Could I touch that, with words or prayers, I should
Recall a noble spirit which hath wander'd,

But is not yet all lost.

Manf.

Thou know'st me not;

My days are number'd, and my deeds recorded;
Retire, or 't will be dangerous.-Away!

Abbot. Thou dost not mean to menace me?
Manf.

I simply tell thee peril is at hand,

And would preserve thee.

Not I;

And steadfastly;-now tell me what thou seest?

Abbot. That which should shake me,-but I fear it not ;

I see a dusk and awful figure rise

Like an infernal god from out the earth;

His face wrapt in a mantle, and his form

Robed as with angry clouds; he stands between

Manf. Thou hast no cause-he shall not harm thee-but His sight may shock thine old limbs into palsy.

I say to thee-Retire!

Why-ay-what doth he here?

I did not send for him, he is unbidden.

Abbot. Alas! lost mortal! what with guests like these

Hast thou to do? I tremble for thy sake.

Why doth he gaze on thee, and thou on him?

Ah! he unveils his aspect; on his brow

The thunder-scars are graven; from his eye
Glares forth the immortality of hell-

Avaunt!

Manf.

Spirit.

Pronounce what is thy mission?

Come!

Abbot. What art thou, unknown being? answer!-speak!
Spirit. The genius of this mortal.-Come! 't is time.
Manf. I am prepared for all things, but deny

The power which summons me. Who sent thee here?
Spirit. Thou 'lt know anon-Come! come!

And striven with thy masters.

Get thee hence !

Spirit. Mortal, thine hour is come-Away! I say.
Manf. I knew, and know hour is come,
my

To render up my soul to such as thee:

Away! I'll die as I have lived-alone.

but not

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
And I do charge ye in the name-

Spirit.

power,

Old man!

We know ourselves, our mission, and thine order;
Waste not thy holy words on idle uses,

It were in vain; this man is forfeited.
Once more I summon him-Away! away!

Manf. I do defy ye,-though I feel my soul

Is ebbing from me, yet I do defy ye ;
Nor will I hence, while I have earthly breath
To breathe my scorn upon ye-earthly strength
To wrestle, though with spirits; what ye take
Shall be ta'en limb by limb.

Spirit.
Reluctant mortal!
Is this the Magian who would so pervade
The world invisible, and make himself
Almost our equal?-Can it be that thou
Art thus in love with life? the very life
Which made thee wretched!

Manf.
Thou false fiend, thou liest!
My life is in its last hour,—that I know,
Nor would redeem a moment of that hour;
I do not combat against death, but thee
And thy surrounding angels: my past power
Was purchased by no compact with thy crew,
But by superior science-penance-daring-
And length of watching-strength of mind—and skill
In knowledge of our fathers-when the earth
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.

But thy many crimes

Have made thee

Manf.

What are they to such as thee?

Must crimes be punish'd but by other crimes,

And greater criminals?-Back to thy hell!
Thou hast no power upon me, that I feel;
Thou never shalt possess me, that I know :
What I have done is done; I bear within

A torture which could nothing gain from thine :
The mind which is immortal makes itself
Requital for its good or evil thoughts-
Is its own origin of ill and end-

And its own place and time-its innate sense,
When stripp'd of this mortality, derives
No colour from the fleeting things without,
But is absorb'd in sufferance or in joy,
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 heaven-
Pray-albeit but in thought,—but die not thus.
Manf. 'T is over-my dull eyes can fix thee not;
But all things swim around me, and the earth
Heaves as it were beneath me.

Give me thy hand.

Abbot.

Fare thee well

Cold-cold-even to the heart :

But yet one prayer-alas! how fares it with thee?-
Manf: Old man! 't is not so difficult to die.

[MANFRED expires. Abbot. He's gone-his soul hath ta'en its earthless flightWhither? I dread to think-but he is gone.

NOTES.

Note 1. Page 14.

-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 16.

He who from out their fountain dwellings raised
Eros and Anteros, at Gadara.

The philosopher Iamblicus. found in his life, by Eunapius.

The story of the raising of Eros and Anteros may be
It is well told.

Note 3. Page 19.

-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.

Note 4. Page 31.

-the giant sons

Of the embrace of angels.

"That the Sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair," &c. "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

MARINO FALIERO,

DOGE OF VENICE;

AN HISTORICAL TRAGEDY.