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| committer | Roger Frank <rfrank@pglaf.org> | 2025-10-15 02:35:45 -0700 |
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You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Oedipus King of Thebes + Translated into English Rhyming Verse with Explanatory Notes + +Author: Sophocles + +Translator: Gilbert Murray + +Release Date: December 31, 2008 [EBook #27673] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OEDIPUS KING OF THEBES *** + + + + +Produced by Sigal Alon, Turgut Dincer, R. Cedron and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + + + + + +</pre> + + + +<h1>OEDIPUS</h1> + +<h1>KING OF THEBES</h1> + +<h4>BY</h4> + +<h2>SOPHOCLES</h2> + + +<h5>TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH RHYMING VERSE + +WITH EXPLANATORY NOTES BY + +<big>GILBERT MURRAY</big> + +LL.D., <span class="smcap">D.Litt.</span>, F.B.A. + +<small>REGIUS PROFESSOR OF GREEK IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD</small></h5> + + +<h5>FOURTEENTH THOUSAND</h5> + +<h4> +LONDON: GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD. +RUSKIN HOUSE 40 MUSEUM STREET, W.C.1 +</h4> + +<table width="60%" summary="editions" border="0"> +<tr> +<td class="left"><i>First published</i></td> +<td class="left"><i>February</i></td> +<td class="right"><i>1911</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="left"><i>Reprinted</i></td> +<td class="right"><i>January</i></td> +<td class="right"><i>1912</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="left"><i> " </i></td> +<td class="right"><i> " </i></td> +<td class="right"><i>1912</i></td> + +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="left"><i> " </i></td> +<td class="left"><i>February</i></td> +<td class="right"><i>1912</i></td> +</tr> +<tr> +<td class="left"><i> " </i></td> +<td class="left"><i>July</i></td> +<td class="right"><i>1917</i></td> +</tr> +</table> +<hr /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_v" id="Page_v">[Pg v]</a></span></p> + +<h4>PREFACE</h4> + + +<p>If I have turned aside from Euripides for a moment +and attempted a translation of the great stage masterpiece +of Sophocles, my excuse must be the fascination +of this play, which has thrown its spell on me as on +many other translators. Yet I may plead also that +as a rule every diligent student of these great works +can add something to the discoveries of his predecessors, +and I think I have been able to bring out +a few new points in the old and much-studied +<i>Oedipus</i>, chiefly points connected with the dramatic +technique and the religious atmosphere.</p> + +<p>Mythologists tell us that Oedipus was originally +a daemon haunting Mount Kithairon, and Jocasta a +form of that Earth-Mother who, as Aeschylus puts +it, "bringeth all things to being, and when she hath +reared them receiveth again their seed into her body" +(<i>Choephori</i>, 127: cf. Crusius, <i>Beiträge z. Gr. Myth</i>, +21). That stage of the story lies very far behind +the consciousness of Sophocles. But there does cling +about both his hero and his heroine a great deal of +very primitive atmosphere. There are traces in +Oedipus of the pre-hellenic Medicine King, the +<i>Basileus</i> who is also a <i>Theos</i>, and can make rain or +blue sky, pestilence or fertility. This explains many +things in the Priest's first speech, in the attitude +of the Chorus, and in Oedipus' own language after +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vi" id="Page_vi">[Pg vi]</a></span>the discovery. It partly explains the hostility of +Apollo, who is not a mere motiveless Destroyer but a +true Olympian crushing his Earth-born rival. And +in the same way the peculiar royalty of Jocasta, +which makes Oedipus at times seem not the King +but the Consort of the Queen, brings her near to +that class of consecrated queens described in Dr. +Frazer's <i>Lectures on the Kingship</i>, who are "honoured +as no woman now living on the earth."</p> + +<p>The story itself, and the whole spirit in which +Sophocles has treated it, belong not to the fifth century +but to that terrible and romantic past from +which the fifth century poets usually drew their +material. The atmosphere of brooding dread, the +pollution, the curses; the "insane and beastlike +cruelty," as an ancient Greek commentator calls it, +of piercing the exposed child's feet in order to ensure +its death and yet avoid having actually murdered it +(<i>Schol. Eur. Phoen.</i>, 26); the whole treatment of the +parricide and incest, not as moral offences capable of +being rationally judged or even excused as unintentional, +but as monstrous and inhuman pollutions, the +last limit of imaginable horror: all these things take +us back to dark regions of pre-classical and even pre-homeric +belief. We have no right to suppose that +Sophocles thought of the involuntary parricide and +metrogamy as the people in his play do. Indeed, considering +the general tone of his contemporaries and +friends, we may safely assume that he did not. But +at any rate he has allowed no breath of later enlightenment +to disturb the primaeval gloom of his +atmosphere.</p> + +<p>Does this in any way make the tragedy insincere? +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_vii" id="Page_vii">[Pg vii]</a></span>I think not. We know that people did feel and +think about "pollution" in the way which Sophocles +represents; and if they so felt, then the tragedy was +there.<br /><br /></p> + +<p>I think these considerations explain the remarkable +absence from this play of any criticism of life or +any definite moral judgment. I know that some +commentators have found in it a "humble and unquestioning +piety," but I cannot help suspecting that +what they saw was only a reflection from their own +pious and unquestioning minds. Man is indeed +shown as a "plaything of Gods," but of Gods strangely +and incomprehensibly malignant, whose ways there +is no attempt to explain or justify. The original +story, indeed, may have had one of its roots in a +Theban "moral tale." Aelian (<i>Varia Historia</i>, 2, 7) +tells us that the exposure of a child was forbidden by +Theban Law. The state of feeling which produced +this law, against the immensely strong conception +of the <i>patria potestas</i>, may also have produced a folklore +story telling how a boy once was exposed, in +a peculiarly cruel way, by his wicked parents, and +how Heaven preserved him to take upon both of +them a vengeance which showed that the unnatural +father had no longer a father's sanctity nor the unnatural +mother a mother's. But, as far as Sophocles +is concerned, if anything in the nature of a criticism +of life has been admitted into the play at all, it +seems to be only a flash or two of that profound and +pessimistic arraignment of the ruling powers which +in other plays also opens at times like a sudden abyss +across the smooth surface of his art.</p> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_viii" id="Page_viii">[Pg viii]</a></span>There is not much philosophy in the <i>Oedipus</i>. +There is not, in comparison with other Greek plays, +much pure poetry. What there is, is drama; drama +of amazing grandeur and power. In respect of plot +no Greek play comes near it. It contains no doubt +a few points of unsophisticated technique such as +can be found in all ancient and nearly all modern +drama; for instance, the supposition that Oedipus +has never inquired into the death of his predecessor +on the throne. But such flaws are external, not +essential. On the whole, I can only say that the +work of translation has made me feel even more +strongly than before the extraordinary grip and +reality of the dialogue, the deftness of the construction, +and, except perhaps for a slight drop in the Creon +scene, the unbroken crescendo of tragedy from the +opening to the close.<br /><br /></p> + + + +<p>Where plot-interest is as strong as it is in the +<i>Oedipus</i>, character-interest is apt to be comparatively +weak. Yet in this play every character is interesting, +vital, and distinct. Oedipus himself is selected by +Aristotle as the most effective kind of tragic hero, +because, first, he has been great and glorious, and +secondly he has not been "pre-eminently virtuous +or just." This is true in its way. Oedipus is too +passionate to be just; but he is at least noble in his +impetuosity, his devotion, and his absolute truthfulness. +It is important to realise that at the beginning +of the play he is prepared for an oracle commanding +him to die for his people (pp. 6, 7). And he never +thinks of refusing that "task" any more than he tries +to elude the doom that actually comes, or to conceal +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_ix" id="Page_ix">[Pg ix]</a></span>any fact that tells against him. If Oedipus had been +an ordinary man the play would have been a very +different and a much poorer thing.</p> + +<p>Jocasta is a wonderful study. Euripides might +have brought her character out more explicitly and +more at length, but even he could not have made her +more living or more tragic, or represented more subtly +in her relation to Oedipus both the mother's protecting +love and the mother's authority. As for her +"impiety," of which the old commentaries used to +speak with much disapproval, the essential fact in her +life is that both her innocence and her happiness have, +as she believes, been poisoned by the craft of priests. +She and Laïus both "believed a bad oracle": her +terror and her love for her husband made her consent +to an infamous act of cruelty to her own child, an act +of which the thought sickens her still, and about +which she cannot, when she tries, speak the whole +truth. (See note on p. 42.) And after all her crime +was for nothing! The oracle proved to be a lie. +Never again will she believe a priest.</p> + +<p>As to Tiresias, I wish to ask forgiveness for an unintelligent +criticism made twelve years ago in my +<i>Ancient Greek Literature</i>, p. 240. I assumed then, +what I fancy was a common assumption, that Tiresias +was a "sympathetic" prophet, compact of wisdom +and sanctity and all the qualities which beseem that +calling; and I complained that he did not consistently +act as such. I was quite wrong. Tiresias is not anything +so insipid. He is a study of a real type, and a +type which all the tragedians knew. The character +of the professional seer or "man of God" has in the +imagination of most ages fluctuated between two +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_x" id="Page_x">[Pg x]</a></span>poles. At one extreme are sanctity and superhuman +wisdom; at the other fraud and mental disease, self-worship +aping humility and personal malignity in the +guise of obedience to God. There is a touch of all +these qualities, good and bad alike, in Tiresias. He +seems to me a most life-like as well as a most dramatic +figure.</p> + +<p>As to the Chorus, it generally plays a smaller part +in Sophocles than in Euripides and Aeschylus, and +the <i>Oedipus</i> forms no exception to that rule. It seems +to me that Sophocles was feeling his way towards a +technique which would have approached that of the +New Comedy or even the Elizabethan stage, and +would perhaps have done without a Chorus altogether. +In Aeschylus Greek tragedy had been a thing of +traditional forms and clear-cut divisions; the religious +ritual showed through, and the visible gods and the +disguised dancers were allowed their full value. And +Euripides in the matter of outward formalism went +back to the Aeschylean type and even beyond it: +prologue, chorus, messenger, visible god, all the traditional +forms were left clear-cut and undisguised and +all developed to full effectiveness on separate and +specific lines. But Sophocles worked by blurring his +structural outlines just as he blurs the ends of his +verses. In him the traditional divisions are all made +less distinct, all worked over in the direction of +greater naturalness, at any rate in externals. This +was a very great gain, but of course some price had to +be paid for it. Part of the price was that Sophocles +could never attempt the tremendous choric effects +which Euripides achieves in such plays as the <i>Bacchae</i> +and the <i>Trojan Women</i>. His lyrics, great as they +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_xi" id="Page_xi">[Pg xi]</a></span>sometimes are, move their wings less boldly. They +seem somehow tied to their particular place in the +tragedy, and they have not quite the strength to lift +the whole drama bodily aloft with them.... At +least that is my feeling. But I realise that this may +be only the complaint of an unskilful translator, blaming +his material for his own defects of vision.</p> + +<p>In general, both in lyrics and in dialogue, I believe +I have allowed myself rather less freedom than in +translating Euripides. This is partly because the +writing of Euripides, being less business-like and +more penetrated by philosophic reflections and by +subtleties of technique, actually needs more thorough +re-casting to express it at all adequately; partly because +there is in Sophocles, amid all his passion and +all his naturalness, a certain severe and classic reticence, +which, though impossible really to reproduce by any +method, is less misrepresented by occasional insufficiency +than by habitual redundance.</p> + +<p>I have asked pardon for an ill deed done twelve +years ago. I should like to end by speaking of a +benefit older still, and express something of the gratitude +I feel to my old master, Francis Storr, whose +teaching is still vivid in my mind and who first opened +my eyes to the grandeur of the <i>Oedipus</i>.</p> + +<p class="quotsig">G. M.</p> +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_1" id="Page_1">[Pg 1]</a></span></p> + +<h3>CHARACTERS IN THE PLAY</h3> + + +<p class="indent"><span class="smcap">Oedipus</span>, <i>supposed son of Polybus, King of Corinth; now elected +King of Thebes.</i></p> + +<p class="indent"><span class="smcap">Jocasta</span>, <i>Queen of Thebes; widow of Laïus, the late King, and +now wife to Oedipus.</i></p> + +<p class="indent"><span class="smcap">Creon</span>, <i>a Prince of Thebes, brother to Jocasta.</i></p> + +<p class="indent"><span class="smcap">Tiresias</span>, <i>an old blind seer.</i></p> + +<p class="indent"><span class="smcap">Priest of Zeus.</span></p> + +<p class="indent"><span class="smcap">A Stranger</span> <i>from Corinth.</i></p> + +<p class="indent"><span class="smcap">A Shepherd</span> <i>of King Laïus.</i></p> + +<p class="indent"><span class="smcap">A Messenger</span> <i>from the Palace.</i></p> + +<p class="indent"><span class="smcap">Chorus</span> of the Elders of Thebes.</p> + +<p class="indent">A Crowd of Suppliants, men, women, and children.</p> + +<p><br />The following do not appear in the play but are frequently +mentioned:—</p> + +<p class="indent"><span class="smcap">Laïus</span> <i>(pronounced as three syllables, Lá-i-us), the last King of +Thebes before Oedipus.</i></p> + +<p class="indent"><span class="smcap">Cadmus</span>, <i>the founder of Thebes; son of Agênor, King of Sidon.</i></p> + +<p class="indent"><span class="smcap">Polybus and Meropê</span>, <i>King and Queen of Corinth, supposed to be +the father and mother of Oedipus.</i></p> + +<p class="indent"><span class="smcap">Apollo</span>, <i>the God specially presiding over the oracle of Delphi and +the island Delos: he is also called <span class="smcap">Phoebus</span>, the pure; <span class="smcap">Loxias</span>, +supposed to mean "He of the Crooked Words"; and <span class="smcap">Lykeios</span>, +supposed to mean "Wolf-God." He is also the great Averter +of Evil, and has names from the cries "I-ê" (pronounced +"Ee-ay") and "Paian," cries for healing or for the frightening +away of evil influences.</i></p> + +<p class="indent"><span class="smcap">Kithairon</span>, <i>a mass of wild mountain south-west of Thebes.</i></p> +<hr /> +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_2" id="Page_2">[Pg 2]</a></span></p> + +<h3>ARGUMENT</h3> + +<p>While Thebes was under the rule of <span class="smcap">Laïus</span> and <span class="smcap">Jocasta</span> +there appeared a strange and monstrous creature, "the +riddling Sphinx," "the She-Wolf of the woven song," who +in some unexplained way sang riddles of death and slew +the people of Thebes. <span class="smcap">Laïus</span> went to ask aid of the oracle +of Delphi, but was slain mysteriously on the road. Soon +afterwards there came to Thebes a young Prince of Corinth, +<span class="smcap">Oedipus</span>, who had left his home and was wandering. He +faced the Sphinx and read her riddle, whereupon she flung +herself from her rock and died. The throne being vacant +was offered to <span class="smcap">Oedipus</span>, and with it the hand of the Queen, +<span class="smcap">Jocasta</span>.</p> + +<p>Some ten or twelve years afterwards a pestilence has +fallen on Thebes. At this point the play begins.</p> + + +<p><i>The date of the first production of the play is not known, but was +probably about the year 425 <span class="smcap">B.C.</span></i></p> + +<hr /> + +<p><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_3" id="Page_3">[Pg 3]</a></span></p> + +<h2>OEDIPUS, KING OF THEBES</h2> + + +<p class="indent"><span class="smcap">Scene.</span>—<i>Before the Palace of <span class="smcap">Oedipus</span> at Thebes. A +crowd of suppliants of all ages are waiting by the +altar in front and on the steps of the Palace; among +them the <span class="smcap">Priest of Zeus</span>. As the Palace door opens +and <span class="smcap">Oedipus</span> comes out all the suppliants with a cry +move towards him in attitudes of prayer, holding +out their olive branches, and then become still again +as he speaks.</i></p> + +<div class="block"> + +<div class="poem"> +<div class="stanza"> +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus</span></span> +<span class="i0">My children, fruit of Cadmus' ancient tree</span> +<span class="i0">New springing, wherefore thus with bended knee</span> +<span class="i0">Press ye upon us, laden all with wreaths</span> +<span class="i0">And suppliant branches? And the city breathes</span> +<span class="i0">Heavy with incense, heavy with dim prayer</span> +<span class="i0">And shrieks to affright the Slayer.—Children, care</span> +<span class="i0">For this so moves me, I have scorned withal</span> +<span class="i0">Message or writing: seeing 'tis I ye call,</span> +<span class="i0">'Tis I am come, world-honoured Oedipus.</span> +<span class="i2">Old Man, do thou declare—the rest have thus</span> +<span class="i0">Their champion—in what mood stand ye so still,</span> +<span class="i0">In dread or sure hope? Know ye not, my will</span> +<span class="i0">Is yours for aid 'gainst all? Stern were indeed</span> +<span class="i0">The heart that felt not for so dire a need.</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_4" id="Page_4">vv. 15-39 [Pg 4]</a></span> +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Priest.</span></span> +<span class="i0">O Oedipus, who holdest in thy hand</span> +<span class="i0">My city, thou canst see what ages stand</span> +<span class="i0">At these thine altars; some whose little wing</span> +<span class="i0">Scarce flieth yet, and some with long living</span> +<span class="i0">O'erburdened; priests, as I of Zeus am priest,</span> +<span class="i0">And chosen youths: and wailing hath not ceased</span> +<span class="i0">Of thousands in the market-place, and by</span> +<span class="i0">Athena's two-fold temples and the dry</span> +<span class="i0">Ash of Ismênus' portent-breathing shore.</span> +<span class="i1">For all our ship, thou see'st, is weak and sore</span> +<span class="i0">Shaken with storms, and no more lighteneth</span> +<span class="i0">Her head above the waves whose trough is death.</span> +<span class="i0">She wasteth in the fruitless buds of earth,</span> +<span class="i0">In parchèd herds and travail without birth</span> +<span class="i0">Of dying women: yea, and midst of it</span> +<span class="i0">A burning and a loathly god hath lit</span> +<span class="i0">Sudden, and sweeps our land, this Plague of power;</span> +<span class="i0">Till Cadmus' house grows empty, hour by hour,</span> +<span class="i0">And Hell's house rich with steam of tears and blood.</span> +<span class="i1">O King, not God indeed nor peer to God</span> +<span class="i0">We deem thee, that we kneel before thine hearth,</span> +<span class="i0">Children and old men, praying; but of earth</span> +<span class="i0">A thing consummate by thy star confessed</span> +<span class="i0">Thou walkest and by converse with the blest;</span> +<span class="i0">Who came to Thebes so swift, and swept away</span> +<span class="i0">The Sphinx's song, the tribute of dismay,</span> +<span class="i0">That all were bowed beneath, and made us free.</span> +<span class="i0">A stranger, thou, naught knowing more than we,</span> +<span class="i0">Nor taught of any man, but by God's breath</span> +<span class="i0">Filled, thou didst raise our life. So the world saith;</span> +<span class="i0">So we say.</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_5" id="Page_5">vv. 40-69 [Pg 5]</a></span> +<span class="i5">Therefore now, O Lord and Chief,</span> +<span class="i0">We come to thee again; we lay our grief</span> +<span class="i0">On thy head, if thou find us not some aid.</span> +<span class="i0">Perchance thou hast heard Gods talking in the shade</span> +<span class="i0">Of night, or eke some man: to him that knows,</span> +<span class="i0">Men say, each chance that falls, each wind that blows</span> +<span class="i0">Hath life, when he seeks counsel. Up, O chief</span> +<span class="i0">Of men, and lift thy city from its grief;</span> +<span class="i0">Face thine own peril! All our land doth hold</span> +<span class="i0">Thee still our saviour, for that help of old:</span> +<span class="i0">Shall they that tell of thee hereafter tell</span> +<span class="i0">"By him was Thebes raised up, and after fell!"