Glares forth the immortality of hell— Avaunt! MAN. Pronounce-what is thy mission? SPIRIT. Come! ABBOT. What art thou, unknown being? answer! speak! SPIRIT. The genius of this mortal.-Come! 'tis time. MAN. I am prepared for all things, but deny The power which summons me. Who sent thee here? SPIRIT. Thou 'lt know anon-Come! come! MAN. I have commanded Things of an essence greater far than thine, And striven with thy masters. Get thee hence! SPIRIT. Then I must summon up my brethren.-Rise! [Other Spirits rise up. ABBOT. Avaunt! ye evil ones!-Avaunt! I say, Ye have no power where piety hath power, And I do charge ye in the name SPIRIT. Old man! We know ourselves, our mission, and thine order; VOL. IV. Ι Waste not thy holy words on idle uses, MAN. I do defy ye,-though I feel my soul SPIRIT. Reluctant mortal! Is this the Magian who would so pervade MAN. Thou false fiend, thou liest! My life is in its last hour,—that I know, Saw men and spirits walking side by side, And gave ye no supremacy: I stand Upon my strength-I do defy-deny Spurn back, and scorn ye!- SPIRIT. Have made thee MAN. But thy many crimes What are they to such as thee? Must crimes be punish'd but by other crimes, And its own place and time-its innate sense, No colour from the fleeting things without; Born from the knowledge of its own desert. Thou didst not tempt me, and thou couldst not tempt me; I have not been thy dupe, nor am thy prey— But was my own destroyer, and will be My own hereafter.-Back, ye baffled fiends! The hand of death is on me--but not yours! [The Demons disappear. ABBOT. Alas! how pale thou art-thy lips are white— And thy breast heaves-and in thy gasping throat The accents rattle-Give thy prayers to heavenPray-albeit but in thought,-but die not thus. MAN. "Tis over-my dull eyes can fix thee not; But all things swim around me, and the earth Heaves as it were beneath me. Fare thee wellGive me thy hand. Аввот. Cold-cold-even to the heart— But yet one prayer-alas! how fares it with thee?— MAN. Old man! 'tis not so difficult to die. [MANFRED expires. ABBOT. He's gone-his soul hath ta'en its earthless flight Whither? I dread to think-but he is gone. NOTES TO MANFRED. Note 1, page 72, lines 1 and 2. the sunbow's rays still arch The torrent with the many hues of heaven. This iris is formed by the rays of the sun over the lower part of the alpine torrents: it is exactly like a rainbow, come down to pay a visit, and so close that you may walk into it: this effect lasts till noon. Note 2, page 76, lines 11 and 12. He who from out their fountain dwellings raised The philosopher Iamblicus. The story of the raising of Eros and Anteros may be found in his life, by Eunapius. It is well told. Note 3, page 80, lines 23 and 24. she replied In words of dubious import, but fulfill'd. The story of Pausanias, king of Sparta, (who commanded the Greeks at the battle of Platea, and afterwards perished for an attempt to betray the Lacedemonians) and Cleonice, is told in Plutarch's life of Cimon; and in the Laconics of Pausanias the Sophist, in his description of Greece. |