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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Oedipus King of Thebes, by Sophocles
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  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
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+OEDIPUS
+
+KING OF THEBES
+
+BY
+
+SOPHOCLES
+
+
+TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH RHYMING VERSE
+
+ WITH EXPLANATORY NOTES BY
+
+GILBERT MURRAY
+
+LL.D., D.LITT., F.B.A.
+
+REGIUS PROFESSOR OF GREEK IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
+
+
+FOURTEENTH THOUSAND
+
+
+ LONDON: GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD.
+ RUSKIN HOUSE 40 MUSEUM STREET, W.C.1
+
+
+
+ _First published_      _February 1911_
+ _Reprinted_            _January  1912_
+     "                  _   "     1912_
+     "                  _February 1912_
+     "                  _July     1917_
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+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 _Oedipus_, chiefly
+points connected with the dramatic technique and the religious
+atmosphere.
+
+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" (_Choephori_, 127: cf.
+Crusius, _Beiträge z. Gr. Myth_, 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
+_Basileus_ who is also a _Theos_, 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 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 _Lectures on the Kingship_, who are "honoured as no woman
+now living on the earth."
+
+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 (_Schol. Eur. Phoen._, 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.
+
+Does this in any way make the tragedy insincere? 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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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 (_Varia Historia_, 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
+_patria potestas_, 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.
+
+There is not much philosophy in the _Oedipus_. 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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Where plot-interest is as strong as it is in the _Oedipus_,
+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 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.
+
+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 Laļus 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.
+
+As to Tiresias, I wish to ask forgiveness for an unintelligent criticism
+made twelve years ago in my _Ancient Greek Literature_, 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 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.
+
+As to the Chorus, it generally plays a smaller part in Sophocles than in
+Euripides and Aeschylus, and the _Oedipus_ 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 _Bacchae_ and the _Trojan Women_. His lyrics, great as
+they 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.
+
+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.
+
+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 _Oedipus_.
+
+G. M.
+
+
+
+
+ CHARACTERS IN THE PLAY
+
+
+ OEDIPUS, _supposed son of Polybus, King of Corinth; now elected King of
+   Thebes._
+
+ JOCASTA, _Queen of Thebes; widow of Laļus, the late King, and now wife
+   to Oedipus._
+
+ CREON, _a Prince of Thebes, brother to Jocasta._
+
+ TIRESIAS, _an old blind seer._
+
+ PRIEST OF ZEUS.
+
+ A STRANGER _from Corinth._
+
+ A SHEPHERD _of King Laļus._
+
+ A MESSENGER _from the Palace._
+
+ CHORUS of the Elders of Thebes.
+
+ A Crowd of Suppliants, men, women, and children.
+
+
+ The following do not appear in the play but are frequently mentioned:--
+
+ LAĻUS (_pronounced as three syllables, Lį-i-us_), _the last King of Thebes
+   before Oedipus._
+
+ CADMUS, _the founder of Thebes; son of Agźnor, King of Sidon._
+
+ POLYBUS AND MEROPŹ, _King and Queen of Corinth, supposed to be the
+   father and mother of Oedipus._
+
+ APOLLO, _the God specially presiding over the oracle of Delphi and the
+   island Delos: he is also called_ PHOEBUS, _the pure;_ LOXIAS,
+   _supposed to mean "He of the Crooked Words"; and_ LYKEIOS, _supposed
+   to mean "Wolf-God." He is also the great Averter of Evil, and has
+   names from the cries "I-ź" (pronounced "Ee-ay") and "Paian," cries
+   for healing or for the frightening away of evil influences._
+
+ KITHAIRON, _a mass of wild mountain south-west of Thebes._
+
+
+
+
+ARGUMENT
+
+While Thebes was under the rule of LAĻUS and JOCASTA 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. LAĻUS 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, OEDIPUS, 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 OEDIPUS, and with it the hand of the Queen, JOCASTA.
+
+Some ten or twelve years afterwards a pestilence has fallen on Thebes.
+At this point the play begins.
+
+
+_The date of the first production of the play is not known, but was
+probably about the year 425 B.C._
+
+
+
+
+OEDIPUS, KING OF THEBES
+
+
+SCENE.--_Before the Palace of_ OEDIPUS _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_ PRIEST OF ZEUS. _As the Palace door opens and_
+OEDIPUS _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._
+
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  My children, fruit of Cadmus' ancient tree
+  New springing, wherefore thus with bended knee
+  Press ye upon us, laden all with wreaths
+  And suppliant branches? And the city breathes
+  Heavy with incense, heavy with dim prayer
+  And shrieks to affright the Slayer.--Children, care
+  For this so moves me, I have scorned withal
+  Message or writing: seeing 'tis I ye call,
+  'Tis I am come, world-honoured Oedipus.
+    Old Man, do thou declare--the rest have thus
+  Their champion--in what mood stand ye so still,
+  In dread or sure hope? Know ye not, my will
+  Is yours for aid 'gainst all? Stern were indeed
+  The heart that felt not for so dire a need.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 15-39]
+
+PRIEST.
+
+  O Oedipus, who holdest in thy hand
+  My city, thou canst see what ages stand
+  At these thine altars; some whose little wing
+  Scarce flieth yet, and some with long living
+  O'erburdened; priests, as I of Zeus am priest,
+  And chosen youths: and wailing hath not ceased
+  Of thousands in the market-place, and by
+  Athena's two-fold temples and the dry
+  Ash of Ismźnus' portent-breathing shore.
+    For all our ship, thou see'st, is weak and sore
+  Shaken with storms, and no more lighteneth
+  Her head above the waves whose trough is death.
+  She wasteth in the fruitless buds of earth,
+  In parchčd herds and travail without birth
+  Of dying women: yea, and midst of it
+  A burning and a loathly god hath lit
+  Sudden, and sweeps our land, this Plague of power;
+  Till Cadmus' house grows empty, hour by hour,
+  And Hell's house rich with steam of tears and blood.
+    O King, not God indeed nor peer to God
+  We deem thee, that we kneel before thine hearth,
+  Children and old men, praying; but of earth
+  A thing consummate by thy star confessed
+  Thou walkest and by converse with the blest;
+  Who came to Thebes so swift, and swept away
+  The Sphinx's song, the tribute of dismay,
+  That all were bowed beneath, and made us free.
+  A stranger, thou, naught knowing more than we,
+  Nor taught of any man, but by God's breath
+  Filled, thou didst raise our life. So the world saith;
+  So we say.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 40-69]
+
+             Therefore now, O Lord and Chief,
+  We come to thee again; we lay our grief
+  On thy head, if thou find us not some aid.
+  Perchance thou hast heard Gods talking in the shade
+  Of night, or eke some man: to him that knows,
+  Men say, each chance that falls, each wind that blows
+  Hath life, when he seeks counsel. Up, O chief
+  Of men, and lift thy city from its grief;
+  Face thine own peril! All our land doth hold
+  Thee still our saviour, for that help of old:
+  Shall they that tell of thee hereafter tell
+  "By him was Thebes raised up, and after fell!"
+  Nay, lift us till we slip no more. Oh, let
+  That bird of old that made us fortunate
+  Wing back; be thou our Oedipus again.
+  And let thy kingdom be a land of men,
+  Not emptiness. Walls, towers, and ships, they all
+  Are nothing with no men to keep the wall.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  My poor, poor children! Surely long ago
+  I have read your trouble. Stricken, well I know,
+  Ye all are, stricken sore: yet verily
+  Not one so stricken to the heart as I.
+  Your grief, it cometh to each man apart
+  For his own loss, none other's; but this heart
+  For thee and me and all of us doth weep.
+  Wherefore it is not to one sunk in sleep
+  Ye come with waking. Many tears these days
+  For your sake I have wept, and many ways
+  Have wandered on the beating wings of thought.
+  And, finding but one hope, that I have sought
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 70-86]
+
+  And followed. I have sent Menoikeus' son,
+  Creon, my own wife's brother, forth alone
+  To Apollo's House in Delphi, there to ask
+  What word, what deed of mine, what bitter task,
+  May save my city.
+                    And the lapse of days
+  Reckoned, I can but marvel what delays
+  His journey. 'Tis beyond all thought that thus
+  He comes not, beyond need. But when he does,
+  Then call me false and traitor, if I flee
+  Back from whatever task God sheweth me.
+
+PRIEST.
+
+  At point of time thou speakest. Mark the cheer
+  Yonder. Is that not Creon drawing near?
+
+    [_They all crowd to gaze where_ CREON _is
+        approaching in the distance._
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  O Lord Apollo, help! And be the star
+  That guides him joyous as his seemings are!
+
+  PRIEST.
+
+  Oh! surely joyous! How else should he bear
+  That fruited laurel wreathed about his hair?
+
+  OEDIPUS.
+
+  We soon shall know.--'Tis not too far for one
+  Clear-voiced.
+
+    (_Shouting_) Ho, brother! Prince! Menoikeus' son,
+  What message from the God?
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 87-99]
+
+CREON (from a distance).
+
+                               Message of joy!
+
+_Enter_ CREON
+
+  I tell thee, what is now our worst annoy,
+  If the right deed be done, shall turn to good.
+
+    [_The crowd, which has been full of excited
+        hope, falls to doubt and disappointment._
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Nay, but what is the message? For my blood
+  Runs neither hot nor cold for words like those.
+
+CREON.
+
+  Shall I speak now, with all these pressing close,
+  Or pass within?--To me both ways are fair.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Speak forth to all! The grief that these men bear
+  Is more than any fear for mine own death.
+
+CREON.
+
+  I speak then what I heard from God.--Thus saith
+  Phoebus, our Lord and Seer, in clear command.
+  An unclean thing there is, hid in our land,
+  Eating the soil thereof: this ye shall cast
+  Out, and not foster till all help be past.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  How cast it out? What was the evil deed?
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 100-113]
+
+CREON.
+
+  Hunt the men out from Thebes, or make them bleed
+  Who slew. For blood it is that stirs to-day.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Who was the man they killed? Doth Phoebus say?
+
+CREON.
+
+  O King, there was of old King Laļus
+  In Thebes, ere thou didst come to pilot us.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  I know: not that I ever saw his face.
+
+CREON.
+
+ 'Twas he. And Loxias now bids us trace
+  And smite the unknown workers of his fall.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Where in God's earth are they? Or how withal
+  Find the blurred trail of such an ancient stain?
+
+CREON.
+
+  In Thebes, he said.--That which men seek amain
+  They find. 'Tis things forgotten that go by.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  And where did Laļus meet them? Did he die
+  In Thebes, or in the hills, or some far land?
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 114-127]
+
+CREON.
+
+  To ask God's will in Delphi he had planned
+  His journey. Started and returned no more.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  And came there nothing back? No message, nor
+  None of his company, that ye might hear?
+
+CREON.
+
+  They all were slain, save one man; blind with fear
+  He came, remembering naught--or almost naught.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  And what was that? One thing has often brought
+  Others, could we but catch one little clue.
+
+CREON.
+
+ 'Twas not one man, 'twas robbers--that he knew--
+  Who barred the road and slew him: a great band.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Robbers?... What robber, save the work was planned
+  By treason here, would dare a risk so plain?
+
+CREON.
+
+  So some men thought. But Laļus lay slain,
+  And none to avenge him in his evil day.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 128-148]
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  And what strange mischief, when your master lay
+  Thus fallen, held you back from search and deed?
+
+CREON.
+
+  The dark-songed Sphinx was here. We had no heed
+  Of distant sorrows, having death so near.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  It falls on me then. I will search and clear
+  This darkness.--Well hath Phoebus done, and thou
+  Too, to recall that dead king, even now,
+  And with you for the right I also stand,
+  To obey the God and succour this dear land.
+  Nor is it as for one that touches me
+  Far off; 'tis for mine own sake I must see
+  This sin cast out. Whoe'er it was that slew
+  Laļus, the same wild hand may seek me too:
+  And caring thus for Laļus, is but care
+  For mine own blood.--Up! Leave this altar-stair,
+  Children. Take from it every suppliant bough.
+  Then call the folk of Thebes. Say, 'tis my vow
+  To uphold them to the end. So God shall crown
+  Our greatness, or for ever cast us down.
+
+    [_He goes in to the Palace._
+
+PRIEST.
+
+  My children, rise.--The King most lovingly
+  Hath promised all we came for. And may He
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 149-161]
+
+  Who sent this answer, Phoebus, come confessed
+  Helper to Thebes, and strong to stay the pest.
+
+    [_The suppliants gather up their boughs and
+        stand at the side. The chorus of Theban
+        elders enter._
+
+CHORUS.
+
+    [_They speak of the Oracle which they have not
+        yet heard, and cry to_ APOLLO _by his
+        special cry "I-ź."_
+
+    A Voice, a Voice, that is borne on the Holy Way!
