Manfred

Manfred: A dramatic poem is a poem written in 1816–1817 by Lord Byron. It contains supernatural elements, in keeping with the popularity of the ghost story in England at the time. It is a typical example of a Romantic closet drama.

Byron wrote this "metaphysical drama", as he called it, after his marriage failed in scandal amidst charges of sexual improprieties and an incestuous affair between Byron and his half-sister, Augusta Leigh. Attacked by the press and ostracised by London society, Byron fled England for Switzerland in 1816 and never returned. Because Manfred was written immediately after this, and because it regards a main character tortured by his own sense of guilt for an unmentionable offence, some critics consider it to be autobiographical, or even confessional. The unnamed but forbidden nature of Manfred's relationship to Astarte is believed to represent Byron's relationship with his half-sister Augusta.

Byron commenced this work in late 1816, only a few months after the famed ghost-story sessions which provided the initial impetus for Mary Shelley's Frankenstein. The supernatural references are made clear throughout the poem.

Manfred (disambiguation)

Manfred is an 1816–1817 poem by Lord Byron. It may also refer to:

Manfred (Schumann)

Manfred: Dramatic Poem with Music in Three Parts (Opus 115) [German: Manfred. Dramatisches Gedicht in drei Abtheitungen], is a work of incidental music by Robert Schumann. The work is based on the poem Manfred by Lord Byron and consists of an overture, an entracte, melodramas, and several solos and choruses.

Written primarily in 1848, it was first performed at the Gewandhaus concert at Leipzig on March 14, 1852. The most highly regarded piece in the work is the Manfred Overture. Composer Hugo Wolf wrote that the work "has brought the essence, the focal point of the drama to plastic expression with the simplest strokes." Music historian Peter Ostwald wrote that the Overture was written during a time when Schumann was facing "exquisite suffering" from "inner voices," or auditory hallucinations.

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