</span> +<span class="i0">Nay, lift us till we slip no more. Oh, let</span> +<span class="i0">That bird of old that made us fortunate</span> +<span class="i0">Wing back; be thou our Oedipus again.</span> +<span class="i0">And let thy kingdom be a land of men,</span> +<span class="i0">Not emptiness. Walls, towers, and ships, they all</span> +<span class="i0">Are nothing with no men to keep the wall.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">My poor, poor children! Surely long ago</span> +<span class="i0">I have read your trouble. Stricken, well I know,</span> +<span class="i0">Ye all are, stricken sore: yet verily</span> +<span class="i0">Not one so stricken to the heart as I.</span> +<span class="i0">Your grief, it cometh to each man apart</span> +<span class="i0">For his own loss, none other's; but this heart</span> +<span class="i0">For thee and me and all of us doth weep.</span> +<span class="i0">Wherefore it is not to one sunk in sleep</span> +<span class="i0">Ye come with waking. Many tears these days</span> +<span class="i0">For your sake I have wept, and many ways</span> +<span class="i0">Have wandered on the beating wings of thought.</span> +<span class="i0">And, finding but one hope, that I have sought</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_6" id="Page_6">vv. 70-86 [Pg 6]</a></span> +<span class="i0">And followed. I have sent Menoikeus' son,</span> +<span class="i0">Creon, my own wife's brother, forth alone</span> +<span class="i0">To Apollo's House in Delphi, there to ask</span> +<span class="i0">What word, what deed of mine, what bitter task,</span> +<span class="i0">May save my city.</span> +<span class="i8">And the lapse of days</span> +<span class="i0">Reckoned, I can but marvel what delays</span> +<span class="i0">His journey. 'Tis beyond all thought that thus</span> +<span class="i0">He comes not, beyond need. But when he does,</span> +<span class="i0">Then call me false and traitor, if I flee</span> +<span class="i0">Back from whatever task God sheweth me.</span> +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Priest.</span></span> +<span class="i0">At point of time thou speakest. Mark the cheer</span> +<span class="i0">Yonder. Is that not Creon drawing near?</span> +<span class="i6">[<i>They all crowd to gaze where <span class="smcap">Creon</span> is +approaching in the distance.</i></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">O Lord Apollo, help! And be the star</span> +<span class="i0">That guides him joyous as his seemings are!</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Priest.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Oh! surely joyous! How else should he bear</span> +<span class="i0">That fruited laurel wreathed about his hair?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">We soon shall know.—'Tis not too far for one</span> +<span class="i0">Clear-voiced.</span> + +<span class="i0"> (<i>Shouting</i>) Ho, brother! Prince! Menoikeus' son,</span> +<span class="i0">What message from the God?</span> +<span class="ia"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_7" id="Page_7">vv. 87-99 [Pg 7]</a></span> +<span class="smcap">Creon</span> (<i>from a distance</i>).</span> + +<span class="i12">Message of joy!</span> + +<span class="ia"><i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Creon</span></span> + +<span class="i0">I tell thee, what is now our worst annoy,</span> +<span class="i0">If the right deed be done, shall turn to good.</span> + +<span class="i3">[<i>The crowd, which has been full of excited +hope, falls to doubt and disappointment.</i></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Nay, but what is the message? For my blood</span> +<span class="i0">Runs neither hot nor cold for words like those.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Shall I speak now, with all these pressing close,</span> +<span class="i0">Or pass within?—To me both ways are fair.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Speak forth to all! The grief that these men bear</span> +<span class="i0">Is more than any fear for mine own death.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">I speak then what I heard from God.—Thus saith</span> +<span class="i0">Phoebus, our Lord and Seer, in clear command.</span> +<span class="i0">An unclean thing there is, hid in our land,</span> +<span class="i0">Eating the soil thereof: this ye shall cast</span> +<span class="i0">Out, and not foster till all help be past.</span> + + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">How cast it out? What was the evil deed?</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_8" id="Page_8">vv. 100-113 [Pg 8]</a></span> +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Hunt the men out from Thebes, or make them bleed</span> +<span class="i0">Who slew. For blood it is that stirs to-day.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Who was the man they killed? Doth Phoebus say?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">O King, there was of old King Laïus</span> +<span class="i0">In Thebes, ere thou didst come to pilot us.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">I know: not that I ever saw his face.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">'Twas he. And Loxias now bids us trace</span> +<span class="i0">And smite the unknown workers of his fall.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Where in God's earth are they? Or how withal</span> +<span class="i0">Find the blurred trail of such an ancient stain?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">In Thebes, he said.—That which men seek amain</span> +<span class="i0">They find. 'Tis things forgotten that go by.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">And where did Laïus meet them? Did he die</span> +<span class="i0">In Thebes, or in the hills, or some far land?</span> + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_9" id="Page_9">vv. 114-127 [Pg 9]</a></span> + + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">To ask God's will in Delphi he had planned</span> +<span class="i0">His journey. Started and returned no more.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">And came there nothing back? No message, nor</span> +<span class="i0">None of his company, that ye might hear?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">They all were slain, save one man; blind with fear</span> +<span class="i0">He came, remembering naught—or almost naught.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">And what was that? One thing has often brought</span> +<span class="i0">Others, could we but catch one little clue.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">'Twas not one man, 'twas robbers—that he knew—</span> +<span class="i0">Who barred the road and slew him: a great band.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Robbers?... What robber, save the work was planned</span> +<span class="i0">By treason here, would dare a risk so plain?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">So some men thought. But Laïus lay slain,</span> +<span class="i0">And none to avenge him in his evil day.</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_10" id="Page_10">vv. 128-148 [Pg 10]</a></span> +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">And what strange mischief, when your master lay</span> +<span class="i0">Thus fallen, held you back from search and deed?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">The dark-songed Sphinx was here. We had no heed</span> +<span class="i0">Of distant sorrows, having death so near.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">It falls on me then. I will search and clear</span> +<span class="i0">This darkness.—Well hath Phoebus done, and thou</span> +<span class="i0">Too, to recall that dead king, even now,</span> +<span class="i0">And with you for the right I also stand,</span> +<span class="i0">To obey the God and succour this dear land.</span> +<span class="i0">Nor is it as for one that touches me</span> +<span class="i0">Far off; 'tis for mine own sake I must see</span> +<span class="i0">This sin cast out. Whoe'er it was that slew</span> +<span class="i0">Laïus, the same wild hand may seek me too:</span> +<span class="i0">And caring thus for Laïus, is but care</span> +<span class="i0">For mine own blood.—Up! Leave this altar-stair,</span> +<span class="i0">Children. Take from it every suppliant bough.</span> +<span class="i0">Then call the folk of Thebes. Say, 'tis my vow</span> +<span class="i0">To uphold them to the end. So God shall crown</span> +<span class="i0">Our greatness, or for ever cast us down.</span> + +<span class="i10">[<i>He goes in to the Palace.</i></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Priest.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">My children, rise.—The King most lovingly</span> +<span class="i0">Hath promised all we came for. And may He</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_11" id="Page_11">vv. 149-161 [Pg 11]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Who sent this answer, Phoebus, come confessed</span> +<span class="i0">Helper to Thebes, and strong to stay the pest.</span> + +<span class="i3">[<i>The suppliants gather up their boughs and +stand at the side. The chorus of Theban +elders enter.</i></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Chorus.</span></span> + +<span class="i3">[<i>They speak of the Oracle which they have not +yet heard, and cry to</i> <span class="smcap">Apollo</span><i> by his +special cry "I-ê."</i></span> + +<span class="i1">A Voice, a Voice, that is borne on the Holy Way!</span> +<span class="i0">What art thou, O Heavenly One, O Word of the Houses of Gold?</span> +<span class="i0">Thebes is bright with thee, and my heart it leapeth; yet is it cold,</span> +<span class="i3">And my spirit faints as I pray.</span> +<span class="i5">I-ê! I-ê!</span> +<span class="i0">What task, O Affrighter of Evil, what task shall thy people essay?</span> +<span class="i3">One new as our new-come affliction,</span> +<span class="i4">Or an old toil returned with the years?</span> +<span class="i3">Unveil thee, thou dread benediction,</span> +<span class="i4">Hope's daughter and Fear's.</span> +<span class="i0"> </span> +<span class="i3">[<i>They pray to</i> <span class="smcap">Athena</span>, <span class="smcap">Artemis</span>,<i> and</i> +<span class="smcap">Apollo.</span></span> + +<span class="i1">Zeus-Child that knowest not death, to thee I pray,</span> +<span class="i0">O Pallas; next to thy Sister, who calleth Thebes her own,</span> +<span class="i0">Artemis, named of Fair Voices, who sitteth her orbèd throne</span> +<span class="i2">In the throng of the market way:</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_12" id="Page_12">vv. 162-189 [Pg 12]</a></span> +<span class="i5">And I-ê! I-ê!</span> +<span class="i0">Apollo, the Pure, the Far-smiter; O Three that keep evil away,</span> +<span class="i1">If of old for our city's desire,</span> +<span class="i2">When the death-cloud hung close to her brow,</span> +<span class="i1">Ye have banished the wound and the fire,</span> +<span class="i2">Oh! come to us now!</span> +<span class="i0"> </span> +<span class="i10">[<i>They tell of the Pestilence.</i></span> + +<span class="i0">Wounds beyond telling; my people sick unto death;</span> +<span class="i1">And where is the counsellor, where is the sword of thought?</span> +<span class="i0">And Holy Earth in her increase perisheth:</span> +<span class="i1">The child dies and the mother awaketh not.</span> +<span class="i5">I-ê! I-ê!</span> +<span class="i0">We have seen them, one on another, gone as a bird is gone,</span> +<span class="i1">Souls that are flame; yea, higher,</span> +<span class="i1">Swifter they pass than fire,</span> +<span class="i2">To the rocks of the dying Sun.</span> +<span class="i0"> </span> + +<span class="i5">[<i>They end by a prayer to</i> <span class="smcap">Athena</span>,</span> + +<span class="i0">Their city wasteth unnumbered; their children lie</span> +<span class="i1">Where death hath cast them, unpitied, unwept upon.</span> +<span class="i0">The altars stand, as in seas of storm a high</span> +<span class="i1">Rock standeth, and wives and mothers grey thereon</span> +<span class="i5">Weep, weep and pray.</span> +<span class="i0">Lo, joy-cries to fright the Destroyer; a flash in the dark they rise,</span> +<span class="i2">Then die by the sobs overladen.</span> +<span class="i2">Send help, O heaven-born Maiden,</span> +<span class="i3">Let us look on the light of her eyes!</span> + +<span class="i5"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_13" id="Page_13">vv. 190-217 [Pg 13]</a></span>[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Zeus</span>, <i>that he drive out the Slayer,</i></span> + +<span class="i2">And Ares, the abhorred</span> +<span class="i2">Slayer, who bears no sword,</span> +<span class="i1">But shrieking, wrapped in fire, stands over me,</span> +<span class="i2">Make that he turn, yea, fly</span> +<span class="i2">Broken, wind-wasted, high</span> +<span class="i1">Down the vexed hollow of the Vaster Sea;</span> +<span class="i2">Or back to his own Thrace,</span> +<span class="i2">To harbour shelterless.</span> +<span class="i1">Where Night hath spared, he bringeth end by day.</span> +<span class="i2">Him, Him, O thou whose hand</span> +<span class="i2">Beareth the lightning brand,</span> +<span class="i0">O Father Zeus, now with thy thunder, slay and slay!</span> + +<span class="i4">[<i>To</i> <span class="smcap">Apollo</span>, <span class="smcap">Artemis</span>, <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Dionysus</span>.</span> + +<span class="i2">Where is thy gold-strung bow,</span> +<span class="i2">O Wolf-god, where the flow</span> +<span class="i1">Of living shafts unconquered, from all ills</span> +<span class="i2">Our helpers? Where the white</span> +<span class="i2">Spears of thy Sister's light,</span> +<span class="i1">Far-flashing as she walks the wolf-wild hills?</span> +<span class="i2">And thou, O Golden-crown,</span> +<span class="i2">Theban and named our own,</span> +<span class="i1">O Wine-gleam, Voice of Joy, for ever more</span> +<span class="i1_5">Ringed with thy Maenads white,</span> +<span class="i1_5">Bacchus, draw near and smite,</span> +<span class="i0">Smite with thy glad-eyed flame the God whom Gods abhor.</span> + +<span class="i5">[<i>During the last lines</i> <span class="smcap">Oedipus</span> <i>has +come out from the Palace.</i></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Thou prayest: but my words if thou wilt hear</span> +<span class="i0">And bow thee to their judgement, strength is near</span> +<span class="i0"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_14" id="Page_14">vv. 218-245 [Pg 14]</a></span>For help, and a great lightening of ill.</span> +<span class="i0">Thereof I come to speak, a stranger still</span> +<span class="i0">To all this tale, a stranger to the deed:</span> +<span class="i0">(Else, save that I were clueless, little need</span> +<span class="i0">Had I to cast my net so wide and far:)</span> +<span class="i0">Howbeit, I, being now as all ye are,</span> +<span class="i0">A Theban, to all Thebans high and low</span> +<span class="i0">Do make proclaim: if any here doth know</span> +<span class="i0">By what man's hand died Laïus, your King,</span> +<span class="i0">Labdacus' son, I charge him that he bring</span> +<span class="i0">To me his knowledge. Let him feel no fear</span> +<span class="i0">If on a townsman's body he must clear</span> +<span class="i0">Our guilt: the man shall suffer no great ill,</span> +<span class="i0">But pass from Thebes, and live where else he will.</span> + +<span class="i12">[<i>No answer.</i></span> + +<span class="i0">Is it some alien from an alien shore</span> +<span class="i0">Ye know to have done the deed, screen him no more!</span> +<span class="i0">Good guerdon waits you now and a King's love</span> +<span class="i0">Hereafter.</span> +<span class="i6">Hah! If still ye will not move</span> +<span class="i0">But, fearing for yourselves or some near friend,</span> +<span class="i0">Reject my charge, then hearken to what end</span> +<span class="i0">Ye drive me.—If in this place men there be</span> +<span class="i0">Who know and speak not, lo, I make decree</span> +<span class="i0">That, while in Thebes I bear the diadem,</span> +<span class="i0">No man shall greet, no man shall shelter them,</span> +<span class="i0">Nor give them water in their thirst, nor share</span> +<span class="i0">In sacrifice nor shrift nor dying prayer,</span> +<span class="i0">But thrust them from our doors, the thing they hide</span> +<span class="i0">Being this land's curse. Thus hath the God replied</span> +<span class="i0">This day to me from Delphi, and my sword</span> +<span class="i0">I draw thus for the dead and for God's word.</span> + +<span class="i1"><span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_15" id="Page_15">vv. 246-273 [Pg 15]</a></span>And lastly for the murderer, be it one</span> +<span class="i0">Hiding alone or more in unison,</span> +<span class="i0">I speak on him this curse: even as his soul</span> +<span class="i0">Is foul within him let his days be foul,</span> +<span class="i0">And life unfriended grind him till he die.</span> +<span class="i0">More: if he ever tread my hearth and I</span> +<span class="i0">Know it, be every curse upon my head</span> +<span class="i0">That I have spoke this day.</span> +<span class="i12">All I have said</span> +<span class="i0">I charge ye strictly to fulfil and make</span> +<span class="i0">Perfect, for my sake, for Apollo's sake,</span> +<span class="i0">And this land's sake, deserted of her fruit</span> +<span class="i0">And cast out from her gods. Nay, were all mute</span> +<span class="i0">At Delphi, still 'twere strange to leave the thing</span> +<span class="i0">Unfollowed, when a true man and a King</span> +<span class="i0">Lay murdered. All should search. But I, as now</span> +<span class="i0">Our fortunes fall—his crown is on my brow,</span> +<span class="i0">His wife lies in my arms, and common fate,</span> +<span class="i0">Had but his issue been more fortunate,</span> +<span class="i0">Might well have joined our children—since this red</span> +<span class="i0">Chance hath so stamped its heel on Laïus' head,</span> +<span class="i0">I am his champion left, and, as I would</span> +<span class="i0">For mine own father, choose for ill or good</span> +<span class="i0">This quest, to find the man who slew of yore</span> +<span class="i0">Labdacus' son, the son of Polydore,</span> +<span class="i0">Son of great Cadmus whom Agenor old</span> +<span class="i0">Begat, of Thebes first master. And, behold,</span> +<span class="i0">For them that aid me not, I pray no root</span> +<span class="i0">Nor seed in earth may bear them corn nor fruit,</span> +<span class="i0">No wife bear children, but this present curse</span> +<span class="i0">Cleave to them close and other woes yet worse.</span> +<span class="i1">Enough: ye other people of the land,</span> + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_16" id="Page_16">vv. 274-289 [Pg 16]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Whose will is one with mine, may Justice stand</span> +<span class="i0">Your helper, and all gods for evermore.</span> + +<span class="i12">[<i>The crowd disperses.</i></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Leader.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">O King, even while thy curse yet hovers o'er</span> +<span class="i0">My head, I answer thee. I slew him not,</span> +<span class="i0">Nor can I shew the slayer. But, God wot,</span> +<span class="i0">If Phoebus sends this charge, let Phoebus read</span> +<span class="i0">Its meaning and reveal who did the deed.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Aye, that were just, if of his grace he would</span> +<span class="i0">Reveal it. How shall man compel his God?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Leader.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Second to that, methinks, 'twould help us most ...</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Though it be third, speak! Nothing should be lost.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Leader.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">To our High Seer on earth vision is given</span> +<span class="i0">Most like to that High Phoebus hath in heaven.</span> +<span class="i0">Ask of Tiresias: he could tell thee true.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">That also have I thought for. Aye, and two</span> +<span class="i0">Heralds have sent ere now. 'Twas Creon set</span> +<span class="i0">Me on.—I marvel that he comes not yet.</span> + + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">vv. 290-301 [Pg 17]</a></span> +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Leader.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Our other clues are weak, old signs and far.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">What signs? I needs must question all that are.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Leader.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Some travellers slew him, the tale used to be.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">The tale, yes: but the witness, where is he?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Leader.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">The man hath heard thy curses. If he knows</span> +<span class="i0">The taste of fear, he will not long stay close.