HEPHAESTUS. Lo, ’tis toward—no weakness in the work! STRENGTH. Smite harder, wedge it home—no faltering here! He hath a craft can pass th’ impassable! HEPHAESTUS. This arm is fast, inextricably bound. STRENGTH. Then shackle safe the other, that he know His utmost craft is weaker far than Zeus. HEPHAESTUS. He, but none other, can accuse mine art! STRENGTH. Now, strong and sheer, drive thro’ from breast to back The adamantine wedge’s stubborn fang. HEPHAESTUS. Alas, Prometheus! I lament thy pain. STRENGTH. Thou, faltering and weeping sore for those Whom Zeus abhors! ’ware, lest thou rue thy tears! HEPHAESTUS. Thou gazest on a scene that poisons sight. STRENGTH. I gaze on one who suffers his desert. Now between rib and shoulder shackle him— HEPHAESTUS. Do it I must—hush thy superfluous charge! STRENGTH. Urge thee I will—ay, hound thee to the prey. Step downward now, enring his legs amain! HEPHAESTUS. Lo, it is done—’twas but a moment’s toil. STRENGTH. Now, strongly strike, drive in the piercing gyves— Stern is the power that oversees thy task! HEPHAESTUS. Brutish thy form, thy speech brutality! STRENGTH. Be gentle, an thou wilt, but blame not me For this my stubbornness and anger fell! HEPHAESTUS. Let us go hence; his legs are firmly chained. STRENGTH (_To_ PROMETHEUS). Aha! there play the insolent, and steal, For creatures of a day, the rights of gods! O deep delusion of the powers that named thee Prometheus, the Fore-thinker! thou hast need Of others’ forethought and device, whereby Thou may’st elude this handicraft of ours! [_Exeunt HEPHAESTUS, STRENGTH and FORCE.—A pause._] PROMETHEUS. O Sky divine, O Winds of pinions swift, O fountain-heads of Rivers, and O thou, Illimitable laughter of the Sea! O Earth, the Mighty Mother, and thou Sun, Whose orbed light surveyeth all—attest, What ills I suffer from the gods, a god! Behold me, who must here sustain The marring agonies of pain, Wrestling with torture, doomed to bear Eternal ages, year on year! Such and so shameful is the chain Which Heaven’s new tyrant doth ordain To bind me helpless here. Woe! for the ruthless present doom! Woe! for the Future’s teeming womb! On what far dawn, in what dim skies, Shall star of my deliverance rise?