+  What art thou, O Heavenly One, O Word of the Houses of Gold?
+  Thebes is bright with thee, and my heart it leapeth; yet is it cold,
+        And my spirit faints as I pray.
+            I-ź! I-ź!
+  What task, O Affrighter of Evil, what task shall thy people essay?
+        One new as our new-come affliction,
+          Or an old toil returned with the years?
+        Unveil thee, thou dread benediction,
+          Hope's daughter and Fear's.
+
+    [_They pray to_ ATHENA, ARTEMIS, _and_
+        APOLLO.
+
+    Zeus-Child that knowest not death, to thee I pray,
+  O Pallas; next to thy Sister, who calleth Thebes her own,
+  Artemis, named of Fair Voices, who sitteth her orbčd throne
+      In the throng of the market way:
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 162-189]
+
+            And I-ź! I-ź!
+  Apollo, the Pure, the Far-smiter; O Three that keep evil away,
+      If of old for our city's desire,
+        When the death-cloud hung close to her brow,
+      Ye have banished the wound and the fire,
+        Oh! come to us now!
+
+    [_They tell of the Pestilence._
+
+  Wounds beyond telling; my people sick unto death;
+    And where is the counsellor, where is the sword of thought?
+  And Holy Earth in her increase perisheth:
+    The child dies and the mother awaketh not.
+            I-ź! I-ź!
+  We have seen them, one on another, gone as a bird is gone,
+    Souls that are flame; yea, higher,
+    Swifter they pass than fire,
+      To the rocks of the dying Sun.
+
+    [_They end by a prayer to_ ATHENA,
+
+  Their city wasteth unnumbered; their children lie
+    Where death hath cast them, unpitied, unwept upon.
+  The altars stand, as in seas of storm a high
+    Rock standeth, and wives and mothers grey thereon
+            Weep, weep and pray.
+  Lo, joy-cries to fright the Destroyer; a flash in the dark they rise,
+      Then die by the sobs overladen.
+      Send help, O heaven-born Maiden,
+        Let us look on the light of her eyes!
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 190-217]
+
+    [_To_ ZEUS, _that he drive out the Slayer,_
+
+      And Ares, the abhorred
+      Slayer, who bears no sword,
+  But shrieking, wrapped in fire, stands over me,
+      Make that he turn, yea, fly
+      Broken, wind-wasted, high
+  Down the vexed hollow of the Vaster Sea;
+      Or back to his own Thrace,
+      To harbour shelterless.
+  Where Night hath spared, he bringeth end by day.
+      Him, Him, O thou whose hand
+      Beareth the lightning brand,
+  O Father Zeus, now with thy thunder, slay and slay!
+
+    [_To_ APOLLO, ARTEMIS, _and_ DIONYSUS.
+
+      Where is thy gold-strung bow,
+      O Wolf-god, where the flow
+  Of living shafts unconquered, from all ills
+      Our helpers? Where the white
+      Spears of thy Sister's light,
+  Far-flashing as she walks the wolf-wild hills?
+      And thou, O Golden-crown,
+      Theban and named our own,
+  O Wine-gleam, Voice of Joy, for ever more
+    Ringed with thy Maenads white,
+    Bacchus, draw near and smite,
+  Smite with thy glad-eyed flame the God whom Gods abhor.
+
+    [_During the last lines_ OEDIPUS _has
+        come out from the Palace._
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Thou prayest: but my words if thou wilt hear
+  And bow thee to their judgement, strength is near
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 218-245]
+
+  For help, and a great lightening of ill.
+  Thereof I come to speak, a stranger still
+  To all this tale, a stranger to the deed:
+  (Else, save that I were clueless, little need
+  Had I to cast my net so wide and far:)
+  Howbeit, I, being now as all ye are,
+  A Theban, to all Thebans high and low
+  Do make proclaim: if any here doth know
+  By what man's hand died Laļus, your King,
+  Labdacus' son, I charge him that he bring
+  To me his knowledge. Let him feel no fear
+  If on a townsman's body he must clear
+  Our guilt: the man shall suffer no great ill,
+  But pass from Thebes, and live where else he will.
+
+    [_No answer._
+
+  Is it some alien from an alien shore
+  Ye know to have done the deed, screen him no more!
+  Good guerdon waits you now and a King's love
+  Hereafter.
+             Hah! If still ye will not move
+  But, fearing for yourselves or some near friend,
+  Reject my charge, then hearken to what end
+  Ye drive me.--If in this place men there be
+  Who know and speak not, lo, I make decree
+  That, while in Thebes I bear the diadem,
+  No man shall greet, no man shall shelter them,
+  Nor give them water in their thirst, nor share
+  In sacrifice nor shrift nor dying prayer,
+  But thrust them from our doors, the thing they hide
+  Being this land's curse. Thus hath the God replied
+  This day to me from Delphi, and my sword
+  I draw thus for the dead and for God's word.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 246-273]
+
+    And lastly for the murderer, be it one
+  Hiding alone or more in unison,
+  I speak on him this curse: even as his soul
+  Is foul within him let his days be foul,
+  And life unfriended grind him till he die.
+  More: if he ever tread my hearth and I
+  Know it, be every curse upon my head
+  That I have spoke this day.
+                              All I have said
+  I charge ye strictly to fulfil and make
+  Perfect, for my sake, for Apollo's sake,
+  And this land's sake, deserted of her fruit
+  And cast out from her gods. Nay, were all mute
+  At Delphi, still 'twere strange to leave the thing
+  Unfollowed, when a true man and a King
+  Lay murdered. All should search. But I, as now
+  Our fortunes fall--his crown is on my brow,
+  His wife lies in my arms, and common fate,
+  Had but his issue been more fortunate,
+  Might well have joined our children--since this red
+  Chance hath so stamped its heel on Laļus' head,
+  I am his champion left, and, as I would
+  For mine own father, choose for ill or good
+  This quest, to find the man who slew of yore
+  Labdacus' son, the son of Polydore,
+  Son of great Cadmus whom Agenor old
+  Begat, of Thebes first master. And, behold,
+  For them that aid me not, I pray no root
+  Nor seed in earth may bear them corn nor fruit,
+  No wife bear children, but this present curse
+  Cleave to them close and other woes yet worse.
+    Enough: ye other people of the land,
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 274-289]
+
+  Whose will is one with mine, may Justice stand
+  Your helper, and all gods for evermore.
+
+    [_The crowd disperses._
+
+LEADER.
+
+  O King, even while thy curse yet hovers o'er
+  My head, I answer thee. I slew him not,
+  Nor can I shew the slayer. But, God wot,
+  If Phoebus sends this charge, let Phoebus read
+  Its meaning and reveal who did the deed.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Aye, that were just, if of his grace he would
+  Reveal it. How shall man compel his God?
+
+LEADER.
+
+  Second to that, methinks, 'twould help us most ...
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Though it be third, speak! Nothing should be lost.
+
+LEADER.
+
+  To our High Seer on earth vision is given
+  Most like to that High Phoebus hath in heaven.
+  Ask of Tiresias: he could tell thee true.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  That also have I thought for. Aye, and two
+  Heralds have sent ere now. 'Twas Creon set
+  Me on.--I marvel that he comes not yet.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 290-301]
+
+LEADER.
+
+  Our other clues are weak, old signs and far.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  What signs? I needs must question all that are.
+
+LEADER.
+
+  Some travellers slew him, the tale used to be.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  The tale, yes: but the witness, where is he?
+
+LEADER.
+
+  The man hath heard thy curses. If he knows
+  The taste of fear, he will not long stay close.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  He fear my words, who never feared the deed?
+
+LEADER.
+
+  Well, there is one shall find him.--See, they lead
+  Hither our Lord Tiresias, in whose mind
+  All truth is born, alone of human kind.
+
+   [_Enter_ TIRESIAS _led by a young disciple. He is an old
+      blind man in a prophet's robe, dark, unkempt and
+      sinister in appearance._
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Tiresias, thou whose mind divineth well
+  All Truth, the spoken and the unspeakable,
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 302-321]
+
+  The things of heaven and them that walk the earth;
+  Our city ... thou canst see, for all thy dearth
+  Of outward eyes, what clouds are over her.
+  In which, O gracious Lord, no minister
+  Of help, no champion, can we find at all
+  Save thee. For Phoebus--thou hast heard withal
+  His message--to our envoy hath decreed
+  One only way of help in this great need:
+  To find and smite with death or banishing,
+  Him who smote Laļus, our ancient King.
+  Oh, grudge us nothing! Question every cry
+  Of birds, and all roads else of prophecy
+  Thou knowest. Save our city: save thine own
+  Greatness: save me; save all that yet doth groan
+  Under the dead man's wrong! Lo, in thy hand
+  We lay us. And, methinks, no work so grand
+  Hath man yet compassed, as, with all he can
+  Of chance or power, to help his fellow man.
+
+TIRESIAS (_to himself_).
+
+  Ah me!
+  A fearful thing is knowledge, when to know
+  Helpeth no end. I knew this long ago,
+  But crushed it dead. Else had I never come.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  What means this? Comest thou so deep in gloom?
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  Let me go back! Thy work shall weigh on thee
+  The less, if thou consent, and mine on me.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 322-336]
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Prophet, this is not lawful; nay, nor kind
+  To Thebes, who feeds thee, thus to veil thy mind.
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  'Tis that I like not thy mind, nor the way
+  It goeth. Therefore, lest I also stray....
+
+    [_He moves to go off._ OEDIPUS _bars his road._
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Thou shalt not, knowing, turn and leave us! See,
+  We all implore thee, all, on bended knee.
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  All without light!--And never light shall shine
+  On this dark evil that is mine ... and thine.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  What wilt thou? Know and speak not? In my need
+  Be false to me, and let thy city bleed?
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  I will not wound myself nor thee. Why seek
+  To trap and question me? I will not speak.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Thou devil!
+
+    [_Movement of_ LEADER _to check him._
+
+               Nay; the wrath of any stone
+  Would rise at him. It lies with thee to have done
+  And speak. Is there no melting in thine eyes!
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 337-351]
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  Naught lies with me! With thee, with thee there lies,
+  I warrant, what thou ne'er hast seen nor guessed.
+
+OEDIPUS (_to_ LEADER, _who tries to calm him._)
+
+  How can I hear such talk?--he maketh jest
+  Of the land's woe--and keep mine anger dumb?
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  Howe'er I hold it back, 'twill come, 'twill come.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  The more shouldst thou declare it to thy King.
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  I speak no more. For thee, if passioning
+  Doth comfort thee, on, passion to thy fill!
+
+    [_He moves to go._
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  'Fore God, I am in wrath; and speak I will,
+  Nor stint what I see clear. 'Twas thou, 'twas thou,
+  Didst plan this murder; aye, and, save the blow,
+  Wrought it.--I know thou art blind; else I could swear
+  Thou, and thou only, art the murderer.
+
+TIRESIAS (_returning_).
+
+  So?--I command thee by thine own word's power,
+  To stand accurst, and never from this hour
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 352-363]
+
+  Speak word to me, nor yet to these who ring
+  Thy throne. Thou art thyself the unclean thing.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Thou front of brass, to fling out injury
+  So wild! Dost think to bate me and go free?
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  I am free. The strong truth is in this heart.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  What prompted thee? I swear 'twas not thine art.
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  'Twas thou. I spoke not, save for thy command.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Spoke what? What was it? Let me understand.
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  Dost tempt me? Were my words before not plain!
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Scarce thy full meaning. Speak the words again.
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  Thou seek'st this man of blood: Thyself art he.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  'Twill cost thee dear, twice to have stabbed at me!
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 364-377]
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  Shall I say more, to see thee rage again?
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Oh, take thy fill of speech: 'twill all be vain.
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  Thou livest with those near to thee in shame
+  Most deadly, seeing not thyself nor them.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Thou think'st 'twill help thee, thus to speak and speak?
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  Surely, until the strength of Truth be weak.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+ 'Tis weak to none save thee. Thou hast no part
+  In truth, thou blind man, blind eyes, ears and heart.
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  More blind, more sad thy words of scorn, which none
+  Who hears but shall cast back on thee: soon, soon.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Thou spawn of Night, not I nor any free
+  And seeing man would hurt a thing like thee.
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  God is enough.--'Tis not my doom to fall
+  By thee. He knows and shall accomplish all.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 378-402]
+
+OEDIPUS (_with a flash of discovery_).
+
+  Ha! Creon!--Is it his or thine, this plot?
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+ 'Tis thyself hates thee. Creon hates thee not.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  O wealth and majesty, O conquering skill
+  That carved life's rebel pathways to my will,
+  What is your heart but bitterness, if now
+  For this poor crown Thebes bound upon my brow,
+  A gift, a thing I sought not--for this crown
+  Creon the stern and true, Creon mine own
+  Comrade, comes creeping in the dark to ban
+  And slay me; sending first this magic-man
+  And schemer, this false beggar-priest, whose eye
+  Is bright for gold and blind for prophecy?