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">He fear my words, who never feared the deed?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Leader.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Well, there is one shall find him.—See, they lead</span> +<span class="i0">Hither our Lord Tiresias, in whose mind</span> +<span class="i0">All truth is born, alone of human kind.</span> + +<span class="i0"><i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Tiresias</span> <i>led by a young disciple. He is an old +blind man in a prophet's robe, dark, unkempt and +sinister in appearance.</i></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Tiresias, thou whose mind divineth well</span> +<span class="i0">All Truth, the spoken and the unspeakable,</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_18" id="Page_18">vv. 302-321 [Pg 18]</a></span> + +<span class="i0">The things of heaven and them that walk the earth;</span> +<span class="i0">Our city ... thou canst see, for all thy dearth</span> +<span class="i0">Of outward eyes, what clouds are over her.</span> +<span class="i0">In which, O gracious Lord, no minister</span> +<span class="i0">Of help, no champion, can we find at all</span> +<span class="i0">Save thee. For Phoebus—thou hast heard withal</span> +<span class="i0">His message—to our envoy hath decreed</span> +<span class="i0">One only way of help in this great need:</span> +<span class="i0">To find and smite with death or banishing,</span> +<span class="i0">Him who smote Laïus, our ancient King.</span> +<span class="i0">Oh, grudge us nothing! Question every cry</span> +<span class="i0">Of birds, and all roads else of prophecy</span> +<span class="i0">Thou knowest. Save our city: save thine own</span> +<span class="i0">Greatness: save me; save all that yet doth groan</span> +<span class="i0">Under the dead man's wrong! Lo, in thy hand</span> +<span class="i0">We lay us. And, methinks, no work so grand</span> +<span class="i0">Hath man yet compassed, as, with all he can</span> +<span class="i0">Of chance or power, to help his fellow man.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Tiresias</span> (<i>to himself</i>).</span> + +<span class="i0">Ah me!</span> +<span class="i0">A fearful thing is knowledge, when to know</span> +<span class="i0">Helpeth no end. I knew this long ago,</span> +<span class="i0">But crushed it dead. Else had I never come.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">What means this? Comest thou so deep in gloom?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Tiresias.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Let me go back! Thy work shall weigh on thee</span> +<span class="i0">The less, if thou consent, and mine on me.</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_19" id="Page_19">vv. 322-336 [Pg 19]</a></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Prophet, this is not lawful; nay, nor kind</span> +<span class="i0">To Thebes, who feeds thee, thus to veil thy mind.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Tiresias.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">'Tis that I like not thy mind, nor the way</span> +<span class="i0">It goeth. Therefore, lest I also stray....</span> + +<span class="i4">[<i>He moves to go off.</i> <span class="smcap">Oedipus</span> <i>bars his road.</i></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Thou shalt not, knowing, turn and leave us! See,</span> +<span class="i0">We all implore thee, all, on bended knee.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Tiresias.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">All without light!—And never light shall shine</span> +<span class="i0">On this dark evil that is mine ... and thine.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">What wilt thou? Know and speak not? In my need</span> +<span class="i0">Be false to me, and let thy city bleed?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Tiresias.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">I will not wound myself nor thee. Why seek</span> +<span class="i0">To trap and question me? I will not speak.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Thou devil!</span> + +<span class="i7">[<i>Movement of</i> <span class="smcap">Leader</span> <i>to check him.</i></span> + +<span class="i6">Nay; the wrath of any stone</span> +<span class="i0">Would rise at him. It lies with thee to have done</span> +<span class="i0">And speak. Is there no melting in thine eyes!</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_20" id="Page_20">vv. 337-351 [Pg 20]</a></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Tiresias.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Naught lies with me! With thee, with thee there lies,</span> +<span class="i0">I warrant, what thou ne'er hast seen nor guessed.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus</span> (<i>to</i> <span class="smcap">Leader</span>, <i>who tries to calm him.</i>)</span> + +<span class="i0">How can I hear such talk?—he maketh jest</span> +<span class="i0">Of the land's woe—and keep mine anger dumb?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Tiresias.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Howe'er I hold it back, 'twill come, 'twill come.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">The more shouldst thou declare it to thy King.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Tiresias.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">I speak no more. For thee, if passioning</span> +<span class="i0">Doth comfort thee, on, passion to thy fill!</span> + +<span class="i12">[<i>He moves to go.</i></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">'Fore God, I am in wrath; and speak I will,</span> +<span class="i0">Nor stint what I see clear. 'Twas thou, 'twas thou,</span> +<span class="i0">Didst plan this murder; aye, and, save the blow,</span> +<span class="i0">Wrought it.—I know thou art blind; else I could swear</span> +<span class="i0">Thou, and thou only, art the murderer.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Tiresias</span> (<i>returning</i>).</span> + +<span class="i0">So?—I command thee by thine own word's power,</span> +<span class="i0">To stand accurst, and never from this hour</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_21" id="Page_21">vv. 352-363 [Pg 21]</a></span> + +<span class="i0">Speak word to me, nor yet to these who ring</span> +<span class="i0">Thy throne. Thou art thyself the unclean thing.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Thou front of brass, to fling out injury</span> +<span class="i0">So wild! Dost think to bate me and go free?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Tiresias.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">I am free. The strong truth is in this heart.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">What prompted thee? I swear 'twas not thine art.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Tiresias.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">'Twas thou. I spoke not, save for thy command.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Spoke what? What was it? Let me understand.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Tiresias.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Dost tempt me? Were my words before not plain!</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Scarce thy full meaning. Speak the words again.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Tiresias.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Thou seek'st this man of blood: Thyself art he.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">'Twill cost thee dear, twice to have stabbed at me!</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_22" id="Page_22">vv. 364-377 [Pg 22]</a></span> + + + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Tiresias.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Shall I say more, to see thee rage again?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Oh, take thy fill of speech: 'twill all be vain.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Tiresias.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Thou livest with those near to thee in shame</span> +<span class="i0">Most deadly, seeing not thyself nor them.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Thou think'st 'twill help thee, thus to speak and speak?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Tiresias.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Surely, until the strength of Truth be weak.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">'Tis weak to none save thee. Thou hast no part</span> +<span class="i0">In truth, thou blind man, blind eyes, ears and heart.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Tiresias.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">More blind, more sad thy words of scorn, which none</span> +<span class="i0">Who hears but shall cast back on thee: soon, soon.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Thou spawn of Night, not I nor any free</span> +<span class="i0">And seeing man would hurt a thing like thee.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Tiresias.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">God is enough.—'Tis not my doom to fall</span> +<span class="i0">By thee. He knows and shall accomplish all.</span> + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_23" id="Page_23">vv. 378-402 [Pg 23]</a></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus</span> (<i>with a flash of discovery</i>).</span> + +<span class="i0">Ha! Creon!—Is it his or thine, this plot?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Tiresias.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">'Tis thyself hates thee. Creon hates thee not.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">O wealth and majesty, O conquering skill</span> +<span class="i0">That carved life's rebel pathways to my will,</span> +<span class="i0">What is your heart but bitterness, if now</span> +<span class="i0">For this poor crown Thebes bound upon my brow,</span> +<span class="i0">A gift, a thing I sought not—for this crown</span> +<span class="i0">Creon the stern and true, Creon mine own</span> +<span class="i0">Comrade, comes creeping in the dark to ban</span> +<span class="i0">And slay me; sending first this magic-man</span> +<span class="i0">And schemer, this false beggar-priest, whose eye</span> +<span class="i0">Is bright for gold and blind for prophecy?</span> +<span class="i0">Speak, thou. When hast thou ever shown thee strong</span> +<span class="i0">For aid? The She-Wolf of the woven song</span> +<span class="i0">Came, and thy art could find no word, no breath,</span> +<span class="i0">To save thy people from her riddling death.</span> +<span class="i0">'Twas scarce a secret, that, for common men</span> +<span class="i0">To unravel. There was need of Seer-craft then.</span> +<span class="i0">And thou hadst none to show. No fowl, no flame,</span> +<span class="i0">No God revealed it thee. 'Twas I that came,</span> +<span class="i0">Rude Oedipus, unlearned in wizard's lore,</span> +<span class="i0">And read her secret, and she spoke no more.</span> +<span class="i0">Whom now thou thinkest to hunt out, and stand</span> +<span class="i0">Foremost in honour at King Creon's hand.</span> +<span class="i0">I think ye will be sorry, thou and he</span> +<span class="i0">That shares thy sin-hunt. Thou dost look to me</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_24" id="Page_24">vv. 403-424 [Pg 24]</a></span> + +<span class="i0">An old man; else, I swear this day should bring</span> +<span class="i0">On thee the death thou plottest for thy King.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Leader.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Lord Oedipus, these be but words of wrath,</span> +<span class="i0">All thou hast spoke and all the Prophet hath.</span> +<span class="i0">Which skills not. We must join, for ill or well,</span> +<span class="i0">In search how best to obey God's oracle.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Tiresias.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">King though thou art, thou needs must bear the right</span> +<span class="i0">Of equal answer. Even in me is might</span> +<span class="i0">For thus much, seeing I live no thrall of thine,</span> +<span class="i0">But Lord Apollo's; neither do I sign</span> +<span class="i0">Where Creon bids me.</span> +<span class="i10">I am blind, and thou</span> +<span class="i0">Hast mocked my blindness. Yea, I will speak now.</span> +<span class="i0">Eyes hast thou, but thy deeds thou canst not see</span> +<span class="i0">Nor where thou art, nor what things dwell with thee.</span> +<span class="i0">Whence art thou born? Thou know'st not; and unknown,</span> +<span class="i0">On quick and dead, on all that were thine own,</span> +<span class="i0">Thou hast wrought hate. For that across thy path</span> +<span class="i0">Rising, a mother's and a father's wrath,</span> +<span class="i0">Two-handed, shod with fire, from the haunts of men</span> +<span class="i0">Shall scourge thee, in thine eyes now light, but then</span> +<span class="i0">Darkness. Aye, shriek! What harbour of the sea,</span> +<span class="i0">What wild Kithairon shall not cry to thee</span> +<span class="i0">In answer, when thou hear'st what bridal song,</span> +<span class="i0">What wind among the torches, bore thy strong</span> +<span class="i0">Sail to its haven, not of peace but blood.</span> +<span class="i0">Yea, ill things multitude on multitude</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_25" id="Page_25">vv. 425-438 [Pg 25]</a></span> + +<span class="i0">Thou seest not, which so soon shall lay thee low,</span> +<span class="i0">Low as thyself, low as thy children.—Go,</span> +<span class="i0">Heap scorn on Creon and my lips withal:</span> +<span class="i0">For this I tell thee, never was there fall</span> +<span class="i0">Of pride, nor shall be, like to thine this day.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">To brook such words from this thing? Out, I say!</span> +<span class="i0">Out to perdition! Aye, and quick, before ... </span> + +<span class="i8">[<i>The</i> <span class="smcap">Leader</span> <i>restrains him.</i></span> + +<span class="i0">Enough then!—Turn and get thee from my door.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Tiresias.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">I had not come hadst thou not called me here.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">I knew thee not so dark a fool. I swear</span> +<span class="i0">'Twere long before I called thee, had I known.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Tiresias.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Fool, say'st thou? Am I truly such an one?</span> +<span class="i0">The two who gave thee birth, they held me wise.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Birth?... Stop! Who were they? Speak thy prophecies.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Tiresias.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">This day shall give thee birth and blot thee out.</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_26" id="Page_26">vv. 439-455 [Pg 26]</a></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Oh, riddles everywhere and words of doubt!</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Tiresias.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Aye. Thou wast their best reader long ago.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Laugh on. I swear thou still shalt find me so.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Tiresias.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">That makes thy pride and thy calamity.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">I have saved this land, and care not if I die.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Tiresias.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Then I will go.—Give me thine arm, my child.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Aye, help him quick.—To see him there makes wild</span> +<span class="i0">My heart. Once gone, he will not vex me more.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Tiresias</span> (<i>turning again as he goes</i>).</span> + +<span class="i0">I fear thee not; nor will I go before</span> +<span class="i0">That word be spoken which I came to speak.</span> +<span class="i0">How canst thou ever touch me?—Thou dost seek</span> +<span class="i0">With threats and loud proclaim the man whose hand</span> +<span class="i0">Slew Laïus. Lo, I tell thee, he doth stand</span> +<span class="i0">Here. He is called a stranger, but these days</span> +<span class="i0">Shall prove him Theban true, nor shall he praise</span> +<span class="i0">His birthright. Blind, who once had seeing eyes,</span> +<span class="i0">Beggared, who once had riches, in strange guise,</span> + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_27" id="Page_27">vv. 456-478 [Pg 27]</a></span> + +<span class="i0">His staff groping before him, he shall crawl</span> +<span class="i0">O'er unknown earth, and voices round him call:</span> +<span class="i0">"Behold the brother-father of his own</span> +<span class="i0">Children, the seed, the sower and the sown,</span> +<span class="i0">Shame to his mother's blood, and to his sire</span> +<span class="i0">Son, murderer, incest-worker."</span> +<span class="i13">Cool thine ire</span> +<span class="i0">With thought of these, and if thou find that aught</span> +<span class="i0">Faileth, then hold my craft a thing of naught.</span> + +<span class="i3">[<i>He goes out.</i> <span class="smcap">Oedipus</span> <i>returns to the Palace.</i></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Chorus.</span></span> + +<span class="i5">[<i>They sing of the unknown murderer,</i></span> + +<span class="i0">What man, what man is he whom the voice of Delphi's cell</span> +<span class="i0">Hath named of the bloody hand, of the deed no tongue may tell?</span> +<span class="i4">Let him fly, fly, for his need</span> +<span class="i4">Hath found him; oh, where is the speed</span> +<span class="i0">That flew with the winds of old, the team of North-Wind's spell?</span> +<span class="i1">For feet there be that follow. Yea, thunder-shod</span> +<span class="i1">And girt with fire he cometh, the Child of God;</span> +<span class="i0">And with him are they that fail not, the Sin-Hounds risen from Hell.</span> + +<span class="i0">For the mountain hath spoken, a voice hath flashed from amid the snows,</span> +<span class="i0">That the wrath of the world go seek for the man whom no man knows.</span> +<span class="i4">Is he fled to the wild forest,</span> +<span class="i4">To caves where the eagles nest?</span> +<span class="i0">O angry bull of the rocks, cast out from thy herd-fellows!</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_28" id="Page_28">vv. 479-512 [Pg 28]</a></span> + +<span class="i1">Rage in his heart, and rage across his way,</span> +<span class="i1">He toileth ever to beat from his ears away</span> +<span class="i0">The word that floateth about him, living, where'er he goes.</span> + +<span class="i6">[<i>And of the Prophet's strange accusation.</i></span> + +<span class="i0">Yet strange, passing strange, the wise augur and his lore;</span> +<span class="i1">And my heart it cannot speak; I deny not nor assent,</span> +<span class="i0">But float, float in wonder at things after and before;</span> +<span class="i1">Did there lie between their houses some old wrath unspent,</span> +<span class="i0">That Corinth against Cadmus should do murder by the way?</span> +<span class="i1">No tale thereof they tell, nor no sign thereof they show;</span> +<span class="i0">Who dares to rise for vengeance and cast Oedipus away</span> +<span class="i2">For a dark, dark death long ago!</span> +<span class="i0"> </span> +<span class="i0">Ah, Zeus knows, and Apollo, what is dark to mortal eyes;</span> +<span class="i1">They are Gods. But a prophet, hath he vision more than mine?</span> +<span class="i0">Who hath seen? Who can answer? There be wise men and unwise.</span> +<span class="i1">I will wait, I will wait, for the proving of the sign.</span> +<span class="i0">But I list not nor hearken when they speak Oedipus ill.</span> +<span class="i1">We saw his face of yore, when the riddling singer passed;</span> +<span class="i0">And we knew him that he loved us, and we saw him great in skill.</span> + +<span class="i2">Oh, my heart shall uphold him to the last!</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_29" id="Page_29">vv. 513-531 [Pg 29]</a></span> +<span class="ia"><i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Good brother citizens, a frantic word</span> +<span class="i0">I hear is spoken by our chosen Lord</span> +<span class="i0">Oedipus against me, and here am come</span> +<span class="i0">Indignant. If he dreams, 'mid all this doom</span> +<span class="i0">That weighs upon us, he hath had from me</span> +<span class="i0">Or deed or lightest thought of injury, ...</span> +<span class="i0">'Fore God, I have no care to see the sun</span> +<span class="i0">Longer with such a groaning name. Not one</span> +<span class="i0">Wound is it, but a multitude, if now</span> +<span class="i0">All Thebes must hold me guilty—aye, and thou</span> +<span class="i0">And all who loved me—of a deed so foul.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Leader.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">If words were spoken, it was scarce the soul</span> +<span class="i0">That spoke them: 'twas some sudden burst of wrath.