This should have been a noble creature: he A goodly frame of glorious elements, And mind and dust—and passions and pure thoughts, SCENE II Another Chamber. MANFRED AND HERMAN. HERMAN. My Lord, you bade me wait on you at sunset: I will look on him. MANFRED. Doth he so? Of features or of form, but mind and habits [MANFRED advances to the window of the Hall. Merrier than day; he did not walk the rocks 4 Of early nature, and the vigorous race Who chose thee for his shadow! Thou chief star And hearts of all who walk within thy rays! And forests like a wolf, nor turn aside HERMAN, Beshrew the hour, MANUEL. These walls • HERMAN. Come, be friendly Relate me some to while away our watch: MANUEL. That was a night indeed; I do remember 'Twas twilight as it may be now, and such Another evening:-yon red cloud, which rests On Eigher's pinnacle, so restedˇtnen, So like that it might be the same: the wind Was faint and gusty, and the maintain snows Began to glitter with the climbing moon: Count Manfred was, as now, within his tower,— How occupied, we knew not, but with him The sole companion of his wanderings [Exit MANFRED. And watchings-her, whom of a" earthly thing❤ Within a bow-shot-where the Cæsars dwelt, While Cæsar's chambers, and the Augustan hall3, And thou didst shine, thou rolling moon, upon As 't were anew, the gaps of centuries: 'T was such a night! 'Tis strange that I recall it at this time ; But I have found our thoughts take wildest flight Even at the moment when they should array Themselves in pensive order. Enter the ABBOT. I stood within the Coliseum's wall ABBOT. Thou dost not mean to menace me? MANFRED. I simply tell thee peril is at hand, And would preserve thee. Not I; ABBOT. What dost mean? MANFRED. Look there What dost thou see? АВВОТ. Nothing. MANFRED. Look there, I say, And stedfastly;-now tell me what thou seest? ABBOT. That which should shake me,-but I fear it not- MANFRED. Thou hast no cause-he shall not harm thee-bu ABBOT. And I reply Never-till I have battled with this fiend What doth he here? MANFRED. Why-ay-what doth he here? I did not send for him,—he is unbidden. ABBOT. Alas! lost mortal! what with guests like these MANFREL Pronounce-what is thy mission? SPIRIT. ABBOT. MANFRED. Thou false fiend, thou liest ▾ And Come! What art thou, unknown being? answer!—speak! SPIRIT. The genius of this mortal.-Come! 'tis time. MANFRED. am prepared for all things, but deny What are they to such as thee? The power which summons me. Who sent thee here? The mind which is immortal makes itself Requital for its good or evil thoughts-- And its own place and time-its innate sense, Thou didst not tempt me, and thou couldst not tempt me 'ower part of the Alpine torrents: it is exactly like a wards perished for an attempt to betray the Lacedeainbow, come down to pay a visit, and so close that you may walk into it:-this effect lasts till noon. monians), and Cleonice, is told in Plutarch's life of Note 4. Page 239, lines 39 and 40. Of the embrace of angels. "That the Sons of God saw the daughters of men, that they were fair," etc. "There were giants in the earth in those days; and also after that, when the Sons of God came in unto the daughters of men, and they bare children to them, the same became mighty men which were of old, men of renown."-Genesis, ch. vi. verses 2 and 4. Marino Faliero, Doge of Venice; A HISTORICAL TRAGEDY. PREFACE. Sanuto, Vettor Sandi, Andrea Navagero, and the account of the siege of Zara, first published by the indefatigable Abbate Morelli, in his "Monumenti Veneziani di varia THE Conspiracy of the Doge Marino Faliero is one of letteratura," printed in 1796, all of which I have looked the most remarkable events in the annals of the most over in the original language. The moderns, Daru, singular government, city, and people of modern his- Sismondi, and Laugier, nearly agree with the ancient tory. It occurred in the year 1355. Every thing about chroniclers. Sismondi attributes the conspiracy to his Venice is, or was, extraordinary-her aspect is like a dream, and her history is like a romance. The story of this Doge is to be found in all her Chronicles, and particularly detailed in the "Lives of the Doges," by Marin Sanuto, which is given in the Appendix. It is simply and clearly related, and is, perhaps, more dramatic in itself than any scenes which can be founded upon the subject. jealousy; but I find this nowhere asserted by the national historians. Vettor Sandi, indeed, says, that "Altri scrissero che... . . dalla gelosa suspizion di esso Doge siasi fatto (Michel Steno) staccar con violenza,” etc.,etc.; but this appears to have been by no means the general opinion, nor is it alluded to by Sanuto or by Navagero; and Sandi himself adds, a moment after, that "per altre Veneziane memorie traspiri, che non il solo desiderio di vendetta lo dispose alla congiura ma anche Marino Faliero appears to have been a man of talents and of courage. I find him commander-in-chief la innata abituale ambizion sua, per cui anelava a farsi of the land forces at the siege of Zara, where he beat principe independente." The first motive appears to the King of Hungary and his army of eighty thousand have been excited by the gross affront of the words men, killing eight thousand men, and keeping the be- written by Michel Steno on the ducal chair, and by sieged at the same time in check, an exploit to which the light and inadequate sentence of the Forty on the I know none similar in history, except that of Cæsar offender, who was one of their "tre capi." The atat Elesia, and of Prince Eugene at Belgrade. He was tentions of Steno himself appear to have been directed afterwards commander of the fleet in the same 'war. towards one of her damsels, and not to the "DogaHe took Capo d'Istria. He was ambassador at Genoa ressa He was ambassador at Genoa ressa" herself, against whose fame not the slightest and Rome, at which last he received the news of his insinuation appears, while she is praised for her beauty, election to the dukedom; his absence being a proof and remarked for her youth. Neither do I find it that he sought it by no intrigue, since he was apprized asserted (unless the hint of Sandi be an assertion) that of his predecessor's death and his own succession at the Doge was actuated by jealousy of his wife; but the same moment. But he appears to have been of rather by respect for her, and for his own honour, an ungovernable temper. A story is told by Sanuto, warranted by his past services and present dignity. of his having, many years before, when podesta and I know not that the historical facts are alluded to cantain at Treviso, boxed the ears of the bishop, who in English, unless by Dr. Moore in his view of Italy. was somewhat tardy in bringing the Host. For this His account is false and flippant, full of stale jests honest Sanuto "saddles him with a judgment," as about old men and young wives, and wondering at so Thwackum did Square; but he does not tell us whether great an effect from so slight a cause. How so acute he was punished or rebuked by the senate for this and severe an observer of mankind as the author of outrage at the time of its commission. He seems, in- Zeluco could wonder at this is inconceivable. He knew aeed, to have been afterwards at peace with the church, that a basin of water spilt on Mrs. Masham's gown defor we find him ambassador at Kome, and invested prived the Duke of Malborough of his command, and with the fief of Val di Marino, in the March of Tre- led to the inglorious peace of Utrecht--that Louis XIV. viso, and with the title of Count, by Lorenzo Count- was plunged into the most desolating wars because Bishop of Ceneda. For these facts my authorities are, his minister was nettled at his finding fault with a |