+  Speak, thou. When hast thou ever shown thee strong
+  For aid? The She-Wolf of the woven song
+  Came, and thy art could find no word, no breath,
+  To save thy people from her riddling death.
+  'Twas scarce a secret, that, for common men
+  To unravel. There was need of Seer-craft then.
+  And thou hadst none to show. No fowl, no flame,
+  No God revealed it thee. 'Twas I that came,
+  Rude Oedipus, unlearned in wizard's lore,
+  And read her secret, and she spoke no more.
+  Whom now thou thinkest to hunt out, and stand
+  Foremost in honour at King Creon's hand.
+  I think ye will be sorry, thou and he
+  That shares thy sin-hunt. Thou dost look to me
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 403-424]
+
+  An old man; else, I swear this day should bring
+  On thee the death thou plottest for thy King.
+
+LEADER.
+
+  Lord Oedipus, these be but words of wrath,
+  All thou hast spoke and all the Prophet hath.
+  Which skills not. We must join, for ill or well,
+  In search how best to obey God's oracle.
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  King though thou art, thou needs must bear the right
+  Of equal answer. Even in me is might
+  For thus much, seeing I live no thrall of thine,
+  But Lord Apollo's; neither do I sign
+  Where Creon bids me.
+                          I am blind, and thou
+  Hast mocked my blindness. Yea, I will speak now.
+  Eyes hast thou, but thy deeds thou canst not see
+  Nor where thou art, nor what things dwell with thee.
+  Whence art thou born? Thou know'st not; and unknown,
+  On quick and dead, on all that were thine own,
+  Thou hast wrought hate. For that across thy path
+  Rising, a mother's and a father's wrath,
+  Two-handed, shod with fire, from the haunts of men
+  Shall scourge thee, in thine eyes now light, but then
+  Darkness. Aye, shriek! What harbour of the sea,
+  What wild Kithairon shall not cry to thee
+  In answer, when thou hear'st what bridal song,
+  What wind among the torches, bore thy strong
+  Sail to its haven, not of peace but blood.
+  Yea, ill things multitude on multitude
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 425-438]
+
+  Thou seest not, which so soon shall lay thee low,
+  Low as thyself, low as thy children.--Go,
+  Heap scorn on Creon and my lips withal:
+  For this I tell thee, never was there fall
+  Of pride, nor shall be, like to thine this day.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  To brook such words from this thing? Out, I say!
+  Out to perdition! Aye, and quick, before ...
+
+  [_The_ LEADER _restrains him_.
+
+  Enough then!--Turn and get thee from my door.
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  I had not come hadst thou not called me here.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  I knew thee not so dark a fool. I swear
+ 'Twere long before I called thee, had I known.
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  Fool, say'st thou? Am I truly such an one?
+  The two who gave thee birth, they held me wise.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Birth?... Stop! Who were they? Speak thy prophecies.
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  This day shall give thee birth and blot thee out.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 439-455]
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Oh, riddles everywhere and words of doubt!
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  Aye. Thou wast their best reader long ago.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Laugh on. I swear thou still shalt find me so.
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  That makes thy pride and thy calamity.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  I have saved this land, and care not if I die.
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  Then I will go.--Give me thine arm, my child.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Aye, help him quick.--To see him there makes wild
+  My heart. Once gone, he will not vex me more.
+
+TIRESIAS (_turning again as he goes_).
+
+ I fear thee not; nor will I go before
+ That word be spoken which I came to speak.
+ How canst thou ever touch me?--Thou dost seek
+ With threats and loud proclaim the man whose hand
+ Slew Laļus. Lo, I tell thee, he doth stand
+ Here. He is called a stranger, but these days
+ Shall prove him Theban true, nor shall he praise
+ His birthright. Blind, who once had seeing eyes,
+ Beggared, who once had riches, in strange guise,
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 456-478]
+
+  His staff groping before him, he shall crawl
+  O'er unknown earth, and voices round him call:
+  "Behold the brother-father of his own
+  Children, the seed, the sower and the sown,
+  Shame to his mother's blood, and to his sire
+  Son, murderer, incest-worker."
+                                  Cool thine ire
+  With thought of these, and if thou find that aught
+  Faileth, then hold my craft a thing of naught.
+
+    [_He goes out._ OEDIPUS _returns to the Palace._
+
+CHORUS.
+
+    [_They sing of the unknown murderer,_
+
+  What man, what man is he whom the voice of Delphi's cell
+  Hath named of the bloody hand, of the deed no tongue may tell?
+          Let him fly, fly, for his need
+          Hath found him; oh, where is the speed
+  That flew with the winds of old, the team of North-Wind's spell?
+    For feet there be that follow. Yea, thunder-shod
+    And girt with fire he cometh, the Child of God;
+  And with him are they that fail not, the Sin-Hounds risen from Hell.
+
+  For the mountain hath spoken, a voice hath flashed from amid the snows,
+  That the wrath of the world go seek for the man whom no man knows.
+          Is he fled to the wild forest,
+          To caves where the eagles nest?
+  O angry bull of the rocks, cast out from thy herd-fellows!
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 479-512]
+
+    Rage in his heart, and rage across his way,
+    He toileth ever to beat from his ears away
+  The word that floateth about him, living, where'er he goes.
+
+    [_And of the Prophet's strange accusation._
+
+  Yet strange, passing strange, the wise augur and his lore;
+    And my heart it cannot speak; I deny not nor assent,
+  But float, float in wonder at things after and before;
+    Did there lie between their houses some old wrath unspent,
+  That Corinth against Cadmus should do murder by the way?
+    No tale thereof they tell, nor no sign thereof they show;
+  Who dares to rise for vengeance and cast Oedipus away
+      For a dark, dark death long ago!
+
+  Ah, Zeus knows, and Apollo, what is dark to mortal eyes;
+    They are Gods. But a prophet, hath he vision more than mine?
+  Who hath seen? Who can answer? There be wise men and unwise.
+    I will wait, I will wait, for the proving of the sign.
+  But I list not nor hearken when they speak Oedipus ill.
+    We saw his face of yore, when the riddling singer passed;
+  And we knew him that he loved us, and we saw him great in skill.
+      Oh, my heart shall uphold him to the last!
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 513-531]
+
+_Enter_ CREON.
+
+CREON.
+
+  Good brother citizens, a frantic word
+  I hear is spoken by our chosen Lord
+  Oedipus against me, and here am come
+  Indignant. If he dreams, 'mid all this doom
+  That weighs upon us, he hath had from me
+  Or deed or lightest thought of injury, ...
+  'Fore God, I have no care to see the sun
+  Longer with such a groaning name. Not one
+  Wound is it, but a multitude, if now
+  All Thebes must hold me guilty--aye, and thou
+  And all who loved me--of a deed so foul.
+
+LEADER.
+
+  If words were spoken, it was scarce the soul
+  That spoke them: 'twas some sudden burst of wrath.
+
+CREON.
+
+  The charge was made, then, that Tiresias hath
+  Made answer false, and that I bribed him, I?
+
+LEADER.
+
+  It was--perchance for jest. I know not why.
+
+CREON.
+
+  His heart beat true, his eyes looked steadily
+  And fell not, laying such a charge on me?
+
+LEADER.
+
+  I know not. I have no eyes for the thing
+  My masters do.--But see, here comes the King.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 532-550]
+
+_Enter_ OEDIPUS _from the Palace._
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  How now, assassin? Walking at my gate
+  With eye undimmed, thou plotter demonstrate
+  Against this life, and robber of my crown?
+  God help thee! Me! What was it set me down
+  Thy butt? So dull a brain hast found in me
+  Aforetime, such a faint heart, not to see
+  Thy work betimes, or seeing not to smite?
+  Art thou not rash, this once! It needeth might
+  Of friends, it needeth gold, to make a throne
+  Thy quarry; and I fear me thou hast none.
+
+CREON.
+
+  One thing alone I ask thee. Let me speak
+  As thou hast spoken; then, with knowledge, wreak
+  Thy judgement. I accept it without fear.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  More skill hast thou to speak than I to hear
+  Thee. There is peril found in thee and hate.
+
+CREON.
+
+  That one thing let me answer ere too late.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  One thing be sure of, that thy plots are known.
+
+CREON.
+
+  The man who thinks that bitter pride alone
+  Can guide him, without thought--his mind is sick.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 551-562]
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Who thinks to slay his brother with a trick
+  And suffer not himself, his eyes are blind.
+
+CREON.
+
+  Thy words are more than just. But say what kind
+  Of wrong thou fanciest I have done thee. Speak.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Didst urge me, or didst urge me not, to seek
+  A counsel from that man of prophecies?
+
+CREON.
+
+  So judged I then, nor now judge otherwise.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+   [_Suddenly seeing a mode of attack._
+
+  How many years have passed since Laļus ...
+
+    [_The words seem to choke him._
+
+CREON.
+
+  Speak on. I cannot understand thee thus.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+    [_With an effort._
+
+  Passed in that bloody tempest from men's sight?
+
+CREON.
+
+  Long years and old. I scarce can tell them right.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  At that time was this seer in Thebes, or how?
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 563-573]
+
+CREON.
+
+  He was; most wise and honoured, even as now.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  At that time did he ever speak my name?
+
+CREON.
+
+  No. To mine ear at least it never came.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Held you no search for those who slew your King?
+
+CREON.
+
+  For sure we did, but found not anything.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  How came the all-knowing seer to leave it so?
+
+CREON.
+
+  Ask him! I speak not where I cannot know.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  One thing thou canst, with knowledge full, I wot.
+
+CREON.
+
+  Speak it. If true, I will conceal it not.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  This: that until he talked with thee, the seer
+  Ne'er spoke of me as Laļus' murderer.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 574-589]
+
+CREON.
+
+  I know not if he hath so spoken now.
+  I heard him not.--But let me ask and thou
+  Answer me true, as I have answered thee.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Ask, ask! Thou shalt no murder find in me.
+
+CREON.
+
+  My sister is thy wife this many a day?
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  That charge it is not in me to gainsay.
+
+CREON.
+
+  Thou reignest, giving equal reign to her?
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Always to her desire I minister.
+
+CREON.
+
+  Were we not all as one, she thou and I?
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Yes, thou false friend! There lies thy treachery.
+
+CREON.
+
+  Not so! Nay, do but follow me and scan
+  Thine own charge close. Think'st thou that any man
+  Would rather rule and be afraid than rule
+  And sleep untroubled? Nay, where lives the fool--
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 590-613]
+
+  I know them not nor am I one of them--
+  Who careth more to bear a monarch's name
+  Than do a monarch's deeds? As now I stand
+  All my desire I compass at thy hand.
+  Were I the King, full half my deeds were done
+  To obey the will of others, not mine own.
+  Were that as sweet, when all the tale were told,
+  As this calm griefless princedom that I hold
+  And silent power? Am I so blind of brain
+  That ease with glory tires me, and I fain
+  Must change them? All men now give me God-speed,
+  All smile to greet me. If a man hath need
+  Of thee, 'tis me he calleth to the gate,
+  As knowing that on my word hangs the fate
+  Of half he craves. Is life like mine a thing
+  To cast aside and plot to be a King?
+  Doth a sane man turn villain in an hour?
+    For me, I never lusted thus for power
+  Nor bore with any man who turned such lust
+  To doing.--But enough. I claim but just
+  Question. Go first to Pytho; find if well
+  And true I did report God's oracle.
+  Next, seek in Thebes for any plots entwined
+  Between this seer and me; which if ye find,
+  Then seize and strike me dead. Myself that day
+  Will sit with thee as judge and bid thee Slay!
+  But damn me not on one man's guess.--'Tis all
+  Unjust: to call a traitor true, to call
+  A true man traitor with no cause nor end!
+  And this I tell thee. He who plucks a friend
+  Out from his heart hath lost a treasured thing
+  Dear as his own dear life.
+                               But Time shall bring
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 614-626]
+
+  Truth back. 'Tis Time alone can make men know
+  What hearts are true; the false one day can show.
+
+LEADER.
+
+  To one that fears to fall his words are wise,
+  O King; in thought the swift win not the prize.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  When he is swift who steals against my reign
+  With plots, then swift am I to plot again.
+  Wait patient, and his work shall have prevailed
+  Before I move, and mine for ever failed.
+
+CREON.
+
+  How then? To banish me is thy intent?
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Death is the doom I choose, not banishment.
+
+CREON.
+
+  Wilt never soften, never trust thy friend?
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  First I would see how traitors meet their end.
+
+CREON.
