Lord Byron (1788-1824) was not only the most famous but also the most notorious representative of English Romanticism. His unconventional lifestyle and scandalous affairs caused as much uproar as his extraordinary poetry, and he lived a life between the role of the celebrated poet and that of the ostracized outsider. "Manfred" (1817) is a dramatic poem in which the title character blames himself for the death of his beloved Astarte and sees his own death as the only way out of this misfortune. Blessed with otherworldly abilities, he calls upon magical beings for help, who are supposed to enable him to die. However, they refuse to free him from his burden and present him with seemingly insurmountable obstacles that he must overcome to fulfill his wish. Byron wrote this metaphysical drama in a short time.