CHORUS.

Hear'st thou the voice of one, a maid she seems,
Distorted from the likeness of aught human,
By some strange transformation?

PROMETHEUS,

Hear I not

The voice of wail? ..... it is the virgin daughter
Of Inachus; wrought to frenzy, who enwraps
With love, as with a flame, the heart of Jove,
And now is driven, by Juno's jealous hate,
From land to land, a shelterless exile!

IO.

Who

Names thus my father? how canst thou know me,
So wretched thou, and I so miserable!

Speak! answer! nor deny me, for thy words
Are words of truth, and they do image well
The force of my calamity; for I am

As one urged by a cruel master's will,

On some far course, who as the maddening spur Sharp goads her side, springs forward with the throes

Of a new agony, at every step

Tottering with hunger, weariness, and pain;
But who could bear, and over-live, like me,
All forms of wretchedness, all extremes of woe?
Yet, if thou canst, I would, thou might'st impart
What more I have to suffer, what should do
To cure my ills: in pity speak! console
A way-worn, lost, forsaken, helpless outcast!

PROMETHEUS.

I will explain whate'er you wish to know,

D

In simple language and unvarnished, phrase,
And uninvolved in mystery, as friend

Should do to friend; first then, you see before you
Prometheus, who bestowed on mortals fire.

IO.

Light of the world! that shone to bless mankind, Hapless Prometheus! can it be that thou

Art doomed to suffer thus? for what misdeed?

PROMETHEUS.

I have but ceased bewailing my sad fate!

IO.

Canst thou not grant a boon to me?

PROMETHEUS.

Declare it.

What wouldst thou question, say! to all you ask I will reply as freely.

10.

I would not add to your misfortunes by
Reviving the sad memory of your ills;

But say! what term shall have my wanderings?

PROMETHEUS.

Better you should remain in ignorance,

Than know your fate!

Do you still pause, to make them known to me?

PROMETHEUS.

"Tis that I fear to rack your heart!

IO.

Fear not!

Nor spare me, think not of my toils,

Bestow no other thought on them than what

It pleases me to do,

PROMETHEUS.

Since then perforce

Thou thus wilt have it, I will speak: listen:

40

PROMETHEUS BOUND.

CHORUS.

Stay! be it ours to share in this sad pleasure.
First hear we from herself her hapless story;
What else may yet betide her, you shall teach.

PROMETHEUS.

Begin then, Io! and this grace accord them,
The rather that they are thy father's sisters;
To find an echo for your sighs, and tears
Of tenderest sympathy for those you shed,
This thy reward..... and it shall well repay thee.

10.

And must I? how shall I obey you! yet

As plainly as I may, I will relate

All you would hear; alas! to tell the tale,

To look upon my altered self, and say

How fell this storm ruining on me from Heaven,
Fills me with shame and anguish..... Oft in sleep,
Used visioned shapes of night to haunt my couch,
And tongues to syllable in accents sweet

These words: "Why dost thou waste thy flower of youth "In lone virginity? fair though thou art,

"Deem thyself greatly favoured above thy sex,
"Thrice fortunate child! the king of Gods and men
"Has chosen for his bride, and destines thee

"For his immortal arms, nor thou disdain
"To share his love! fly then! forsake thy couch,
"For marshy Lerna's valleys deep, and stalls,
"And pastures green, where graze thy father's kine,
"That Jove may satisfy his eyes' desire."
Again, and yet again, the vision came,

To break my sleep, and fill my heart with strange

PROMETHEUS BOUND.

Emotions, till imboldened by my fears,
All I had seen, and heard, I told my sire.
Whereon, to Delphi and the sacred groves
Oracular, that crown Dodona's steep,
He sent his seers, consulting how he might,
By word or deed, do aught to please the Gods:
At first the Deity replied in sounds

Of doubtful purport, words of mystery, terms
Of meaning most perplexed; at last there came
An answer, clear and unambiguous, ah!
Too clear! commanding Inachus to send me
From my own home, and my dear native land,
A wanderer, to the furthest bounds of earth,
Lest fire should fall from Heaven on him and his,
And utterly exterminate his race:

And he..... believing in the prophecy,
And in obedience to the will of Jove,

What could he less-alas! I blame him not!

With heavy heart, drove me, with heavier still,
Forth from my home, and shut his door against me."
Oh! then there came a change upon me! such
A change! woe's me! my shape and features grew
Deformed, and hideous as you see, nor was

My mind distorted less, but filled with vain
Imaginations, peopled by the furies;

41

Till with winged speed, and desperate bounds I sought,

Cencrea's crystal stream, and Lerna's fount,

Where the fell eyes, that knew no sleep, were sent To watch my steps: that earth-born herdsman Argus An unexpected fate deprived of life:

And I to madness stung by scourge divine,

Am driven from land to land; thou know'st the past,

And tell me, if thou canst, of what I yet

May have to bear? nor in false pity, by words