University of Virginia Library

SCENE I.

Prometheus, Pisthetærus.
Prometheus.
Woe to me, wretch, should Jove set eyes upon me!
Where's Pisthetærus?

Pisthetærus.
Heyday! what have we here?
What muffling's this?

Prometheus.
Seest any of the Gods
Behind me?

Pisthetærus.
Not I, by Jove. But who art thou?

Prometheus.
What time o'day is't?

Pisthetærus.
What time? past noon a little.
But who, the mischief! art?

Prometheus.
Draws it to sunset,
Or later?

Pisthetærus.
Now I would a murrain had thee!

Prometheus.
What's Jupiter doing? Clears he off the clouds,
Or gathers?

Pisthetærus.
Thou be curs'd!

Prometheus.
So I unmuffle.

Pisthetærus.
What thou? my dear Prometheus?

Prometheus.
Hush! hush! no noise.

Pisthetærus.
Why, what's this?

Prometheus.
Silence, call me not by name.
Thou'lt ruin me, if Jove spy me here. But stop,
That I may tell thee what's going on above.
Take this umbrella; hold it over me,
Up thus, that the Gods see me not.

Pisthetærus.
Ha! ha! ha!
Contrived most providently, and like thyself;
But come, step under quick; and now speak boldly.

Prometheus.
Then hear.

Pisthetærus.
I hear: say on.

Prometheus.
Jove's ruin'd.

Pisthetærus.
Eh?
How long has he been ruin'd?

Prometheus.
E'er since ye
Have built i'th'air; for of men none do longer
Sacrifice aught to the Gods; nor fat of thighs
Hath come up to us from that time; but still,
As in the Thesmophoria, we keep fast,
Having no oblations: and the barbarous Gods,
Like starved Illyrians, grind their teeth, and say
They will make war on Jupiter from above,
Unless he straightway open them the ports,
That the carved entrails may have free ingress.

Pisthetærus.
Are there then others, barbarous Gods, 'bove you?

Prometheus.
How should they not be barbarous, who do reign
Whence Execestides derives his ancestry?

Pisthetærus.
And what name give ye to these barbarous Gods?

Prometheus.
What name? Triballi.

Pisthetærus.
I understand; the word
‘Trouble’ comes from them.

Prometheus.
No doubt; no doubt; but one thing
I can assure ye of. You'll have coming here
Ambassadors to treat about a peace,
From Jupiter and these same Triballi; but
Do ye grant no conditions, unless Jove
Restore the sceptre to the Birds again,
And give thee Basilea for thy wife.

Pisthetærus.
Who's Basilea?

Prometheus.
A most lovely girl,
Who manufactures thunderbolts for Jove,
And, in short, every thing he wants; wise counsel,
Good legislating, temperance, dock-yards,
Scandal, first Lord o'the'Treasury, and new Mintage.

Pisthetærus.
So she's his Major Domo?

Prometheus.
Ay, believe me;
Whom if you only get from him, you've all.
And this is what I came to tell you of.
For I am still a well-wisher to men.

Pisthetærus.
True; thou of all the Gods art the only one
That ever taught man how to use the gridiron.

Prometheus.
And for the Gods, I hate them all, as thou know'st.

Pisthetærus.
I'll vouch for thee, by Jove, that thou hast ever
Been a thorough God-hater.

Prometheus.
A pure Timon.
But that I may run off back, give me th'umbrella,
So that should Jove espy me from on high,
He may suppose I'm following the Canephorus.

Pisthetærus.
Here: and take up the litter, and pass on.

[Exit Prometheus.
Chorus.