remorse--eternal suffering for inexpiable crime. The sufferer is for ever buoyed up with the hope that there is relief somewhere in nature, beyond nature, above nature, and experience replies with an everlasting No! As the sunshine enhances sorrow, so Nature, by the force of contrast, reveals and enhances guilt. _Manfred_ is no echo of another's questioning, no expression of a general world-weariness on the part of the time-spirit, but a personal outcry: "De profundis clamavi!" No doubt, apart from this main purport and essence of his song, his sensitive spirit responded to other and fainter influences. There are "points of resemblance," as Jeffrey pointed out and Byron proudly admitted, between _Manfred_ and the _Prometheus_ of Æschylus. Plainly, here and there, "the tone and pitch of the composition," and "the victim in the more solemn parts," are Æschylean. Again, with regard to the supernatural, there was the stimulus of the conversation of the Shelleys and of Lewis, brimful of magic and ghost-lore; and lastly, there was the glamour of _Christabel_, "the wild and original" poem which had taken Byron captive, and was often in his thoughts and on his lips. It was no wonder that the fuel kindled and burst into a flame. For the text of Goethe's review of _Manfred_, and Hoppner's translation of that review, and an account of Goethe's relation with Byron, drawn from Professor A. Brandl's _Goethes Verhältniss zu Byron (Goethe-Jahrbuch, Zwanzigster Band_, 1899), and other sources, see _Letters_, 1901, v. Appendix II. pp. 503-521. For contemporary and other notices of _Manfred_, in addition to those already mentioned, see _Eclectic Review_, July, 1817, New Series, vol. viii. pp. 62-66; _Gentleman's Magazine_, July, 1817, vol. 87, pp. 45-47; _Monthly Review_, July, 1817, Enlarged Series, vol. 83, pp. 300-307; _Dublin University Magazine_, April, 1874, vol. 83, pp. 502-508, etc. DRAMATIS PERSONÆ. Manfred. Chamois Hunter. Abbot of St. Maurice. Manuel. Herman. Witch of the Alps. Arimanes. Nemesis. The Destinies. Spirits, etc. _The Scene of the Drama is amongst the Higher Alps--partly in the Castle of Manfred, and partly in the Mountains._ MANFRED.[106] ACT 1. SCENE 1.--Manfred _alone_.--_Scene, a Gothic Gallery._[107]-- _Time, Midnight._