Editing Manfred (section)

==Critique==
Published in June 1817, ''Manfred'' has as its [[Epigraph (literature)|epigraph]] the famous saying from [[William Shakespeare|Shakespeare]]'s ''[[Hamlet]]'': "There are more things in heaven and earth, [[Horatio (Hamlet)|Horatio]], than are dreamt of in your philosophy."<ref>{{cite web|url=http://shakespeare-navigators.com/hamlet/H15.html#166|title=HAMLET, Act 1, Scene 5|website=shakespeare-navigators.com|access-date=29 June 2017}}</ref> It seems to be strongly influenced by [[Johann Wolfgang von Goethe|Goethe]]'s ''[[Goethe's Faust|Faust]]'', which Byron probably read in translation (although he claimed never to have read it).

In September 1817, [[John Neal]] accused Byron of "egotism, contradiction, and affection" in authoring ''Manfred'', claiming that "Byron was made for crime, not vice." Aside from pointing out the poem's absurdities, Neal nevertheless offered high praise and claimed of one verse that "our language does not furnish a more delicate, beautiful, mellow, and quiet picture."<ref>{{cite thesis  | last = Richards | first = Irving T. | date = 1933 | title = The Life and Works of John Neal | type = PhD | publisher = Harvard University | url = http://id.lib.harvard.edu/alma/990038995990203941/catalog | oclc = 7588473 | page = 112}}</ref>

''Manfred'' has as its theme defiant humanism, represented by the hero's refusal to bow to supernatural authority.<ref name=Poetry>{{cite web|url=https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems-and-poets/poets/detail/lord-byron|title=Lord Byron (George Gordon)|date=28 June 2017|website=Poetry Foundation|access-date=29 June 2017}}</ref> Peter L. Thorslev Jr. notes that Manfred conceals behind a Gothic exterior the tender heart of the Hero of Sensibility; but as a rebel, like [[Satan]], [[Cain]], and [[Prometheus]], he embodies Romantic self-assertion.<ref>Thorslev, Peter L. Jr., ''The Byronic Hero: Types and Prototypes'', (Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1962)</ref>