Expect no mercy; I have warned thee.
Man. (opening the casket). Stop— There is a gift for thee within this casket. Manfred opens the casket, strikes a light, and burns some incense. Ho! Ashtaroth!
The Demon Ashtaroth appears, singing as follows:—
The raven sits
On the Raven-stone,[A] And his black wing flits O'er the milk—white bone;20 To and fro, as the night—winds blow, The carcass of the assassin swings; And there alone, on the Raven-stone, The raven flaps his dusky wings.
The fetters creak—and his ebon beak
Croaks to the close of the hollow sound;
And this is the tune, by the light of the Moon,
To which the Witches dance their round—
Merrily—merrily—cheerily—cheerily—
Merrily—merrily—speeds the ball:30
The dead in their shrouds, and the Demons in clouds,
Flock to the Witches' Carnival.
Abbot. I fear thee not—hence—hence— Avaunt thee, evil One!—help, ho! without there!
Man. Convey this man to the Shreckhorn—to its peak— To its extremest peak—watch with him there From now till sunrise; let him gaze, and know He ne'er again will be so near to Heaven. But harm him not; and, when the morrow breaks, Set him down safe in his cell—away with him!40
Ash. Had I not better bring his brethren too, Convent and all, to bear him company?
Man. No, this will serve for the present. Take him up.
Ash. Come, Friar! now an exorcism or two, And we shall fly the lighter.
Ashtaroth disappears with the Abbot, singing as follows:—
A prodigal son, and a maid undone,[B] And a widow re-wedded within the year; And a worldly monk, and a pregnant nun, Are things which every day appear.
Manfred alone.
Man. Why would this fool break in on me, and force50 My art to pranks fantastical?—no matter, It was not of my seeking. My heart sickens, And weighs a fixed foreboding on my soul. But it is calm—calm as a sullen sea After the hurricane; the winds are still, But the cold waves swell high and heavily, And there is danger in them. Such a rest Is no repose. My life hath been a combat, And every thought a wound, till I am scarred In the immortal part of me.—What now?]60
[A] "Raven-stone (Rabenstein), a translation of the German word for the gibbet, which in Germany and Switzerland is permanent, and made of stone." [Compare Werner, act ii. sc. 2. Compare, too, Anster's Faust, 1883, p. 306.]
[B]
A prodigal son—and a pregnant nun, nun, And a widow re-wedded within the year— And a calf at grass—and a priest at mass. Are things which every day appear.—[MS. erased.]
155 [A supplementary MS. supplies the text for the remainder of the scene.]
156 [For the death of Nero, "Rome's sixth Emperor," vide C. Suet. Tranq., lib. vi. cap. xlix.]
To shun { not loss of life, but the torments of a } public death—[MS. M.]
157 [A reminiscence of the clouds of spray from the Fall of the Staubbach, which, in certain aspects, appear to be springing upwards from the bed of the waterfall.]
158 [Compare The Giaour, lines 282-284. Compare, too, Don Juan, Canto IV. stanza lvii. line 8.]
159 [Here, as in so many other passages of Manfred, Byron is recording his own feelings and forebodings. The same note is struck in the melancholy letters of the autumn of 1811. See, for example, the letter to Dallas, October 11, "It seems as though I were to experience in my youth the greatest misery of age," etc. (Letters, 1898, ii. 52).]
160 ["Pray, was Manfred's speech to the Sun still retained in Act third? I hope so: it was one of the best in the thing, and better than the Colosseum."—Letter to Murray, July 9, 1817, Letters, 1900, iv. 147. Compare Byron's early rendering of "Ossian's Address to the Sun 'in Carthon.'"—Poetical Works, 1898, i. 229.]
161 "And it came to pass, that the Sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair," etc.—"There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the Sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown."—Genesis, ch. vi. verses 2 and 4.
162 [For the "Chaldeans" and "mountain-tops," see Childe Harold, Canto III, stanza xiv. line i, and stanza xci. lines 1-3.]
be Some strange things in these far years.—[MS. M.]
163 [The Grosse Eiger is a few miles to the south of the Castle of Unspunnen.]
164 The remainder of the act in its original shape, ran thus—
Her. Look—look—the tower— The tower's on fire. Oh, heavens and earth! what sound, What dreadful sound is that? A crash like thunder.
Manuel. Help, help, there!—to the rescue of the Count,— The Count's in danger,—what ho! there! approach! The Servants, Vassals, and Peasantry approach stupifed with terror. If there be any of you who have heart And love of human kind, and will to aid Those in distress—pause not—but follow me— The portal's open, follow. Manuel goes in.
Her. Come—who follows? What, none of ye?—ye recreants! shiver then10 Without. I will not see old Manuel risk His few remaining years unaided. Herman goes in.
Vassal. Hark!— No—all is silent—not a breath—the flame Which shot forth such a blaze is also gone: What may this mean? Let's enter!
Peasant. Faith, not I,— Not but, if one, or two, or more, will join, I then will stay behind; but, for my part, I do not see precisely to what end.
Vassal.
