Racine: Phaedra

PROMETHEUS BOUND
Prometheus.—Yet even of me he shall have need,
That monarch of the blessed seed,
Of me, of me, who now am cursed
By his fetters dire,
—
•To wring my secret out withal
And learn by whom his sceptre shall
Be filched from him—as was, at first.
His heavenly fire.
But he never shall enchant me
With his honey-lipped persuasion;
Never, never shall he daunt me
With the oath and threat of passion
Into speaking as they want me.
Till he loose this savage chain,
And accept the expiation
Of my sorrow, in his pain.
Antistrophe II.
Chorus.— ^Thou art, sooth, a brave god,
And, for all thou hast borne
From the stroke of the rod.
Nought relaxest from scorn.
But thou speakest unto me
Too free and unworn
And a terror strikes through mc
And festers my soul
And I fear, in the roll
Of the storm, for thy fate
In the ship far from shore:
Since the son of Saturnus is hard in his hatc
And unmoved in his heart evermore.
Prometheus.—I know that Zeus is stern;
I know he metes his justice by his will
And yet, his soul shall learn
More softness when once broken by this ill:
And curbing his unconquerable vaunt I
He shall rush on in fear to meet with me
Who rush to meet with him in agony.
To issues of harmonious covenant.
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