A ST U D Y

’ T N B D SH E L L EY S PROM E H E U S U O U N .

W I L L I A M I 'H A E L R M O SS ETTI .

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FO R P R IVA T E 'IR 'U L A n oN ,

M D '''L '''V I.

S H E L L E Y ’S

P R O M E T H E U S U N B O U N D ,

A S T U D Y

O F IT S

E A N IN ' A N D P E R N A E S M S O ' .

W I L L I A M M R O E T T I . S S .

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P R IN T E D FO R P R I VA T E D IS T R IB U T 'O ZV.

88 6 1 .

’

SH E L L E Y S P R OM E TH E U S U N B OU N D .

y F IT S A I ' A N D A E S A STUD O ME N N PERSO N ' .

B Y WIL L IA M R O S E T T I M . S .

Being a L E 'T U R E de l iv ered to flee S H E L L E Y S O 'IE T Y on th D e cembe r 1 886 7 , .

L A D IE S A N D N N GE TLEME , I have undertaken to deliver to the members of the Shelley Society a lecture constituting a study of our ’ me /z s bou n P ro t eu U n d. poet s most colossal performance , the I This is , am fully aware, a task which might well appall the boldest of S he ll e yite s : nor do I undertake it with a c light heart , or with any idea of rendering adequate j usti e — to it from any point of view still less from all the po ints

of view which might properly be taken . It would be P rometb eus n bound— I possible to consider the U , in its 2 essential meaning or main outline and purport ' , as a

poem and work of art 'and 3 , in detail , or the individual

significance and value of its successive passages . I can m only expect , in the short space at y disposal, to treat the —21a its drama in the first of these relations , in essential m meaning or ain outli ne and purport 'in other words, I will explain to you what I regard as having been Shelley’ s

intention in the substance and structure of his masterpiece, ' P me the us fl O oz ma ro U . the My interpretation may be right , or it may be wrong it will certainly fall very far short v of being final or exhausti e . It is at any rate the out f come o repeated readings and prolonged consideration . I might add that this is by no means the first time that I

have put into writing , or into print , my view of the meaning 8 Y ’S P R O M E T H E U S N SHELLE U BOUND.

o f the poem but it is the first time that I have done so m with any oderate degree of fullness or precision , and with the opportunity of quoting from the poem itself those passages upon which the interpretation has to rely for its stability—what the French call the

Without further preface , I will now come to close P rome Z/ze us U n bou nd quarters with ' and , asking you to bear in m ind what I have just said— that I deal only with its essential meaning or main outline and purport—I shall —I analyse this meaning under five principal heads , What sk e l e is the Myth , or 'as we might call it) the vertebrated o f P rome t/zeus U n bound 2 ton , the ' , Who is Prometheus ' Who 3 , Who is Asia 4, is Jupiter 5 , Who is Demogorgon .

And I , as to the Myth .

In P romet/ze us U n bou nd debating the Myth of , I shall leave entirely on one side the question as to what is the

primary Greek myth about Prometheus the son of Iapetus . : E sch l us H e m ust take care of himself and y , or any other b un poet or promulgator of that myth , must take care of m /z . P ro et us self With Shelley alone , and his creation the e bound n o w U n . , can I be concerned He voluntarily and fE sch l us determinately parted company with y , saying i n his preface that he was averse from a catastrophe so feeble as that of reconciling the Champion with the ' Oppressor of mankind . The general myth of P rometb eus U n bou n d is set forth 2 very definitely in a leading speech of Asia in Act . I in exte nso will read it , and afterwards consider in detail its terms and bearing . r h There was the Heaven and Ea t at first , A n d u h Light and Love then Sat rn , from whose t rone

u . uc Time fell , an envio s shadow S h the state Of the earth’s primal spirits beneath his sway As the calm joy of flowers and living leaves th Before the wind or sun has wi ered them, l A nd semivita worms . But he refused b h h The irthrig t of t eir being, knowledge , power, l t t u t The skill which wie ds the elements , he ho gh ch r l Whi pie ces this dim universe like ight, - r l Self empi e , and the majesty of ove r r h t r Fo thi st of w ich hey fainted . Then P ometheus c r r Gave wisdom , whi h is st ength , to Jupite , t l r ’ And , wi h this law a one Let man be f ee , t Clothed him wi h the dominion of wide Heaven . ’ SHELLE Y S PRO ME THE US U N B O UND .

