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smiles, and tears” (2.2.112-3), she may well have been unable to withstand the sorrowof the knowledge which he shared with her. Thus, he would then have cause, if notquite reason, to feel responsible for her suicide.Her Manfred-like character is also a plausible cause for her silence in the court scene.As he does not obey the spirits’ commands to do obeisance to Arimanes (2.4.30, 33,34, 45), she does not obey their commands to speak. In fact, she only speaks afterbeing repeatedly begged by him to do so (2.4.118, 25, 35, 44, 45, 48). Her will, likehis, does not bend merely because others command it. The petition to which shefinally responds is threefold, and demonstrates his concern for her over himself:Say that thou loath’st me not – that I do bearThis punishment for both – that thou wilt beOne of the blessed – and that I shall die (2.4.125-7).The middle part of this, that Manfred should bear the punishment and so Astarteshould become one of the blessed, rather than being one already, lends further supportto the proposition that Manfred considers her to be in Purgatory, and thus not yet inHeaven. Interestingly, Astarte only gives a direct answer to one part of this threefoldpetition: “To-morrow ends thine earthly ills” (2.4.152). In an early letter describingthe play to Murray, Byron calls this “an ambiguous & disagreeable answer” (BLJ5.169, 15/02/17), and it does refer only to the end of earthly ills, leaving othersufferings in doubt. Manfred’s further question “am I forgiven?” is met only with a“Farewell!”, as is his “shall we meet again?” (2.4.153, 4). Thus far, Manfred, whohas gone to the greatest of lengths for this interview, has received little in the way ofreward for his efforts. However, when he finally begs her, “One word for mercy! Say,thou lovest me”, she replies, “Manfred!” Thus, the contemporary reviewer for theMonitor wrote,272