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119 PROMETHEUS BOUND 119

For all thou yet hast heard can only prove

The incompleted prelude of thy doom. 865

lo. Ah, ah !

Prometheus. Is 't thy turn now to shriek and moan ? How wilt thou, when thou hast hearkened what re- mains ?

Chorus. Besides the grief thou hast told, can aught remain ?

Prometheus. A sea of foredoomed evil worked to storm.

lo. What boots my life, then ? why not cast my- self 870 Down headlong from this miserable rock. That, dashed against the flats, I may redeem My soul from sorrow ? Better once to die Than day by day to suffer.

Prometheus. Verily,

It would be hard for thee to bear my woe 875

For whom it is appointed not to die. Death frees from woe ; but I before me see In all my far pre sion not a bound To all I suffer, ere that Zeus shall fall From being a king.

lo. And can it ever be m>

That Zeus shall fall from empire ?

Prometheus. Thou., methinks

Would take some joy to see it.

lo. Could I choose ?

/who endure such pangs now, by that god !

Prometheus. Learn from me, therefore, that the event shall be.

lo. By whom shall his imperial sceptred hand ees Be emptied so?