ith l l b To know nor fa nor ove nor aw, to e

t ut ri t r . Omni poten b f endless, is o eign And Jove now reigned for on the race of Man F t t t irst famine, and hen oil , and hen disease, t t t u S rife, wounds, and ghas ly dea h nseen before, F t r ell and he unseasonable seasons d ove, l t t r t r With a terna ing shaf s of f os and fi e, Their shelterless pale tribes to mountain - caves t r r t And in hei desert hearts fie ce wan s he sent, u tu ’ And mad disq ie des , and shadows idle n r c t l Of u eal good , whi h levied mu ua war, ru t r t So ining he lair whe ein hey raged . r t u h s P ome he s saw , and waked the legioned ope c f e l fl Whi h sleep within olded sian owers , N t r t ade l e ss epen he , moly, ama an h , blooms , That they might hide with thin and rainbow wings The shape of Death and Love he sent to bind The disunited tendrils of that vine \Vhich i h bears the w ne of life, the human eart ' fire — c t And he tamed , whi h , like some beas of prey t r Most e rible but lovely, played beneath r r re l The f own of man , and to tu d to his wil r I on and gold , the slaves and signs of Power, t t And gems and poisons , and all sub les forms t t Hidden benea h the moun ains and the waves . c r t u h He gave Man spee h , and speech c ea ed tho g t , Which is the measure of the universe i ce t r And sc en struck he th ones of earth and heaven , Which shook but fell not and the harmonious mind Poured itself forth in all - prophetic song c i t th t r t And musi l f ed up e lis ening spi i , U l i x r t l nti t walked, e empt f om mor a care, ’ r l Godlike , o e the clear bil ows of sweet sound u c And h man hands first mimi ked , and then mocked b r t t With moulded lim s mo e lovely han i s own, m ll r r i The human for , ti ma ble g ew div ne, z r And mothers , ga ing, d ank the love men see R fl t r r c b i e ec ed in thei a e , ehold , and per sh . t t r He old he hidden powe of herbs and springs , A n d r r l 1k l e . Disease d ank and slept . Death g ew s eep He taught the implicated orbits woven Of the wide - wandering Stars and how the Sun l r Changes his air, and by what sec et spell The pale Moon is transformed when her broad eye z t t r u r Ga es no on he inte l na sea . t u t hfe r ct l b He a gh to rule , as di e s the im s , The tempest - winged chariots of the ocean l t And the Ce t knew the Indian . Ci ies then r b t r u e - c l fl We e uil , and th o gh th ir snow like o umns owed z ur t The warm winds , and the a e e her shone, t b u w b l And he l e sea and shado y il s were seen . uc t t S h , he alleviations of his s ate , e h c Prometh us gave to man for w i h he hangs, t in t ut r Wi hering des ined pain . B who ains down l t c c l Evi , he immedi able plague, whi h , whi e l hi Man ooks on s creation like a God, Y ’ R W N Io SHELLE S P O r E T H E US UNBO U D .

t t t r u r him o u And sees ha i is glo io s , d ives , r c i W i the c r rt The w e k of h s own ll , s o n of Ea h , utc t t t l The o as , he abandoned , he a one t t h1s r N o . a Jove While ye f own shook heaven , y when His adversary from adamantine chains ur he tr c r C sed him , embled like a slave . De la e Who is his master ' Is he too a slave ''

This speech is fertile of meanin g and suggestion . We fin d c that ac ording to Asia 'or, let us say, according to Shelley) the pri mal powers of the World were four

H eaven , Earth, Light , and Love . This was the world ' ’ which , so far as Asia s speech is concerned , is postulated as

- - o f self existent , a creative power no word is breathed by her but it is true that Demogorgon , with whom she is i n a n d colloquy , had already said that the world its contents were made by God . Then came Saturn , the author of U Time . nder him human life was agreeable sensation without senti ment : life became 'as we might express it)

- individuated , but barely self conscious 'Saturn refused to — men the birthright of their being knowledge, power, and those other prerogatives n amed by Asia . The Saturn ian s reign was interrupted by Prometheu , Then Prometheus c tr t t u t Gave wisdom , whi h is s eng h , o J pi er, t t t r ’ And , wi h his law alone Le man be f ee, t t t Clo hed him wi h he dominion of wide Heaven . I regard these few words as being supremely important

‘ P ronee zlze us U n bound : to the correct u nderstanding of but , as we are for the present only occupied with the myth of m the poem , I shall not analyse the here , but leave them for consideration when we discuss Prometheus and Jupiter . The rule of J upiter was p e rfidio us and cruel : every kin d of material and moral evil resulted from it to the race of man . Prometheus again came to the rescue . c c cr u He gave Man spee h , and spee h eated tho ght, ' i c t r t u r Wh h is he measu e of he nive se .

For this , an d for his other boons to mankind , was he doomed by J upiter to incessant torture .

Asia then proceeds 'as we have seen) to ask , Who is the 9 Author or Lord of Evil Not Jove , as she says 'for he m trembled even before his own victi Prometheus .

' ' Who is his master Is he too a slave ' ' Y S P R O AJE U N B O I I SHELLE THE U S UND.

Dem ogorgon replies

All spirits are enslaved which serve things e vrl ’ ' kn o w s u t uc r Thou t if J pi er be s h o no .

is This certainly means , he a slave . Asia next recurs to what Demogorgon had said in the earlier part of the colloquy , that God had made the world , w ith all that it contains of thought an d sentiment : she ' ’ ca l l dst ' — re asks , Whom thou God and Demogorgon plies 'note it well) u I spoke b t as ye speak , o r t u r t F Jove is he s p eme of living hings . — I n other words There is no creative God , apart from the — it U niverse . H e adds that the deep truth is i mageless cannot be made palpable in words and he inti mates that , save eternal Love , all things are s ubject to Fate , Time , ’

Occasion , Chance , and Change . Shelley s own ideas in theology are probably expressed in these terms with a near approach to accuracy .

