the joy of self-exultation. This was the halo that shone from heaven, and shed over the tragedy a lustre by which it was sanctified in the eye of freedom.
I have brought heavy charges against this performance as a drama, and it is only justice that I should bring forward some of its beauties in detail: and here enough of matter will be found to soften the rigour of criticism. However wide the tragedies of Æschylus may be of the standard of excellence established in the land that gave Shakspeare birth, yet in all ages and in all countries he must be considered an eminent poet. In the ye that kindles as it rolls over the beauties of nature, and in the imagination that teems with great conceptions, he is inferior to few poets. There is a grandeur and loftiness of soul about him, generated by the elevation of freedom, that is blazing forth on every fit occasion,—a mysterious sublimity that cannot be understood, much less felt, by the slaves of a despot.
The following is a feeble attempt to render the meaning of the beautiful passage in which Prometheus describes the degraded state in which he found man, and by what means he had raised him from it; and it will be well if the meaning is given—the inspiration of poetry evaporates at the touch of translation.
"Eyes had they, but they saw not; they had ears,
But heard not: Like the shadows of a dream,
For ages did they flit upon the earth,
Rising and vanishing, and left no trace
Of wisdom or of forethought. Their abodes
Were not of wood nor stone, nor did the sun
Warm them; for then they dwelt in lightless caves.
The season's change they knew not; when the Spring
Should shed its roses, or the Summer pour
Its golden fruits, or icy Winter breathe
In barrenness and bleakness on the year.
To heaven I rais'd their eyes, and bade them mark
The time the constellations rose and set,
By which their labours they might regulate.
I taught them numbers: letters were my gift,
By which the poet's genius might preserve
The memory of glorious events.
I to the plough bound the submissive ox,
And laid the panniers on the ass's back,
That they might mankind in their labours aid.
I to the chariot trained the willing steed,
The luxury and glory of the wealthy.
I to the tall mast hung the flaxen pinions,
To bear the vessel bounding o'er the billows.
In sickness, man, without a remedy,
Was left to perish, till my pity taught
The herbs' sweet influences, and the balm
That wak'd the bloom upon the faded cheek.
And strung the nerveless arm with strength again.
I was man's saviour, but have now no power
From these degrading bonds myself to save."
The most sublime passage in this sublime poem is that in which Prometheus replies to Mercury, when, in the name of Jupiter, he denounces a terrible vengeance if he refuse to reveal the secrets of fate touching the dethronement of the thunderer.
P. To be a slave, thy words sound wondrous well,
The words of wisdom and authority.
The tyrant is but young in power, and deems
His place inaccessible to sorrow,
But bear him this defiance: I have seen
Two hated despots hurl'd from the same throne,
And in him I shall soon behold a third,
Flung thence in an irreparable ruin.
Think not that I do fear thy upstart gods,
Beings of yesterday; but hie thee hence,
Go tell him that his thunders have no power
To humble me, or wrest my secret from me.
M. It was thy proud rebellion brought thee here,
Else hadst thou from calamity been free.
P. Thinkst thou that I would change these galling bonds
For slavery, and be the thing that thou art?
No! I would rather hang upon this rock
For aye, than be the slave of Jupiter.
Thus I return his insults,—thus defy him.
Yet must he fall; but he shall never learn
From me whose hand shall strike the whelming blow:
There is no pang by which he may prevail.
No! let him launch at me the flaming bolt,
Load with the white-wing'd snow the weary earth,
And to its centre rock it by the earthquake,
He shall not shake me from my firm resolve."
There is so striking a resemblance between this passage and Satan's address to Infernal Horrors in the first book of Paradise Lost, that there is reason to believe that Milton's far-famed line,
"Better to reign in hell than serve in heaven."
might have been suggested by this:
"No! I would rather hang upon this rock
For aye, than be the slave of Jupiter."
It would be easy, were not this article already swelled too much in length, to draw such a parallel betwixt the two characters, as to give strong reason to suspect that Milton took his first idea of that of Satan from Prometheus. Yet this is to detract little from the glory of one of the greatest of our poets. An accidental spark is sufficient to kindle the fires of a volcano.
