1817. 
^ cr'^ I Lc\ 1 ^ Cl- ^3 K i f_, 6c £> 
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Lord Byron's Manfred. J — . J s J V » 
with such flagitioiisness. The conscious- 
ness of so nefarious a deed and its hor- 
rid sequel, would have bowed the boldest 
spirit. Sliame and horror would have 
triumphed over everj^ other sentiment. 
Instead of insolently vaunting his supe- 
riority over the vulgar herd, one shrink- 
ing beneath the sense of so much base- 
ness would own himself the vilest of the 
vile. The association of such qualities 
and such conduct are perfectly incon- 
gruous. In tlris falsehood lies the dan- 
ger of lord Byron’s romances. He has 
constantly combined elevation of mind 
and the most ardent sensibility to the 
grossest and most pernicious vices. Per- 
haps his lordship may be cited as liim- 
self an instance of this very union. We 
will confess, that, unless he is much mis- 
represented, he is by far the most striking 
example of it we have ever known. But 
lord Byron has none of that native 
strength of character wdiich he has held 
up to admiration, lie h.is his paroxysms 
of desperation, but they are succeeded 
by long intervals of despondency. We 
believe a candid history of his lordship’s 
life might be read without any danger of 
seducing the uncorrupted by the entice- 
ments it would offer to follow in his 
footsteps ; and, in fact, fur aught we 
know, miglit prc»ve the best antidote, to 
the poison of his writings. 
To Manli'ed’s arrogant assumption of 
super-human dignity we have already 
adverted. In this impudent pretension 
he only keeps ])ace with the noble author. 
Lord Byron has already told us in his 
own person, 
t have not loved the world, nor the wotid me, 
I have not llatleiv-d its rank breath, nr bow’d 
To its idolatries a jratient knee, — 
iVor coin’d my cheek to .smiles,— nor cried aloud 
In worship of an echo ; in the crowd 
They could not deem me one of such ; I stood 
Among them, but not of them ; in a shroud 
Of thoughts which were not their thoughts, &c. 
Manfred has all his lordship’s modesty, 
I am not of thy order, 
is his rude reply to the compassionate 
hunter. The same presumptuous claim 
is urged in every page. 
From my youth upward 
My spirit walk’d not with the souls of men,&c. 
My joys, my griefs, my passions and my powers 
'Made me a stranger, &c. 
I disdain’d to mingle with 
A herd, though to be leader, &c. 
These are a few only of the passages 
which contain this endless repetition. We 
wish his lordship had sincerely that con- 
temj)t for the world, which he is inces- 
santly flinging in the face of his admirers, 
or that he entertained a more rational 
respect for its opinions. In the one 
cas"e we should be no longer annoyed 
with his crudities, in the other we might 
expeqt from his lordship’s talents, diiect- 
cd to a proper purpose, and aided by an 
honourable ambition, some nroduchon 
more worthy of the genius which he so 
proudly boasts. Till he do efier som«-, 
thing to sustain his jactitations, we shaft 
continue to measure his } ov. ers by His 
efforts. 
The machinery of this poem is a most 
ridiculous gallimaufry of mythology, ne- 
cromancy, and wilchchraft, atheism, 
polytheism, and Christianity. His lordship 
has brought togetherin apromiscuous mob, 
Arimanes,(Arimanices) Nemesis, the Par- 
ca;, the spirits of air, lire, water, moun- 
tains, stoims, and darkness, the witch of 
the Alps, an imp of Beelzebub, and u 
minister of the Gospel. No man 
who had any coherence of mind could 
have been l)etrayed into such absurdities. 
Consistency of conduct we do not look 
for in lord Byron, unless it be in the con- 
stant parallelism of his literary works, — 
but such complete confusion of all ideas 
relerable to taste or the moral -sense, as 
tills tragedy displays, we cannot but re- 
gard as unequivocal evidence of partial 
insanity. In this opinion we are not 
singular. Perhajis it were charitable to 
w ish it true. Regarding his religious, or 
rather irreligious, doctrines, as the ravings 
of a maniac, we do not deem it necessa- 
ry to enter into a serious consideration 
of them. Were his lordship’s theory to 
he admitted, that a proportionate lemoree 
always follows transgression, how should 
w’e account lor pirogression in crimes. 
But that depravity is pregressive, is true 
to a proverb. .Vemo repente fit turpissi- 
mus. The whole system of divine and 
human jurisprudence is founded on the 
maxim that compunction decreases with 
the increase of guilt. 
But w e will not trespass longer on the 
reader’s patience. Viewing this poem 
merely in a literary light, we might point 
out many nervous and some beautiful 
pa.ssages, — ^with much affectation of 
phrase, and, if we may so say, sophistry 
of style. Its prosody is better than usual, ': 
but still there is a frequent tendency t» 
prose. What could be more after the 
matter-of-fact manner than the following 
dutiful address of the Goddess Nemesis 
to Arimanes ? 
Sovereign of .Sovereigns ! we are tbine, 
And all that liveth, more or less, is ours, 
And most things wholly so; still to increase 
Our power increasing thine, demands our care. 
