HERMES

Scornful thy word, as though I were a child-

PROMETHEUS

Child, ay-or whatsoe'er hath less of brain- Thou, deeming thou canst wring my secret out!

No mangling torture, no, nor sleight of power There is, by which he shall compel my speech, Until these shaming bonds be loosed from me.

So, let him fling his blazing levin-bolt!

Let him with white and winged flakes of snow, And rumbling earthquakes, whelm and shake the world!

For nought of this shall bend me to reveal The power ordained to hurl him from his throne.

HERMES

Bethink thee if such words can mend thy lot

PROMETHEUS

All have I long foreseen, and all resolved.

HERMES

Perverse of will! constrain, constrain thy soul To think more wisely in the grasp of doom!

PROMETHEUS

Truce to vain words! as wisely wouldst thou strive To warn a swelling wave: imagine not That ever I before thy lord's resolve Will shrink in womanish terror, and entreat, As with soft suppliance of female hands, The Power I scorn unto the utterance, To loose me from the chains that bind me here- A world's division 'twixt that thought and me!

HERMES

So, I shall speak, whate'er I speak, in vain!

No prayer can melt or soften thy resolve; But, as a colt new-harnessed champs the bit, Thou strivest and art restive to the rein.

But all too feeble is the stratagem In which thou art so confident: for know That strong self-will is weak and less than nought In one more proud than wise. Bethink thee now- If these my words thou shouldest disregard- What storm, what might as of a great third wave Shall dash thy doom upon thee, past escape!

First shall the Sire, with thunder and the flame Of lightning, rend the crags of this ravine, And in the shattered ma.s.s o'erwhelm thy form, Immured and morticed in a clasping rock.

Thence, after age on age of durance done, Back to the daylight shall thou come, and there The eagle-hound of Zeus, red-ravening, fell With greed, shall tatter piecemeal all thy flesh To shreds and ragged vestiges of form- Yea, an unbidden guest, a day-long bane, That feeds, and feeds-yea, he shall gorge his fill On blackened fragments, from thy vitals gnawed.

Look for no respite from that agony Until some other deity be found, Ready to bear for thee the brunt of doom, Choosing to pa.s.s into the lampless world Of Hades and the murky depths of h.e.l.l.

Hereat, advise thee! 'tis no feigned threat Whereof I warn thee, but an o'er-true tale.

The lips of Zeus know nought of lying speech, But wreak in action all their words foretell.

Therefore do thou look warily, and deem Prudence a better saviour than self-will.

CHORUS

Meseems that Hermes speaketh not amiss, Bidding thee leave thy wilfulness and seek The wary walking of a counselled mind.

Give heed! to err through anger shames the wise.

PROMETHEUS

All, all I knew, whate'er his tongue In idle arrogance hath flung.

'Tis the world's way, the common lot- Foe tortures foe and pities not.

Therefore I challenge him to dash His bolt on me, his zigzag flash Of piercing, rending flame!

Now be the welkin stirred amain With thunder-peal and hurricane, And let the wild winds now displace From its firm poise and rooted base The stubborn earthly frame!

The raging sea with stormy surge Rise up and ravin and submerge Each high star-trodden way!

Me let him lift and dash to gloom Of nether h.e.l.l, in whirls of doom!

Yet-do he what extremes he may- He cannot crush my life away!

HERMES

Such are the counsels, such the strain, Heard from wild lips and frenzied brain!

In word or thought, how fails his fate Of madness wild and desperate?

(To the CHORUS) But ye, who stand compa.s.sionate Here at his side, depart in haste!

Lest of his penalty ye taste, And shattered brain and reason feel The roaring, ruthless thunder-peal!

CHORUS

Out on thee! if thy heart be fain I should obey thee, change thy strain!

Vile is thine hinted cowardice, And loathed of me thy base advice, Weakly to shrink from pain!

Nay, at his side, whate'er befall, I will abide, endure it all!

Among all things abhorr'd, accurst, I hold betrayers for the worst!

HERMES

Nay, ye are warned! remember well- Nor cry, when meshed in nets of h.e.l.l, Ah cruel fate, ah Zeus unkind- Thus, by a sentence undivined, To dash us to the realms below!

It is no sudden, secret blow- Nay, ye achieve your proper woe- Warn'd and foreknowing shall ye go, Through your own folly trapped and ta'en, Into the net the Fates ordain- The vast, illimitable pain!

[Thunder and lightning.

PROMETHEUS

Hark! for no more in empty word, But in sheer sooth, the world is stirred!

The ma.s.sy earth doth heave and sway, And thro' their dark and secret way The cavern'd thunders boom!

See, how they gleam athwart the sky, The lightnings, through the gloom!

And whirlwinds roll the dust on high, And right and left the storm-clouds leap To battle in the skyey deep, In wildest uproar unconfined, An universe of warring wind!

And falling sky and heaving sea Are blent in one! on me, on me, Nearer and ever yet more near, Flaunting its pageantry of fear, Drives down in might its destined road The tempest of the wrath of G.o.d!

O holy Earth, O mother mine!

O Sky, that biddest speed along Thy vault the common Light divine,- Be witness of my wrong!

[The rocks are rent with fire and earthquake, and fall, burying PROMETHEUS in the ruins.