I
The pattern of modernist aesthetics on the dramatic stage which saw a vogue in 20
th century Europe did not simply emerge sans prototype or influence. We may trace the elements which make a dramatic piece categorically modernist to a certain archetype, and for our purpose of examination the most patent of which is
Manfred (1816-17) by Lord Byron (1788-1824), a work that is as much an insult to realism as it is a model of lyrical Romantic excellence.
Manfred introduced to the English canon a new set of anti-rules for the author of drama. To the modernists, art is not meant to produce