Prometheus , chained by Jupiter to Caucasus in torment , ' - - end ures three thousand years of sleep unsheltered hours . This is a remarkable expression : three - thousand years is b ut a brief estimate even of the historical period of human development and , as the unbinding of Prometheus ensues

- i mmediately after his speaking of the three thousand years , it would appear that Shelley contemplated a very early awakening and emancipation of the race . But of course we must not lay, upon such a point as this , any stress beyond what it may naturally have been intended to bear . At the end of the three - thousand years Prometheus has : ceased to disdain or hate Jupiter he pities him . He re - wishes no living thing to suffer pain . H e hears , from the phantom lips of a phantom J upiter summoned for the purpose , the curse which he had of old pronounced against

- . n re the tyrant god , and he revokes it He is the tormented by the Furies with visions chiefly intimating that evil fl ows out of good— as out of the mission of Jesus Christ and the R French evolution . The agonizing night closes , a new - h dawn appears , and Panthea , one of the sister Ocean nymp s who attend on Prometheus, rejoins in an I ndian vale his

bride and her sister Asia . ‘ Asia a hd Panthea are led by mysterious spirit - songs to ’ ’ 1 2 Y S P R O z l/ E B N SHELLE THEUS UN O U D . the cave of Demogorgon with the message that meekness alone can unloose to life the doom from under the throne of the Eternal . This meekness i n Asia corresponds to the forgiving mood of mind , the universal charity , which Pro m e the u s has j ust evinced . Then ensues the colloquy e n n b twee Asia an d Demogorgon , of which we have bee reading a part . Asia finally asks When will the destined Hour arrive ' for the release of Prometheus ' ' Behold is r the reply of Demogorgon . At that ve y moment the Hour arrives : Demogorgon mounts the car which conveys the

H our, and they disappear into space , the Spirit of the H our having announced that he comes for the final dethronement of J upiter . That which immediately follows seems to have more relation to Greek mythology than to the S he lle ian myth P z 'ozn etb e us U n bound : of at any rate, its connexion with si n ifi the former up to a certain point is clear, while its g e canc for the purposes of the latter is ambiguous . J upiter , a mong the gods of Heaven or Olympus , is celebrating his ' - — n uptials with the sea goddess Thetis Thetis , bright ' i mage of Eternity . H e forecasts that the result of their n uptials will be that he will himself become omnipotent , subduing his last opponent or rebel , the soul of man . H e says 'and this I cannot attempt to present with more clearness and condensation than Shelley gives it) Even now have I begotten a strange wonder t t rr rt That fa al Child , the e or of the ea h , Who waits but till the destined Hour arrive ’ 'Bearing from D e mogo rgo n s vacant throne The dreadful might of ever - living limbs Which clothed that awful spirit unbeheld) r - r l To e descend and t amp e out the spark . H e adds 'putting the same thing in slightly different t wo S h words) that the mighty pirits , himself and T etis , have generated another spirit mightier than either, await ’ D e m o o r o n s ing even n ow its incarnation from g g throne . Thus far J upiter ’s vision has served him b ut his prevision has deceived him wofully . Demogorgon at this moment arrives . H e pronounces the words, h ’ il I am thy c ild , as thou wert Saturn s ch d Mightier than thou and sum mons Jupiter to descend with hi m into the abyss

’ I Y S P R O M E T H E 4. SHELLE US UNBO UND .

guilt or pain , and can rule , though not evade , chance ' and death and m utability . In the last act of the stupendo us drama the Spectres of the dead Hours bear

Time to his tomb in Eternity, and a new series of Hours,

which had for ages been suppressed , take their places . w The Spirits of the Mi nd , hich had consoled Prometheus i n his hour of agony in the first Act after the torturing a of the Furies , now reappear , and ch nt their song of

deliveran ce and triumph . Next , I on e and Panthea wit ness a grand and glorious vision : the cars of the M oon

- spirit and of the Earth spirit . he Moon has become fl e vitalized by the in uence of the regenerat d Earth , and the two Spirits address one another in terms of human n o w love . Man , says the Spirit of the Earth , has become r f a sea e lecting love ' while labour, pain , and grief, are

gentle as tame beasts . It may be worth while to consider for a moment what appears to have been Shelley ’s idea

- in relation to this child like Spirit of the Earth , who 'as we have already seen) appears along with the ancient

Mother Earth , parent of Titans and of men , and must f therefore symbolize something different rom her . In n the sce e of his first appearance , he addresses Asia as ' ' M other, dearest M other ' an expression which may become clearer to us after we shall have endeavoured to

d efin e the personality of Asia herself. H e was a child when the dismal severance of Asia and Prometheus came n o w to pass , and remains as yet a child that they are

- re united in rapture . Perhaps we should see i n this Spirit an emblem of the childhood of the world in its golden prime before Prometheus had been chained 'a child n o w

resuming his career of development, an d preparing for his

larger and u nbounded destinies . From another point of ' V w ie , as he is the delicate spiri t that guides the earth m through heaven , we ight regard hi m as the perpetual

rej uvenescence of the earth , renewed from day to day, a from season to season , from year to year, and from eon mo n — w to never earied , never ageing , a perpetual child firm am e n t among the stars of the . From a passage i n l the note written by Mrs . She ley to the drama, it would

appear that Shelley advisedly intended , in this final act

t o . of it , give a new and diverse symbol of the Earth She ' In says , the fourth Act the poet gives further scope to ’ Y S P R O zWE T H E U S SHELLE UNBOUND . 1 5

m — his i agin ation , and idealizes the forms of creation such as we know them , instead of such as they appeared to the

Greeks . Maternal Earth the mighty parent is superseded by the Spirit of the Earth , the guide of our planet through ' the realms of sky .

