Manfred

Manfred is a dramatic poem written in 1816–1817 by Lord Byron. It contains supernatural elements, in keeping with the popularity of the ghost story in England at the time. It is a typical example of a Romantic closet drama. Manfred was adapted musically by Robert Schumann in 1852, in a composition entitled Manfred: Dramatic Poem with music in Three Parts, and later by Pyotr Tchaikovsky in his Manfred Symphony, Op. 58, as well as by Carl Reinecke. Friedrich Nietzsche was impressed by the poem's depiction of a super-human being, and wrote some music for it.

Plot

Manfred is a Faustian noble living in the Bernese Alps. Internally tortured by some mysterious guilt, which has to do with the death of his most beloved, Astarte, he uses his mastery of language and spell-casting to summon seven spirits, from whom he seeks forgetfulness. (Some speculate that the relationship between him and Astarte is incestuous, and/or that Manfred had murdered Astarte, but this is not made explicit in the play, though the implicit suggestions are quite strong). The spirits, who rule the various components of the corporeal world, are unable to control past events and thus cannot grant Manfred's plea. For some time, fate prevents him from escaping his guilt through suicide. At the end, Manfred dies defying religious temptations of redemption from sin. Throughout the play, he succeeds in challenging all authoritative powers he comes across, and chooses death over submitting to spirits of higher powers. Manfred directs his final words to the Abbot, remarking, "Old man! 't is not so difficult to die."

Biographic relevance

Manfred was written shortly after the failure of Byron's marriage to Annabelle Milbanke, who most likely accused him of an incestuous relationship with his half-sister Augusta Leigh. At the time, he had exiled himself permanently from England and was living at the Villa Diodati in Switzerland. Most of Manfred was written on a tour through the Bernese Alps in September 1816. The third act was rewritten in February 1817 since Byron was not happy with its first version. Manfred shows some influence by Goethe's Faust, which Byron only read or heard in translation, but it is by no means a simple copy.

In performance

Manfred has received much more attention on stage for its musical treatments by Tchaikovsky and Schumann than it has on its own dramatic terms, even though it seems likely that Byron wrote the title role for Edmund Kean. There are no recorded full stagings in Britain in the twentieth century, but readings are more popular, partly because of the difficulty of staging a play set in the Alps. The exceptional size of the role of Manfred also makes the play difficult to cast. There was a production on BBC Radio 3 in 1988, however, which starred Ronald Pickup as Manfred.