“I did not live till now; this my first hour;
Wherein I see my thoughts reached by my power.
...
My roof receives me not; ’tis air I tread;
And, at each step, I feel my advanced head
Knock out a star in heaven!”
and so forth, with other hyperboles of frantic arrogance. His soliloquy is interrupted by messengers of ill news. Destruction dogs his path; and very soon the magniloquent braggart has to subdue his tone, and his cue is then to upbraid the higher powers whom alone he recognises:—
“If you will, Destinies, that after all,
I faint now ere I touch my period,
You are but cruel.”