<P> At the end, Manfred dies, defying religious temptations of redemption from sin . Throughout the poem he succeeds in challenging all of the authoritative powers he faces, and chooses death over submitting to the powerful spirits . Manfred directs his final words to the Abbot, remarking, "Old man!' tis not so difficult to die". "The unconquerable individual to the end, Manfred gives his soul to neither heaven nor hell, only to death ." </P> <P> Published in June 1817, Manfred has as its epigraph the famous phrase of Shakespeare's Hamlet: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy ." It shows heavy influence by Goethe's Faust, which Byron most likely read in translation (although he claimed to have never read it). </P> <P> Manfred has as its theme defiant humanism, represented by the hero's refusal to bow to supernatural authority . 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 . </P> <Ul> <Li> Manfred </Li> <Li> Astarte </Li> <Li> Chamois Hunter </Li> <Li> Abbot of St. Maurice </Li> <Li> Manuel </Li> <Li> Herman </Li> <Li> Witch of the Alps </Li> <Li> Arimanes </Li> <Li> Nemesis </Li> <Li> The Destinies </Li> <Li> The Seven Spirits </Li> </Ul>

Who authored the influential nineteenth-century dramatic poem faust