Percy Bysshe Shelley: Cancelled Fragments of "Prometheus Unbound"

[First printed by Mr. C.D. Locock, "Examination of the Shelley
Manuscripts at the Bodleian Library", 1903, pages 33-7.]

(following 1._37.)
When thou descendst each night with open eyes
In torture, for a tyrant seldom sleeps,
Thou never; ...
...

(following 1._195.)
Which thou henceforth art doomed to interweave
...

(following the first two words of 1._342.)
[Of Hell:] I placed it in his choice to be
The crown, or trampled refuse of the world
With but one law itself a glorious boon—
I gave—
...

(following 1._707.)
SECOND SPIRIT:
I leaped on the wings of the Earth-star damp
As it rose on the steam of a slaughtered camp—
The sleeping newt heard not our tramp
As swift as the wings of fire may pass—
We threaded the points of long thick grass
Which hide the green pools of the morass
But shook a water-serpent's couch
In a cleft skull, of many such
The widest; at the meteor's touch
The snake did seem to see in dream
Thrones and dungeons overthrown
Visions how unlike his own...
'Twas the hope the prophecy
Which begins and ends in thee
...

(following 2.1._110.)
Lift up thine eyes Panthea—they pierce they burn

PANTHEA:
Alas! I am consumed—I melt away
The fire is in my heart—

ASIA:
Thine eyes burn burn!—
Hide them within thine hair—

PANTHEA:
O quench thy lips
I sink I perish

ASIA:
Shelter me now—they burn
It is his spirit in their orbs...my life
Is ebbing fast—I cannot speak—

PANTHEA:
Rest, rest!
Sleep death annihilation pain! aught else
...

(following 2.4._27.)
Or looks which tell that while the lips are calm
And the eyes cold, the spirit weeps within
Tears like the sanguine sweat of agony;
...

UNCANCELLED PASSAGE.
(following 2.5._71.)

ASIA:
You said that spirits spoke, but it was thee
Sweet sister, for even now thy curved lips
Tremble as if the sound were dying there
Not dead

PANTHEA:
Alas it was Prometheus spoke
Within me, and I know it must be so
I mixed my own weak nature with his love
...And my thoughts
Are like the many forests of a vale
Through which the might of whirlwind and of rain
Had passed—they rest rest through the evening light
As mine do now in thy beloved smile.

CANCELLED STAGE DIRECTIONS.
(following 1._221.)
[THE SOUND BENEATH AS OF EARTHQUAKE AND THE DRIVING OF WHIRLWINDS—THE
RAVINE IS SPLIT, AND THE PHANTASM OF JUPITER RISES, SURROUNDED BY
HEAVY CLOUDS WHICH DART FORTH LIGHTNING.]

(following 1._520.)
[ENTER RUSHING BY GROUPS OF HORRIBLE FORMS; THEY SPEAK AS THEY PASS IN
CHORUS.]

(following 1._552.)
[A SHADOW PASSES OVER THE SCENE, AND A PIERCING SHRIEK IS HEARD.]