pressing idle commiseration? How is it that thou loathest not the god that is most abhorred by the gods, who has betrayed thy prerogative to mortals?

VULCAN. —Relationship and intimacy are of great

power.

STRENGTH. I grant it but how is it possible to disobey the directions of the sire? Dreadest thou not this the rather?

VULCAN.-Aye truly thou art ever pitiless and full of hardihood.

STRENGTH. Like enough-for it is in no way a remedy to deplore this wretch before us. And concern not thou thyself foolishly with matters that no way advantage thee. VULCAN. O greatly abhorred cunning of my hand!

STRENGTH.-Wherefore loathest thou it? for with the ills that now beset thee thy craft in good truth is not at all chargeable.

VULCAN.--For all that, would to heaven that some other had had this allotted to him."

STRENGTH. Every thing has its troubles except ruling over the gods, for no one is free save Jupiter.

VULCAN. I know it and I have nothing wherewith to gainsay what thou urgest.

STRENGTH.-Wilt thou not then" bestir thyself to fling shackles about this wretch, that the sire may not espy thee loitering?

πaxon, a conjectural emendation of Stanley, admired by Dr. Blomfield in his third edition, and not disapproved by Dr. Elmsley. See Edinb. Review,

xvii. 228.

Professor Scholefield retains the old reading &πpáxon, and translates it, Omnia diis fieri solent, i. e. possunt.

"Discrimen quod inter ovкovv et oùkovv statuunt grammatici, verissimum est, si Plutarchi aut Luciani scripta pro veræ Græcitatis norma accipiantur. Apud veteres Atticos utraque particula semper propriam suam significationem servat. Ego ubique our ovv scribo, adhibita, prout opus est, vel omissa interrogatione." Dr. Elmsley, note on Eur. Heracl. v. 256.

To Dr. Blomfield's authorities for the orthography of λivvovra add Heyne on Pind. Nem. V. 2.

T

VULCAN.—Aye and in truth you may see the manacles

ready.

STRENGTH.-Take them1, and with forceful might clench them with the mallet about his hands; rivet him close to

the crags.

VULCAN. This work of ours is speeding to its consummation and lingers not.

STRENGTH.-Smite harder, draw the bands tight, slacken it at no point, for he hath cunning enough to find outlets of escape even from impracticable difficulties.

VULCAN.-This arm at all events is fastened inextri

cably.

STRENGTH. And now clasp this securely, that he may perceive1 himself to be a duller contriver than Jupiter. VULCAN. Save this sufferer, no one can with reason find fault with me.

STRENGTH.-Now by main force rivet the stubborn toothm of an adamantine wedge right through" his breast. VULCAN.-Alas! Alas! Prometheus, I sigh over thy sufferings.

STRENGTH.-What! art thou hanging back again, and sighest thou over the enemies of Jupiter? Look to it

i

νιν is of all genders and both numbers. See Matthiæ's Gr. Gr. §. 146. I follow Dr. Blomfield. The scholiast understands Prometheus.

μndaμà occurs as a dactyl in Theocritus, Epig. viii. 2. Cf. Dr. Blomfield's

note on v. 525.

1 See Matthiæ's Gr. Gr. §. 430. 2.

m Schutz compares Virgil. Georg. ii. 423. and the σтóμatı paxaípas of St. Luke, xxi. 24.

Such, I believe, is the sense of the Greek..... Schutz is offended at this additional security, and deprecates the idea of so loathsome a spectacle as blood gushing from the wound. Dr. Butler, the French translator, and Potter understand diaμma to mean right across, sc. a bar rivetted down on each side of the body of Prometheus into the rock. Hesychius explains it by diaμmeρÈS, the sense of which is fixed by its occurrence Hom. Il. xii. 429. xx. 362. Tyrwhitt translates it penitus per in Eur. Heracl. 992. The impassioned exclamation of Vulcan which immediately follows seems to favour this sense.

• See Matthiæ's Gr. Gr. §. 292.

that thou hast not some of these days to mourn for thyself P.

VULCAN. Thou beholdest a spectacle that shows hideous to the eye.

STRENGTH.-I behold this wretch receiving his deserts. But fling thou these girths round his sides.

VULCAN.—I must needs do this; urge me not more than is necessary.

STRENGTH.-I' faith but I will urge thee, and halloo thee on moreover. Move downwards, and strongly enring his legs.

VULCAN. And in truth the task is done with no long toil.

STRENGTH.-With main force now smite the goring fetters, since stern indeed is the inspector of this work. VULCAN.-Thy tongue sounds in accordance with thy

form.

STRENGTH.-Do thou yield to softness, but taunt not me with stubbornness and harshness of temper.

VULCAN.-Let us go; since he hath the shackles about his limbs.