+
+  I see thou wilt not think.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+                            I think to save
+  My life.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 627-633]
+
+CREON.
+
+            Think, too, of mine.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+                            Thine, thou born knave!
+
+CREON.
+
+  Yes.... What, if thou art blind in everything?
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  The King must be obeyed.
+
+CREON.
+
+                             Not if the King
+  Does evil.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+              To your King! Ho, Thebes, mine own!
+
+CREON.
+
+  Thebes is my country, not the King's alone.
+
+    [OEDIPUS _has drawn his sword; the Chorus
+       show signs of breaking into two parties to
+       fight for_ OEDIPUS _or for_ CREON, _when
+       the door opens and_ JOCASTA _appears on the
+       steps._
+
+LEADER.
+
+   Stay, Princes, stay! See, on the Castle stair
+   The Queen Jocasta standeth. Show to her
+   Your strife. She will assuage it as is well.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 634-648]
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  Vain men, what would ye with this angry swell
+  Of words heart-blinded? Is there in your eyes
+  No pity, thus, when all our city lies
+  Bleeding, to ply your privy hates?... Alack,
+  My lord, come in!--Thou, Creon, get thee back
+  To thine own house. And stir not to such stress
+  Of peril griefs that are but nothingness.
+
+CREON.
+
+  Sister, it is the pleasure of thy lord,
+  Our King, to do me deadly wrong. His word
+  Is passed on me: 'tis banishment or death.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  I found him ... I deny not what he saith,
+  My Queen ... with craft and malice practising
+  Against my life.
+
+CREON.
+
+                   Ye Gods, if such a thing
+  Hath once been in my thoughts, may I no more
+  See any health on earth, but, festered o'er
+  With curses, die!--Have done. There is mine oath.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  In God's name, Oedipus, believe him, both
+  For my sake, and for these whose hearts are all
+  Thine own, and for my brother's oath withal.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 649-664]
+
+LEADER. [_Strophe._
+
+  Yield; consent; think! My Lord, I conjure thee!
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+           What would ye have me do?
+
+LEADER.
+
+  Reject not one who never failed his troth
+  Of old and now is strong in his great oath.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Dost know what this prayer means?
+
+LEADER.
+
+                                   Yea, verily!
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+           Say then the meaning true.
+
+LEADER.
+
+      I would not have thee cast to infamy
+           Of guilt, where none is proved,
+  One who hath sworn and whom thou once hast loved.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+ 'Tis that ye seek? For me, then ... understand
+  Well ... ye seek death or exile from the land.
+
+LEADER.
+
+  No, by the God of Gods, the all-seeing Sun!
+    May he desert me here, and every friend
+  With him, to death and utterest malison,
+    If e'er my heart could dream of such an end!
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 665-680]
+
+          But it bleedeth, it bleedeth sore,
+            In a land half slain,
+          If we join to the griefs of yore
+            Griefs of you twain.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Oh, let him go, though it be utterly
+  My death, or flight from Thebes in beggary.
+  'Tis thy sad lips, not his, that make me know
+  Pity. Him I shall hate, where'er he go.
+
+CREON.
+
+  I see thy mercy moving full of hate
+  And slow; thy wrath came swift and desperate.
+  Methinks, of all the pain that such a heart
+  Spreadeth, itself doth bear the bitterest part.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Oh, leave me and begone!
+
+CREON.
+
+                          I go, wronged sore
+  By thee. These friends will trust me as before.
+
+    [CREON _goes._ OEDIPUS _stands apart lost in
+       trouble of mind._
+
+LEADER.   [_Antistrophe._
+
+  Queen, wilt thou lead him to his house again?
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+              I will, when I have heard.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 681-696]
+
+LEADER.
+
+  There fell some word, some blind imagining
+  Between them. Things known foolish yet can sting.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  From both the twain it rose?
+
+LEADER.
+
+                                 From both the twain.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+           Aye, and what was the word?
+
+LEADER.
+
+    Surely there is enough of evil stirred,
+          And Thebes heaves on the swell
+  Of storm.--Oh, leave this lying where it fell.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  So be it, thou wise counsellor! Make slight
+  My wrong, and blunt my purpose ere it smite.
+
+LEADER.
+
+  O King, not once I have answered. Visibly
+    Mad were I, lost to all wise usages,
+  To seek to cast thee from us. 'Twas from thee
+    We saw of old blue sky and summer seas,
+      When Thebes in the storm and rain
+        Reeled, like to die.
+      Oh, if thou canst, again
+        Blue sky, blue sky...!
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 697-713]
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  Husband, in God's name, say what hath ensued
+  Of ill, that thou shouldst seek so dire a feud.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  I will, wife. I have more regard for thee
+  Than these.--Thy brother plots to murder me.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  Speak on. Make all thy charge. Only be clear.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  He says that I am Laļus' murderer.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  Says it himself? Says he hath witnesses?
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Nay, of himself he ventures nothing. 'Tis
+  This priest, this hellish seer, makes all the tale.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  The seer?--Then tear thy terrors like a veil
+  And take free breath. A seer? No human thing
+  Born on the earth hath power for conjuring
+  Truth from the dark of God.
+                               Come, I will tell
+  An old tale. There came once an oracle
+  To Laļus: I say not from the God
+  Himself, but from the priests and seers who trod
+  His sanctuary: if ever son were bred
+  From him and me, by that son's hand, it said,
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 714-732]
+
+  Laļus must die. And he, the tale yet stays
+  Among us, at the crossing of three ways
+  Was slain by robbers, strangers. And my son--
+  God's mercy!--scarcely the third day was gone
+  When Laļus took, and by another's hand
+  Out on the desert mountain, where the land
+  Is rock, cast him to die. Through both his feet
+  A blade of iron they drove. Thus did we cheat
+  Apollo of his will. My child could slay
+  No father, and the King could cast away
+  The fear that dogged him, by his child to die
+  Murdered.--Behold the fruits of prophecy!
+  Which heed not thou! God needs not that a seer
+  Help him, when he would make his dark things clear.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Woman, what turmoil hath thy story wrought
+  Within me! What up-stirring of old thought!
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  What thought? It turns thee like a frightened thing.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+ 'Twas at the crossing of three ways this King
+  Was murdered? So I heard or so I thought.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  That was the tale. It is not yet forgot.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  The crossing of three ways! And in what land?
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 733-746]
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  Phokis 'tis called. A road on either hand
+  From Delphi comes and Daulia, in a glen.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+How many years and months have passed since then?
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+ 'Twas but a little time before proclaim
+  Was made of thee for king, the tidings came.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  My God, what hast thou willed to do with me?
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  Oedipus, speak! What is it troubles thee?
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Ask me not yet. But say, what build, what height
+  Had Laļus? Rode he full of youth and might?
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  Tall, with the white new gleaming on his brow
+  He walked. In shape just such a man as thou.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  God help me! I much fear that I have wrought
+  A curse on mine own head, and knew it not.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  How sayst thou? O my King, I look on thee
+  And tremble.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 747-760]
+
+OEDIPUS (_to himself_).
+
+            Horror, if the blind can see!
+  Answer but one thing and 'twill all be clear.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  Speak. I will answer though I shake with fear.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Went he with scant array, or a great band
+  Of armčd followers, like a lord of land?
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  Four men were with him, one a herald; one
+  Chariot there was, where Laļus rode alone.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Aye me! Tis clear now.
+                         Woman, who could bring
+  To Thebes the story of that manslaying?
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  A house-thrall, the one man they failed to slay.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  The one man...? Is he in the house to-day?
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  Indeed no. When he came that day, and found
+  Thee on the throne where once sat Laļus crowned,
+  He took my hand and prayed me earnestly
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 761-779]
+
+  To send him to the mountain heights, to be
+  A herdsman, far from any sight or call
+  Of Thebes. And there I sent him. 'Twas a thrall
+  Good-hearted, worthy a far greater boon.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Canst find him? I would see this herd, and soon.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+ 'Tis easy. But what wouldst thou with the herd?
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  I fear mine own voice, lest it spoke a word
+  Too much; whereof this man must tell me true.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  The man shall come.--My lord, methinks I too
+  Should know what fear doth work thee this despite.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Thou shalt. When I am tossed to such an height
+  Of dark foreboding, woman, when my mind
+  Faceth such straits as these, where should I find
+  A mightier love than thine?
+                               My father--thus
+  I tell thee the whole tale--was Polybus,
+  In Corinth King; my mother Meropź
+  Of Dorian line. And I was held to be
+  The proudest in Corinthia, till one day
+  A thing befell: strange was it, but no way
+  Meet for such wonder and such rage as mine.
+  A feast it was, and some one flushed with wine
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 780-807]
+
+  Cried out at me that I was no true son
+  Of Polybus. Oh, I was wroth! That one
+  Day I kept silence, but the morrow morn
+  I sought my parents, told that tale of scorn
+  And claimed the truth; and they rose in their pride
+  And smote the mocker.... Aye, they satisfied
+  All my desire; yet still the cavil gnawed
+  My heart, and still the story crept abroad.
+    At last I rose--my father knew not, nor
+  My mother--and went forth to Pytho's floor
+  To ask. And God in that for which I came
+  Rejected me, but round me, like a flame,
+  His voice flashed other answers, things of woe,
+  Terror, and desolation. I must know
+  My mother's body and beget thereon
+  A race no mortal eye durst look upon,
+  And spill in murder mine own father's blood.
+    I heard, and, hearing, straight from where I stood,
+  No landmark but the stars to light my way,
+  Fled, fled from the dark south where Corinth lay,
+  To lands far off, where never I might see
+  My doom of scorn fulfilled. On bitterly
+  I strode, and reached the region where, so saith
+  Thy tale, that King of Thebes was struck to death....
+  Wife, I will tell thee true. As one in daze
+  I walked, till, at the crossing of three ways,
+  A herald, like thy tale, and o'er his head
+  A man behind strong horses charioted
+  Met me. And both would turn me from the path,
+  He and a thrall in front. And I in wrath
+  Smote him that pushed me--'twas a groom who led
+  The horses. Not a word the master said,
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 808-828]
+
+  But watched, and as I passed him on the road
+  Down on my head his iron-branchčd goad
+  Stabbed. But, by heaven, he rued it! In a flash
+  I swung my staff and saw the old man crash
+  Back from his car in blood.... Then all of them
+  I slew.
+           Oh, if that man's unspoken name
+  Had aught of Laļus in him, in God's eye
+  What man doth move more miserable than I,
+  More dogged by the hate of heaven! No man, kin
+  Nor stranger, any more may take me in;
+  No man may greet me with a word, but all
+  Cast me from out their houses. And withal
+  'Twas mine own self that laid upon my life
+  These curses.--And I hold the dead man's wife
+  In these polluting arms that spilt his soul....
+  Am I a thing born evil? Am I foul
+  In every vein? Thebes now doth banish me,
+  And never in this exile must I see
+  Mine ancient folk of Corinth, never tread
+  The land that bore me; else my mother's bed
+  Shall be defiled, and Polybus, my good
+  Father, who loved me well, be rolled in blood.
+  If one should dream that such a world began
+  In some slow devil's heart, that hated man,
+  Who should deny him?--God, as thou art clean,
+  Suffer not this, oh, suffer not this sin
+  To be, that e'er I look on such a day!
+  Out of all vision of mankind away
+  To darkness let me fall ere such a fate
+  Touch me, so unclean and so desolate!
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 829-850]
+
+LEADER.
+
+  I tremble too, O King; but till thou hear
+  From him who saw, oh, let hope conquer fear.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  One shred of hope I still have, and therefore
+  Will wait the herdsman's coming. 'Tis no more.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  He shall come. But what further dost thou seek?
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  This. If we mark him close and find him speak
+  As thou hast, then I am lifted from my dread.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  What mean'st thou? Was there something that I said...?
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Thou said'st he spoke of robbers, a great band,
+  That slaughtered Laļus' men. If still he stand
+  To the same tale, the guilt comes not my way.
+  One cannot be a band. But if he say
+  One lonely loin-girt man, then visibly
+  This is God's finger pointing toward me.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  Be sure of this. He told the story so
+  When first he came. All they that heard him know,
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 850-870]
+
+  Not only I. He cannot change again
+  Now. And if change he should, O Lord of men,
+  No change of his can make the prophecy
+  Of Laļus' death fall true. He was to die
+  Slain by my son. So Loxias spake.... My son!
+  He slew no man, that poor deserted one
+  That died.... And I will no more turn mine eyes
+  This way nor that for all their prophecies.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Woman, thou counsellest well. Yet let it not
+  Escape thee. Send and have the herdsman brought.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  That will I.--Come. Thou knowest I ne'er would do
+  Nor think of aught, save thou wouldst have it so.
+
+    [JOCASTA _and_ OEDIPUS _go together into the Palace._
+
+CHORUS.
