PROMETHEUS BOUND 95
Who would not turn more mild to learn iss
Thy sorrows ? who of the heaven and earth
Save Zeus ? But he
Right wrathfully Bears on his sceptral soul unbent, And rules thereby the heavenly seed, i9o
Nor will he pause till he content His thirsty heart in a finished deed. Or till Another shall appear, To win by fraud, to seize by fear. The hard-to-be-captured government. 195
Prometheus. Yet even of me he shall have need, That monarch of the blessed seed, — Of me, of me who now am cursed
By his fetters dire, — To wring my secret out withal, 200
And learn by whom his sceptre shall Be filched from him, as was at first
His heavenly fire. But he never shall enchant me
With his honey-lipped persuasion ; 205
Never, never, shall he daunt me With the oath and threat of passion. Into speaking as they want me. Till he loose this savage chain,
And accept the expiation 210
Of my sorrow in his pain.
Chorus. Second antistrophe.
Thou art, sooth, a brave god.
And, for all thou hast borne From the stroke of the rod.
Nought relaxest from scorn. 215