STRENGTH.-Here now be insolent; and after pillaging the prerogatives of the gods, confer them on creatures of a day. In what will mortals be able to alleviate these agonies of thine? 'Tis by mistake that the divinities call thee by the name Prometheus; for thou thyself hast

P Supply öpa. Compare Dr. Elmsley's note, Eur. Heracl. 367.

a Vulcan, grieved at the pain which he is constrained to give, withdraws; Strength remains to glut himself with the spectacle.

r The precise meaning of άπavτλεîv (Cf. Blomf. Gloss. v. 84.) may be intended to mark, that with the utmost exertion mankind would not be able to relieve their benefactor.

Etym. Mag. gives Προμήθευς· κατὰ μεταβόλην Προμήδευς, ὁ προορῶν τὰ μýdea, тà ßovλεúμara. Cf. v. 101. ed. Blomfield. For many examples of this kind of paronomasia, see Dr. Elmsley's note on Eur. Bacchæ, 508. and compare Aristotle's Rhetoric, ii. 23. 29.

In his note on Eur. Medea, 552. Dr. Elmsley is disposed to suspect the soundness of the text, from the occurrence of dei with a dative. "Accusativum plerumque usurpant tragici." See Matthia's Gr. Gr. §. 419. 4.

need of a Prometheus, to forecast means by which thou mayest be extricated from this art [that hath chained thee here]. [Exeunt STRENGTH and FORCE.

PROMETHEUS.

X

O divine empyrean", and ye swift-winged breezes, and ye sources of the rivers, and countless dimpling of the waves of the deep, and thou Earth, mother of all-and to the all-seeing orb of the Sun I appeal: look upon me, what treatment I, a god, am enduring at the hand of the gods! Behold with what indignities, torn piecemeal, I shall have to wrestle for an incalculable period. Such an ignominious bondage hath the new sovereign of the immortals devised against me. Alas! alas! I sigh over the suffering that is upon me, and that which is coming on. Oh! when is it destined that a termination of these agonies should appear? And yet what is it that I am saying? I know beforehand all futurity exactly, and no suffering will come upon me unlooked for. But it becomes me to bear my doom with all the resigna

t So Dr. Blomfield's last edition, and so Wellauer and professor Scholefield. Dr. Elmsley has quoted the old reading ruxns, which Dr. Blomfield had originally preferred.

u Mire argutantur scholiasta dum causas inquirunt, cur Prometheus aerem, mare, tellurem, et solem invocarit. Quem enim alium potius in hac solitudine miser alloqueretur? Deosne? At hos sibi inimicos esse sciebat. An homines? At hic longe lateque nullum erat hominum vestigium. Schutz.

* This beautiful idea occurs in Lucretius, i. 8.

So in Milton, P. L. iv. 165.

Cheer'd with the grateful smell old Ocean smiles.

Lord Byron (opening of the Giaour):

There mildly dimpling Ocean's cheek

Reflects the tints of many a peak,

Caught by the laughing tides that lave

Those Edens of the eastern wave.

And again in the Corsair, canto iii.

Mix'd with the shades of many a distant isle,

That frown-where gentler Ocean seems to smile.

Tyrwhitt conjectured ȧyéλaoua, congregatio, which fortunately offends so grossly against the metre, that no editor can ever introduce it.

tion I may, knowing as I do that the might of Necessity cannot be resisted.

Ah! but it is not possible for me either to hold my peace or not to hold my peace touching this my condition. For having bestowed boons upon mortals, wretch that I am, I am enthralled in these hardships. And I am he that searched out the source of fire, which I furtively bore off enclosed in a rod", which hath manifested itself a teacher of every art to mortals, and a great emolument. Such then as this is the vengeance that I endure for my trespasses, being rivetted in fetters beneath the naked sky.

Hah! what sound, what mysterious odour2 hath been wafted to me, emanating from a god, or from mortal, or from some intermediate nature? Came there any one to my remote rock to gaze upon my sufferings, or in fine with what intent? Behold me an ill-fated god in durance, the foe of Jupiter, him that hath incurred the detestation of all the gods who frequent the court of Jupiter, by reason of my excessive friendliness to mortals. Alas! alas! what can this rustling of birds be which I again hear hard by me? The air too is whistling faintly with the flappings of pinions. Every thing that approaches is to me an object of dread.

CHORUS.

Dread thou nothing, for this is a company of friends that hath come with the fleet alternations of their pinions to this rock of thine, after with difficulty prevailing on the mind of my father. And the swiftly-wafting breezes brought me for the echo of the clang of steel pierced

y Compare the construction in the Seven against Thebes, v. 415.

z Compare Homer, Iliad V. 338. and Eurip. Hippol. 1389, where Dr. Monk points out Ovid, Fast. V. 375. Virgil, Æn. I. 403. and Milton, P. L. III. 135. V. 285.

a So Milton, in Comus :

Before the starry threshold of Jove's court.