+
+    [_They pray to be free from such great sins as
+     they have just heard spoken of._
+
+    [_Strophe._
+
+  Toward God's great mysteries, oh, let me move
+      Unstainčd till I die
+  In speech or doing; for the Laws thereof
+  Are holy, walkers upon ways above,
+      Born in the far blue sky;
+
+  Their father is Olympus uncreate;
+      No man hath made nor told
+  Their being; neither shall Oblivion set
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 870-893]
+
+  Sleep on their eyes, for in them lives a great
+    Spirit and grows not old. [_Antistrophe._
+
+   [_They wonder if these sins be all due to pride
+      and if_ CREON _has guilty ambitions;_
+
+  'Tis Pride that breeds the tyrant; drunken deep
+      With perilous things is she,
+  Which bring not peace: up, reeling, steep on steep
+  She climbs, till lo, the rock-edge, and the leap
+      To that which needs must be,
+
+  The land where the strong foot is no more strong!
+      Yet is there surely Pride
+  That saves a city; God preserve it long!
+  I judge not. Only through all maze of wrong
+      Be God, not man, my guide. [_Strophe._
+
+    [_Or if_ TIRESIAS _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._
+
+  Is there a priest who moves amid the altars
+      Ruthless in deed and word,
+  Fears not the presence of his god, nor falters
+      Lest Right at last be heard?
+  If such there be, oh, let some doom be given
+      Meet for his ill-starred pride,
+  Who will not gain his gain where Justice is,
+  Who will not hold his lips from blasphemies,
+  Who hurls rash hands amid the things of heaven
+      From man's touch sanctified.
+
+    In a world where such things be,
+      What spirit hath shield or lance
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 893-916]
+
+        To ward him secretly
+          From the arrow that slays askance?
+        If honour to such things be,
+          Why should I dance my dance?
+
+    [_Antistrophe._
+
+  I go no more with prayers and adorations
+      To Earth's deep Heart of Stone,
+  Nor yet the Abantes' floor, nor where the nations
+      Kneel at Olympia's throne,
+  Till all this dark be lightened, for the finger
+      Of man to touch and know.
+  O Thou that rulest--if men rightly call
+  Thy name on earth--O Zeus, thou Lord of all
+  And Strength undying, let not these things linger
+      Unknown, tossed to and fro.
+
+            For faint is the oracle,
+              And they thrust it aside, away;
+            And no more visible
+              Apollo to save or slay;
+            And the things of God, they fail
+              As mist on the wind away.
+
+    [JOCASTA _comes out from the Palace followed
+       by handmaids bearing incense and flowers._
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  Lords of the land, the ways my thought hath trod
+  Lead me in worship to these shrines of God
+  With flowers and incense flame. So dire a storm
+  Doth shake the King, sin, dread and every form
+  Of grief the world knows. 'Tis the wise man's way
+  To judge the morrow by the yester day;
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 917-933]
+
+  Which he doth never, but gives eye and ear
+  To all who speak, will they but speak of fear.
+    And seeing no word of mine hath power to heal
+  His torment, therefore forth to thee I steal,
+  O Slayer of the Wolf, O Lord of Light,
+  Apollo: thou art near us, and of right
+  Dost hold us thine: to thee in prayer I fall.
+
+    [_She kneels at the altar of Apollo Lukeios._
+
+  Oh, show us still some path that is not all
+  Unclean; for now our captain's eyes are dim
+  With dread, and the whole ship must follow him.
+
+    [_While she prays a_ STRANGER _has entered and
+        begins to accost the Chorus._
+
+STRANGER.
+
+  Good masters, is there one of you could bring
+  My steps to the house of Oedipus, your King?
+  Or, better, to himself if that may be?
+
+LEADER.
+
+  This is the house and he within; and she
+  Thou seest, the mother of his royal seed.
+
+    [JOCASTA _rises, anxious, from her prayer._
+
+STRANGER.
+
+  Being wife to such a man, happy indeed
+  And ringed with happy faces may she live!
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  To one so fair of speech may the Gods give
+  Like blessing, courteous stranger; 'tis thy due.
+  But say what leads thee hither. Can we do
+  Thy wish in aught, or hast thou news to bring?
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 934-947]
+
+STRANGER.
+
+  Good news, O Queen, for thee and for the King.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  What is it? And from what prince comest thou?
+
+STRANGER.
+
+  I come from Corinth.--And my tale, I trow,
+  Will give thee joy, yet haply also pain.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  What news can have that twofold power? Be plain.
+
+STRANGER.
+
+ 'Tis spoke in Corinth that the gathering
+  Of folk will make thy lord our chosen King.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  How? Is old Polybus in power no more?
+
+STRANGER.
+
+  Death has a greater power. His reign is o'er.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  What say'st thou? Dead?... Oedipus' father dead?
+
+STRANGER.
+
+  If I speak false, let me die in his stead.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  Ho, maiden! To our master! Hie thee fast
+  And tell this tale.
+
+    [_The maiden goes._
+
+                    Where stand ye at the last
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 948-961]
+
+  Ye oracles of God? For many a year
+  Oedipus fled before that man, in fear
+  To slay him. And behold we find him thus
+  Slain by a chance death, not by Oedipus.
+
+    [OEDIPUS _comes out from the Palace._
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  O wife, O face I love to look upon,
+  Why call'st thou me from where I sat alone?
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  Give ear, and ponder from what this man tells
+  How end these proud priests and their oracles.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Whence comes he? And what word hath he for us?
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  From Corinth; bearing news that Polybus
+  Thy father is no more. He has found his death.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  How?--Stranger, speak thyself. This that she saith ...
+
+STRANGER.
+
+  Is sure. If that is the first news ye crave,
+  I tell thee, Polybus lieth in his grave.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Not murdered?... How? Some passing of disease?
+
+STRANGER.
+
+  A slight thing turns an old life to its peace.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 962-978]
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Poor father!... 'Tis by sickness he is dead?
+
+STRANGER.
+
+  The growing years lay heavy on his head.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  O wife, why then should man fear any more
+  The voice of Pytho's dome, or cower before
+  These birds that shriek above us? They foretold
+  Me for my father's murderer; and behold,
+  He lies in Corinth dead, and here am I
+  And never touched the sword.... Or did he die
+  In grief for me who left him? In that way
+  I may have wrought his death.... But come what may,
+  He sleepeth in his grave and with him all
+  This deadly seercraft, of no worth at all.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  Dear Lord, long since did I not show thee clear...?
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Indeed, yes. I was warped by mine own fear.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  Now thou wilt cast it from thee, and forget.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Forget my mother?... It is not over yet.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  What should man do with fear, who hath but Chance
+  Above him, and no sight nor governance
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 979-993]
+
+  Of things to be? To live as life may run,
+  No fear, no fret, were wisest 'neath the sun.
+  And thou, fear not thy mother. Prophets deem
+  A deed wrought that is wrought but in a dream.
+  And he to whom these things are nothing, best
+  Will bear his burden.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+                        All thou counsellest
+  Were good, save that my mother liveth still.
+  And, though thy words be wise, for good or ill
+  Her I still fear.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+                    Think of thy father's tomb!
+  Like light across our darkness it hath come.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Great light; but while she lives I fly from her.
+
+STRANGER.
+
+  What woman, Prince, doth fill thee so with fear?
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Meropź, friend, who dwelt with Polybus.
+
+STRANGER.
+
+  What in Queen Meropź should fright thee thus?
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  A voice of God, stranger, of dire import.
+
+STRANGER.
+
+  Meet for mine ears? Or of some secret sort?
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 994-1009]
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Nay, thou must hear, and Corinth. Long ago
+  Apollo spake a doom, that I should know
+  My mother's flesh, and with mine own hand spill
+  My father's blood.--'Tis that, and not my will,
+  Hath kept me always far from Corinth. So;
+  Life hath dealt kindly with me, yet men know
+  On earth no comfort like a mother's face.
+
+STRANGER.
+
+ 'Tis that, hath kept thee exiled in this place?
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  That, and the fear too of my father's blood.
+
+STRANGER.
+
+  Then, surely, Lord ... I came but for thy good ...
+ 'Twere well if from that fear I set thee free.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Ah, couldst thou! There were rich reward for thee.
+
+STRANGER.
+
+  To say truth, I had hoped to lead thee home
+  Now, and myself to get some good therefrom.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Nay; where my parents are I will not go.
+
+STRANGER.
+
+  My son, 'tis very clear thou dost not know
+  What road thou goest.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+              How? In God's name, say!
+  How clear?
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1010-1019]
+
+STRANGER.
+
+              'Tis this, keeps thee so long away
+  From Corinth?
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+                  'Tis the fear lest that word break
+  One day upon me true.
+
+STRANGER.
+
+                          Fear lest thou take
+  Defilement from the two that gave thee birth?
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+ 'Tis that, old man, 'tis that doth fill the earth
+  With terror.
+
+STRANGER.
+
+                Then thy terror all hath been
+  For nothing.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+                How? Were not your King and Queen
+  My parents?
+
+STRANGER.
+
+              Polybus was naught to thee
+  In blood.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+            How? He, my father!
+
+STRANGER.
+
+                                That was he
+  As much as I, but no more.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+                              Thou art naught;
+ 'Twas he begot me.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1020-1028]
+
+STRANGER.
+
+                         'Twas not I begot
+  Oedipus, neither was it he.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+                              What wild
+  Fancy, then, made him name me for his child?
+
+STRANGER.
+
+  Thou wast his child--by gift. Long years ago
+  Mine own hand brought thee to him.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+                                     Coming so,
+  From a strange hand, he gave me that great love?
+
+STRANGER.
+
+  He had no child, and the desire thereof
+  Held him.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+            And thou didst find somewhere--or buy--
+  A child for him?
+
+STRANGER.
+
+                   I found it in a high
+  Glen of Kithairon.
+
+    [_Movement of_ JOCASTA, _who stands riveted
+        with dread, unnoticed by the others._
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+                     Yonder? To what end
+  Wast travelling in these parts?
+
+STRANGER.
+
+                                  I came to tend
+  The flocks here on the mountain.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1029-1037]
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+                                     Thou wast one
+  That wandered, tending sheep for hire?
+
+STRANGER.
+
+                                         My son,
+  That day I was the saviour of a King.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  How saviour? Was I in some suffering
+  Or peril?
+
+STRANGER.
+
+            Thine own feet a tale could speak.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Ah me! What ancient pain stirs half awake
+  Within me!
+
+STRANGER.
+
+              'Twas a spike through both thy feet.
+  I set thee free.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+                    A strange scorn that, to greet
+  A babe new on the earth!
+
+STRANGER.
+
+                            From that they fain
+  Must call thee Oedipus, "_Who-walks-in-pain_."
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Who called me so--father or mother? Oh,
+  In God's name, speak!
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1038-1046]
+
+STRANGER.
+
+                     I know not. He should know
+  Who brought thee.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+                    So: I was not found by thee.
+  Thou hadst me from another?
+
+STRANGER.
+
+                              Aye; to me
+  One of the shepherds gave the babe, to bear
+  Far off.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+      What shepherd? Know'st thou not? Declare
+  All that thou knowest.
+
+STRANGER.
+
+                         By my memory, then,
+  I think they called him one of Laļus' men.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  That Laļus who was king in Thebes of old?
+
+STRANGER.
+
+  The same. My man did herding in his fold.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Is he yet living? Can I see his face?
+
+STRANGER.
+
+    [_Turning to the Chorus._
+
+  Ye will know that, being natives to the place.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1047-1062]
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  How?--Is there one of you within my pale
+  Standing, that knows the shepherd of his tale?
+  Ye have seen him on the hills? Or in this town?
+  Speak! For the hour is come that all be known.
+
+LEADER.
+
+  I think 'twill be the Peasant Man, the same,
+  Thou hast sought long time to see.--His place and name
+  Our mistress, if she will, can tell most clear.
+
+    [JOCASTA _remains as if she heard nothing._
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Thou hear'st him, wife. The herd whose presence here
+  We craved for, is it he this man would say?
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  He saith ... What of it? Ask not; only pray
+  Not to remember.... Tales are vainly told.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+ 'Tis mine own birth. How can I, when I hold
+  Such clues as these, refrain from knowing all?
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  For God's love, no! Not if thou car'st at all
+  For thine own life.... My anguish is enough.
+
+OEDIPUS (_bitterly_).
+
+  Fear not!... Though I be thrice of slavish stuff
+  From my third grand-dam down, it shames not thee.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1063-1075]
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  Ask no more. I beseech thee.... Promise me!
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  To leave the Truth half-found? 'Tis not my mood.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  I understand; and tell thee what is good.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Thy good doth weary me.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+                          O child of woe,
+  I pray God, I pray God, thou never know!