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">The charge was made, then, that Tiresias hath</span> +<span class="i0">Made answer false, and that I bribed him, I?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Leader.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">It was—perchance for jest. I know not why.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">His heart beat true, his eyes looked steadily</span> +<span class="i0">And fell not, laying such a charge on me?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Leader.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">I know not. I have no eyes for the thing</span> +<span class="i0">My masters do.—But see, here comes the King.</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">vv. 532-550 [Pg 30]</a></span> + +<span class="ia"><i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Oedipus</span> <i>from the Palace.</i></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">How now, assassin? Walking at my gate</span> +<span class="i0">With eye undimmed, thou plotter demonstrate</span> +<span class="i0">Against this life, and robber of my crown?</span> +<span class="i0">God help thee! Me! What was it set me down</span> +<span class="i0">Thy butt? So dull a brain hast found in me</span> +<span class="i0">Aforetime, such a faint heart, not to see</span> +<span class="i0">Thy work betimes, or seeing not to smite?</span> +<span class="i0">Art thou not rash, this once! It needeth might</span> +<span class="i0">Of friends, it needeth gold, to make a throne</span> +<span class="i0">Thy quarry; and I fear me thou hast none.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">One thing alone I ask thee. Let me speak</span> +<span class="i0">As thou hast spoken; then, with knowledge, wreak</span> +<span class="i0">Thy judgement. I accept it without fear.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">More skill hast thou to speak than I to hear</span> +<span class="i0">Thee. There is peril found in thee and hate.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">That one thing let me answer ere too late.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">One thing be sure of, that thy plots are known.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">The man who thinks that bitter pride alone</span> +<span class="i0">Can guide him, without thought—his mind is sick.</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">vv. 551-562 [Pg 31]</a></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Who thinks to slay his brother with a trick</span> +<span class="i0">And suffer not himself, his eyes are blind.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Thy words are more than just. But say what kind</span> +<span class="i0">Of wrong thou fanciest I have done thee. Speak.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Didst urge me, or didst urge me not, to seek</span> +<span class="i0">A counsel from that man of prophecies?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">So judged I then, nor now judge otherwise.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i6">[<i>Suddenly seeing a mode of attack.</i></span> + +<span class="i0">How many years have passed since Laïus ...</span> + +<span class="i6">[<i>The words seem to choke him.</i></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Speak on. I cannot understand thee thus.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i12">[<i>With an effort.</i></span> + +<span class="i0">Passed in that bloody tempest from men's sight?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Long years and old. I scarce can tell them right.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">At that time was this seer in Thebes, or how?</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_32" id="Page_32">vv. 563-573 [Pg 32]</a></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">He was; most wise and honoured, even as now.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">At that time did he ever speak my name?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">No. To mine ear at least it never came.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Held you no search for those who slew your King?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">For sure we did, but found not anything.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">How came the all-knowing seer to leave it so?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Ask him! I speak not where I cannot know.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">One thing thou canst, with knowledge full, I wot.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Speak it. If true, I will conceal it not.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">This: that until he talked with thee, the seer</span> +<span class="i0">Ne'er spoke of me as Laïus' murderer.</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">vv. 574-589 [Pg 33]</a></span> + + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">I know not if he hath so spoken now.</span> +<span class="i0">I heard him not.—But let me ask and thou</span> +<span class="i0">Answer me true, as I have answered thee.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Ask, ask! Thou shalt no murder find in me.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">My sister is thy wife this many a day?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">That charge it is not in me to gainsay.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Thou reignest, giving equal reign to her?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Always to her desire I minister.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Were we not all as one, she thou and I?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Yes, thou false friend! There lies thy treachery.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Not so! Nay, do but follow me and scan</span> +<span class="i0">Thine own charge close. Think'st thou that any man</span> +<span class="i0">Would rather rule and be afraid than rule</span> +<span class="i0">And sleep untroubled? Nay, where lives the fool—</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">vv. 590-613 [Pg 34]</a></span> + +<span class="i0">I know them not nor am I one of them—</span> +<span class="i0">Who careth more to bear a monarch's name</span> +<span class="i0">Than do a monarch's deeds? As now I stand</span> +<span class="i0">All my desire I compass at thy hand.</span> +<span class="i0">Were I the King, full half my deeds were done</span> +<span class="i0">To obey the will of others, not mine own.</span> +<span class="i0">Were that as sweet, when all the tale were told,</span> +<span class="i0">As this calm griefless princedom that I hold</span> +<span class="i0">And silent power? Am I so blind of brain</span> +<span class="i0">That ease with glory tires me, and I fain</span> +<span class="i0">Must change them? All men now give me God-speed,</span> +<span class="i0">All smile to greet me. If a man hath need</span> +<span class="i0">Of thee, 'tis me he calleth to the gate,</span> +<span class="i0">As knowing that on my word hangs the fate</span> +<span class="i0">Of half he craves. Is life like mine a thing</span> +<span class="i0">To cast aside and plot to be a King?</span> +<span class="i0">Doth a sane man turn villain in an hour?</span> +<span class="i1">For me, I never lusted thus for power</span> +<span class="i0">Nor bore with any man who turned such lust</span> +<span class="i0">To doing.—But enough. I claim but just</span> +<span class="i0">Question. Go first to Pytho; find if well</span> +<span class="i0">And true I did report God's oracle.</span> +<span class="i0">Next, seek in Thebes for any plots entwined</span> +<span class="i0">Between this seer and me; which if ye find,</span> +<span class="i0">Then seize and strike me dead. Myself that day</span> +<span class="i0">Will sit with thee as judge and bid thee Slay!</span> +<span class="i0">But damn me not on one man's guess.—'Tis all</span> +<span class="i0">Unjust: to call a traitor true, to call</span> +<span class="i0">A true man traitor with no cause nor end!</span> +<span class="i0">And this I tell thee. He who plucks a friend</span> +<span class="i0">Out from his heart hath lost a treasured thing</span> +<span class="i0">Dear as his own dear life.</span> +<span class="i10">But Time shall bring</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_35" id="Page_35">vv. 614-626 [Pg 35]</a></span> +<span class="i0">Truth back. 'Tis Time alone can make men know</span> +<span class="i0">What hearts are true; the false one day can show.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Leader.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">To one that fears to fall his words are wise,</span> +<span class="i0">O King; in thought the swift win not the prize.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">When he is swift who steals against my reign</span> +<span class="i0">With plots, then swift am I to plot again.</span> +<span class="i0">Wait patient, and his work shall have prevailed</span> +<span class="i0">Before I move, and mine for ever failed.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">How then? To banish me is thy intent?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Death is the doom I choose, not banishment.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Wilt never soften, never trust thy friend?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">First I would see how traitors meet their end.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">I see thou wilt not think.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i10">I think to save</span> +<span class="i0">My life.</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_36" id="Page_36">vv. 627-633 [Pg 36]</a></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i5">Think, too, of mine.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i10">Thine, thou born knave!</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Yes.... What, if thou art blind in everything?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">The King must be obeyed.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i10">Not if the King</span> +<span class="i0">Does evil.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i6">To your King! Ho, Thebes, mine own!</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Thebes is my country, not the King's alone.</span> + +<span class="i3">[<span class="smcap">Oedipus</span> <i>has drawn his sword; the Chorus +show signs of breaking into two parties to +fight for</i> <span class="smcap">Oedipus</span> <i>or for</i> <span class="smcap">Creon</span>, <i>when +the door opens and</i> <span class="smcap">Jocasta</span> <i>appears on the +steps.</i></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Leader.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Stay, Princes, stay! See, on the Castle stair</span> +<span class="i0">The Queen Jocasta standeth. Show to her</span> +<span class="i0">Your strife. She will assuage it as is well.</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_37" id="Page_37">vv. 634-648 [Pg 37]</a></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Vain men, what would ye with this angry swell</span> +<span class="i0">Of words heart-blinded? Is there in your eyes</span> +<span class="i0">No pity, thus, when all our city lies</span> +<span class="i0">Bleeding, to ply your privy hates?... Alack,</span> +<span class="i0">My lord, come in!—Thou, Creon, get thee back</span> +<span class="i0">To thine own house. And stir not to such stress</span> +<span class="i0">Of peril griefs that are but nothingness.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Sister, it is the pleasure of thy lord,</span> +<span class="i0">Our King, to do me deadly wrong. His word</span> +<span class="i0">Is passed on me: 'tis banishment or death.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">I found him ... I deny not what he saith,</span> +<span class="i0">My Queen ... with craft and malice practising</span> +<span class="i0">Against my life.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i9">Ye Gods, if such a thing</span> +<span class="i0">Hath once been in my thoughts, may I no more</span> +<span class="i0">See any health on earth, but, festered o'er</span> +<span class="i0">With curses, die!—Have done. There is mine oath.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">In God's name, Oedipus, believe him, both</span> +<span class="i0">For my sake, and for these whose hearts are all</span> +<span class="i0">Thine own, and for my brother's oath withal.</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_38" id="Page_38">vv. 649-664 [Pg 38]</a></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Leader.</span><span class='pagenum2'>[<i>Strophe.</i></span></span> + +<span class="i0">Yield; consent; think! My Lord, I conjure thee!</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i5">What would ye have me do?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Leader.</span></span> + +<span class="i2">Reject not one who never failed his troth</span> +<span class="i2">Of old and now is strong in his great oath.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Dost know what this prayer means?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Leader.</span></span> + +<span class="i14">Yea, verily!</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i5">Say then the meaning true.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Leader.</span></span> + +<span class="i2">I would not have thee cast to infamy</span> +<span class="i5">Of guilt, where none is proved,</span> +<span class="i0">One who hath sworn and whom thou once hast loved.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">'Tis that ye seek? For me, then ... understand</span> +<span class="i0">Well ... ye seek death or exile from the land.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Leader.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">No, by the God of Gods, the all-seeing Sun!</span> +<span class="i1">May he desert me here, and every friend</span> +<span class="i0">With him, to death and utterest malison,</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_39" id="Page_39">vv. 665-680 [Pg 39]</a></span> +<span class="i1">If e'er my heart could dream of such an end!</span> + +<span class="i4">But it bleedeth, it bleedeth sore,</span> +<span class="i5">In a land half slain,</span> +<span class="i4">If we join to the griefs of yore</span> +<span class="i5">Griefs of you twain.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Oh, let him go, though it be utterly</span> +<span class="i0">My death, or flight from Thebes in beggary.</span> +<span class="i0">'Tis thy sad lips, not his, that make me know</span> +<span class="i0">Pity. Him I shall hate, where'er he go.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">I see thy mercy moving full of hate</span> +<span class="i0">And slow; thy wrath came swift and desperate.</span> +<span class="i0">Methinks, of all the pain that such a heart</span> +<span class="i0">Spreadeth, itself doth bear the bitterest part.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Oh, leave me and begone!</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i10">I go, wronged sore</span> +<span class="i0">By thee. These friends will trust me as before.</span> + +<span class="i3">[<span class="smcap">Creon</span> <i>goes.</i> <span class="smcap">Oedipus</span> <i>stands apart lost in +trouble of mind.</i></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Leader.</span><span class='pagenum2'>[<i>Antistrophe.</i></span></span> + +<span class="i0">Queen, wilt thou lead him to his house again?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i6">I will, when I have heard.</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_40" id="Page_40">vv. 681-696 [Pg 40]</a></span> +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Leader.</span></span> + +<span class="i1">There fell some word, some blind imagining</span> +<span class="i1">Between them. Things known foolish yet can sting.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">From both the twain it rose?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Leader.</span></span> + +<span class="i12">From both the twain.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i5">Aye, and what was the word?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Leader.</span></span> + +<span class="i1">Surely there is enough of evil stirred,</span> +<span class="i4">And Thebes heaves on the swell</span> +<span class="i0">Of storm.—Oh, leave this lying where it fell.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">So be it, thou wise counsellor! Make slight</span> +<span class="i0">My wrong, and blunt my purpose ere it smite.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Leader.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">O King, not once I have answered. Visibly</span> +<span class="i1">Mad were I, lost to all wise usages,</span> +<span class="i0">To seek to cast thee from us. 'Twas from thee</span> +<span class="i1">We saw of old blue sky and summer seas,</span> +<span class="i2">When Thebes in the storm and rain</span> +<span class="i3">Reeled, like to die.</span> +<span class="i2">Oh, if thou canst, again</span> + +<span class="i3">Blue sky, blue sky...!</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_41" id="Page_41">vv. 697-713 [Pg 41]</a></span> +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Husband, in God's name, say what hath ensued</span> +<span class="i0">Of ill, that thou shouldst seek so dire a feud.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">I will, wife. I have more regard for thee</span> +<span class="i0">Than these.—Thy brother plots to murder me.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Speak on. Make all thy charge. Only be clear.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">He says that I am Laïus' murderer.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Says it himself? Says he hath witnesses?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Nay, of himself he ventures nothing. 'Tis</span> +<span class="i0">This priest, this hellish seer, makes all the tale.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">The seer?—Then tear thy terrors like a veil</span> +<span class="i0">And take free breath. A seer? No human thing</span> +<span class="i0">Born on the earth hath power for conjuring</span> +<span class="i0">Truth from the dark of God.</span> +<span class="i12">Come, I will tell</span> +<span class="i0">An old tale. There came once an oracle</span> +<span class="i0">To Laïus: I say not from the God</span> +<span class="i0">Himself, but from the priests and seers who trod</span> +<span class="i0">His sanctuary: if ever son were bred</span> +<span class="i0">From him and me, by that son's hand, it said,</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_42" id="Page_42">vv. 714-732 [Pg 42]</a></span> + +<span class="i0">Laïus must die. And he, the tale yet stays</span> +<span class="i0">Among us, at the crossing of three ways</span> +<span class="i0">Was slain by robbers, strangers. And my son—</span> +<span class="i0">God's mercy!—scarcely the third day was gone</span> +<span class="i0">When Laïus took, and by another's hand</span> +<span class="i0">Out on the desert mountain, where the land</span> +<span class="i0">Is rock, cast him to die. Through both his feet</span> +<span class="i0">A blade of iron they drove. Thus did we cheat</span> +<span class="i0">Apollo of his will. My child could slay</span> +<span class="i0">No father, and the King could cast away</span> +<span class="i0">The fear that dogged him, by his child to die</span> +<span class="i0">Murdered.—Behold the fruits of prophecy!</span> +<span class="i0">Which heed not thou! God needs not that a seer</span> +<span class="i0">Help him, when he would make his dark things clear.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Woman, what turmoil hath thy story wrought</span> +<span class="i0">Within me! What up-stirring of old thought!</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">What thought? It turns thee like a frightened thing.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">'Twas at the crossing of three ways this King</span> +<span class="i0">Was murdered? So I heard or so I thought.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">That was the tale. It is not yet forgot.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">The crossing of three ways! And in what land?</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_43" id="Page_43">vv. 733-746 [Pg 43]</a></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Phokis 'tis called. A road on either hand</span> +<span class="i0">From Delphi comes and Daulia, in a glen.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">How many years and months have passed since then?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">'Twas but a little time before proclaim</span> +<span class="i0">Was made of thee for king, the tidings came.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">My God, what hast thou willed to do with me?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Oedipus, speak! What is it troubles thee?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Ask me not yet. But say, what build, what height</span> +<span class="i0">Had Laïus? Rode he full of youth and might?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Tall, with the white new gleaming on his brow</span> +<span class="i0">He walked. In shape just such a man as thou.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">God help me! I much fear that I have wrought</span> +<span class="i0">A curse on mine own head, and knew it not.