uch as
these?

PR. Why at what should I be terrified to whom it is not destined to die?

CH. Yet perchance he will provide for thee affliction more grievous than
even this.

PR. Let him do it then, all is foreseen by me.

CH. They that do homage to Adrasteia are wise.

PR. Do homage, make thy prayer, cringe to each ruler of the day. I care
for Jove less than nothing; let him do, let him lord it for this brief
span, e'en as he list, for not long shall he rule over the gods. But no
more, for I descry Jove's courier close at hand, the menial of the new
monarch: beyond all [doubt] he has come to announce to us some news.

_Enter_ MERCURY.

Thee, the contriver, thee full of gall and bitterness, who sinned
against the gods by bestowing their honors on creatures of a day, the
thief of fire, I address. The Sire commands thee to divulge of what
nuptials it is that thou art vaunting, by means of which he is to be put
down from his power. And these things, moreover, without any kind of
mystery, but each exactly as it is, do thou tell out; and entail not
upon me, Prometheus, a double journey; and thou perceivest that by such
conduct Jove is not softened.

PR. High sounding, i'faith, and full of haughtiness is thy speech, as
beseems a lackey of the gods. Young in years, ye are young in power;[77]
and ye fancy forsooth that ye dwell in a citadel impregnable against
sorrow. Have I not known two monarchs[78] dethroned from it? And the
third that now is ruler I shall also see expelled most foully and most
quickly. Seem I to thee in aught to be dismayed at, and to crouch
beneath the new gods? Widely, ay altogether, do I come short [of such
feelings]. But do thou hie thee back the way by which thou camest: for
not one tittle shalt thou learn of the matter on which thou questionest
me.

MER. Yet truly 'twas by such self-will even before now that thou didst
bring thyself to such a calamitous mooring.

PR. Be well assured that I would not barter my wretched plight for thy
drudgery; for better do I deem it to be a lackey to this rock, than to
be born the confidential courier of father Jove. Thus is it meet to
repay insult in kind.

MER. Thou seemest to revel in thy present state.

PR. Revel! Would that I might see my foes thus reveling, and among these
I reckon thee.

MER. What dost thou impute to me also any blame for thy mischances?

PR. In plain truth, I detest all the gods, as many of them as, after
having received be