Editing Manfred (section)

==Background==
Byron wrote this "metaphysical drama", as he called it, after his marriage to [[Anne Isabella Byron, Baroness Byron|Annabella Millbanke]] failed because of a scandal due to 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.  At the time, he  was living at the [[Villa Diodati]] in Switzerland.

Because ''Manfred'' was written immediately after this, and because it concerns a main character tortured by his own sense of guilt for an unmentionable offence, some critics consider it to be autobiographical, or even confessional.<ref>"Manfred, George Gordon (Noel), Lord Byron – Introduction." Nineteenth-Century Literary Criticism. Ed. Edna M. Hedblad Russel Whitaker. Vol. 109. Gale Cengage, 2002. eNotes.com. 2006. 25 September 2010</ref> The unnamed, but forbidden, nature of Manfred's relationship to Astarte is believed to represent Byron's relationship with his half-sister Augusta.

Most of ''Manfred'' was written on a tour through the [[Bernese Alps]] in September 1816. The third act was rewritten in February 1817, since Byron was not happy with its first version.