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">How sayst thou? O my King, I look on thee</span> +<span class="i0">And tremble.</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_44" id="Page_44">vv. 747-760 [Pg 44]</a></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus</span> (<i>to himself</i>).</span> + +<span class="i5">Horror, if the blind can see!</span> +<span class="i0">Answer but one thing and 'twill all be clear.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Speak. I will answer though I shake with fear.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Went he with scant array, or a great band</span> +<span class="i0">Of armèd followers, like a lord of land?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Four men were with him, one a herald; one</span> +<span class="i0">Chariot there was, where Laïus rode alone.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Aye me! Tis clear now.</span> +<span class="i10">Woman, who could bring</span> +<span class="i0">To Thebes the story of that manslaying?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">A house-thrall, the one man they failed to slay.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">The one man...? Is he in the house to-day?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Indeed no. When he came that day, and found</span> +<span class="i0">Thee on the throne where once sat Laïus crowned,</span> +<span class="i0">He took my hand and prayed me earnestly</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_45" id="Page_45">vv. 761-779 [Pg 45]</a></span> + +<span class="i0">To send him to the mountain heights, to be</span> +<span class="i0">A herdsman, far from any sight or call</span> +<span class="i0">Of Thebes. And there I sent him. 'Twas a thrall</span> +<span class="i0">Good-hearted, worthy a far greater boon.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Canst find him? I would see this herd, and soon.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">'Tis easy. But what wouldst thou with the herd?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">I fear mine own voice, lest it spoke a word</span> +<span class="i0">Too much; whereof this man must tell me true.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">The man shall come.—My lord, methinks I too</span> +<span class="i0">Should know what fear doth work thee this despite.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Thou shalt. When I am tossed to such an height</span> +<span class="i0">Of dark foreboding, woman, when my mind</span> +<span class="i0">Faceth such straits as these, where should I find</span> +<span class="i0">A mightier love than thine?</span> +<span class="i12">My father—thus</span> +<span class="i0">I tell thee the whole tale—was Polybus,</span> +<span class="i0">In Corinth King; my mother Meropê</span> +<span class="i0">Of Dorian line. And I was held to be</span> +<span class="i0">The proudest in Corinthia, till one day</span> +<span class="i0">A thing befell: strange was it, but no way</span> +<span class="i0">Meet for such wonder and such rage as mine.</span> +<span class="i0">A feast it was, and some one flushed with wine</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_46" id="Page_46">vv. 780-807 [Pg 46]</a></span> + +<span class="i0">Cried out at me that I was no true son</span> +<span class="i0">Of Polybus. Oh, I was wroth! That one</span> +<span class="i0">Day I kept silence, but the morrow morn</span> +<span class="i0">I sought my parents, told that tale of scorn</span> +<span class="i0">And claimed the truth; and they rose in their pride</span> +<span class="i0">And smote the mocker.... Aye, they satisfied</span> +<span class="i0">All my desire; yet still the cavil gnawed</span> +<span class="i0">My heart, and still the story crept abroad.</span> +<span class="i1">At last I rose—my father knew not, nor</span> +<span class="i0">My mother—and went forth to Pytho's floor</span> +<span class="i0">To ask. And God in that for which I came</span> +<span class="i0">Rejected me, but round me, like a flame,</span> +<span class="i0">His voice flashed other answers, things of woe,</span> +<span class="i0">Terror, and desolation. I must know</span> +<span class="i0">My mother's body and beget thereon</span> +<span class="i0">A race no mortal eye durst look upon,</span> +<span class="i0">And spill in murder mine own father's blood.</span> +<span class="i1">I heard, and, hearing, straight from where I stood,</span> +<span class="i0">No landmark but the stars to light my way,</span> +<span class="i0">Fled, fled from the dark south where Corinth lay,</span> +<span class="i0">To lands far off, where never I might see</span> +<span class="i0">My doom of scorn fulfilled. On bitterly</span> +<span class="i0">I strode, and reached the region where, so saith</span> +<span class="i0">Thy tale, that King of Thebes was struck to death....</span> +<span class="i0">Wife, I will tell thee true. As one in daze</span> +<span class="i0">I walked, till, at the crossing of three ways,</span> +<span class="i0">A herald, like thy tale, and o'er his head</span> +<span class="i0">A man behind strong horses charioted</span> +<span class="i0">Met me. And both would turn me from the path,</span> +<span class="i0">He and a thrall in front. And I in wrath</span> +<span class="i0">Smote him that pushed me—'twas a groom who led</span> +<span class="i0">The horses. Not a word the master said,</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_47" id="Page_47">vv. 808-828 [Pg 47]</a></span> + +<span class="i0">But watched, and as I passed him on the road</span> +<span class="i0">Down on my head his iron-branchèd goad</span> +<span class="i0">Stabbed. But, by heaven, he rued it! In a flash</span> +<span class="i0">I swung my staff and saw the old man crash</span> +<span class="i0">Back from his car in blood.... Then all of them</span> +<span class="i0">I slew.</span> +<span class="i5">Oh, if that man's unspoken name</span> +<span class="i0">Had aught of Laïus in him, in God's eye</span> +<span class="i0">What man doth move more miserable than I,</span> +<span class="i0">More dogged by the hate of heaven! No man, kin</span> +<span class="i0">Nor stranger, any more may take me in;</span> +<span class="i0">No man may greet me with a word, but all</span> +<span class="i0">Cast me from out their houses. And withal</span> +<span class="i0">'Twas mine own self that laid upon my life</span> +<span class="i0">These curses.—And I hold the dead man's wife</span> +<span class="i0">In these polluting arms that spilt his soul....</span> +<span class="i0">Am I a thing born evil? Am I foul</span> +<span class="i0">In every vein? Thebes now doth banish me,</span> +<span class="i0">And never in this exile must I see</span> +<span class="i0">Mine ancient folk of Corinth, never tread</span> +<span class="i0">The land that bore me; else my mother's bed</span> +<span class="i0">Shall be defiled, and Polybus, my good</span> +<span class="i0">Father, who loved me well, be rolled in blood.</span> +<span class="i0">If one should dream that such a world began</span> +<span class="i0">In some slow devil's heart, that hated man,</span> +<span class="i0">Who should deny him?—God, as thou art clean,</span> +<span class="i0">Suffer not this, oh, suffer not this sin</span> +<span class="i0">To be, that e'er I look on such a day!</span> +<span class="i0">Out of all vision of mankind away</span> +<span class="i0">To darkness let me fall ere such a fate</span> +<span class="i0">Touch me, so unclean and so desolate!</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_48" id="Page_48">vv. 829-850 [Pg 48]</a></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Leader.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">I tremble too, O King; but till thou hear</span> +<span class="i0">From him who saw, oh, let hope conquer fear.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">One shred of hope I still have, and therefore</span> +<span class="i0">Will wait the herdsman's coming. 'Tis no more.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">He shall come. But what further dost thou seek?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">This. If we mark him close and find him speak</span> +<span class="i0">As thou hast, then I am lifted from my dread.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">What mean'st thou? Was there something that I said...?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Thou said'st he spoke of robbers, a great band,</span> +<span class="i0">That slaughtered Laïus' men. If still he stand</span> +<span class="i0">To the same tale, the guilt comes not my way.</span> +<span class="i0">One cannot be a band. But if he say</span> +<span class="i0">One lonely loin-girt man, then visibly</span> +<span class="i0">This is God's finger pointing toward me.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Be sure of this. He told the story so</span> +<span class="i0">When first he came. All they that heard him know,</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_49" id="Page_49">vv. 850-870 [Pg 49]</a></span> + +<span class="i0">Not only I. He cannot change again</span> +<span class="i0">Now. And if change he should, O Lord of men,</span> +<span class="i0">No change of his can make the prophecy</span> +<span class="i0">Of Laïus' death fall true. He was to die</span> +<span class="i0">Slain by my son. So Loxias spake.... My son!</span> +<span class="i0">He slew no man, that poor deserted one</span> +<span class="i0">That died.... And I will no more turn mine eyes</span> +<span class="i0">This way nor that for all their prophecies.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Woman, thou counsellest well. Yet let it not</span> +<span class="i0">Escape thee. Send and have the herdsman brought.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">That will I.—Come. Thou knowest I ne'er would do</span> +<span class="i0">Nor think of aught, save thou wouldst have it so.</span> + +<span class="i2">[<span class="smcap">Jocasta</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Oedipus</span> <i>go together into the Palace.</i></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Chorus.</span></span> + +<span class="i4">[<i>They pray to be free from such great sins as +they have just heard spoken of.</i></span> + +<span class="i0"> <span class="pagenum2">[<i>Strophe.</i></span></span> + +<span class="i0">Toward God's great mysteries, oh, let me move</span> +<span class="i2">Unstainèd till I die</span> +<span class="i0">In speech or doing; for the Laws thereof</span> +<span class="i0">Are holy, walkers upon ways above,</span> +<span class="i2">Born in the far blue sky;</span> +<span class="i0"> </span> +<span class="i0">Their father is Olympus uncreate;</span> +<span class="i2">No man hath made nor told</span> +<span class="i0">Their being; neither shall Oblivion set</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_50" id="Page_50">vv. 870-893 [Pg 50]</a></span> + + + +<span class="i0">Sleep on their eyes, for in them lives a great</span> +<span class="i2">Spirit and grows not old. <span class='pagenum2'>[<i>Antistrophe.</i></span></span> + +<span class="i4">[<i>They wonder if these sins be all due to pride +and if</i> <span class="smcap">Creon</span> <i>has guilty ambitions;</i></span> +<span class="i0"> </span> +<span class="i0">'Tis Pride that breeds the tyrant; drunken deep</span> +<span class="i2">With perilous things is she,</span> +<span class="i0">Which bring not peace: up, reeling, steep on steep</span> +<span class="i0">She climbs, till lo, the rock-edge, and the leap</span> +<span class="i2">To that which needs must be,</span> +<span class="i0"> </span> +<span class="i0">The land where the strong foot is no more strong!</span> +<span class="i2">Yet is there surely Pride</span> +<span class="i0">That saves a city; God preserve it long!</span> +<span class="i0">I judge not. Only through all maze of wrong</span> +<span class="i2">Be God, not man, my guide. <span class='pagenum2'>[<i>Strophe.</i></span></span> + +<span class="i3">[<i>Or if</i> <span class="smcap">Tiresias</span> <i>can really be a lying prophet with +no fear of God; they feel that all faith in +oracles and the things of God is shaken.</i></span> +<span class="i0"> </span> +<span class="i0">Is there a priest who moves amid the altars</span> +<span class="i2">Ruthless in deed and word,</span> +<span class="i0">Fears not the presence of his god, nor falters</span> +<span class="i2">Lest Right at last be heard?</span> +<span class="i0">If such there be, oh, let some doom be given</span> +<span class="i2">Meet for his ill-starred pride,</span> +<span class="i0">Who will not gain his gain where Justice is,</span> +<span class="i0">Who will not hold his lips from blasphemies,</span> +<span class="i0">Who hurls rash hands amid the things of heaven</span> +<span class="i2">From man's touch sanctified.</span> + +<span class="i2">In a world where such things be,</span> +<span class="i3">What spirit hath shield or lance</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_51" id="Page_51">vv. 893-916 [Pg 51]</a></span> + +<span class="i4">To ward him secretly</span> +<span class="i5">From the arrow that slays askance?</span> +<span class="i4">If honour to such things be,</span> +<span class="i5">Why should I dance my dance?</span> + +<span class="i0"> <span class='pagenum2'>[<i>Antistrophe.</i></span></span> + +<span class="i0">I go no more with prayers and adorations</span> +<span class="i2">To Earth's deep Heart of Stone,</span> +<span class="i0">Nor yet the Abantes' floor, nor where the nations</span> +<span class="i2">Kneel at Olympia's throne,</span> +<span class="i0">Till all this dark be lightened, for the finger</span> +<span class="i2">Of man to touch and know.</span> +<span class="i0">O Thou that rulest—if men rightly call</span> +<span class="i0">Thy name on earth—O Zeus, thou Lord of all</span> +<span class="i0">And Strength undying, let not these things linger</span> +<span class="i2">Unknown, tossed to and fro.</span> +<span class="i0"> </span> +<span class="i5">For faint is the oracle,</span> +<span class="i6">And they thrust it aside, away;</span> +<span class="i5">And no more visible</span> +<span class="i6">Apollo to save or slay;</span> +<span class="i5">And the things of God, they fail</span> +<span class="i6">As mist on the wind away.</span> + +<span class="i5">[<span class="smcap">Jocasta</span> <i>comes out from the Palace followed +by handmaids bearing incense and flowers.</i></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Lords of the land, the ways my thought hath trod</span> +<span class="i0">Lead me in worship to these shrines of God</span> +<span class="i0">With flowers and incense flame. So dire a storm</span> +<span class="i0">Doth shake the King, sin, dread and every form</span> +<span class="i0">Of grief the world knows. 'Tis the wise man's way</span> +<span class="i0">To judge the morrow by the yester day;</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_52" id="Page_52">vv. 917-933 [Pg 52]</a></span> + +<span class="i0">Which he doth never, but gives eye and ear</span> +<span class="i0">To all who speak, will they but speak of fear.</span> +<span class="i1">And seeing no word of mine hath power to heal</span> +<span class="i0">His torment, therefore forth to thee I steal,</span> +<span class="i0">O Slayer of the Wolf, O Lord of Light,</span> +<span class="i0">Apollo: thou art near us, and of right</span> +<span class="i0">Dost hold us thine: to thee in prayer I fall.</span> + +<span class="i5">[<i>She kneels at the altar of Apollo Lukeios.</i></span> + +<span class="i0">Oh, show us still some path that is not all</span> +<span class="i0">Unclean; for now our captain's eyes are dim</span> +<span class="i0">With dread, and the whole ship must follow him.</span> + +<span class="i3">[<i>While she prays a</i> <span class="smcap">Stranger</span> <i>has entered and +begins to accost the Chorus.</i></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Stranger.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Good masters, is there one of you could bring</span> +<span class="i0">My steps to the house of Oedipus, your King?</span> +<span class="i0">Or, better, to himself if that may be?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Leader.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">This is the house and he within; and she</span> +<span class="i0">Thou seest, the mother of his royal seed.</span> + +<span class="i5">[<span class="smcap">Jocasta</span> <i>rises, anxious, from her prayer.</i></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Stranger.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Being wife to such a man, happy indeed</span> +<span class="i0">And ringed with happy faces may she live!</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">To one so fair of speech may the Gods give</span> +<span class="i0">Like blessing, courteous stranger; 'tis thy due.</span> +<span class="i0">But say what leads thee hither. Can we do</span> +<span class="i0">Thy wish in aught, or hast thou news to bring?</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_53" id="Page_53">vv. 934-947 [Pg 53]</a></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Stranger.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Good news, O Queen, for thee and for the King.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">What is it? And from what prince comest thou?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Stranger.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">I come from Corinth.—And my tale, I trow,</span> +<span class="i0">Will give thee joy, yet haply also pain.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">What news can have that twofold power? Be plain.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Stranger.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">'Tis spoke in Corinth that the gathering</span> +<span class="i0">Of folk will make thy lord our chosen King.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">How? Is old Polybus in power no more?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Stranger.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Death has a greater power. His reign is o'er.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">What say'st thou? Dead?... Oedipus' father dead?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Stranger.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">If I speak false, let me die in his stead.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Ho, maiden! To our master! Hie thee fast</span> +<span class="i0">And tell this tale.</span> + +<span class="i0"> <span class='pagenum2'>[<i>The maiden goes.</i></span></span> + +<span class="i8">Where stand ye at the last</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_54" id="Page_54">vv. 948-961 [Pg 54]</a></span> + +<span class="i0">Ye oracles of God? For many a year</span> +<span class="i0">Oedipus fled before that man, in fear</span> +<span class="i0">To slay him. And behold we find him thus</span> +<span class="i0">Slain by a chance death, not by Oedipus.</span> + +<span class="i6">[<span class="smcap">Oedipus</span> <i>comes out from the Palace.</i></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">O wife, O face I love to look upon,</span> +<span class="i0">Why call'st thou me from where I sat alone?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Give ear, and ponder from what this man tells</span> +<span class="i0">How end these proud priests and their oracles.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Whence comes he? And what word hath he for us?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">From Corinth; bearing news that Polybus</span> +<span class="i0">Thy father is no more. He has found his death.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">How?—Stranger, speak thyself. This that she saith ...</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Stranger.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Is sure. If that is the first news ye crave,</span> +<span class="i0">I tell thee, Polybus lieth in his grave.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Not murdered?... How? Some passing of disease?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Stranger.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">A slight thing turns an old life to its peace.</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_55" id="Page_55">vv. 962-978 [Pg 55]</a></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Poor father!... 'Tis by sickness he is dead?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Stranger.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">The growing years lay heavy on his head.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">O wife, why then should man fear any more</span> +<span class="i0">The voice of Pytho's dome, or cower before</span> +<span class="i0">These birds that shriek above us? They foretold</span> +<span class="i0">Me for my father's murderer; and behold,</span> +<span class="i0">He lies in Corinth dead, and here am I</span> +<span class="i0">And never touched the sword.... Or did he die</span> +<span class="i0">In grief for me who left him? In that way</span> +<span class="i0">I may have wrought his death.... But come what may,</span> +<span class="i0">He sleepeth in his grave and with him all</span> +<span class="i0">This deadly seercraft, of no worth at all.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Dear Lord, long since did I not show thee clear...?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Indeed, yes. I was warped by mine own fear.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Now thou wilt cast it from thee, and forget.