Page:Prometheus bound - Browning (1833).djvu/47

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PROMETHEUS BOUND.
17

Cho.And now
Th' ephemerals possess the red-eyed fire—
Pro. By which they shall be learn'd in many arts.
Cho. For such crimes doth the hand of Jove afflict,
And loosen not the chain of chastisement?
Is there prescribed no limit to thy woe?
Pro. No limit—none; save what seems good to
him.
Cho. And how will it seem good? What hope
remains?
Seest thou not, thou hast sinn'd? To say, thou hast,
Gives me no joy, and may increase thy grief:
So let that pass, and seek out thy deliv'rance.
Pro. Easy for him, whose foot is free from toils
Of grief, to counsel and reproach the grieved!
But all these things I knew. By mine own will—
By mine own will, I sinn'd—and will confess—
And, aiding mortals, met with woe myself.
Indeed I thought not, by such chastisement,