Manfred

work by Byron

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June 30, 2026

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Manfred is a dramatic poem written by Lord Byron in 1817. It was inspired by a visit to the Bernese Oberland in Switzerland during the "haunted summer" of 1816. The poem's protagonist, Manfred, reflects Byron's own feelings of guilt and the broader Romantic disillusionment with the human condition, famously captured in the line, "half dust, half deity, alike unfit to sink or soar." While Byron's plays, including Manfred, are not as highly regarded as his poetry, they are notable for their characters who embody aspects of Byron's personality and his philosophical outlook.123

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Lord Byron
Creative productivity during the haunted summer of 1816
…for the Faustian poetic drama Manfred (1817), whose protagonist reflects Byron’s own brooding sense of guilt and the wider frustrations of the Romantic spirit doomed by the reflection that man is “half dust, half deity, alike unfit to sink or soar.”
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…for the Faustian poetic drama Manfred (1817), whose protagonist reflects Byron’s own brooding sense of guilt and the wider frustrations of the Romantic spirit doomed by the reflection that man is “half dust, half deity, alike unfit to sink or soar.”
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theatre music
Incidental music for the theatre
… (1823); Schumann’s for Lord Byron’s Manfred (1852); and Grieg’s for Henrik Ibsen’s Peer Gynt (1876).
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… (1823); Schumann’s for Lord Byron’s Manfred (1852); and Grieg’s for Henrik Ibsen’s Peer Gynt (1876).
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Weltschmerz
…discontent (especially as shown in Manfred and Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage). Weltschmerz was characterized by a nihilistic loathing for the world and a view that was skeptically blasé. In France, where it was called the mal du siècle by Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve in 1833, Weltschmerz was expressed by Chateaubriand, Alfred de…
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…discontent (especially as shown in Manfred and Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage). Weltschmerz was characterized by a nihilistic loathing for the world and a view that was skeptically blasé. In France, where it was called the mal du siècle by Charles Augustin Sainte-Beuve in 1833, Weltschmerz was expressed by Chateaubriand, Alfred de…
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