who art the God and Lord?O thou Who fillest with thy soul this world of woe, To whom all things of Earth and Heaven do bow 285 In fear and worship?all-prevailing foe! I curse thee! let a sufferer's curse Clasp thee, his torturer, like remorse, Till thine Infinity shall be A robe of envenomed agony;s 290 And thine Omnipotence a crown of pain To cling like burning gold round thy dissolving brain. Heap on thy soul by virtue of this Curse 111 deeds, then be thou damned, beholding good, Both infinite as is the Universe, 295 And thou, and thy self-torturing solitude. An awful Image of calm power Though now thou sittest, let the hour Come, when thou must appear to be
8. Like the poisoned shirt of the centaur Nessus, which consumed Hercules' flesh when he put it on. The next two lines allude to the mock crowning of Christ with a crown of thorns.
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PROMETHEUS UNBOUND, ACT 1 / 78 7
That which thou art internally. 300 And after many a false and fruitless crime Scorn track thy lagging fall through boundless space and time.
[The Phantasm vanishes. ]
PROMETHEUS Were these my words, O Parent? THE EARTH They were thine. PROMETHEUS It doth repent me: words are quick and vain;
Grief for awhile is blind, and so was mine. 305 I wish no living thing to suffer pain.
THE EARTH
Misery, O misery to me, That Jove at length should vanquish thee. Wail, howl aloud, Land and Sea, The Earth's rent heart shall answer ye.
3io Howl, Spirits of the living and the dead, Your refuge, your defence lies fallen and vanquished.
FIRST ECHO
Lies fallen and vanquished?
SECOND ECHO
Fallen and vanquished!
IONE
Fear not?'tis but some passing spasm, 315 The Titan is unvanquished still. But see, where through the azure chasm Of yon forked and snowy hill, Trampling the slant winds on high With golden-sandalled feet, that glow 320 Under plumes of purple dye Like rose-ensanguined9 ivory, A Shape comes now, Stretching on high from his right hand A serpent-cinctured1 wand.
PANTHEA
325 'Tis Jove's world-wandering Herald, Mercury.
IONE And who are those with hydra tresses2 And iron wings that climb the wind,
Whom the frowning God represses Like vapours steaming up behind, 330 Clanging loud, an endless crowd?
9. Stained blood color. cury as the messenger of the Gods. I. Mercury carries a caduceus, a staff encircled by 2. Locks of hair resembling the many-headed two snakes with their heads facing each other, a snake, the hydra, symbol of peace befitting the role of Hermes/Mer
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78 8 / PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
PANTHEA
These are Jove's tempest-walking hounds,3 Whom he gluts with groans and blood, When charioted on sulphurous cloud He bursts Heaven's bounds.
IONE
Are they now led, from the thin dead On new pangs to be fed?
PANTHEA
The Titan looks as ever, firm, not proud.
FIRST FURY
Ha! I scent life!
SECOND FURY
Let me but look into his eyes!
THIRD FURY
The hope of torturing him smells like a heap Of corpses to a death-bird after battle!
FIRST FURY
Darest thou delay, O Herald! take cheer, Hounds Of Hell?what if the Son of Maia? soon Mercury Should make us food and sport? Who can please long The Omnipotent?
MERCURY
Back to your towers of iron And gnash, beside the streams of fire, and wail Your foodless teeth! . . . Geryon, arise! and Gorgon, Chimaera,4 and thou Sphinx, subtlest of fiends, Who ministered to Thebes Heaven's poisoned wine, Unnatural love and more unnatural hate:5 These shall perform your task.
