_ The
threefold
Fates and the unforgetting Furies.
Elizabeth Browning
I fixed the various rules of mantic art,
Discerned the vision from the common dream,
Instructed them in vocal auguries
Hard to interpret, and defined as plain
The wayside omens,--flights of crook-clawed birds,--
Showed which are, by their nature, fortunate,
And which not so, and what the food of each,
And what the hates, affections, social needs,
Of all to one another,--taught what sign
Of visceral lightness, coloured to a shade,
May charm the genial gods, and what fair spots
Commend the lung and liver. Burning so
The limbs encased in fat, and the long chine,
I led my mortals on to an art abstruse,
And cleared their eyes to the image in the fire,
Erst filmed in dark. Enough said now of this
For the other helps of man hid underground,
The iron and the brass, silver and gold,
Can any dare affirm he found them out
Before me? none, I know! unless he choose
To lie in his vaunt. In one word learn the whole,--
That all arts came to mortals from Prometheus.
_Chorus. _ Give mortals now no inexpedient help,
Neglecting thine own sorrow. I have hope still
To see thee, breaking from the fetter here,
Stand up as strong as Zeus.
_Prometheus. _ This ends not thus,
The oracular fate ordains. I must be bowed
By infinite woes and pangs, to escape this chain
Necessity is stronger than mine art.
_Chorus. _ Who holds the helm of that Necessity?
_Prometheus.
_ The threefold Fates and the unforgetting Furies.
_Chorus. _ Is Zeus less absolute than these are?
_Prometheus. _ Yea,
And therefore cannot fly what is ordained.
_Chorus. _ What is ordained for Zeus, except to be
A king for ever?
_Prometheus. _ 'Tis too early yet
For thee to learn it: ask no more.
_Chorus. _ Perhaps
Thy secret may be something holy?
_Prometheus. _ Turn
To another matter: this, it is not time
To speak abroad, but utterly to veil
In silence. For by that same secret kept,
I 'scape this chain's dishonour and its woe.
_Chorus, 1st Strophe. _
Never, oh never
May Zeus, the all-giver,
Wrestle down from his throne
In that might of his own
To antagonize mine!
