ford madox brown - eTheses Repository - University of Birmingham

Like foam from the roused ocean of deep Hell,
Whose every wave breaks on a living shore,
Heap’d with the damn’d like pebbles - I am giddy.
Chamois Hunter: I must approach him cautiously; if near,
A sudden step will startle him, and he
Seems tottering already.
Manfred: Mountains have fallen
Thus in old age did Mount Rosenburg.
Why stood I not beneath it?
Chamois Hunter: Friend have a care
Your next step may be fatal! - for the love
Of him who made you, stand not on that brink.
Manfred (not hearing him): Such would have been for me a fitting tomb;
My bones had then been quiet in their depth;
They had not been strewn upon the rocks
For the wind's pastime - as thus - thus they shall be -
In this one plunge! 133
In contrast to its companion picture this scene required an outdoor setting and
according to Brown's 1865 catalogue it was his first attempt at real outdoor lighting.
133
Excerpts from Manfred by Lord Byron quoted in Ford Madox Brown, The Exhibition of Work, and
other Paintings, exh. cat., 1865, p. 18.
64