We now come to the last utterance , the last passage , of u d n bo n . P ronze t/ze us U Demogorgon rises . H e addresses ’ D m o n s m and Gods , living beyond heaven s constellated wildernesses 'he addresses the Dead , who may 'the poet leaves the point undetermined) be of the nature of the universe , or may change and pass away . This is the day which , at the spell of the Earthborn , of the Titan Prome ’ theus , yawns for Heaven s despotism . Gentleness , Virt ue ,

Wisdom , and Endurance 'the qualities which have sus ta in e d Prometheus through his agelong agonies) , are the ’ seals to bar the pit over Destruction s strength . To suffer, to forgive , to defy , to love, to hope , neither to change nor — falter nor repen t this is alone life , joy , empire , and

- victory . So, with trumpet tone as of a world emancipated through the su m of its human greatness , terminates the n bo nd P rorne t/ze us U u of Shelley . The general moral conceptions upon which this dram a Ithin k - proceeds are , , sufficiently self evident the observa tions which I shall proceed to make upon the personality w of Prometheus , and of the other agents in the drama , ill aim to make that point all the more perspicuous . I will therefore at this stage limit myself to quoting a few words ’ ' P rome t/ze us n bou nd - from Mrs . Shelley s note to U The ' ' ’ prominent feature , she says , of Shelley s theory of the w a s t destiny of the human species , that evi l is not inheren in the sy stem of the creation , b ut an accident that might be expelled . Shelley believed that mankind had only to will that there should be no evil , and there would be none . I t is not my part in these notes to notice the argu ments n that have been urged against this opinion , but to mentio the fact that he entertained it , and was indeed attached to it with fervent enthusiasm . That man could be so

‘ p e rfe ctio n iz e d as to be able to expel evil from his own nature , and from the greater part of the creation , was the ' cardinal point of his system . No doubt M rs . Shelley speaks correctly here . The idea which Shelley thus symbolizes in P i'onze t/ze us U n bound is the very same which I6 P R O M E T H E U S U N B O N O SHELLE O .

' m ueen M o b W ul zo n ani ates ' , and hich is formulated in j a nd M o ddo lo - T b e , not to speak of other poems, especially R l a m evol t of Is . There is one point in Shelley ’s theory of the perfecti b ility of man - o f man as he shall exist after the unbind ing of Prometheus— which I should like to illustrate out O f uee n M o b one of his notes to ' . I t will have b een observed that Shelley does not— even i n this symbolic — or allegorical method of exposition contemplate that m an will become deathless ' on the contrary , he says

expressly that man will remain subj ect to death , and what death is he declines to attempt defining with any precision . But there is a certain sense in which human life might be extended or protracted o d the n ote to 'uee n M o b propounds this . It runs thus

i i V Time s our consciousness of the succession of deas in our mind . ivid t t r sensa ion of ei her pain or pleasu e makes the time seem long, as the common

b c t r cu c c ur . phrase is , e ause i renders us mo e a tely ons ious of o ideas If a mind c c r i u ut t c t be ons ious of a hund ed deas d ring one min e by he clo k , and of wo hu r i t r l t r t c u t l ccu uc nd ed dur ng ano he , the a te of hese spa es wo ld ac ua ly o py so m h r x c u t t t r r g eater e tent in the mind as two ex eed one in q an i y. If he efo e the r t t i i t c human mind , by any futu e improvemen of i s sensib l y, should be ome con t d u ut u r t scious of an infini e number of i eas in a min te , that min e wo ld be ete ni y . I do not hence infer that the actual space between the birth and death i r b r bu t t r ct of a man w ll eve e p olonged ' t hat his sensibili y is p e fe ible , and t t u b c b t hat he n m er of ideas which his mind is apa le of receiving is indefini e . Thus the life of a man of virtue and talent who shoul d die in his thirtieth year i h h l l r t e l - s , wit regard to is own fee ings , onge than hat of a mis rab e priest ridden ' slave who dreams out a century of dullness.

H o w significant has become to us that phrase about the man of virtue and talent who should die in his thirtieth ' year ' It is the very age at which Shelley himself died .

no w m P ronzet/ze us U nbound I have done with the yth of , — ' and I proceed to my second stage the inquiry , Who is Prometheus This inquiry I shall at once answer by saying that

Prometheus is the M ind of Man . I wish to emphasize this

point, for I think the amplitude and precision of meaning in this great ideal drama are only elicited when we have m realized the definition to ourselves . Pro etheus is not in

a vague general sense man , collective humankind 'he is — — the mind of man hu man mind the intellect of the race ’ Y S P R O JM E SHELLE THEUS UNBO UND . 1 7

m an that faculty whereby is man , not brute . The unbind ing of Prometheus is the unbinding of the H uman M ind ' the deliverance wrought to mankind by the unbinding of Prometheus is the deliverance wrought to man by the r u nbinding of his mind . This , I ventu e to say , is a ff distinction not without a di erence ' and M rs . Shelley was but half- way towards the truth when she wrote that ' her husband figured Saturn as the good principle ,

J upiter the usurping evil one , and Prometheus as the regenerator . Another of her definitions comes m uch n earer the mark, but still does not exactly hit it Prome ' ' it theus , she says, is , as were , the type of the highest perfection o f moral and intellectual nature, i mpelled by the truest and the p urest motives to the best and noblest ' ’ ends . Let me next endeavour to prove , out of Shelley s m own mouth , that he wished us to identify Pro etheus with the M ind of Man . ’ Shelley s Prometheus is a Titan , a son of Mother Earth .

- Thus Shelley assumes the Mind of Man as earth born .

