have only taught him what we know
That knowledge is not happiness; and science
But an exchange of ignorance for that

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
Too much, as I loved thee: we were not made
To torture thus each other, though it were
The deadliest sin to love as we have loved.
Say that thou loath'st me not that I do bear
This punishment for both that thou wilt be
One of the blessed- and that I shall die!
For hitherto all hateful things conspire
To bind me in existence in a life
Which makes me shrink from immortality-
A future like the past! I cannot rest.
I know not what I ask, nor what I seek:

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 !
For I have call'd on thee in the still night,

Startled the slumbering birds from the hush'd boughs,
And woke the mountain wolves, and made the caves
Acquainted with thy vainly echoed name,

Which answered me many things answered me
Spirits and men - but thou wert silent still!

Yet speak to me! I have outwatched the stars,
And gazed o'er heaven in vain in search of thee.
Speak to me! I have wandered o'er the earth
And never found thy likeness. Speak to me!
Look on the fiends around they feel for me :
I fear them not, and feel for thee alone. -
Speak to me! though it be in wrath;

-

- but say

I wreck not what- but let me hear thee once

[blocks in formation]

I live but in the sound-it is thy voice!

Phan. Manfred! To-morrow ends thine earthly ills.
Farewell!

[blocks in formation]

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
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,
Which having leapt from its more dazzling height,
Even in the foaming strength of its abyss,
(Which casts up misty columns that become

« PreviousContinue »