+
+OEDIPUS (_turning from her_).
+
+  Go, fetch the herdsman straight!--This Queen of mine
+  May walk alone to boast her royal line.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+    [_She twice draws in her breath through her
+        teeth, as if in some sharp pain._
+
+  Unhappy one, goodbye! Goodbye before
+  I go: this once, and never never more!
+
+    [_She comes towards him as though to take a last
+        farewell, then stops suddenly, turns, and
+        rushes into the Palace._
+
+LEADER.
+
+  King, what was that? She passed like one who flies
+  In very anguish. Dread is o'er mine eyes
+  Lest from this silence break some storm of wrong.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1076-1097]
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Break what break will! My mind abideth strong
+  To know the roots, how low soe'er they be,
+  Which grew to Oedipus. This woman, she
+  Is proud, methinks, and fears my birth and name
+  Will mar her nobleness. But I, no shame
+  Can ever touch me. I am Fortune's child,
+  Not man's; her mother face hath ever smiled
+  Above me, and my brethren of the sky,
+  The changing Moons, have changed me low and high.
+  There is my lineage true, which none shall wrest
+  From me; who then am I to fear this quest?
+
+CHORUS.
+
+    [_They sing_ OEDIPUS _as the foundling of their
+        own Theban mountain, Kithairon, and
+        doubtless of divine birth._
+
+    [_Strophe._
+
+  If I, O Kithairon, some vision can borrow
+    From seercraft, if still there is wit in the old,
+  Long, long, through the deep-orbčd Moon of the morrow--
+    So hear me, Olympus!--thy tale shall be told.
+  O mountain of Thebes, a new Theban shall praise thee,
+    One born of thy bosom, one nursed at thy springs;
+  And the old men shall dance to thy glory, and raise thee
+    To worship, O bearer of joy to my kings.
+            And thou, we pray,
+  Look down in peace, O Apollo; I-ź, I-ź!
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1098-1120]
+
+    [_Antistrophe._
+
+  What Oread mother, unaging, unweeping,
+    Did bear thee, O Babe, to the Crag-walker Pan;
+  Or perchance to Apollo? He loveth the leaping
+    Of herds on the rock-ways unhaunted of man.
+  Or was it the lord of Cyllźnź, who found thee,
+    Or glad Dionysus, whose home is the height,
+  Who knew thee his own on the mountain, as round thee
+    The White Brides of Helicon laughed for delight?
+                  'Tis there, 'tis there,
+  The joy most liveth of all his dance and prayer.
+
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  If I may judge, ye Elders, who have ne'er
+  Seen him, methinks I see the shepherd there
+  Whom we have sought so long. His weight of years
+  Fits well with our Corinthian messenger's;
+  And, more, I know the men who guide his way,
+  Bondsmen of mine own house.
+                              Thou, friend, wilt say
+  Most surely, who hast known the man of old.
+
+LEADER.
+
+  I know him well. A shepherd of the fold
+  Of Laļus, one he trusted more than all.
+
+    [_The_ SHEPHERD _comes in, led by two thralls.
+        He is an old man and seems terrified._
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Thou first, our guest from Corinth: say withal
+  Is this the man?
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1120-1130]
+
+STRANGER.
+
+           This is the man, O King.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+    [_Addressing the_ SHEPHERD.
+
+  Old man! Look up, and answer everything
+  I ask thee.--Thou wast Laļus' man of old?
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+  Born in his house I was, not bought with gold.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  What kind of work, what way of life, was thine?
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+  Most of my days I tended sheep or kine.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  What was thy camping ground at midsummer?
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+  Sometimes Kithairon, sometimes mountains near.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Saw'st ever there this man thou seėst now?
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+  There, Lord? What doing?--What man meanest thou?
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+    [_Pointing to the_ STRANGER.
+
+  Look! Hath he ever crossed thy path before?
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1131-1146]
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+  I call him not to mind, I must think more.
+
+STRANGER.
+
+  Small wonder that, O King! But I will throw
+  Light on his memories.--Right well I know
+  He knows the time when, all Kithairon through,
+  I with one wandering herd and he with two,
+  Three times we neighboured one another, clear
+  From spring to autumn stars, a good half-year.
+  At winter's fall we parted; he drove down
+  To his master's fold, and I back to mine own....
+  Dost call it back, friend? Was it as I say?
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+  It was. It was.... 'Tis all so far away.
+
+STRANGER.
+
+  Say then: thou gavest me once, there in the wild,
+  A babe to rear far off as mine own child?
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+    [_His terror returning._
+
+  What does this mean? To what end askest thou?
+
+STRANGER.
+
+    [_Pointing to_ OEDIPUS.
+
+  That babe has grown, friend. 'Tis our master now.
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+    [_He slowly understands, then stands for a moment horror-struck._
+
+  No, in the name of death!... Fool, hold thy peace.
+
+    [_He lifts his staff at the_ STRANGER.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1147-1157]
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Ha, greybeard! Wouldst thou strike him?--'Tis not his
+  Offences, 'tis thine own we need to mend.
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+  Most gentle master, how do I offend?
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Whence came that babe whereof he questioneth?
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+  He doth not know ... 'tis folly ... what he saith.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Thou wilt not speak for love; but pain maybe ...
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+  I am very old. Ye would not torture me.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Back with his arms, ye bondmen! Hold him so.
+
+    [_The thralls drag back the_ SHEPHERD'S
+       _arms, ready for torture._
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+  Woe's me! What have I done?... What wouldst thou know?
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Didst give this man the child, as he doth say?
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+  I did.... Would God that I had died this day!
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1158-1167]
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+ 'Fore heaven, thou shalt yet, if thou speak not true.
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+ 'Tis more than death and darker, if I do.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  This dog, it seems, will keep us waiting.
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+                                       Nay,
+  I said at first I gave it.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+                               In what way
+  Came it to thee? Was it thine own child, or
+  Another's?
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+             Nay, it never crossed my door:
+  Another's.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+             Whose? What man, what house, of these
+  About thee?
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+              In the name of God who sees,
+  Ask me no more!
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+                  If once I ask again,
+  Thou diest.
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+              From the folk of Laļus, then,
+  It came.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1168-1176]
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+          A slave, or born of Laļus' blood?
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+  There comes the word I dread to speak, O God!
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  And I to hear: yet heard it needs must be.
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+  Know then, they said 'twas Laļus' child. But she
+  Within, thy wife, best knows its fathering.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+ 'Twas she that gave it?
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+                          It was she, O King.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  And bade you ... what?
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+                         Destroy it.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+                            Her own child?...
+  Cruel!
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+          Dark words of God had made her wild.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  What words?
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1176-1192]
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+                 The babe must slay his father; so
+  'Twas written.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+                 Why didst thou, then, let him go
+  With this old man?
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+                           O King, I pitied him.
+  I thought the man would save him to some dim
+  And distant land, beyond all fear.... And he,
+  To worse than death, did save him!... Verily,
+  If thou art he whom this man telleth of,
+  To sore affliction thou art born.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+                                     Enough!
+  All, all, shall be fulfilled.... Oh, on these eyes
+  Shed light no more, ye everlasting skies
+  That know my sin! I have sinned in birth and breath.
+  I have sinned with Woman. I have sinned with Death.
+
+    [_He rushes into the Palace. The_ SHEPHERD
+        _is led away by the thralls._
+
+CHORUS.
+
+    [_Strophe._
+
+         Nothingness, nothingness,
+         Ye Children of Man, and less
+           I count you, waking or dreaming!
+         And none among mortals, none,
+         Seeking to live, hath won
+         More than to seem, and to cease
+             Again from his seeming.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1193-1212]
+
+        While ever before mine eyes
+        One fate, one ensample, lies--
+        Thine, thine, O Oedipus, sore
+            Of God oppressčd--
+        What thing that is human more
+            Dare I call blessčd?
+
+    [_Antistrophe._
+
+        Straight his archery flew
+        To the heart of living; he knew
+            Joy and the fulness of power,
+        O Zeus, when the riddling breath
+        Was stayed and the Maid of Death
+        Slain, and we saw him through
+            The death-cloud, a tower!
+
+        For that he was called my king;
+        Yea, every precious thing
+        Wherewith men are honoured, down
+            We cast before him,
+        And great Thebes brought her crown
+            And kneeled to adore him.
+
+    [_Strophe._
+
+  But now, what man's story is such bitterness to speak?
+    What life hath Delusion so visited, and Pain,
+                And swiftness of Disaster?
+                O great King, our master,
+    How oped the one haven to the slayer and the slain?
+  And the furrows of thy father, did they turn not nor shriek,
+    Did they bear so long silent thy casting of the grain?
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1213-1235]
+
+    [_Antistrophe._
+
+ 'Tis Time, Time, desireless, hath shown thee what thou art;
+    The long monstrous mating, it is judged and all its race.
+            O child of him that sleepeth,
+            Thy land weepeth, weepeth,
+    Unfathered.... Would God, I had never seen thy face!
+  From thee in great peril fell peace upon my heart,
+    In thee mine eye clouded and the dark is come apace.
+
+    [_A_ MESSENGER _rushes out from the Palace._
+
+MESSENGER.
+
+  O ye above this land in honour old
+  Exalted, what a tale shall ye be told,
+  What sights shall see, and tears of horror shed,
+  If still your hearts be true to them that led
+  Your sires! There runs no river, well I ween,
+  Not Phasis nor great Ister, shall wash clean
+  This house of all within that hideth--nay,
+  Nor all that creepeth forth to front the day,
+  Of purposed horror. And in misery
+  That woundeth most which men have willed to be.
+
+LEADER.
+
+  No lack there was in what we knew before
+  Of food for heaviness. What bring'st thou more?
+
+MESSENGER.
+
+  One thing I bring thee first.... 'Tis quickly said.
+  Jocasta, our anointed queen, is dead.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1236-1260]
+
+LEADER.
+
+  Unhappy woman! How came death to her?
+
+MESSENGER.
+
+  By her own hand.... Oh, of what passed in there
+  Ye have been spared the worst. Ye cannot see.
+  Howbeit, with that which still is left in me
+  Of mind and memory, ye shall hear her fate.
+    Like one entranced with passion, through the gate
+  She passed, the white hands flashing o'er her head,
+  Like blades that tear, and fled, unswerving fled,
+  Toward her old bridal room, and disappeared
+  And the doors crashed behind her. But we heard
+  Her voice within, crying to him of old,
+  Her Laļus, long dead; and things untold
+  Of the old kiss unforgotten, that should bring
+  The lover's death and leave the loved a thing
+  Of horror, yea, a field beneath the plough
+  For sire and son: then wailing bitter-low
+  Across that bed of births unreconciled,
+  Husband from husband born and child from child.
+  And, after that, I know not how her death
+  Found her. For sudden, with a roar of wrath,
+  Burst Oedipus upon us. Then, I ween,
+  We marked no more what passion held the Queen,
+  But him, as in the fury of his stride,
+  "A sword! A sword! And show me here," he cried,
+  "That wife, no wife, that field of bloodstained earth
+  Where husband, father, sin on sin, had birth,
+  Polluted generations!" While he thus
+  Raged on, some god--for sure 'twas none of us--
+  Showed where she was; and with a shout away,
+  As though some hand had pointed to the prey,
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1261-1286]
+
+  He dashed him on the chamber door. The straight
+  Door-bar of oak, it bent beneath his weight,
+  Shook from its sockets free, and in he burst
+  To the dark chamber.
+                       There we saw her first
+  Hanged, swinging from a noose, like a dead bird.
+  He fell back when he saw her. Then we heard
+  A miserable groan, and straight he found
+  And loosed the strangling knot, and on the ground
+  Laid her.--Ah, then the sight of horror came!
+  The pin of gold, broad-beaten like a flame,
+  He tore from off her breast, and, left and right,
+  Down on the shuddering orbits of his sight
+  Dashed it: "Out! Out! Ye never more shall see
+  Me nor the anguish nor the sins of me.
+  Ye looked on lives whose like earth never bore,
+  Ye knew not those my spirit thirsted for:
+  Therefore be dark for ever!"
+                               Like a song
+  His voice rose, and again, again, the strong
+  And stabbing hand fell, and the massacred
+  And bleeding eyeballs streamed upon his beard,
+  Wild rain, and gouts of hail amid the rain.
+    Behold affliction, yea, afflictions twain
+  From man and woman broken, now made one
+  In downfall. All the riches yester sun
+  Saw in this house were rich in verity.
+  What call ye now our riches? Agony,
+  Delusion, Death, Shame, all that eye or ear
+  Hath ever dreamed of misery, is here.
+
+LEADER.
+
+  And now how fares he? Doth the storm abate?
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1287-1308]
+
+MESSENGER.