I n the first Scene, Prometheus says to Earth ,

h t Mother, t y sons and hou Scorn him without whose all - enduring will Beneath the fierce omnipotence of Jove Both they and thou had vanished

a phrase quite appropriate to the mind , as the sustaining and preserving power of the human race . As we have seen , Prometheus has in this first scene attained to the passion of universal benevolence : he wishes well to all — things , evil to none not n ow even to Jupiter . In the curse which he had of old h urled against Jupiter, and m which he now gets a phanto to recite, are the words ,

’ l l O er al things but thyse f I gave thee power, And my own will

a deeply significant phrase , partly as indicating the u nvanquishable power of will in the H uman M ind , and partly as showing that the Mind itself is that which has allotted or ascribed power to the Vicissitude of the World but this will be more fully developed when we come to ' ' speak of J upiter. I gave all he has is a l ater phrase still pointing in the same direction . One of the Furies ’ 1 Y S P R /WE E 8 SHELLE O THE US UN 'UND .

' says to Prometheus , Dost thou boast the clear know ’ '' ledge thou w a k e n dst for man and whence does the knowledge of man proceed save from his mind ' Similarly

Hercules , in u nbinding Prometheus , addresses him as the ' - form animated by wisdom , courage , and long suffering — love all of them attributes of the mind . The Soul of Love is the hope and prophecy which begins and ends i n

Prometheus . We m ust , however , recur to that great speech addressed by As ia to Demogorgon . In this speech Prometheus is introduced i m mediately after Asia has spoken of the state of mankind under the sway of Saturn ' how men were destitute of knowledge , power , the thought which pierces the universe , and other high endowments of their nature . The very first thing which we hear from

Asia about Prometheus is this , Then Prometheus c tr t t u t r Gave wisdom , whi h is s eng h , o j pi e , t t r ’ And , wi h this law alone Le man be f ee, t t Clothed him wi h he dominion of wide Heaven .

Profoundly significant words , to which we are bound to attach a positive meaning . I read them thus . When men

- had reached this half development of their faculties , and pined eagerly for more , the M ind of Man invested Jupiter with wisdom , or regarded him as the embodiment and source of wisdom , and ascribed to him the dominion of heaven 'in other words , the M ind of Man created a God o wn after its i mage . But J upiter persecuted the race of man with divers plagues unknown before . Asia proceeds

P ro m e thus saw , and waked the legioned hop es Which sleep W i thin folded elysian flowers

: and so on we have already perused the passage . Again the let us interpret . The M ind of Man raised up hopes of an immortal destiny ' it developed mutual love in humankind ' it used fire for all useful services . It gave man speech , and speech created thought ' poetry, music , sculpture , medicine, astronomy , navigation , architecture uc t t S h , he alleviations of his sta e, Prometheus gave to man for which he hangs ' ithe rin t W g in des ined pain .

I f once we miss out the word Prometheus , and sub ' ' stitu te the term the H uman M ind , we can readily Y ’ N 1 SHELLE S PROME THE US UNBO U D. 9 understand the assertion that it is the H uman M ind which has conferred all these benefits upon the race of O man . B ut the M ind of Man is ppressed and tormente d by the very God of its own installation , or 'to put it in a merely prosaic phrase) by its own false an d superstitious conceptions in theology ' and i n its own essence it is tainted with the passions of rage , hatred , an d revenge . To these passions Prometheus had given utterance in his n O curse of old agai st J upiter . I t is only at the pening of

- our ideal drama , after his three thousand years of sleep ' unsheltered hours , that Prometheus the H uman M ind — utterly rejects these peccant elemen ts he says at last that he is changed so that aught evil wish is dead within , and he has no m emory of what is hate

It doth repent me words are q uick and va i n r r i G ief fo a while is blind , and so was m ne ' l ivm t t f I wish no g hing o su fer pain .

As we have already seen , this final superiority of the mind over its darker passions is the beginning of the downfall of

J upiter , and of the unbinding of Prometheus . In the third Act of the drama we find Prometheu s u nbound , and about to retire with Asia and their company into a cavern , which , as Prometheus avers , has a peculiar v irtue of bringing to itself the echoes of the human world , and the lovely apparitions i ti c ur r Of pa n ng , s ulpt e , and apt poesy, art t u t t And s , ho gh unimagined , ye o be .

This cavern 'we m ay not be far wrong in thinking) is — the cavern of the huma n mind the recesses of creative an d contemplative thought , vocal with hu man sympathy , fertile of human enlighten ment an d elevation . I t is ' ' the situated beyond I ndus and its tribute rivers , or in is traditional home of the intellectual Aryan race . This the same cavern in which Mother Earth , at the time when

Prometheus became the thrall and victi m of Jupiter , had t pan ed forth her spirit in anguish , and m en became mad ,

inhaling the breath of Earth , and raised there a temple : to J upiter, and hard by a temple also to Prometheus emblems of that confusion and perversion of thought when the aspirations of some of the sons of men struggle against 2 0 Y ’ SHELLE S PROME THE US UNE 'UND.

u the s perstitions and supernatural terrors of others . The plan of life which Prometheus lays out for himself and his companions i n the cavern sounds vague enough it consists in fact of mere mental and spiritual emotion , and creative or assimilative acts of thought— bodily energy has no place : in it in short , it is to be the life of the min d of man , and not of the faculties which he develops as an agent , either individually or in society . Therefore I agai n answer the question ' Who is Prometheus '' by saying ' H e is the ' M ind of M an . Or let us take an illustration from n m an zoological scie ce . As we all know, is zoologically ' H omo S o zens H omo defined as p . is his generic name , ’ ’ S o te ns f his specific name . Shelley s Prometheus then represents to us man in his species : he represents the ' S o zens m H omo p , as distinguished fro the generalized .

