Manfred (drama)

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Manfred: A dramatic poem is a closet drama written in 1816–1817 by Lord Byron. It contains supernatural elements, in keeping with the popularity of the ghost story in England at the time. It is a typical example of Gothic fiction. Byron commenced this work in late 1816, a few months after the famous ghost-story sessions with Percy Bysshe Shelley and Mary Shelley that provided the initial impetus for Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus. The supernatural references are made clear throughout the poem. Manfred was adapted musically by Robert Schumann in 1848–1849, in a composition entitled Manfred: Dramatic Poem with Music in Three Parts, and in 1885 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in his Manfred Symphony. Friedrich Nietzsche was inspired by the poem's depiction of a super-human being to compose a piano score in 1872 based on it, "Manfred Meditation".

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