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Forget my mother?... It is not over yet.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">What should man do with fear, who hath but Chance</span> +<span class="i0">Above him, and no sight nor governance</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_56" id="Page_56">vv. 979-993 [Pg 56]</a></span> + +<span class="i0">Of things to be? To live as life may run,</span><span class="i0"> +No fear, no fret, were wisest 'neath the sun.</span><span class="i0"> +And thou, fear not thy mother. Prophets deem</span><span class="i0"> +A deed wrought that is wrought but in a dream.</span><span class="i0"> +And he to whom these things are nothing, best</span><span class="i0"> +Will bear his burden.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i11">All thou counsellest</span> +<span class="i0">Were good, save that my mother liveth still.</span> +<span class="i0">And, though thy words be wise, for good or ill</span> +<span class="i0">Her I still fear.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i9">Think of thy father's tomb!</span> +<span class="i0">Like light across our darkness it hath come.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Great light; but while she lives I fly from her.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Stranger.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">What woman, Prince, doth fill thee so with fear?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Meropê, friend, who dwelt with Polybus.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Stranger.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">What in Queen Meropê should fright thee thus?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">A voice of God, stranger, of dire import.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Stranger.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Meet for mine ears? Or of some secret sort?</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_57" id="Page_57">vv. 994-1009 [Pg 57]</a></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Nay, thou must hear, and Corinth. Long ago</span><span class="i0"> +Apollo spake a doom, that I should know</span><span class="i0"> +My mother's flesh, and with mine own hand spill</span><span class="i0"> +My father's blood.—'Tis that, and not my will,</span><span class="i0"> +Hath kept me always far from Corinth. So;</span><span class="i0"> +Life hath dealt kindly with me, yet men know</span><span class="i0"> +On earth no comfort like a mother's face.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Stranger.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">'Tis that, hath kept thee exiled in this place?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">That, and the fear too of my father's blood.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Stranger.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Then, surely, Lord ... I came but for thy good ... </span><span class="i0"> +'Twere well if from that fear I set thee free.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Ah, couldst thou! There were rich reward for thee.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Stranger.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">To say truth, I had hoped to lead thee home</span> +<span class="i0">Now, and myself to get some good therefrom.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Nay; where my parents are I will not go.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Stranger.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">My son, 'tis very clear thou dost not know</span> +<span class="i0">What road thou goest.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i6">How? In God's name, say!</span> +<span class="i0">How clear?</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_58" id="Page_58">vv. 1010-1019 [Pg 58]</a></span> + + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Stranger.</span></span> + +<span class="i5">'Tis this, keeps thee so long away</span><span class="i0"> +From Corinth?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i6">'Tis the fear lest that word break</span><span class="i0"> +One day upon me true.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Stranger.</span></span> + +<span class="i10">Fear lest thou take</span><span class="i0"> +Defilement from the two that gave thee birth?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">'Tis that, old man, 'tis that doth fill the earth</span><span class="i0"> +With terror.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Stranger.</span></span> + +<span class="i5">Then thy terror all hath been</span><span class="i0"> +For nothing.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i5">How? Were not your King and Queen</span> +<span class="i0">My parents?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Stranger.</span></span> + +<span class="i6">Polybus was naught to thee</span><span class="i0"> +In blood.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i4">How? He, my father!</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Stranger.</span></span> + +<span class="i13">That was he</span> +<span class="i0">As much as I, but no more.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i12">Thou art naught;</span> +<span class="i0">'Twas he begot me.</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_59" id="Page_59">vv. 1020-1028 [Pg 59]</a></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Stranger.</span></span> + +<span class="i12">'Twas not I begot</span><span class="i0"> +Oedipus, neither was it he.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i14">What wild</span><span class="i0"> +Fancy, then, made him name me for his child?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Stranger.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Thou wast his child—by gift. Long years ago</span><span class="i0"> +Mine own hand brought thee to him.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i14">Coming so,</span><span class="i0"> +From a strange hand, he gave me that great love?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Stranger.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">He had no child, and the desire thereof</span><span class="i0"> +Held him.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i5">And thou didst find somewhere—or buy—</span><span class="i0"> +A child for him?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Stranger.</span></span> + +<span class="i8">I found it in a high</span> +<span class="i0">Glen of Kithairon.</span> + +<span class="i3">[<i>Movement of</i> <span class="smcap">Jocasta</span>, <i>who stands riveted +with dread, unnoticed by the others.</i></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i9">Yonder? To what end</span> +<span class="i0">Wast travelling in these parts?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Stranger.</span></span> + +<span class="i12">I came to tend</span> + +<span class="i0">The flocks here on the mountain.</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_60" id="Page_60">vv. 1029-1037 [Pg 60]</a></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i12">Thou wast one</span> +<span class="i0">That wandered, tending sheep for hire?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Stranger.</span></span> + +<span class="i14">My son,</span> +<span class="i0">That day I was the saviour of a King.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">How saviour? Was I in some suffering +Or peril?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Stranger.</span></span> + +<span class="i5">Thine own feet a tale could speak.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Ah me! What ancient pain stirs half awake +Within me!</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Stranger.</span></span> + +<span class="i6">'Twas a spike through both thy feet.</span> +<span class="i0">I set thee free.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i7">A strange scorn that, to greet</span> +<span class="i0">A babe new on the earth!</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Stranger.</span></span> + +<span class="i11">From that they fain</span> +<span class="i0">Must call thee Oedipus, "<i>Who-walks-in-pain</i>."</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Who called me so—father or mother? Oh,</span> +<span class="i0">In God's name, speak!</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_61" id="Page_61">vv. 1038-1046 [Pg 61]</a></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Stranger.</span></span> + +<span class="i7">I know not. He should know</span> +<span class="i0">Who brought thee.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i7">So: I was not found by thee.</span> +<span class="i0">Thou hadst me from another?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Stranger.</span></span> + +<span class="i14">Aye; to me</span> +<span class="i0">One of the shepherds gave the babe, to bear</span> +<span class="i0">Far off.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i2">What shepherd? Know'st thou not? Declare</span> +<span class="i0">All that thou knowest.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Stranger.</span></span> + +<span class="i10">By my memory, then,</span> +<span class="i0">I think they called him one of Laïus' men.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">That Laïus who was king in Thebes of old?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Stranger.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">The same. My man did herding in his fold.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Is he yet living? Can I see his face?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Stranger.</span></span> + +<span class="i10">[<i>Turning to the Chorus.</i></span> + +<span class="i0">Ye will know that, being natives to the place.</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_62" id="Page_62">vv. 1047-1062 [Pg 62]</a></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">How?—Is there one of you within my pale</span> +<span class="i0">Standing, that knows the shepherd of his tale?</span> +<span class="i0">Ye have seen him on the hills? Or in this town?</span> +<span class="i0">Speak! For the hour is come that all be known.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Leader.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">I think 'twill be the Peasant Man, the same,</span> +<span class="i0">Thou hast sought long time to see.—His place and name</span> +<span class="i0">Our mistress, if she will, can tell most clear.</span> + +<span class="i4">[<span class="smcap">Jocasta</span> <i>remains as if she heard nothing.</i></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Thou hear'st him, wife. The herd whose presence here</span> +<span class="i0">We craved for, is it he this man would say?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">He saith ... What of it? Ask not; only pray +Not to remember.... Tales are vainly told.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">'Tis mine own birth. How can I, when I hold +Such clues as these, refrain from knowing all?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">For God's love, no! Not if thou car'st at all +For thine own life.... My anguish is enough.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus</span> (<i>bitterly</i>).</span> + +<span class="i0">Fear not!... Though I be thrice of slavish stuff</span> +<span class="i0">From my third grand-dam down, it shames not thee.</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_63" id="Page_63">vv. 1063-1075 [Pg 63]</a></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Ask no more. I beseech thee.... Promise me!</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">To leave the Truth half-found? 'Tis not my mood.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">I understand; and tell thee what is good.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Thy good doth weary me.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i11">O child of woe,</span> +<span class="i0">I pray God, I pray God, thou never know!</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus</span> (<i>turning from her</i>).</span> + +<span class="i0">Go, fetch the herdsman straight!—This Queen of mine +May walk alone to boast her royal line.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Jocasta.</span></span> + +<span class="i3">[<i>She twice draws in her breath through her +teeth, as if in some sharp pain.</i></span> + +<span class="i0">Unhappy one, goodbye! Goodbye before</span> +<span class="i0">I go: this once, and never never more!</span> + +<span class="i3">[<i>She comes towards him as though to take a last +farewell, then stops suddenly, turns, and +rushes into the Palace.</i></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Leader.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">King, what was that? She passed like one who flies</span> +<span class="i0">In very anguish. Dread is o'er mine eyes</span> +<span class="i0">Lest from this silence break some storm of wrong.</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_64" id="Page_64">vv. 1076-1097 [Pg 64]</a></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Break what break will! My mind abideth strong</span> +<span class="i0">To know the roots, how low soe'er they be,</span> +<span class="i0">Which grew to Oedipus. This woman, she</span> +<span class="i0">Is proud, methinks, and fears my birth and name</span> +<span class="i0">Will mar her nobleness. But I, no shame</span> +<span class="i0">Can ever touch me. I am Fortune's child,</span> +<span class="i0">Not man's; her mother face hath ever smiled</span> +<span class="i0">Above me, and my brethren of the sky,</span> +<span class="i0">The changing Moons, have changed me low and high.</span> +<span class="i0">There is my lineage true, which none shall wrest</span> +<span class="i0">From me; who then am I to fear this quest?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Chorus.</span></span> + +<span class="i3">[<i>They sing</i> <span class="smcap">Oedipus</span> <i>as the foundling of their +own Theban mountain, Kithairon, and +doubtless of divine birth.</i></span> + +<span class="i0"> <span class='pagenum2'>[<i>Strophe.</i></span></span> + +<span class="i0">If I, O Kithairon, some vision can borrow</span> +<span class="i1">From seercraft, if still there is wit in the old,</span> +<span class="i0">Long, long, through the deep-orbèd Moon of the morrow—</span> +<span class="i1">So hear me, Olympus!—thy tale shall be told.</span> +<span class="i0">O mountain of Thebes, a new Theban shall praise thee,</span> +<span class="i1">One born of thy bosom, one nursed at thy springs;</span> +<span class="i0">And the old men shall dance to thy glory, and raise thee</span> +<span class="i1">To worship, O bearer of joy to my kings.</span> +<span class="i5">And thou, we pray,</span> + +<span class="i0">Look down in peace, O Apollo; I-ê, I-ê!</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">vv. 1098-1120 [Pg 65]</a></span> + +<span class="i0"> <span class='pagenum2'>[<i>Antistrophe.</i></span></span> + +<span class="i0">What Oread mother, unaging, unweeping,</span> +<span class="i1">Did bear thee, O Babe, to the Crag-walker Pan;</span> +<span class="i0">Or perchance to Apollo? He loveth the leaping</span> +<span class="i1">Of herds on the rock-ways unhaunted of man.</span> +<span class="i0">Or was it the lord of Cyllênê, who found thee,</span> +<span class="i1">Or glad Dionysus, whose home is the height,</span> +<span class="i0">Who knew thee his own on the mountain, as round thee</span> +<span class="i1">The White Brides of Helicon laughed for delight?</span> +<span class="i8">'Tis there, 'tis there,</span> +<span class="i0">The joy most liveth of all his dance and prayer.</span> + +<hr class="two" /> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">If I may judge, ye Elders, who have ne'er</span> +<span class="i0">Seen him, methinks I see the shepherd there</span> +<span class="i0">Whom we have sought so long. His weight of years</span> +<span class="i0">Fits well with our Corinthian messenger's;</span> +<span class="i0">And, more, I know the men who guide his way,</span> +<span class="i0">Bondsmen of mine own house.</span> +<span class="i12">Thou, friend, wilt say</span> +<span class="i0">Most surely, who hast known the man of old.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Leader.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">I know him well. A shepherd of the fold</span> +<span class="i0">Of Laïus, one he trusted more than all.</span> + +<span class="i3">[<i>The</i> <span class="smcap">Shepherd</span> <i>comes in, led by two thralls. +He is an old man and seems terrified.</i></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Thou first, our guest from Corinth: say withal</span> +<span class="i0">Is this the man?</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_66" id="Page_66">vv. 1120-1130 [Pg 66]</a></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Stranger.</span></span> + +<span class="i5">This is the man, O King.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i8">[<i>Addressing the</i> <span class="smcap">Shepherd.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Old man! Look up, and answer everything</span> +<span class="i0">I ask thee.—Thou wast Laïus' man of old?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Shepherd.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Born in his house I was, not bought with gold.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">What kind of work, what way of life, was thine?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Shepherd.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Most of my days I tended sheep or kine.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">What was thy camping ground at midsummer?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Shepherd.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Sometimes Kithairon, sometimes mountains near.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Saw'st ever there this man thou seëst now?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Shepherd.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">There, Lord? What doing?—What man meanest thou?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i8">[<i>Pointing to the</i> <span class="smcap">Stranger.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Look! Hath he ever crossed thy path before?</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_67" id="Page_67">vv. 1131-1146 [Pg 67]</a></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Shepherd.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">I call him not to mind, I must think more.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Stranger.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Small wonder that, O King! But I will throw</span> +<span class="i0">Light on his memories.—Right well I know</span> +<span class="i0">He knows the time when, all Kithairon through,</span> +<span class="i0">I with one wandering herd and he with two,</span> +<span class="i0">Three times we neighboured one another, clear</span> +<span class="i0">From spring to autumn stars, a good half-year.</span> +<span class="i0">At winter's fall we parted; he drove down</span> +<span class="i0">To his master's fold, and I back to mine own....</span> +<span class="i0">Dost call it back, friend? Was it as I say?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Shepherd.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">It was. It was.... 'Tis all so far away.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Stranger.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Say then: thou gavest me once, there in the wild,</span> +<span class="i0">A babe to rear far off as mine own child?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Shepherd.</span></span> + +<span class="i10">[<i>His terror returning.</i></span> + +<span class="i0">What does this mean? To what end askest thou?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Stranger.</span></span> + +<span class="i10">[<i>Pointing to</i> <span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">That babe has grown, friend. 'Tis our master now.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Shepherd.</span></span> + +<span class="i4">[<i>He slowly understands, then stands for a moment horror-struck.</i></span> + +<span class="i0">No, in the name of death!... Fool, hold thy peace.</span> + +<span class="i6">[<i>He lifts his staff at the</i> <span class="smcap">Stranger.</span></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_68" id="Page_68">vv. 1147-1157 [Pg 68]</a></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Ha, greybeard! Wouldst thou strike him?—'Tis not his</span> +<span class="i0">Offences, 'tis thine own we need to mend.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Shepherd.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Most gentle master, how do I offend?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Whence came that babe whereof he questioneth?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Shepherd.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">He doth not know ... 'tis folly ... what he saith.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Thou wilt not speak for love; but pain maybe ...</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Shepherd.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">I am very old. Ye would not torture me.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Back with his arms, ye bondmen! Hold him so.</span> + +<span class="i4">[<i>The thralls drag back the</i> <span class="smcap">Shepherd'</span><i>s +arms, ready for torture.