he will repent and submit to the tyrant. On his refusal, the
Furies are let loose to torture him, and his agony takes the
form of a vision of all the suffering of the world. The agony
passes, and Mother Earth calls up spirits to soothe him with
images of delight; but he declares "most vain all hope but
love," and thinks of Asia, his wife in happier days. The
second act is full of the dreams of Asia. With Panthea, one of
the ocean nymphs that watch over Prometheus, she makes her way
to the cave of Demogorgon, "that terrific gloom," who seems
meant to typify the Primal Power of the World. Hence they are
snatched away by the Spirit of the Hour at which Jove will
fall, and the coming of change pulsates through the excitement
of those matchless songs that begin:

"Life of life! thy lips enkindle
With their love the breath between them."

In the third act the tyrant is triumphing in heaven, when the
car of the Hour arrives; Demogorgon descends from it, and hurls
him to the abyss. Prometheus, set free by Hercules, is united
again to Asia. And now, with the tyranny of wrongful power,

'The loathsome mark has fallen, the mall remains
Sceptreless, free, uncircumscribed, but man
Equal, unclassed, tribeless, and nationless,
Exempt from awe, worship, degree, the king
Over himself; just, gentle, wise."

The fourth act is an epilogue in which, to quote Mrs. Shelley
again, "the poet gives further scope to his imagination . . . .