9. Usually identified as France, breaking the spell of monarchy at the time of the Revolution.
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79 6 / PERC Y BYSSH E SHELLE Y PANTHEA The Heaven around, the Earth below Was peopled with thick shapes of human death, All horrible, and wrought by human hands, And some appeared the work of human hearts, 590 For men were slowly killed by frowns and smiles: And other sights too foul to speak and live Were wandering by. Let us not tempt worse fear By looking forth?those groans are grief enough. FURY Behold, an emblem?those who do endure 595 Deep wrongs for man, and scorn and chains, but heap Thousand-fold torment on themselves and him. PROMETHEUS Bemit the anguish of that lighted stare? Close those wan lips?let that thorn-wounded brow Stream not with blood?it mingles with thy tears 6oo Fix, fix those tortured orbs in peace and death So thy sick throes shake not that crucifix, So those pale fingers play not with thy gore.-?O horrible! Thy name I will not speak, It hath become a curse.1 I see, I see 605 The wise, the mild, the lofty and the just, Whom thy slaves hate for being like to thee, Some hunted by foul lies from their heart's home, An early-chosen, late-lamented home, As hooded ounces2 cling to the driven hind,' doe 6io Some linked to corpses in unwholesome cells: Some?hear I not the multitude laugh loud?? Impaled in lingering fire: and mighty realms Float by my feet like sea-uprooted isles Whose sons are kneaded down in common blood 6i5 By the red light of their own burning homes. FURY Blood thou canst see, and fire; and canst hear groans; Worse things, unheard, unseen, remain behind. PROMETHEUS Worse? FURY In each human heart terror survives The ravin it has gorged:3 the loftiest fear 620 All that they would disdain to think were true: Hypocrisy and custom make their minds The fanes0 of many a worship, now outworn. temples They dare not devise good for man's estate And yet they know not that they do not dare. 625 The good want power, but to weep barren tears.4 The powerful goodness want: worse need for them. The wise want love, and those who love want wisdom; And all best things are thus confused to ill.
1. I.e., the name 'Christ' has become, literally, a curse word, and metaphorically, a curse to humankind, in that His religion of love is used to justify religious wars and bloody oppression. 2. Cheetahs, or leopards, used in hunting (hoods were sometimes placed over their eyes to make them easier to control).
3. The prey that it has greedily devoured. 4. I.e., the good lack ('want') power except to weep 'barren tears.'
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PROMETHEUS UNBOUND, ACT 1 / 79 7
Many are strong and rich,?and would be just,? 630 But live among their suffering fellow men As if none felt: they know not what they do.5 PROMETHEUS Thy words are like a cloud of winged snakes
And yet, I pity those they torture not. FURY Thou pitiest them? I speak no more! [Vanishes.] PROMETHEUS Ah woe!
635 Ah woe! Alas! pain, pain ever, forever! I close my tearless eyes, but see more clear Thy works within my woe-illumed mind, Thou subtle Tyrant!6 . . . Peace is in the grave? The grave hides all things beautiful and good?
640 I am a God and cannot find it there, Nor would I seek it: for, though dread revenge, This is defeat, fierce King, not victory. The sights with which thou torturest gird my soul With new endurance, till the hour arrives
645 When they shall be no types of things which are. PANTHEA Alas! what sawest thou? PROMETHEUS There are two woes:
To speak and to behold; thou spare me one.7 Names are there, Nature's sacred watchwords?they Were borne aloft in bright emblazonry.8
650 The nations thronged around, and cried aloud As with one voice, 'Truth, liberty and love!' Suddenly fierce confusion fell from Heaven Among them?there was strife, deceit and fear; Tyrants rushed in, and did divide the spoil.
655 This was the shadow of the truth I saw.
THE EARTH I felt thy torture, Son, with such mixed joy As pain and Virtue give.?To cheer thy state I bid ascend those subtle and fair spirits Whose homes are the dim caves of human thought
660 And who inhabit, as birds wing the wind, Its world-surrounding ether;9 they behold Beyond that twilight realm, as in a glass,0 mirror The future?may they speak comfort to thee!
PANTHEA
Look, Sister, where a troop of spirits gather 665 Like flocks of clouds in spring's delightful weather, Thronging in the blue air!
IONE
And see! more come Like fountain-vapours when the winds are dumb,
5. The Fury ironically echoes Christ's plea for for-7. I.e., spare me the woe of speaking (about what giveness of his crucifiers: 'Father, forgive them: for I have beheld). they know not what they do' (Luke 23.34). 8. As in a brilliant display of banners. 6. Jupiter (also addressed as 'fierce King,' line 9. A medium, weightless and infinitely elastic, 642). once supposed to permeate the universe.
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840 / PERCY BYSSHE SHELLEY
That climb up the ravine in scattered lines. And hark! is it the music of the pines? Is it the lake? is it the waterfall?
PANTHEA
Tis something sadder, sweeter far than all.
CHORUS OF SPIRITS1
From unremembered ages we Gentle guides and guardians be Of Heaven-oppressed mortality? And we breathe, and sicken not, The atmosphere of human thought: Be it dim and dank and grey Like a storm-extinguished day Travelled o'er by dying gleams;
Be it bright as all between Cloudless skies and windless streams, Silent, liquid and serene? As the birds
