Poetry
Manfred
Lord Byron · 1817
Opening lines
Manfred
The lamp must be replenished, but even then
It will not burn so long as I must watch:
Text quoted from gutenberg.org
Synopsis
In his castle in the high Alps, at midnight, Manfred summons seven spirits and asks them for one thing only: oblivion. They offer him power, but nothing gives them hold over what has happened. On the cliffs of the Jungfrau, a chamois hunter stops him from jumping and takes him back to his chalet. Beside a waterfall, he calls up the Witch of the Alps, who would help him if he swore to obey her; he refuses. In the palace of Arimanes, he summons the shade of Astarte and asks her to forgive or to condemn him. An abbot comes to speak to him of repentance.
Context
The poem was begun in Switzerland in 1816, its first two acts dating from the autumn; the third, written in Venice the following winter, was redone in Rome in May 1817 after the severe judgement of a first reader, which the author shared. It appeared in June 1817, and the public read in it the staging of the scandal that had driven the author out of England the year before. Asked about his models, he denied ever having read the English play written on the same subject two centuries earlier, and said he owed what he knew of the character to a friend who had translated German scenes of it aloud to him. The author of those scenes welcomed the use he had made of his work and said he could not admire his genius enough.
Who it is for
A dramatic poem in three acts, not intended for the stage. Byron called it a metaphysical drama and wanted it as far removed from the theatre as possible.
Prizes and reception
Several musical settings, including those by Schumann and Tchaikovsky, and an abridged first performance at Covent Garden in 1834, ten years after the author's death.
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