Page:Prometheus Bound, and other poems.djvu/55

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Is this, to move thy vaunt, and cause his fall

From absolute rule! And do not wrap thy speech

In riddles, but speak clearly! Do not cast

Ambiguous paths, Prometheus, for my feet—

Since Zeus, thou mayst perceive, is scarcely won

To mercy, by such means.

Prometheus. A speech well-mouthed

In th' utterance, and full-minded in the sense,

As doth befit a servant of the gods!

New gods, ye newly reign, and think forsooth

Ye dwell in towers too high for any dart

To take a wound there!—Have I not stood by

While two kings fell from thence? and shall I not

Behold the third, the same who rules you now,

Fall, shamed to sudden ruin?—Do I seem

To tremble and quail before your modern gods?

I cast the thought off far!—For thee, depart,

Re-tread thy steps in haste! To all, so asked,

I answer nothing.

Hermes. 'Twas this wind of pride

That took thee of yore full sail upon these rocks.

Prometheus. I would not barter—learn thou soothly that!—

My suffering for thy service! for I hold

It is a nobler thing to serve this rock

Than live a faithful slave to father Zeus—

And thus on scorners I retort their scorn.

Hermes. It seems that thou dost glory in thy despair.

Prometheus. I, glory? would my foes did glory so,

And I stood by to see!—and naming them,

Thou art not unremembered.

Hermes. Dost thou charge

Me also with the blame of any grief?