of which found a fit and congenial composer in Shelley, whose
sentiment and manner the "Prometheus Bound" wonderfully anticipates
and perhaps helped to form? Again, how could the Athenians, in an age
when their piety had not yet given way to scepticism, have endured
such dramatic treatment of the chief of the gods? It is almost as if a
Mystery Play had been presented in the Middle Ages with Satan for the
hero and the First Person of the Trinity in the character of an
oppressor. Perhaps the position of Zeus in the drama as a usurper may,
in some degree, have softened the religious effect.

* * * * *

Prometheus is brought in by the Spirits of Might and Force,
Hephaestus accompanying them.

LINES 1-113.

SCENE: _The Caucasus_.

MIGHT.

Unto earth's utmost boundary we have come,
To Scythia's realm, th' untrodden wilderness.
Hephaestus, now it is thy part to do
The Almighty Father's bidding, and to bind
This arch-deceiver to yon lowering cliff
With bonds of everlasting adamant.
Thy attribute, all-fabricating fire,
He stole and gave to man. Such is the crime
For which he pays the penalty to Heaven,