Prometheus.
A very solemn piece of insolence
Spoken like an underling of the Gods! Ye are young!
Ye are young! New come to power! And ye suppose
Your towered citadel Calamity
Can never enter! Ah, and have not I
Seen from those pinnacles the two-fold fall
Of tyrants? And the third, who his brief 'now'
Of lordship arrogates, I shall see yet
By lapse most swift, most ignominious,
Sink to perdition. And dost thou suppose
I crouch and cower in reverence and awe
To Gods of yesterday? I fail of that
So much, the total all of space and time
Bulks in between. Take thyself hence and count
Thy toiling steps back by the way thou camest,
In nothing wiser for thy questionings.
Hermes.
This is that former stubborness of thine
That brought thee hither to foul anchorage.
Prometheus.
Mistake me not; I would not, if I might,
Change my misfortunes for thy vassalage.
Hermes.
Oh! better be the vassal of this rock
Than born the trusty messenger of Zeus!
Prometheus.
I answer insolence, as it deserves,
With insolence. How else should it be answered?
Hermes.
Surely;—and, being in trouble, it is plain
You revel in your plight.
