and milder
dynasty of gods, and Prometheus, visited in his punishment by the nymphs
of ocean, knows a secret on which the rule of Zeus depends. Shelley took
over these features, and grafted on them his own peculiar confidence in
the ultimate perfection of mankind. His Prometheus knows that Jupiter
(the Evil Principle) will some day be overthrown, though he does not
know when, and that he himself will then be released; and this event
is shown as actually taking place. It may be doubted whether this
treatment, while it allows the poet to describe what the world will be
like when freed from evil, does not diminish the impressiveness of
the suffering Titan; for if Prometheus knows that a term is set to his
punishment, his defiance of the oppressor is easier, and, so far,
less sublime. However that may be, his opening cries of pain have much
romantic beauty:

"The crawling glaciers pierce me with the spears
of their moon-freezing crystals, the bright chains
Eat with their burning cold into my bones."

Mercury, Jupiter's messenger, is sent to offer him freedom if he will
repent and submit to the tyrant. On his refusal, the Furies are let
loose to torture him, and his agony takes the form of a vision of all
the suffering of the world. The agony passes, and Mother Earth calls up
spirits to soothe him with images of delight; but he declares "most vain
all hope but love," and thinks of Asia, his wife in happier days. The
second act is full of the dreams of Asia. With Panthea, one of the ocean
nymphs that watch over Prometheus, she makes her way to the cave of
Demogorgon, "that terrific gloom," who seems meant to typify the Primal
Power of the World. Hence they are snatched away by the Spirit of the
Hour at which Jove will fall, and the coming of change pulsates through
the excitement of those matchless songs that begin:

"Life of life! thy lips enkindle
With their love the breath between them."

In the third act the tyrant is triumphing in heaven, when the car of the
Hour arrives; Demogorgon descends from it, and hurls him to the abyss.
Prometheus, set free by Hercules, is united again to Asia. And now, with
the tyranny of wrongful power,

"The loathsome mark has fallen, the mall remains
Sceptreless, free, uncircumscribed, but man
Equal, unclassed, tribeless, and nationless,
Exempt from awe, worship, degree, the king
Over himself; just, gentle, wise."

The fourth act is an epilogue in which,