My third inquiry was to be Who is Asia '' This point is I think a little less clear. We might be inclined to regard the union of Prometheus and Asia as the union of

M ind and Body, or of M ind and Beauty , or of the I ntel lectual a nd the Emotional or Loving elements in the

H u man Soul . But all these definitions , though ad missible — in some partial degree , appear inadequate they d o not go m ’ far enough . It seems to e that M rs . Shelley s observa P rome the us U n bound tion , in her note to , is entirely right — : namely , that Asia symbolizes Nature . She says Asia , is : one of the Oceanides , the wife of Prometheus she was , according to other mythological interpretations , the same as Venus and Nature . When the benefactor of mankind is liberated , Nature resumes the beauty of her prime , and is united to her husband in perfect and happy ' union . Let us follow out this clue a little in detail . The first mention of Asia occurs in a speech of Pro m e the u s at the close of the first Act . H er sister Panthea replies saying

A i l And sia waits n that far Indian va e, The scene of her sad exile : rugged once t r z t r And desola e and f o en , like his avine u t r fl r rb B t now invested wi h fai owe s and he s , And haunted by sweet airs and sounds which flow r r t t r Among the woods and wate s , f om he e he r tr r r c u Of he ansfo ming p esence, whi h wo ld fade ' If it were mingled not with thine .

’ 2 2 Y S N SHELLE PROME THEUS UNBO U D.

to operate the downfall of J upiter, and when Asia and

Panthea , with the Spirit of the H our, are in the car , an d ' w pause within a cloud on the top of a sno y mountain , Panthea says that the beauty of her sister has becom e

almost unbearable . She also refers to that day of old ' ' when the clear hyaline was cloven at thy uprise, and w hen ' Love burst from thee and illumined earth and with o the r heaven , details which clearly enough apply to u Aphrodite or Ven s , thus identified as an embodiment , or

'to borrow a word from a different theosophy) an avatar ,

of Nature . This, as Panthea says , was before grief eclipsed the soul of Asia : now it is the whole world which seeks

her sympathy . The entire passage and its i magery bear u t ra n sfi u re m e iit pon that glorifying g of Nature which , S he ll e ia n in according to the idea this drama , accompanies ’ o m o ssu p p the liberation of the H uman M ind , Prometheus . Then a ' Voice in the Air ' addresses Asia as ' Life of ' Life Lamp of Earth all feel yet see thee never . ’ Next follows Asia s rapturous response, the transcendent ' w lyric, My soul is an enchanted boat ' hich can be

understood i n this connection , though it half evades , half

d . efies , analysis or exposition She has traversed in her

S - Y pirit guided course the regions of Age, Manhood , outh , ' and I nfancy , passing through Death and Birth to a d iviner day— peopled by shapes too bright to see —for

Nature is still , even in her utmost glory , a neophyte to the

- realms of super Nature .

After his u nbinding , Prometheus addresses Asia as light of life—shadow of beauty unbeheld a radiancy — a an d a mystery something known to the M ind of M an , and a something obscurely intimating the u nknown and u unknowable . This again is Nat re .

' And now for the fourth of our inquiries , Who is J upiter '' We have partly glan ced at this problem

— - already ' an d have seen what I will here re state with — more precision that , after Prometheus the H u man Mind

had given him , or had ascribed to him , wisdom , Jupiter a n d became the anthropomorphic God of theologians ' , by that selfsame act of the H uman M ind , J upiter became the

tyrant of humanity . Shelley 'as is abundantly evident m fro his drama and from other evidence) considered that , ’ Y N 2 SHELLE S PROME THEUS UNBO U D . 3

in ascribing wisdom to Jupiter, in clothing Jupiter with ' —o r the dominion of wide H eaven , as we may say 'for this is the essence of it) , in anthropomorphizing Deity the H u man M ind had com mitted a very great and a ru e fully fatal error : Shelley held that this anthropomorphi c

Deity does not really exist . Whether Shelley was right or wrong in this opinion I by no means discuss : I simply say that such was his opinion . The inference is obvious That the J upiter such as he subsisted by the act of the

H u man M ind , invested with wisdom and with the dominion of Heaven , was but a creation of the Human M ind , an d could continue to exist in that character and with that w potency only so long as the H uman M ind , hich he tormented , would tolerate his existence . The H uman

M ind , when first tortured by this recognized J upiter, had : the cursed him , and defied him as a Fiend at the close of ' ' three - thousand years of sleep - unsheltered hours the

H uman M ind substituted pity for hatred , and revoked the curse ' and the utter downfall of this wise and powerful — —all - but all - wise and all - powerful Jupiter i mmediately ensued . These several considerations lead us to strip the Jupiter of P rome tb e us U n bou nd of the wisdom and dominion which had been delegated to him by Prometheus the Hu man M ind : but they do not enable us to u nder — stand exactly what J upiter actually is what he was , let us say, before Prometheus had given him wisdom which is strength , and clothed him with the dominion of wide

Heaven . He must , at that antecedent epoch , have been some thing . One might at first be inclined to say that he — ’ was Time according to that phrase in Asia s speech , ' Saturn from whose throne Time fell , an envious shadow ' or that he was Fate—blind Destiny unimb ued with : wisdom but Demogorgon will not allow of this , for he speaks of certain powers clearly diverse from J upiter

Fa te T ime c c — , , O casion , Chan e, and Change to these t r u b t l ' All hings a e s bject u eterna Love .