</i></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Shepherd.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Woe's me! What have I done?... What wouldst thou know?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Didst give this man the child, as he doth say?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Shepherd.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">I did.... Would God that I had died this day!</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_69" id="Page_69">vv. 1158-1167 [Pg 69]</a></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">'Fore heaven, thou shalt yet, if thou speak not true.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Shepherd.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">'Tis more than death and darker, if I do.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">This dog, it seems, will keep us waiting.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Shepherd.</span></span> + +<span class="i16">Nay,</span> +<span class="i0">I said at first I gave it.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i10">In what way</span> +<span class="i0">Came it to thee? Was it thine own child, or</span> +<span class="i0">Another's?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Shepherd.</span></span> + +<span class="i5">Nay, it never crossed my door:</span> +<span class="i0">Another's.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i5">Whose? What man, what house, of these</span> +<span class="i0">About thee?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Shepherd.</span></span> + +<span class="i6">In the name of God who sees,</span> +<span class="i0">Ask me no more!</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i8">If once I ask again,</span> +<span class="i0">Thou diest.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Shepherd.</span></span> + +<span class="i6">From the folk of Laïus, then,</span> +<span class="i0">It came.</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">vv. 1168-1176 [Pg 70]</a></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i4">A slave, or born of Laïus' blood?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Shepherd.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">There comes the word I dread to speak, O God!</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">And I to hear: yet heard it needs must be.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Shepherd.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Know then, they said 'twas Laïus' child. But she</span> +<span class="i0">Within, thy wife, best knows its fathering.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">'Twas she that gave it?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Shepherd.</span></span> + +<span class="i10">It was she, O King.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">And bade you ... what?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Shepherd.</span></span> + +<span class="i10">Destroy it.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> +<span class="i11">Her own child?...</span> +<span class="i0">Cruel!</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Shepherd.</span></span> + +<span class="i4">Dark words of God had made her wild.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">What words?</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_71" id="Page_71">vv. 1176-1192 [Pg 71]</a></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Shepherd.</span></span> + +<span class="i7">The babe must slay his father; so</span> +<span class="i0">'Twas written.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i7">Why didst thou, then, let him go</span> +<span class="i0">With this old man?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Shepherd.</span></span> + +<span class="i10">O King, I pitied him.</span> +<span class="i0">I thought the man would save him to some dim</span> +<span class="i0">And distant land, beyond all fear.... And he,</span> +<span class="i0">To worse than death, did save him!... Verily,</span> +<span class="i0">If thou art he whom this man telleth of,</span> +<span class="i0">To sore affliction thou art born.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i17">Enough!</span> +<span class="i0">All, all, shall be fulfilled.... Oh, on these eyes</span> +<span class="i0">Shed light no more, ye everlasting skies</span> +<span class="i0">That know my sin! I have sinned in birth and breath.</span> +<span class="i0">I have sinned with Woman. I have sinned with Death.</span> + +<span class="i3">[<i>He rushes into the Palace. The</i> <span class="smcap">Shepherd</span> +<i>is led away by the thralls.</i></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Chorus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0"> <span class='pagenum2'>[<i>Strophe.</i></span></span> + +<span class="i5">Nothingness, nothingness,</span> +<span class="i5">Ye Children of Man, and less</span> +<span class="i7">I count you, waking or dreaming!</span> +<span class="i5">And none among mortals, none,</span> +<span class="i5">Seeking to live, hath won</span> +<span class="i5">More than to seem, and to cease</span> +<span class="i7">Again from his seeming.</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_72" id="Page_72">vv. 1193-1212 [Pg 72]</a></span> + +<span class="i5">While ever before mine eyes</span> +<span class="i5">One fate, one ensample, lies—</span> +<span class="i5">Thine, thine, O Oedipus, sore</span> +<span class="i7">Of God oppressèd—</span> +<span class="i5">What thing that is human more</span> +<span class="i7">Dare I call blessèd?</span> + +<span class="i0"> <span class='pagenum2'>[<i>Antistrophe.</i></span></span> + + +<span class="i5">Straight his archery flew</span> +<span class="i5">To the heart of living; he knew</span> +<span class="i7">Joy and the fulness of power,</span> +<span class="i5">O Zeus, when the riddling breath</span> +<span class="i5">Was stayed and the Maid of Death</span> +<span class="i5">Slain, and we saw him through</span> +<span class="i7">The death-cloud, a tower!</span> + +<span class="i5">For that he was called my king;</span> +<span class="i5">Yea, every precious thing</span> +<span class="i5">Wherewith men are honoured, down</span> +<span class="i7">We cast before him,</span> +<span class="i5">And great Thebes brought her crown</span> +<span class="i7">And kneeled to adore him.</span> + +<span class="i0"> <span class='pagenum2'>[<i>Strophe.</i></span></span> + +<span class="i0">But now, what man's story is such bitterness to speak?</span> +<span class="i1">What life hath Delusion so visited, and Pain,</span> +<span class="i7">And swiftness of Disaster?</span> +<span class="i7">O great King, our master,</span> +<span class="i1">How oped the one haven to the slayer and the slain?</span> +<span class="i0">And the furrows of thy father, did they turn not nor shriek,</span> +<span class="i1">Did they bear so long silent thy casting of the grain?</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_73" id="Page_73">vv. 1213-1235 [Pg 73]</a></span> + + +<span class="i0"> <span class='pagenum2'>[<i>Antistrophe.</i></span></span> + + +<span class="i0">'Tis Time, Time, desireless, hath shown thee what thou art;</span> +<span class="i1">The long monstrous mating, it is judged and all its race.</span> +<span class="i5">O child of him that sleepeth,</span> +<span class="i5">Thy land weepeth, weepeth,</span> +<span class="i1">Unfathered.... Would God, I had never seen thy face!</span> +From thee in great peril fell peace upon my heart, +<span class="i1">In thee mine eye clouded and the dark is come apace.</span> + +<span class="i4">[<i>A</i> <span class="smcap">Messenger</span> <i>rushes out from the Palace.</i></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Messenger.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">O ye above this land in honour old</span> +<span class="i0">Exalted, what a tale shall ye be told,</span> +<span class="i0">What sights shall see, and tears of horror shed,</span> +<span class="i0">If still your hearts be true to them that led</span> +<span class="i0">Your sires! There runs no river, well I ween,</span> +<span class="i0">Not Phasis nor great Ister, shall wash clean</span> +<span class="i0">This house of all within that hideth—nay,</span> +<span class="i0">Nor all that creepeth forth to front the day,</span> +<span class="i0">Of purposed horror. And in misery</span> +<span class="i0">That woundeth most which men have willed to be.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Leader.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">No lack there was in what we knew before</span> +<span class="i0">Of food for heaviness. What bring'st thou more?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Messenger.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">One thing I bring thee first.... 'Tis quickly said.</span> +<span class="i0">Jocasta, our anointed queen, is dead.</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_74" id="Page_74">vv. 1236-1260 [Pg 74]</a></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Leader.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Unhappy woman! How came death to her?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Messenger.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">By her own hand.... Oh, of what passed in there</span> +<span class="i0">Ye have been spared the worst. Ye cannot see.</span> +<span class="i0">Howbeit, with that which still is left in me</span> +<span class="i0">Of mind and memory, ye shall hear her fate.</span> +<span class="i1">Like one entranced with passion, through the gate</span> +<span class="i0">She passed, the white hands flashing o'er her head,</span> +<span class="i0">Like blades that tear, and fled, unswerving fled,</span> +<span class="i0">Toward her old bridal room, and disappeared</span> +<span class="i0">And the doors crashed behind her. But we heard</span> +<span class="i0">Her voice within, crying to him of old,</span> +<span class="i0">Her Laïus, long dead; and things untold</span> +<span class="i0">Of the old kiss unforgotten, that should bring</span> +<span class="i0">The lover's death and leave the loved a thing</span> +<span class="i0">Of horror, yea, a field beneath the plough</span> +<span class="i0">For sire and son: then wailing bitter-low</span> +<span class="i0">Across that bed of births unreconciled,</span> +<span class="i0">Husband from husband born and child from child.</span> +<span class="i0">And, after that, I know not how her death</span> +<span class="i0">Found her. For sudden, with a roar of wrath,</span> +<span class="i0">Burst Oedipus upon us. Then, I ween,</span> +<span class="i0">We marked no more what passion held the Queen,</span> +<span class="i0">But him, as in the fury of his stride,</span> +<span class="i0">"A sword! A sword! And show me here," he cried,</span> +<span class="i0">"That wife, no wife, that field of bloodstained earth</span> +<span class="i0">Where husband, father, sin on sin, had birth,</span> +<span class="i0">Polluted generations!" While he thus</span> +<span class="i0">Raged on, some god—for sure 'twas none of us—</span> +<span class="i0">Showed where she was; and with a shout away,</span> +<span class="i0">As though some hand had pointed to the prey,</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_75" id="Page_75">vv. 1261-1286 [Pg 75]</a></span> + + +<span class="i0">He dashed him on the chamber door. The straight</span> +<span class="i0">Door-bar of oak, it bent beneath his weight,</span> +<span class="i0">Shook from its sockets free, and in he burst</span> +<span class="i0">To the dark chamber.</span> +<span class="i9">There we saw her first</span> +<span class="i0">Hanged, swinging from a noose, like a dead bird.</span> +<span class="i0">He fell back when he saw her. Then we heard</span> +<span class="i0">A miserable groan, and straight he found</span> +<span class="i0">And loosed the strangling knot, and on the ground</span> +<span class="i0">Laid her.—Ah, then the sight of horror came!</span> +<span class="i0">The pin of gold, broad-beaten like a flame,</span> +<span class="i0">He tore from off her breast, and, left and right,</span> +<span class="i0">Down on the shuddering orbits of his sight</span> +<span class="i0">Dashed it: "Out! Out! Ye never more shall see</span> +<span class="i0">Me nor the anguish nor the sins of me.</span> +<span class="i0">Ye looked on lives whose like earth never bore,</span> +<span class="i0">Ye knew not those my spirit thirsted for:</span> +<span class="i0">Therefore be dark for ever!"</span> +<span class="i12">Like a song</span> +<span class="i0">His voice rose, and again, again, the strong</span> +<span class="i0">And stabbing hand fell, and the massacred</span> +<span class="i0">And bleeding eyeballs streamed upon his beard,</span> +<span class="i0">Wild rain, and gouts of hail amid the rain.</span> +<span class="i1">Behold affliction, yea, afflictions twain</span> +<span class="i0">From man and woman broken, now made one</span> +<span class="i0">In downfall. All the riches yester sun</span> +<span class="i0">Saw in this house were rich in verity.</span> +<span class="i0">What call ye now our riches? Agony,</span> +<span class="i0">Delusion, Death, Shame, all that eye or ear</span> +<span class="i0">Hath ever dreamed of misery, is here.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Leader.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">And now how fares he? Doth the storm abate?</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_76" id="Page_76">vv. 1287-1308 [Pg 76]</a></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Messenger.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">He shouts for one to open wide the gate</span> +<span class="i0">And lead him forth, and to all Thebes display</span> +<span class="i0">His father's murderer, his mother's.... Nay,</span> +<span class="i0">Such words I will not speak. And his intent</span> +<span class="i0">Is set, to cast himself in banishment</span> +<span class="i0">Out to the wild, not walk 'mid human breed</span> +<span class="i0">Bearing the curse he bears. Yet sore his need</span> +<span class="i0">Of strength and of some guiding hand. For sure</span> +<span class="i0">He hath more burden now than man may endure.</span> +<span class="i1">But see, the gates fall back, and that appears</span> +<span class="i0">Which he who loathes shall pity—yea, with tears.</span> + +<span class="i3">[<span class="smcap">Oedipus</span> <i>is led in, blinded and bleeding. The +Old Men bow down and hide their faces; +some of them weep.</i></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Chorus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Oh, terrible! Oh, sight of all</span> +<span class="i2">This life hath crossed, most terrible!</span> +<span class="i2">Thou man more wronged than tongue can tell,</span> +<span class="i0">What madness took thee? Do there crawl</span> +<span class="i2">Live Things of Evil from the deep</span> +<span class="i2">To leap on man? Oh, what a leap</span> +<span class="i0">Was His that flung thee to thy fall!</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Leader.</span></span> + +O fallen, fallen in ghastly case, +<span class="i2">I dare not raise mine eyes to thee;</span> +<span class="i2">Fain would I look and ask and see,</span> +<span class="i0">But shudder sickened from thy face.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i4">Oh, pain; pain and woe!</span> +<span class="i6">Whither? Whither?</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_77" id="Page_77">vv. 1308-1328 [Pg 77]</a></span> + +<span class="i4">They lead me and I go;</span> +<span class="i5">And my voice drifts on the air</span> +<span class="i8">Far away.</span> +<span class="i5">Where, Thing of Evil, where</span> +<span class="i6">Endeth thy leaping hither?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Leader.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">In fearful ends, which none may hear nor say.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i2">Cloud of the dark, mine own <span class='pagenum2'>[<i>Strophe.</i></span></span> +<span class="i4">For ever, horrible,</span> +<span class="i4">Stealing, stealing, silent, unconquerable,</span> +<span class="i4">Cloud that no wind, no summer can dispel!</span> +<span class="i2">Again, again I groan,</span> +<span class="i0">As through my heart together crawl the strong</span> +<span class="i0">Stabs of this pain and memories of old wrong.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Leader.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Yea, twofold hosts of torment hast thou there,</span> +<span class="i0">The stain to think on and the pain to bear.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i2">O Friend, thou mine own <span class='pagenum2'>[<i>Antistrophe.</i></span></span> +<span class="i5">Still faithful, minister</span> +<span class="i5">Steadfast abiding alone of them that were,</span> +<span class="i5">Dost bear with me and give the blind man care?</span> +<span class="i2">Ah me! Not all unknown</span> +<span class="i0">Nor hid thou art. Deep in this dark a call</span> +<span class="i0">Comes and I know thy voice in spite of all.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Leader.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">O fearful sufferer, and could'st thou kill</span> +<span class="i0">Thy living orbs? What God made blind thy will?</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_78" id="Page_78">vv. 1329-1351 [Pg 78]</a></span> + + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">'Tis Apollo; all is Apollo, <span class='pagenum2'>[<i>Strophe.</i></span></span> +<span class="i1">O ye that love me, 'tis he long time hath planned</span> +<span class="i2">These things upon me evilly, evilly,</span> +<span class="i3">Dark things and full of blood.</span> +<span class="i0">I knew not; I did but follow</span> +<span class="i1">His way; but mine the hand</span> +<span class="i2">And mine the anguish. What were mine eyes to me</span> +<span class="i3">When naught to be seen was good?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Leader.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">'Tis even so; and Truth doth speak in thee.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">To see, to endure, to hear words kindly spoken,</span> +<span class="i1">Should I have joy in such?</span> +<span class="i2">Out, if ye love your breath,</span> +<span class="i0">Cast me swift unto solitude, unbroken</span> +<span class="i1">By word or touch.</span> +<span class="i2">Am I not charged with death,</span> +<span class="i3">Most charged and filled to the brim</span> +<span class="i2">With curses? And what man saith</span> +<span class="i3">God hath so hated him?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Leader.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Thy bitter will, thy hard calamity,</span> +<span class="i0">Would I had never known nor looked on thee!</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">My curse, my curse upon him, <span class='pagenum2'>[<i>Antistrophe.</i></span></span> +<span class="i1">That man whom pity held in the wilderness,</span> +<span class="i2">Who saved the feet alive from the blood-fetter</span> +<span class="i3">And loosed the barb thereof!</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_79" id="Page_79">vv. 1351-1377 [Pg 79]</a></span> + + +<span class="i0">That babe—what grace was done him,</span> +<span class="i1">Had he died shelterless,</span> +<span class="i2">He had not laid on himself this grief to bear,</span> +<span class="i3">And all who gave him love.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Leader.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">I, too, O Friend, I had been happier.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Found not the way to his father's blood, nor shaken</span> +<span class="i3">The world's scorn on his mother,</span> +<span class="i4">The child and the groom withal;</span> +<span class="i0">But now, of murderers born, of God forsaken,</span> +<span class="i3">Mine own sons' brother;</span> +<span class="i4">All this, and if aught can fall</span> +<span class="i5">Upon man more perilous</span> +<span class="i4">And elder in sin, lo, all</span> +<span class="i5">Is the portion of Oedipus.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Leader.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">How shall I hold this counsel of thy mind</span> +<span class="i0">True? Thou wert better dead than living blind.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">That this deed is not well and wisely wrought</span> +<span class="i0">Thou shalt not show me; therefore school me not.</span> +<span class="i0">Think, with what eyes hereafter in the place</span> +<span class="i0">Of shadows could I see my father's face,</span> +<span class="i0">Or my poor mother's? Both of whom this hand</span> +<span class="i0">Hath wronged too deep for man to understand.</span> +<span class="i0">Or children—born as mine were born, to see</span> +<span class="i0">Their shapes should bring me joy? Great God!</span> +<span class="i2">To me</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_80" id="Page_80">vv. 1378-1403 [Pg 80]</a></span> + + +<span class="i0">There is no joy in city nor in tower</span> +<span class="i0">Nor temple, from all whom, in this mine hour,</span> +<span class="i0">I that was chief in Thebes alone, and ate</span> +<span class="i0">The King's bread, I have made me separate</span> +<span class="i0">For ever. Mine own lips have bid the land</span> +<span class="i0">Cast from it one so evil, one whose hand</span> +<span class="i0">To sin was dedicate, whom God hath shown</span> +<span class="i0">Birth-branded ... and my blood the dead King's own!