is reduced; but the tragedy is everywhere to be read between the lines, not in what is said. The romantic spirit has sought in vain for the satisfactory emotional state, and for the worthy deed to perform, and now rests, scornful and yet terrified, in dizzy contemplation of the confused and meaningless maze of sensations into which the world has resolved itself. “There is nothing there to fear or hope,” this spirit seems to say.
- “When Bishop Berkeley said there was no matter,
- And proved it, ’twas no matter what he said.”
Or again: —
- “‘To be or not to be?’ Ere I decide
- I should be glad to know that which is being;
- ’Tis true we speculate both far and wide,
- And deem, because we see, we are all-seeing.
- For my part, I’ll enlist on neither side,
- Until I see both sides for once agreeing.
- For me, I sometimes think that life is death,
- Rather than life, a mere affair of breath.”
In “Manfred” the same spirit seeks another, and not quite so successful, a form of expression. The only peace that can come to this world-weary spirit, Manfred expresses at the sight of a quiet sunset. The only freedom from eternal self-examination is found in an occasional glance at peaceful nature.
- “It will not last.
- But it is well to have known it though but once;
- It hath enlarged my thoughts with a new sense,
- And I within my tablets would note down
- That there is such a feeling.”
The famous last words of Manfred, —
- “Old man, ’tis not so difficult to die,” —