I will therefore hazard another definition , and say that , as near as we can name him , J upiter is , in his own essence ,

Fortune , or the Vicissitude of the World . Fortune , a power destitute of what we call moral attributes , became , when invested by the H uman M ind with wisdom and Y ’S P R O M E T H E 2 4 SHELLE US UNBO UND.

m do inion , an anthropomorphic Deity 'and his operations ,

being in fact capricious and unregulated , turned , when

interpreted into acts of unlimited power guided by wisdom ,

i nto tyranny and evil . I t may be confessed that the dramatic position of Shelley ’s J upiter is an ambiguous and hardly a tenable ' dra ma tzs e rsona one . As a p he necessarily figures as wise ,

the sovereign of Heaven , and tyrannous to man . B ut 'i f I have correctly analysed the core of meaning in the ’ r drama) we know that he is e ally, in Shelley s conception ,

not wise nor the sovereign of Heaven , but only supposed to be so by Prometheus the M ind of Man in an initial stage of his own development ' an d he is not really

tyrannous to man , but only tyrannizing in and through the m M ind of Man , thus i mperfectly developed . This a b i uit g y is n ot inherent in the Greek legend , which , whether siding with J upiter or with Prometheus 'a point which may seem of some uncertainty) , contemplates both J upiter and

Prometheus as equally real , or at any rate as equally s ymbolic of a real relation of the facts . It is merely inherent in the re - interpretation of the Greek legend which - I Shelley adopts and dramatizes . must now leave for your more leisurely consideration these general da ta concerning P rometne us U n bou nd the J upiter of , an d must proceed to exhibit the details of the poem upon which my view is founded . n The very first words in our drama , spoke by Pro

m e the us . , tell us what Jupiter is H e is

r h a l i i Mona c of Gods and D emons , and al Sp r ts But one—who throng those bright and rolling worlds he is that suprem e entity which we have called the Vicissitude of the World he has also become the personal or anthropomorphic God of theology or of superstition ' but even so he is not the monarch of the one spirit , the i h - M ind of Man , wh c persists in exercising its free will , and

in protesting against the oppression of Vicissitude . We

may conceive him as an elemental an d spiritual deity, robed now in oppression because the M ind of Man

arbitrarily assigned to him wisdom , and dominion over the

con cerns of heaven and earth . Prometheus proceeds to ' m m s address hi as Al ighty , had I deigned to hare the ’ 2 SHELLE Y S PROM E THE US UNBO UND. 5 shame of thine ill tyranny i f the Mind of Man acquiesced i n all the evils that are done under the sun , if it ceased to ’ protest against wrong, J upiter s power woul d nowhere encounter any opposition . I n the colloquy 'so often referre d to) between Asia and Demogorgon , Asia asks , ' ' Who made terror , madness , crime , remorse , pain , and hell , or the sharp fear of hell , and other miserable evils of ' ' : the state of man and Demogorgon replies, He reigns ' - which is as much as to say Jupiter made them . T he Vicissitude of the World , construed as the will of the personal and anthropomorphic God , has produced these W scou rges of humankind . hen Asia presses Demogorgon to define the God of whom he ha d previously spoken as the is author of all good things in the world , whereas J upiter the author of evil things , Demogorgon replies

I spoke but as ye speak , Fo r i r l i Jove s the sup eme of iv ng things . This amounts to saying—There is no personal supreme : m being other than J upiter he , as a personal supre acy, : U in creates only evil the niverse , and that which is good — - it , subsist independently of him they are self subsisting, and did not come into being by any personal creative ’ act . Then the Spirit of the Hour of J upiter s downfall announces that Demogorgon ' shall wrap in lasting night ’ ' H eaven s kingless throne . Heaven will exist , and Earth : will exist but H eaven will be kingless , for J upiter will be gon e . I n the ensuing scene Jupiter himself speaks he declares that his antique empire is ' built on eldest ’ ' a f ith , and faith s coeval , fear. Not on love , not on truth , —o r is his empire built , but on faith and fear 'as we might paraphrase the terms) on credulity and superstitious : fl terror an unstable foundation , therefore a eeting ’ empire . And forthwith H eaven s thron e becomes king

less , for Demogorgon arrives, and J upiter sinks into end s t les no hingness ,

iz z il — D y down ever, for ever down .

m We need follow him n o further . As De ogorgon has j ust been announcing to J upiter

S r The ty anny of Heaven none may retain, r r ucc t ' Or eassume o hold , s eeding hee . ’ ' 2 Y .S H E 6 S HELLE PROMET US UNBO UND.

U nder the influence of the protest of Prom etheus the his H uman Mind , and of final forgiveness and pity, and u ne v ade ab l e at the fiat of Demogorgon , J upiter, the ' personal anthropomorphic S upreme of living things , is

gone, and his place knows him no more . — He sunk to the abyss to the dark void .

Our fifth and last inquiry was to be Who is D e m o go r '' gon To this there is, I suppose, only one answer, ’ D e m o o r o n s —he being g g own answer to Jupiter is Eternity . ' ' Jupiter asks , Awful Shape , what art thou Speak ' and

Demogorgon replies Eternity demand n o direr name . f w Beyond this decisive explanation , I need only cull a e

illustrative details . The first mention of Demogorgon is I h in that speech of M other Earth , in Act , w ere she says that there are two worlds of life and death—one of these

being a world of shadows , tenanted by the simulacra of in the agents the other living world, and among the ' ' m n shadows is Demogorgon, a tremendous gloo . Whe Asia and Panthea have reached the ' pinnacle of rock ' D e mo o r among mountains , they stand at the portal of g ’ gon s realm : hence an oracular vapour is hurled up which — men call truth , virtue , love , genius , or j oy the madden ' ing wine of life . These are mysterious utterances , : proper to a mysterious subject in a general way, we gather that the emotions or faculties thus referred to

emanate from eternity, and partake of its n ature . A Song of Spirits ' addressed to Asia and Panthea says ' n o w that the Eternal , the I mmortal , is to unloose the ' snake - like doom coiled underneath his throne : this

Eternal or I mmortal is none other than Demogorgon . I n m the interview with Jupiter , Demogorgon , im ediately after declaring that he is Eternity , adds ch l ’ l I am thy i d , as thou wert Saturn s chi d ,

Mightier than thee . And we must dwell together ' Henceforth in darkness.

