Manfred says that if he had never lived, that which he loved had still been living:
‘... Had I never loved,
That which I love would still be beautiful,
Happy, and giving happiness. What is she?
What is she now? A sufferer for my sins—
A thing I dare not think upon—or nothing.’
When Nemesis asks Manfred whom he would ‘uncharnel,’ he replies:
‘One without a tomb—
Call up Astarte.’
The name, of course, suggests a star. As we have seen, Byron often employed that metaphor in allusion to Mary Chaworth.
When the phantom of Astarte rises, Manfred exclaims:
‘Can this be death? there’s bloom upon her cheek;
But now I see it is no living hue,
But a strange hectic.’
He is afraid to look upon her; he cannot speak to her, and implores Nemesis to intercede:
‘Bid her speak—
Forgive me, or condemn me.’
Nemesis tells him that she has no authority over Astarte: