DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.34827#0135
1819-27.
119
Byron's works, though, as a poem, it is inferior to " Childe
Harold." There is something wonderfully sublime in the ease
with which Lord Byron generally moves in the high and cloudy
region to which he has transported.himself;- but he sometimes
has most lamentable failures, and, generally speaking, the parts
where supernatural beings appear in their own persons are the
least happy of the poem. " Manfred " led me to " Prometheus,"
which I read with a good deal of help from the Latin. I will
candidly own I am not sure which gave me most pleasure in the
perusal; but, on looking back, I have no hesitation which to pre-
fer. Both have sublime passages. I am most struck with those
in JEschylus, though perhaps the calm grandeur and majesty
of Lord Byron's mountains may equal the storms and tempests,
the thunders and the earthquakes of his rival. Both have
their failures; and the superhuman characters of Lord Byron,
though much more dim, shadowy, and unreal than those in
" Prometheus," are perhaps more dignified and more rehned.
But the merit of each depends almost exclusively on the prin-
cipal character, and here the distance is immense. Manfred,
although be rises above other men (and even that not without
effort, and not without self-complacency), is a pigmy by the side
of Prometheus. The divinity and immortality of the Titan,
his sublime energies and boundless knowledge, though they
would of themselves command our veneration, have yet a more
powerful effect by increasing our sense of tbe intensity of his
sufferings and the vastness of his endurance, and by raising to
the highest pitch our admiration of his tenderness and humanity,
and of his generous self-devotion. That a being, however great,
should set himself up in opposition to the supreme Jupiter,
that he should despise his threats and defy his thunders, would
alone exalt the mind of the reader; but that such a being
should melt with pity for the woes of mankind, and should, in
his irresistible desire to relieve them, impose on himself those
horrors which he so well foresaw, is inexpressibly inspiring and
affecting, and reaches the highest pitch both of sublimity and
pathos. I also read the " Fox," tbe " Alchemist," and the " Silent
Woman," and am sorry to say the effect was to impress me with a
119
Byron's works, though, as a poem, it is inferior to " Childe
Harold." There is something wonderfully sublime in the ease
with which Lord Byron generally moves in the high and cloudy
region to which he has transported.himself;- but he sometimes
has most lamentable failures, and, generally speaking, the parts
where supernatural beings appear in their own persons are the
least happy of the poem. " Manfred " led me to " Prometheus,"
which I read with a good deal of help from the Latin. I will
candidly own I am not sure which gave me most pleasure in the
perusal; but, on looking back, I have no hesitation which to pre-
fer. Both have sublime passages. I am most struck with those
in JEschylus, though perhaps the calm grandeur and majesty
of Lord Byron's mountains may equal the storms and tempests,
the thunders and the earthquakes of his rival. Both have
their failures; and the superhuman characters of Lord Byron,
though much more dim, shadowy, and unreal than those in
" Prometheus," are perhaps more dignified and more rehned.
But the merit of each depends almost exclusively on the prin-
cipal character, and here the distance is immense. Manfred,
although be rises above other men (and even that not without
effort, and not without self-complacency), is a pigmy by the side
of Prometheus. The divinity and immortality of the Titan,
his sublime energies and boundless knowledge, though they
would of themselves command our veneration, have yet a more
powerful effect by increasing our sense of tbe intensity of his
sufferings and the vastness of his endurance, and by raising to
the highest pitch our admiration of his tenderness and humanity,
and of his generous self-devotion. That a being, however great,
should set himself up in opposition to the supreme Jupiter,
that he should despise his threats and defy his thunders, would
alone exalt the mind of the reader; but that such a being
should melt with pity for the woes of mankind, and should, in
his irresistible desire to relieve them, impose on himself those
horrors which he so well foresaw, is inexpressibly inspiring and
affecting, and reaches the highest pitch both of sublimity and
pathos. I also read the " Fox," tbe " Alchemist," and the " Silent
Woman," and am sorry to say the effect was to impress me with a