+
+  He shouts for one to open wide the gate
+  And lead him forth, and to all Thebes display
+  His father's murderer, his mother's.... Nay,
+  Such words I will not speak. And his intent
+  Is set, to cast himself in banishment
+  Out to the wild, not walk 'mid human breed
+  Bearing the curse he bears. Yet sore his need
+  Of strength and of some guiding hand. For sure
+  He hath more burden now than man may endure.
+    But see, the gates fall back, and that appears
+  Which he who loathes shall pity--yea, with tears.
+
+    [OEDIPUS _is led in, blinded and bleeding. The
+       Old Men bow down and hide their faces;
+       some of them weep._
+
+CHORUS.
+
+  Oh, terrible! Oh, sight of all
+      This life hath crossed, most terrible!
+      Thou man more wronged than tongue can tell,
+  What madness took thee? Do there crawl
+      Live Things of Evil from the deep
+      To leap on man? Oh, what a leap
+  Was His that flung thee to thy fall!
+
+LEADER.
+
+  O fallen, fallen in ghastly case,
+      I dare not raise mine eyes to thee;
+      Fain would I look and ask and see,
+  But shudder sickened from thy face.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+          Oh, pain; pain and woe!
+              Whither? Whither?
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1308-1328]
+
+          They lead me and I go;
+            And my voice drifts on the air
+                  Far away.
+            Where, Thing of Evil, where
+              Endeth thy leaping hither?
+
+LEADER.
+
+  In fearful ends, which none may hear nor say.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+    [_Strophe._
+
+      Cloud of the dark, mine own
+          For ever, horrible,
+          Stealing, stealing, silent, unconquerable,
+          Cloud that no wind, no summer can dispel!
+      Again, again I groan,
+  As through my heart together crawl the strong
+  Stabs of this pain and memories of old wrong.
+
+LEADER.
+
+  Yea, twofold hosts of torment hast thou there,
+  The stain to think on and the pain to bear.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+    [_Antistrophe._
+
+      O Friend, thou mine own
+           Still faithful, minister
+           Steadfast abiding alone of them that were,
+           Dost bear with me and give the blind man care?
+      Ah me! Not all unknown
+  Nor hid thou art. Deep in this dark a call
+  Comes and I know thy voice in spite of all.
+
+LEADER.
+
+  O fearful sufferer, and could'st thou kill
+  Thy living orbs? What God made blind thy will?
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1329-1351]
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+    [_Strophe._
+
+ 'Tis Apollo; all is Apollo,
+    O ye that love me, 'tis he long time hath planned
+      These things upon me evilly, evilly,
+        Dark things and full of blood.
+  I knew not; I did but follow
+    His way; but mine the hand
+      And mine the anguish. What were mine eyes to me
+        When naught to be seen was good?
+
+LEADER.
+
+ 'Tis even so; and Truth doth speak in thee.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  To see, to endure, to hear words kindly spoken,
+    Should I have joy in such?
+      Out, if ye love your breath,
+  Cast me swift unto solitude, unbroken
+    By word or touch.
+      Am I not charged with death,
+        Most charged and filled to the brim
+      With curses? And what man saith
+        God hath so hated him?
+
+LEADER.
+
+  Thy bitter will, thy hard calamity,
+  Would I had never known nor looked on thee!
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+    [_Antistrophe._
+
+  My curse, my curse upon him,
+    That man whom pity held in the wilderness,
+      Who saved the feet alive from the blood-fetter
+        And loosed the barb thereof!
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1351-1377]
+
+  That babe--what grace was done him,
+    Had he died shelterless,
+      He had not laid on himself this grief to bear,
+        And all who gave him love.
+
+LEADER.
+
+  I, too, O Friend, I had been happier.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Found not the way to his father's blood, nor shaken
+        The world's scorn on his mother,
+          The child and the groom withal;
+  But now, of murderers born, of God forsaken,
+        Mine own sons' brother;
+          All this, and if aught can fall
+            Upon man more perilous
+          And elder in sin, lo, all
+            Is the portion of Oedipus.
+
+LEADER.
+
+  How shall I hold this counsel of thy mind
+  True? Thou wert better dead than living blind.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  That this deed is not well and wisely wrought
+  Thou shalt not show me; therefore school me not.
+  Think, with what eyes hereafter in the place
+  Of shadows could I see my father's face,
+  Or my poor mother's? Both of whom this hand
+  Hath wronged too deep for man to understand.
+  Or children--born as mine were born, to see
+  Their shapes should bring me joy? Great God!
+      To me
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1378-1403]
+
+  There is no joy in city nor in tower
+  Nor temple, from all whom, in this mine hour,
+  I that was chief in Thebes alone, and ate
+  The King's bread, I have made me separate
+  For ever. Mine own lips have bid the land
+  Cast from it one so evil, one whose hand
+  To sin was dedicate, whom God hath shown
+  Birth-branded ... and my blood the dead King's own!
+  All this myself have proved. And can I then
+  Look with straight eyes into the eyes of men?
+  I trow not. Nay, if any stop there were
+  To dam this fount that welleth in mine ear
+  For hearing, I had never blenched nor stayed
+  Till this vile shell were all one dungeon made,
+  Dark, without sound. 'Tis thus the mind would fain
+  Find peace, self-prisoned from a world of pain.
+    O wild Kithairon, why was it thy will
+  To save me? Why not take me quick and kill,
+  Kill, before ever I could make men know
+  The thing I am, the thing from which I grow?
+  Thou dead King, Polybus, thou city wall
+  Of Corinth, thou old castle I did call
+  My father's, what a life did ye begin,
+  What splendour rotted by the worm within,
+  When ye bred me! O Crossing of the Roads,
+  O secret glen and dusk of crowding woods,
+  O narrow footpath creeping to the brink
+  Where meet the Three! I gave you blood to drink.
+  Do ye remember? 'Twas my life-blood, hot
+  From mine own father's heart. Have ye forgot
+  What deed I did among you, and what new
+  And direr deed I fled from you to do?
+  O flesh, horror of flesh!...
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1409-1431]
+
+                              But what is shame
+  To do should not be spoken. In God's name,
+  Take me somewhere far off and cover me
+  From sight, or slay, or cast me to the sea
+  Where never eye may see me any more.
+    What? Do ye fear to touch a man so sore
+  Stricken? Nay, tremble not. My misery
+  Is mine, and shall be borne by none but me.
+
+LEADER.
+
+  Lo, yonder comes for answer to thy prayer
+  Creon, to do and to decree. The care
+  Of all our land is his, now thou art weak.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Alas, what word to Creon can I speak,
+  How make him trust me more? He hath seen of late
+  So vile a heart in me, so full of hate.
+
+_Enter_ CREON.
+
+CREON.
+
+  Not to make laughter, Oedipus, nor cast
+  Against thee any evil of the past
+  I seek thee, but ... Ah God! ye ministers,
+  Have ye no hearts? Or if for man there stirs
+  No pity in you, fear at least to call
+  Stain on our Lord the Sun, who feedeth all;
+  Nor show in nakedness a horror such
+  As this, which never mother Earth may touch,
+  Nor God's clean rain nor sunlight. Quick within!
+  Guide him.--The ills that in a house have been
+  They of the house alone should know or hear.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1432-1447]
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  In God's name, since thou hast undone the fear
+  Within me, coming thus, all nobleness,
+  To one so vile, grant me one only grace.
+  For thy sake more I crave it than mine own.
+
+CREON.
+
+  Let me first hear what grace thou wouldst be shown.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Cast me from Thebes ... now, quick ... where none may see
+  My visage more, nor mingle words with me.
+
+CREON.
+
+  That had I done, for sure, save that I still
+  Tremble, and fain would ask Apollo's will.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  His will was clear enough, to stamp the unclean
+  Thing out, the bloody hand, the heart of sin.
+
+CREON.
+
+ 'Twas thus he seemed to speak; but in this sore
+  Strait we must needs learn surer than before.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Thou needs must trouble God for one so low?
+
+CREON.
+
+  Surely; thyself will trust his answer now.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  I charge thee more ... and, if thou fail, my sin
+  Shall cleave to thee.... For her who lies within,
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1448-1472]
+
+  Make as thou wilt her burial. 'Tis thy task
+  To tend thine own. But me: let no man ask
+  This ancient city of my sires to give
+  Harbour in life to me. Set me to live
+  On the wild hills and leave my name to those
+  Deeps of Kithairon which my father chose,
+  And mother, for my vast and living tomb.
+  As they, my murderers, willed it, let my doom
+  Find me. For this my very heart doth know,
+  No sickness now, nor any mortal blow,
+  Shall slay this body. Never had my breath
+  Been thus kept burning in the midst of death,
+  Save for some frightful end. So, let my way
+  Go where it listeth.
+                       But my children--Nay,
+  Creon, my sons will ask thee for no care.
+  Men are they, and can find them everywhere
+  What life needs. But my two poor desolate
+  Maidens.... There was no table ever set
+  Apart for them, but whatso royal fare
+  I tasted, they were with me and had share
+  In all.... Creon, I pray, forget them not.
+  And if it may be, go, bid them be brought,
+
+    [CREON _goes and presently returns with the
+       two princesses._ OEDIPUS _thinks he is
+       there all the time._
+
+  That I may touch their faces, and so weep....
+  Go, Prince. Go, noble heart!...
+  If I might touch them, I should seem to keep
+  And not to have lost them, now mine eyes are gone....
+  What say I?
+  In God's name, can it be I hear mine own
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1473-1505]
+
+  Beloved ones sobbing? Creon of his grace
+  Hath brought my two, my dearest, to this place.
+  Is it true?
+
+CREON.
+
+ 'Tis true. I brought them, for in them I know
+  Thy joy is, the same now as long ago.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  God bless thee, and in this hard journey give
+  Some better guide than mine to help thee live.
+    Children! Where are ye? Hither; come to these
+  Arms of your ... brother, whose wild offices
+  Have brought much darkness on the once bright eyes
+  Of him who grew your garden; who, nowise
+  Seeing nor understanding, digged a ground
+  The world shall shudder at. Children, my wound
+  Is yours too, and I cannot meet your gaze
+  Now, as I think me what remaining days
+  Of bitter living the world hath for you.
+  What dance of damsels shall ye gather to,
+  What feast of Thebes, but quick ye shall turn home,
+  All tears, or ere the feast or dancers come?
+  And, children, when ye reach the years of love,
+  Who shall dare wed you, whose heart rise above
+  The peril, to take on him all the shame
+  That cleaves to my name and my children's name?
+  God knows, it is enough!...
+  My flowers, ye needs must die, waste things, bereft
+  And fruitless.
+                 Creon, thou alone art left
+  Their father now, since both of us are gone
+  Who cared for them. Oh, leave them not alone
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1505-1518]
+
+  To wander masterless, these thine own kin,
+  And beggared. Neither think of them such sin
+  As ye all know in me, but let their fate
+  Touch thee. So young they are, so desolate--
+  Of all save thee. True man, give me thine hand,
+  And promise.
+
+    [OEDIPUS _and_ CREON _clasp hands._
+
+                If your age could understand,
+  Children, full many counsels I could give.
+  But now I leave this one word: Pray to live
+  As life may suffer you, and find a road
+  To travel easier than your father trod.
+
+CREON.
+
+  Enough thy heart hath poured its tears; now back into
+  thine house repair.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+I dread the house, yet go I must.
+
+CREON.
+
+              Fair season maketh all things fair.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  One oath then give me, and I go.
+
+CREON.
+
+              Name it, and I will answer thee.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  To cast me from this land.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1519-1523]
+
+CREON.
+
+             A gift not mine but God's thou askest me.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  I am a thing of God abhorred.
+
+CREON.
+
+            The more, then, will he grant thy prayer.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Thou givest thine oath?
+
+CREON.
+
+    I see no light; and, seeing not, I may not swear.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Then take me hence. I care not.
+
+CREON.
+
+          Go in peace, and give these children o'er.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Ah no! Take not away my daughters!
+
+    [_They are taken from him._
+
+CREON.
+
+                     Seek not to be master more. Did not thy
+    masteries of old forsake thee when the end was near?
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1524-1530]
+
+CHORUS.
+
+  Ye citizens of Thebes, behold; 'tis Oedipus that passeth here,
+  Who read the riddle-word of Death, and mightiest stood of mortal
+    men,
+  And Fortune loved him, and the folk that saw him turned and looked
+    again.
+  Lo, he is fallen, and around great storms and the outreaching sea!
+  Therefore, O Man, beware, and look toward the end of things that be,
+  The last of sights, the last of days; and no man's life account as gain
+  Ere the full tale be finished and the darkness find him without pain.
+
+    [OEDIPUS _is led into the house and the doors
+       close on him._
+
+
+
+
+                              NOTES TO
+
+                       OEDIPUS, KING OF THEBES
+
+
+P. 4, l. 21: Dry Ash of Ismźnus.]--Divination by burnt offerings was
+practised at an altar of Apollo by the river Ismenus in Thebes.
