MAN. Accursed! what have I to do with days? hey are too long already.-Hence-begone! SPIRIT. Yet pause: being here, our will would do thee service; Bethink thee, is there then no other gift Which we can make not worthless in thine eyes? MAN. No, none: yet stay-one moment, ere we part I would behold ye face to face. I hear SPIRIT. We have no forms beyond the elements MAN. I have no choice; there is no form on earth Hideous or beautiful to me. Let him, Who is most powerful of ye, take such aspect MAN. Oh God! if it be thus, and thou Art not a madness and a mockery, I yet might be most happy.-I will clasp thee, ANANANANANG And we again will be [The figure vanishes. My heart is crush'd! [MANFRED falls senseless. (A voice is heard in the Incantation which follows.) When the moon is on the wave, And the glow-worm in the grass, And the meteor on the grave, And the wisp on the morass; In the shadow of the hill, With a power and with a sign. Though thy slumber may be deep, Yet thy spirit shall not sleep, There are shades which will not vanish, By a power to thee unknown, Thou canst never be alone; Thou art wrapt as with a shroud, Thou art gather'd in a cloud; And for ever shalt thou dwell In the spirit of this spell. From thy own smile I snatch'd the snake, For there it coil'd as in a brake; From thy own lip I drew the charm Which gave all these their chiefest harm; In proving every poison known, I found the strongest was thine own. By thy cold breast and serpent smile, Which pass'd for human thine own heart; And on thy head I pour the vial Nor to slumber, nor to die, Shall be in thy destiny; Though thy death shall still seem near Lo! the spell now works around thee, And the clankless chain hath bound thee; O'er thy heart and brain together Hath the word been pass'd-now wither! SCENE II. The Mountain of the Jungfrau.-Time, Morning.MANFRED alone upon the Cliffs. MAN. The spirits I have raised abandon me- The future, till the past be gulf'd in darkness, And thou fresh breaking Day, and you, ye Mountains, ye. And thou, the bright eye of the universe, VOL. V. C |