</span> +<span class="i0">All this myself have proved. And can I then</span> +<span class="i0">Look with straight eyes into the eyes of men?</span> +<span class="i0">I trow not. Nay, if any stop there were</span> +<span class="i0">To dam this fount that welleth in mine ear</span> +<span class="i0">For hearing, I had never blenched nor stayed</span> +<span class="i0">Till this vile shell were all one dungeon made,</span> +<span class="i0">Dark, without sound. 'Tis thus the mind would fain</span> +<span class="i0">Find peace, self-prisoned from a world of pain.</span> +<span class="i1">O wild Kithairon, why was it thy will</span> +<span class="i0">To save me? Why not take me quick and kill,</span> +<span class="i0">Kill, before ever I could make men know</span> +<span class="i0">The thing I am, the thing from which I grow?</span> +<span class="i0">Thou dead King, Polybus, thou city wall</span> +<span class="i0">Of Corinth, thou old castle I did call</span> +<span class="i0">My father's, what a life did ye begin,</span> +<span class="i0">What splendour rotted by the worm within,</span> +<span class="i0">When ye bred me! O Crossing of the Roads,</span> +<span class="i0">O secret glen and dusk of crowding woods,</span> +<span class="i0">O narrow footpath creeping to the brink</span> +<span class="i0">Where meet the Three! I gave you blood to drink.</span> +<span class="i0">Do ye remember? 'Twas my life-blood, hot</span> +<span class="i0">From mine own father's heart. Have ye forgot</span> +<span class="i0">What deed I did among you, and what new</span> +<span class="i0">And direr deed I fled from you to do?</span> +<span class="i0">O flesh, horror of flesh!...</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_81" id="Page_81">vv. 1409-1431 [Pg 81]</a></span> +<span class="i10">But what is shame</span> +<span class="i0">To do should not be spoken. In God's name,</span> +<span class="i0">Take me somewhere far off and cover me</span> +<span class="i0">From sight, or slay, or cast me to the sea</span> +<span class="i0">Where never eye may see me any more.</span> +<span class="i1">What? Do ye fear to touch a man so sore</span> +<span class="i0">Stricken? Nay, tremble not. My misery</span> +<span class="i0">Is mine, and shall be borne by none but me.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Leader.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Lo, yonder comes for answer to thy prayer</span> +<span class="i0">Creon, to do and to decree. The care</span> +<span class="i0">Of all our land is his, now thou art weak.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Alas, what word to Creon can I speak,</span> +<span class="i0">How make him trust me more? He hath seen of late</span> +<span class="i0">So vile a heart in me, so full of hate.</span> + +<span class="ia"><i>Enter</i> <span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Not to make laughter, Oedipus, nor cast</span> +<span class="i0">Against thee any evil of the past</span> +<span class="i0">I seek thee, but ... Ah God! ye ministers,</span> +<span class="i0">Have ye no hearts? Or if for man there stirs</span> +<span class="i0">No pity in you, fear at least to call</span> +<span class="i0">Stain on our Lord the Sun, who feedeth all;</span> +<span class="i0">Nor show in nakedness a horror such</span> +<span class="i0">As this, which never mother Earth may touch,</span> +<span class="i0">Nor God's clean rain nor sunlight. Quick within!</span> +<span class="i0">Guide him.—The ills that in a house have been</span> +<span class="i0">They of the house alone should know or hear.</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_82" id="Page_82">vv. 1432-1447 [Pg 82]</a></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">In God's name, since thou hast undone the fear</span> +<span class="i0">Within me, coming thus, all nobleness,</span> +<span class="i0">To one so vile, grant me one only grace.</span> +<span class="i0">For thy sake more I crave it than mine own.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Let me first hear what grace thou wouldst be shown.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Cast me from Thebes ... now, quick ... where none may see</span> +<span class="i0">My visage more, nor mingle words with me.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">That had I done, for sure, save that I still</span> +<span class="i0">Tremble, and fain would ask Apollo's will.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">His will was clear enough, to stamp the unclean</span> +<span class="i0">Thing out, the bloody hand, the heart of sin.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">'Twas thus he seemed to speak; but in this sore</span> +<span class="i0">Strait we must needs learn surer than before.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Thou needs must trouble God for one so low?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Surely; thyself will trust his answer now.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">I charge thee more ... and, if thou fail, my sin</span> +<span class="i0">Shall cleave to thee.... For her who lies within,</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_83" id="Page_83">vv. 1448-1472 [Pg 83]</a></span> + + +<span class="i0">Make as thou wilt her burial. 'Tis thy task</span> +<span class="i0">To tend thine own. But me: let no man ask</span> +<span class="i0">This ancient city of my sires to give</span> +<span class="i0">Harbour in life to me. Set me to live</span> +<span class="i0">On the wild hills and leave my name to those</span> +<span class="i0">Deeps of Kithairon which my father chose,</span> +<span class="i0">And mother, for my vast and living tomb.</span> +<span class="i0">As they, my murderers, willed it, let my doom</span> +<span class="i0">Find me. For this my very heart doth know,</span> +<span class="i0">No sickness now, nor any mortal blow,</span> +<span class="i0">Shall slay this body. Never had my breath</span> +<span class="i0">Been thus kept burning in the midst of death,</span> +<span class="i0">Save for some frightful end. So, let my way</span> +<span class="i0">Go where it listeth.</span> +<span class="i8">But my children—Nay,</span> +<span class="i0">Creon, my sons will ask thee for no care.</span> +<span class="i0">Men are they, and can find them everywhere</span> +<span class="i0">What life needs. But my two poor desolate</span> +<span class="i0">Maidens.... There was no table ever set</span> +<span class="i0">Apart for them, but whatso royal fare</span> +<span class="i0">I tasted, they were with me and had share</span> +<span class="i0">In all.... Creon, I pray, forget them not.</span> +<span class="i0">And if it may be, go, bid them be brought,</span> + +<span class="i3">[<span class="smcap">Creon</span> <i>goes and presently returns with the +two princesses.</i> <span class="smcap">Oedipus</span> <i>thinks he is +there all the time.</i></span> + +<span class="i0">That I may touch their faces, and so weep....</span> +<span class="i0">Go, Prince. Go, noble heart!...</span> +<span class="i0">If I might touch them, I should seem to keep</span> +<span class="i0">And not to have lost them, now mine eyes are gone....</span> +<span class="i0">What say I?</span> +<span class="i0">In God's name, can it be I hear mine own</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_84" id="Page_84">vv. 1473-1505 [Pg 84]</a></span> + +<span class="i0">Beloved ones sobbing? Creon of his grace</span> +<span class="i0">Hath brought my two, my dearest, to this place.</span> +<span class="i0">Is it true?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">'Tis true. I brought them, for in them I know</span> +<span class="i0">Thy joy is, the same now as long ago.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">God bless thee, and in this hard journey give</span> +<span class="i0">Some better guide than mine to help thee live.</span> +<span class="i1">Children! Where are ye? Hither; come to these</span> +<span class="i0">Arms of your ... brother, whose wild offices</span> +<span class="i0">Have brought much darkness on the once bright eyes</span> +<span class="i0">Of him who grew your garden; who, nowise</span> +<span class="i0">Seeing nor understanding, digged a ground</span> +<span class="i0">The world shall shudder at. Children, my wound</span> +<span class="i0">Is yours too, and I cannot meet your gaze</span> +<span class="i0">Now, as I think me what remaining days</span> +<span class="i0">Of bitter living the world hath for you.</span> +<span class="i0">What dance of damsels shall ye gather to,</span> +<span class="i0">What feast of Thebes, but quick ye shall turn home,</span> +<span class="i0">All tears, or ere the feast or dancers come?</span> +<span class="i0">And, children, when ye reach the years of love,</span> +<span class="i0">Who shall dare wed you, whose heart rise above</span> +<span class="i0">The peril, to take on him all the shame</span> +<span class="i0">That cleaves to my name and my children's name?</span> +<span class="i0">God knows, it is enough!...</span> +<span class="i0">My flowers, ye needs must die, waste things, bereft</span> +<span class="i0">And fruitless.</span> +<span class="i6">Creon, thou alone art left</span> +<span class="i0">Their father now, since both of us are gone</span> +<span class="i0">Who cared for them. Oh, leave them not alone</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_85" id="Page_85">vv. 1505-1518 [Pg 85]</a></span> + + +<span class="i0">To wander masterless, these thine own kin,</span> +<span class="i0">And beggared. Neither think of them such sin</span> +<span class="i0">As ye all know in me, but let their fate</span> +<span class="i0">Touch thee. So young they are, so desolate—</span> +<span class="i0">Of all save thee. True man, give me thine hand,</span> +<span class="i0">And promise.</span> + +<span class="i8">[<span class="smcap">Oedipus</span> <i>and</i> <span class="smcap">Creon</span> <i>clasp hands.</i></span> + +<span class="i6">If your age could understand,</span> +<span class="i0">Children, full many counsels I could give.</span> +<span class="i0">But now I leave this one word: Pray to live</span> +<span class="i0">As life may suffer you, and find a road</span> +<span class="i0">To travel easier than your father trod.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Enough thy heart hath poured its tears; now back into thine house repair.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">I dread the house, yet go I must.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i6">Fair season maketh all things fair.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">One oath then give me, and I go.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i6">Name it, and I will answer thee.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">To cast me from this land.</span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_86" id="Page_86">vv. 1519-1523 [Pg 86]</a></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i3">A gift not mine but God's thou askest me.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">I am a thing of God abhorred.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i3">The more, then, will he grant thy prayer.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Thou givest thine oath?</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i2">I see no light; and, seeing not, I may not swear.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Then take me hence. I care not.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i3">Go in peace, and give these children o'er.</span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Ah no! Take not away my daughters!</span> + +<span class="i10">[<i>They are taken from him.</i></span> + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Creon.</span></span> + +<span class="i8">Seek not to be master more.</span> +<span class="i0">Did not thy masteries of old forsake thee when the +end was near?</span> + +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_87" id="Page_87">vv. 1524-1530 [Pg 87]</a></span> + + +<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Chorus.</span></span> + +<span class="i0">Ye citizens of Thebes, behold; 'tis Oedipus that passeth here,</span> +<span class="i0">Who read the riddle-word of Death, and mightiest stood of mortal men,</span> +<span class="i0">And Fortune loved him, and the folk that saw him turned and looked again.</span> +<span class="i0">Lo, he is fallen, and around great storms and the outreaching sea!</span> +<span class="i0">Therefore, O Man, beware, and look toward the end of things that be,</span> +<span class="i0">The last of sights, the last of days; and no man's life account as gain</span> +<span class="i0">Ere the full tale be finished and the darkness find him without pain.</span> + +<span class="i5">[<span class="smcap">Oedipus</span> <i>is led into the house and the doors +close on him.</i></span> +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_88" id="Page_88">[Pg 88]</a></span> +</div></div> +</div> +<hr /> +<h3>NOTES TO<br /> +OEDIPUS, KING OF THEBES</h3> + + +<p><a href="#Page_4">P. 4, l. 21:</a> Dry Ash of Ismênus.]—Divination by +burnt offerings was practised at an altar of Apollo by +the river Ismenus in Thebes.</p> + +<p>Observe how many traits Oedipus retains of the +primitive king, who was at once chief and medicine-man +and god. The Priest thinks it necessary to state +explicitly that he does not regard Oedipus as a god, +but he is clearly not quite like other men. And it +seems as if Oedipus himself realised in this scene that +the oracle from Delphi might well demand the king's +life. Cf. p. 6, "what deed of mine, what bitter task, +May save my city"; p. 7, "any fear for mine own +death." This thought, present probably in more minds +than his, greatly increases the tension of the scene. +Cf. <i>Anthropology and the Classics</i>, pp. 74-79.]</p> + +<p><a href="#Page_7">P. 7, l. 87,</a> Message of joy.]—Creon says this for +the sake of the omen. The first words uttered at +such a crisis would be ominous and tend to fulfil +themselves.]</p> + +<p><a href="#Page_13">Pp. 13-16, ll. 216-275.</a> The long cursing speech +of Oedipus.]—Observe that this speech is broken into +several divisions, Oedipus at each point expecting +an answer and receiving none. Thus it is not mere +declamation; it involves action and reaction between +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_89" id="Page_89">[Pg 89]</a></span> +a speaker and a crowd.—Every reader will notice +how full it is of "tragic irony." Almost every paragraph +carries with it some sinister meaning of which +the speaker is unconscious. Cf. such phrases as "if +he tread my hearth," "had but his issue been more +fortunate," "as I would for mine own father," and +of course the whole situation.</p> + +<p><a href="#Page_25">P. 25, l. 437,</a> Who were they?]—This momentary +doubt of Oedipus, who of course regarded himself +as the son of Polybus, King of Corinth, is explained +later (p. 46, l. 780).</p> + +<p><a href="#Page_29">Pp. 29 ff.</a> The Creon scene.]—The only part of +the play which could possibly be said to flag. Creon's +defence, p. 34, "from probabilities," as the rhetoricians +would have called it, seems less interesting to us than +it probably did to the poet's contemporaries. It is +remarkably like Hippolytus's defence (pp. 52 f. of my +translation), and probably one was suggested by the +other. We cannot be sure which was the earlier +play.</p> + +<p>The scene serves at least to quicken the pace of +the drama, to bring out the impetuous and somewhat +tyrannical nature of Oedipus, and to prepare the +magnificent entrance of Jocasta.</p> + +<p><a href="#Page_36">P. 36, l. 630</a>, Thebes is my country.]—It must +be remembered that to the Chorus Creon is a real +Theban, Oedipus a stranger from Corinth.</p> + +<p><a href="#Page_41">P. 41,</a> Conversation of Oedipus and Jocasta.]—The +technique of this wonderful scene, an intimate +self-revealing conversation between husband and wife +about the past, forming the pivot of the play, will +remind a modern reader of Ibsen.</p> + +<p><a href="#Page_42">P. 42, l. 718.</a>]—Observe that Jocasta does not +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_90" id="Page_90">[Pg 90]</a></span> +tell the whole truth. It was she herself who gave +the child to be killed (p. 70, l. 1173).</p> + +<p><a href="#Page_42">P. 42, l. 730,</a> Crossing of Three Ways.]—Cross +roads always had dark associations. This particular +spot was well known to tradition and is still pointed +out. "A bare isolated hillock of grey stone stands +at the point where our road from Daulia meets the +road to Delphi and a third road that stretches to +the south.... The road runs up a frowning pass +between Parnassus on the right hand and the spurs +of the Helicon range on the left. Away to the south +a wild and desolate valley opens, running up among +the waste places of Helicon, a scene of inexpressible +grandeur and desolation" (Jebb, abridged).</p> + +<p><a href="#Page_44">P. 44, l. 754,</a> Who could bring, &c.]—Oedipus of +course thought he had killed them all. See his next +speech.</p> + +<p><a href="#Page_51">P. 51.</a>]—Observe the tragic effect of this prayer. +Apollo means to destroy Jocasta, not to save her; +her prayer is broken across by the entry of the +Corinthian Stranger, which seems like a deliverance +but is really a link in the chain of destruction. +There is a very similar effect in Sophocles' <i>Electra</i>, +636-659, Clytaemnestra's prayer; compare also the +prayers to Cypris in Euripides' <i>Hippolytus</i>.</p> + +<p><a href="#Page_51">P. 51, l. 899.</a>]—Abae was an ancient oracular +shrine in Boeotia; Olympia in Elis was the seat of +the Olympian Games and of a great Temple of Zeus.</p> + +<p><a href="#Page_52">P. 52, l. 918,</a> O Slayer of the Wolf, O Lord of +Light.]—The names Lykeios, Lykios, &c., seem to +have two roots, one meaning "Wolf" and the other +"Light."</p> + +<p><a href="#Page_56">P. 56, l. 987,</a> Thy father's tomb Like light across +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_91" id="Page_91">[Pg 91]</a></span> +our darkness.]—This ghastly line does not show hardness +of heart, it shows only the terrible position in +which Oedipus and Jocasta are. Naturally Oedipus +would give thanks if his father was dead. Compare +his question above, p. 54, l. 960, "Not murdered?"—He +cannot get the thought of the fated murder out +of his mind.</p> + +<p><a href="#Page_57">P. 57, l. 994.</a>]—Why does Oedipus tell the Corinthian +this oracle, which he has kept a secret even +from his wife till to-day?—Perhaps because, if there +is any thought of his going back to Corinth, his long +voluntary exile must be explained. Perhaps, too, the +secret possesses his mind so overpoweringly that it +can hardly help coming out.</p> + +<p><a href="#Page_57">Pp. 57, 58, ll. 1000-1020.</a>]—It is natural that the +Corinthian hesitates before telling a king that he is +really not of royal birth.</p> + +<p><a href="#Page_64">Pp. 64, 65, ll. 1086-1109.</a>]—This joyous Chorus +strikes a curious note. Of course it forms a good +contrast with what succeeds, but how can the Elders +take such a serenely happy view of the discovery that +Oedipus is a foundling just after they have been alarmed +at the exit of Jocasta? It seems as if the last +triumphant speech of Oedipus, "fey" and almost +touched with megalomania as it was, had carried the +feeling of the Chorus with it.</p> + +<p><a href="#Page_66">P. 66, l. 1122.</a>]—Is there any part in any tragedy so +short and yet so effective as that of this Shepherd?</p> + +<p><a href="#Page_75">P. 75, l. 1264</a>, Like a dead bird.]—The curious +word, [Greek: empeplêgmenên], seems to be taken from Odyssey +xxii. 469, where it is applied to birds caught in a snare. +As to the motives of Oedipus, his first blind instinct +to kill Jocasta as a thing that polluted the +<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_92" id="Page_92">[Pg 92]</a></span> +earth; when he saw her already dead, a revulsion +came.</p> + +<p><a href="#Page_76">P. 76, ll. 1305 ff</a>.]—Observe how a climax of +physical horror is immediately veiled and made beautiful +by lyrical poetry. Sophocles does not, however, +carry this plan of simply flooding the scene with +sudden beauty nearly so far as Euripides does. See +<i>Hipp.</i>, p. 39; <i>Trojan Women</i>, p. 51.</p> + +<p><a href="#Page_83">P. 83, ll. 1450 ff.</a>, Set me to live on the wild hills.]—These +lines serve to explain the conception, existing +in the poet's own time, of Oedipus as a daemon +or ghost haunting Mount Kithairon.</p> + +<p><a href="#Page_86">P. 86, l. 1520,</a> Creon.]—Amid all Creon's whole-hearted +forgiveness of Oedipus and his ready kindness +there are one or two lines of his which strike a +modern reader as tactless if not harsh. Yet I do not +think that Sophocles meant to produce that effect. +At the present day it is not in the best manners to +moralise over a man who is down, any more than +it is the part of a comforter to expound and insist +upon his friend's misfortunes. But it looks as if +ancient manners expected, and even demanded, both. +Cf. the attitude of Theseus to Adrastus in Eur., +<i>Suppliants</i>.</p> + + + + + + + + +<pre> + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Oedipus King of Thebes, by Sophocles + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK OEDIPUS KING OF THEBES *** + +***** This file should be named 27673-h.htm or 27673-h.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/7/6/7/27673/ + +Produced by Sigal Alon, Turgut Dincer, R. Cedron and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. 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