Grateful, the gall, the liver streak'd with veins,
The limbs involv'd in fat, and the long chine
Plac'd on the blazing altar; from the smoke
And mounting flame to mark th' unerring omen.
These arts I taught. And all the secret treasures
Deep buried in the bowels of the earth;
Brass, iron, silver, gold, their use to man,
Let the vain tongue make what high vaunts it may,
Are my inventions all; and, in a word,
Prometheus taught each useful art to man.
CHOR. Let not thy love to man o'erleap the bounds
Of reason, nor neglect thy wretched state:
So my fond hope suggests thou shalt be free
From these base chains, nor less in pow'r than Jove.
PROM. Not thus, it is not in the Fates that thus
These things should end: crush'd with a thousand wrongs,
A thousand woes, I shall escape these chains.
Necessity is stronger far than art.
CHOR. Who then is ruler of necessity?,
PROM. The triple Fates and unforgetting furies.
CHOR. Must Jove then yield to their superior pow'r?
PROM. He no way shall escape his destin'd fate.
CHOR. What, but eternal empire, in his fate?
PROM. Thou may'st not know this now: forbear t' inquire.
CHỌR. Is it of moment what thou keep'st thus close?
PROM. No more of this discourse; it is not time
Now to disclose that which requires the seal
Of strictest secresy; by guarding which
I shall escape the misery of these chains.
CHORUS.
STR.Never, never may my soul
Jove's all-ruling pow'r defy;
Never feel his harsh control,
Sovreign ruler of the sky.
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