As J upiter, the Vicissitude of the World and anthro o m o r hic p p God , succeeded Saturn , the author of Time and patriarchal ruler of a world of semi - humanized man kind so Demogorgon , Eternity , succeeds Jupiter . J upiter , W . e is merged into and abolished by Eternity can , I ’ Y S 2 SHELLE PROMETHE US UNBO UND. 7

’ think , at once seize some part of Shelley s thought in this assu mption to follow it out by laboured developm ent or a long trai n of ratiocination is no part of my u nder re - taking . In the final scene of all Demogorgon appears, ' ' a mighty Power which is as darkness . H e speaks , ' ' with an universal sound like words , to the Spirit of the ae Earth , the Spirit of the Moon , D mons an d Gods , the

Dead , the Elemental Genii , the Living Creatures and Plants ae m and Ph nomena of the Earth , and to Man and ter inates the great ideal dram a in the following words

hi is h hi h h i b T s t e day w c down t e vo d a ysm , ’ ’ h - ll At t e Earth born s spe , yawns for Heaven s despotism , A n t d Conquest is dragged cap ive through the de ep . i t l Love, from s awfu throne of patient power l i h In the wise heart , from the ast g ddy our r li Of dread endu ance, from the s ppery, steep , - i And narrow verge of crag like ony, spr ngs , l l its h i wi And fo ds over the wor d ng ngs .

s V i i Gentlene s , rtue, W sdom , and Endurance h l o f c These are t e sea s , that most firm assuran e Which bars the pit over Destruction ’s strength if i h i And , with nfirm and Etern ty, t s l Mo her of many act and hours , shou d free l ith hi l h The serpent that wou d clasp her w s engt , These are the spell s by which to reassume ir ’ t l An emp e o er he disentang ed doom . To suffer woes which hope thinks infinite To forgive wrongs darker than death or night To defy power whi ch seems omnipotent To love and bear to hope till hope creates From its own wreck the thing it contemplates N t a fal t t ei her to ch nge, nor er, nor repen l t This , ike thy glory , Ti an , is to be b i l Good , great, and joyous , eaut fu and free i l i i V This s a one L fe, Joy, Emp re, and ictory

m It will be observed that , in th is speech , De ogorgon refers to Eternity as i f it were something other than himself : he says

If th i h wi nfirm and Eternity , r u Mothe of many acts and hours , sho ld free l l h t i l n th The serpent that wou d c asp er wi h h s e g .

e This phras need not , however, lessen our conviction that m n De ogorgo symbolizes Eternity . H e is Eternity per — so nifie d p e rso n ifie d so far as a power which is as ’ 2 8 S H E L Z E V S N PROME THEUS UNBO U D .

darkness can be called personified : and he here speaks

of Eternity in its operations , under a different vei l of

personating words , mother of many acts and hours .

Ladies and Gentlemen , I have now accomplished my undertaking of considering the main outline and purport P rome theus U n bou nd of , under the head of its myth , and

u e rso n a e sfi P ro m e the us of its fo r primary p g , Asia, J upiter , an d Demogorgon 'and I have shown that 'according to

my view of the poem) Prometheus is the Mind of Man ,

Asia is Nature , J upiter is the Vicissitude of the World

transmuted into anthropomorphic deity, and Demogorgon : is Eternity. Here therefore I might conclude but , if you

will bear with me a very little longer, I will with utmost succinctness say a few more words to su m up the intel

lectual and moral bearing of a poem than which , as ’ ' B l o ehwood s M a a z ine v 1 8 2 0 im g a erred in , it is quite possible that there should exist a more pesti ferous mix ' ture of blasphemy, sedition , and sensuality . I read

it thus . U The niverse 'spoken of as H eaven , Earth , and Light)

- is eternal an d self existing : it had no creator . The U primary powers of the niverse, or 'as we may say) its spiritual functions , are Love, Fate , Occasion , Chance, and

Change . Of these n o beginning and no origin can be , M a il predicated , nor yet any end . O f , the earliest age is called the Saturnian Age, when Time became a factor un in the world . Men in that age, being intellectually a developed , lived natural and therefore so far a happy

m . U life , like ani als, or indeed like plants ltimately

H uman M ind was evolved , or, mythically speaking, Pro m e the us came into being, and was united to Nature, as in the espousals of m an and wife . One of the first acts of H uman M ind was to create a God in his own i mage : — s he assigned wisdom to Jupiter that is , to the Vicis itude — of the World and ascribed to him the domi nion o f e — H aven , stipulating only that man should be free free in will an d in act . The mere ani mal happiness, or natural : conformity , of man had lapsed with the birth of Mind under the theocracy which the mind of m a n had estab

’ lishe d . , everything went amiss The natural operations of the Vicissitude of the World , such as want , toil, and