Memoirs of the Life A. Writings of Lord Byron Volume 1 (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1830 Excerpt: ...to mine; But softened all, and tempered into beauty; She had the same lone thoughts and wanderings, The quest of hidden knowledge, and a mind He would To comprehend the universe: nor these Alone, but with them gentler powers than mine, Pity, and smiles, and tears--which I had not; And tenderness--but that I had for her; Humility-and that I never had. Her faults were mine--her virtues were her own---I loved her, and destroyed her VVz'tch. With thy hand? Man. Not with my hand, but heart--which broke her hear_t--It gazed on mine, and withered. I have shed Blood, but not hers---and yet her blood was shed--I saw and could not stanch it. s 0 as s 0 I Daughter of Air I tell thee, since that hour--But words are breath--look on me in my sleep, Or watch my watchings-Come and sit by me My solitude is solitude no more, But peopled with the Furies;----I have gnashed My teeth in darkness till returning morn, Then cursed myself till sunset;---I have prayed For madness as a blessing-;--'tis denied me. I have alfronted death--but in the war Of elements the waters shrunk from me, And fatal things passed harmless---the cold hand Of an all-pitiless demon held me back---" Back by a single hair, which would not brealr. This terrific picture of the desolation and horror which reign in the soul of this frantic man is so powerful that it is impossible to read it without shuddering. The Witch suggests to Manfred that she can relieve him. He eagerly asks by what means. Before she replies she proposes to him, as the condition on which she will grant him her aid, that he shall swear obedience to her will. This 0fl'er he rejects with scorn, and refuses to be subservient to powers which he can already command. The Witch, thus baffled, disappears; and Manfred, left alone, br...