terrible Shadow floats up from its throne and ascends the dark chariot of the destined Hour, the exclamation of Panthea is too definite for mistake:
—watch its path among the stars,
Blackening the night!
So that when, just before, the Spirit of the Hour announces,
Ere yon planet
Has set, the Darkness which ascends with me
Shall wrap in lasting night Heaven's kingless throne,
the "yon planet" must be some particular star or the unmentioned moon; and the fall of Jupiter is fixed for this very night, whether of the first or the second day.
Asia and Panthea ascend the car of another Spirit (whose invitation, by-the-bye, is to the daughter, not daughters, of Ocean), who chants of her speed,
Ere the cloud piled on Atlas can dwindle
We encircle the earth and the moon:
We shall rest from long labours at noon:
and in sc. v. we are "On the brink of the night and the morning." Panthea asks, "Whence is the light? the sun is yet unrisen"; the Spirit answers, "The sun will rise not until noon." We are thus entering on a new day, whether the second or the third, and appear to have already advanced beyond the time of the opening of Act III., which precedes the fall of Jupiter, whose fall was to occur before the setting of "yon planet" of the previous night.
And, indeed, the strife with Demogorgon and the fall of Jupiter did occur, as predicted, that same night; for in Act III. sc. ii., having related the catastrophe to