+
+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. _Anthropology and the Classics_, pp. 74-79.]
+
+P. 7, l. 87, 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.]
+
+Pp. 13-16, ll. 216-275. 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 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. 25, l. 437, 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).
+
+Pp. 29 ff. 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.
+
+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. 36, l. 630, Thebes is my country.]--It must be remembered that to the
+Chorus Creon is a real Theban, Oedipus a stranger from Corinth.
+
+P. 41, 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. 42, l. 718.]--Observe that Jocasta does not tell the whole truth. It
+was she herself who gave the child to be killed (p. 70, l. 1173).
+
+P. 42, l. 730, 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. 44, l. 754, Who could bring, &c.]--Oedipus of course thought he had
+killed them all. See his next speech.
+
+P. 51.]--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' _Electra_, 636-659, Clytaemnestra's prayer; compare
+also the prayers to Cypris in Euripides' _Hippolytus_.
+
+P. 51, l. 899.]--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. 52, l. 918, 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. 56, l. 987, Thy father's tomb Like light across 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. 57, l. 994.]--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.
+
+Pp. 57, 58, ll. 1000-1020.]--It is natural that the Corinthian hesitates
+before telling a king that he is really not of royal birth.
+
+Pp. 64, 65, ll. 1086-1109.]--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. 66, l. 1122.]--Is there any part in any tragedy so short and yet so
+effective as that of this Shepherd?
+
+P. 75, l. 1264, Like a dead bird.]--The curious word, [Greek:
+empeplźgmenźn], 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 earth;
+when he saw her already dead, a revulsion came.
+
+P. 76, ll. 1305 ff.]--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 _Hipp._, p. 39; _Trojan
+Women_, p. 51.
+
+P. 83, ll. 1450 ff., 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. 86, l. 1520, 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.,
+_Suppliants_.
+
+
+
+
+
+End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Oedipus King of Thebes, by Sophocles
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+<pre>
+
+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Oedipus King of Thebes, by Sophocles
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  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 &amp; 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>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</i></td>
+<td class="right"><i>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</i></td>
+<td class="right"><i>1912</i></td>
+
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left"><i>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</i></td>
+<td class="left"><i>February</i></td>
+<td class="right"><i>1912</i></td>
+</tr>
+<tr>
+<td class="left"><i>&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;"&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;</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>Beitr&auml;ge 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 La&iuml;us 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 La&iuml;us, 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 La&iuml;us.</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:&mdash;</p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="smcap">La&iuml;us</span> <i>(pronounced as three syllables, L&aacute;-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 Ag&ecirc;nor, King of Sidon.</i></p>
+
+<p class="indent"><span class="smcap">Polybus and Merop&ecirc;</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-&ecirc;" (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">La&iuml;us</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">La&iuml;us</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>&mdash;<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.&mdash;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&mdash;the rest have thus</span>
+<span class="i0">Their champion&mdash;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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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 Ism&ecirc;nus' 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 parch&egrave;d 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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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.&mdash;'Tis not too far for one</span>
+<span class="i0">Clear-voiced.</span>
+
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;&nbsp;(<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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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?&mdash;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.&mdash;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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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 La&iuml;us</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.&mdash;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 La&iuml;us 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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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&mdash;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&mdash;that he knew&mdash;</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 La&iuml;us 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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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.&mdash;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">La&iuml;us, the same wild hand may seek me too:</span>
+<span class="i0">And caring thus for La&iuml;us, is but care</span>
+<span class="i0">For mine own blood.&mdash;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.&mdash;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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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-&ecirc;."</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-&ecirc;! I-&ecirc;!</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">&nbsp;</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 orb&egrave;d 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&nbsp;&nbsp;[Pg 12]</a></span>
+<span class="i5">And I-&ecirc;! I-&ecirc;!</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">&nbsp;</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-&ecirc;! I-&ecirc;!</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">&nbsp;</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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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 La&iuml;us, 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.&mdash;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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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&mdash;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&mdash;since this red</span>
+<span class="i0">Chance hath so stamped its heel on La&iuml;us' 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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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.&mdash;I marvel that he comes not yet.</span>
+
+
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_17" id="Page_17">vv. 290-301&nbsp;&nbsp;[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.&mdash;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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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&mdash;thou hast heard withal</span>
+<span class="i0">His message&mdash;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 La&iuml;us, 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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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!&mdash;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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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?&mdash;he maketh jest</span>
+<span class="i0">Of the land's woe&mdash;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.&mdash;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?&mdash;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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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.&mdash;'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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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!&mdash;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&mdash;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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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.&mdash;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!&mdash;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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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.&mdash;Give me thine arm, my child.</span>
+
+<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span>
+
+<span class="i0">Aye, help him quick.&mdash;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?&mdash;Thou dost seek</span>
+<span class="i0">With threats and loud proclaim the man whose hand</span>
+<span class="i0">Slew La&iuml;us. 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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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">&nbsp;</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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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&mdash;aye, and thou</span>
+<span class="i0">And all who loved me&mdash;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&mdash;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.&mdash;But see, here comes the King.</span>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_30" id="Page_30">vv. 532-550&nbsp;&nbsp;[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&mdash;his mind is sick.</span>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_31" id="Page_31">vv. 551-562&nbsp;&nbsp;[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 La&iuml;us ...</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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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 La&iuml;us' murderer.</span>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_33" id="Page_33">vv. 574-589&nbsp;&nbsp;[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.&mdash;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&mdash;</span>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_34" id="Page_34">vv. 590-613&nbsp;&nbsp;[Pg 34]</a></span>
+
+<span class="i0">I know them not nor am I one of them&mdash;</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.&mdash;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.&mdash;'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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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!&mdash;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!&mdash;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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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.&mdash;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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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.&mdash;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 La&iuml;us' 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?&mdash;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 La&iuml;us: 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&nbsp;&nbsp;[Pg 42]</a></span>
+
+<span class="i0">La&iuml;us 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&mdash;</span>
+<span class="i0">God's mercy!&mdash;scarcely the third day was gone</span>
+<span class="i0">When La&iuml;us 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.&mdash;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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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 La&iuml;us? 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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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 arm&egrave;d 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 La&iuml;us 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 La&iuml;us 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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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.&mdash;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&mdash;thus</span>
+<span class="i0">I tell thee the whole tale&mdash;was Polybus,</span>
+<span class="i0">In Corinth King; my mother Merop&ecirc;</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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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&mdash;my father knew not, nor</span>
+<span class="i0">My mother&mdash;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&mdash;'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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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-branch&egrave;d 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 La&iuml;us 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.&mdash;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?&mdash;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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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 La&iuml;us' 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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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 La&iuml;us' 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.&mdash;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">&nbsp;<span class="pagenum2">[<i>Strophe.</i></span></span>
+
+<span class="i0">Toward God's great mysteries, oh, let me move</span>
+<span class="i2">Unstain&egrave;d 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">&nbsp;</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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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">&nbsp;</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">&nbsp;</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">&nbsp;</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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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">&nbsp;<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&mdash;if men rightly call</span>
+<span class="i0">Thy name on earth&mdash;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">&nbsp;</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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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.&mdash;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">&nbsp;<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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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?&mdash;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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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">Merop&ecirc;, friend, who dwelt with Polybus.</span>
+
+<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Stranger.</span></span>
+
+<span class="i0">What in Queen Merop&ecirc; 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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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.&mdash;'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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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&mdash;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&mdash;or buy&mdash;</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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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&mdash;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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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 La&iuml;us' men.</span>
+
+<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span>
+
+<span class="i0">That La&iuml;us 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&nbsp;&nbsp;[Pg 62]</a></span>
+
+<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span>
+
+<span class="i0">How?&mdash;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.&mdash;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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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!&mdash;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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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">&nbsp;<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-orb&egrave;d Moon of the morrow&mdash;</span>
+<span class="i1">So hear me, Olympus!&mdash;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-&ecirc;, I-&ecirc;!</span>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_65" id="Page_65">vv. 1098-1120&nbsp;&nbsp;[Pg 65]</a></span>
+
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;<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 Cyll&ecirc;n&ecirc;, 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 La&iuml;us, 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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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.&mdash;Thou wast La&iuml;us' 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 se&euml;st now?</span>
+
+<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Shepherd.</span></span>
+
+<span class="i0">There, Lord? What doing?&mdash;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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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.&mdash;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&nbsp;&nbsp;[Pg 68]</a></span>
+
+<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span>
+
+<span class="i0">Ha, greybeard! Wouldst thou strike him?&mdash;'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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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 La&iuml;us, then,</span>
+<span class="i0">It came.</span>
+<span class='pagenum'><a name="Page_70" id="Page_70">vv. 1168-1176&nbsp;&nbsp;[Pg 70]</a></span>
+
+<span class="ia"><span class="smcap">Oedipus.</span></span>
+
+<span class="i4">A slave, or born of La&iuml;us' 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 La&iuml;us' 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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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">&nbsp;<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&nbsp;&nbsp;[Pg 72]</a></span>
+
+<span class="i5">While ever before mine eyes</span>
+<span class="i5">One fate, one ensample, lies&mdash;</span>
+<span class="i5">Thine, thine, O Oedipus, sore</span>
+<span class="i7">Of God oppress&egrave;d&mdash;</span>
+<span class="i5">What thing that is human more</span>
+<span class="i7">Dare I call bless&egrave;d?</span>
+
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;<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">&nbsp;<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&nbsp;&nbsp;[Pg 73]</a></span>
+
+
+<span class="i0">&nbsp;<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&mdash;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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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 La&iuml;us, 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&mdash;for sure 'twas none of us&mdash;</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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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.&mdash;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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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&mdash;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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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&nbsp;&nbsp;[Pg 79]</a></span>
+
+
+<span class="i0">That babe&mdash;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&mdash;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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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.&mdash;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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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&mdash;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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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&mdash;</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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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&nbsp;&nbsp;[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 Ism&ecirc;nus.]&mdash;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.]&mdash;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.]&mdash;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.&mdash;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?]&mdash;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.]&mdash;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.]&mdash;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.]&mdash;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>]&mdash;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.]&mdash;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, &amp;c.]&mdash;Oedipus of
+course thought he had killed them all. See his next
+speech.</p>
+
+<p><a href="#Page_51">P. 51.</a>]&mdash;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>]&mdash;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.]&mdash;The names Lykeios, Lykios, &amp;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.]&mdash;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?"&mdash;He
+cannot get the thought of the fated murder out
+of his mind.</p>
+
+<p><a href="#Page_57">P. 57, l. 994.</a>]&mdash;Why does Oedipus tell the Corinthian
+this oracle, which he has kept a secret even
+from his wife till to-day?&mdash;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>]&mdash;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>]&mdash;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>]&mdash;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.]&mdash;The curious
+word, [Greek: empepl&ecirc;gmen&ecirc;n], 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>.]&mdash;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.]&mdash;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.]&mdash;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>
+
+
+
+
+
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+The Project Gutenberg EBook of Oedipus King of Thebes, by Sophocles
+
+This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with
+almost no restrictions whatsoever.  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: ASCII
+
+*** 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
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+
+OEDIPUS
+
+KING OF THEBES
+
+BY
+
+SOPHOCLES
+
+
+TRANSLATED INTO ENGLISH RHYMING VERSE
+
+ WITH EXPLANATORY NOTES BY
+
+GILBERT MURRAY
+
+LL.D., D.LITT., F.B.A.
+
+REGIUS PROFESSOR OF GREEK IN THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
+
+
+FOURTEENTH THOUSAND
+
+
+ LONDON: GEORGE ALLEN & UNWIN LTD.
+ RUSKIN HOUSE 40 MUSEUM STREET, W.C.1
+
+
+
+ _First published_      _February 1911_
+ _Reprinted_            _January  1912_
+     "                  _   "     1912_
+     "                  _February 1912_
+     "                  _July     1917_
+
+
+
+
+PREFACE
+
+
+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 _Oedipus_, chiefly
+points connected with the dramatic technique and the religious
+atmosphere.
+
+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" (_Choephori_, 127: cf.
+Crusius, _Beitraege z. Gr. Myth_, 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
+_Basileus_ who is also a _Theos_, 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 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 _Lectures on the Kingship_, who are "honoured as no woman
+now living on the earth."
+
+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 (_Schol. Eur. Phoen._, 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.
+
+Does this in any way make the tragedy insincere? 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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+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 (_Varia Historia_, 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
+_patria potestas_, 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.
+
+There is not much philosophy in the _Oedipus_. 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.
+
+       *       *       *       *       *
+
+Where plot-interest is as strong as it is in the _Oedipus_,
+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 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.
+
+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 Laius 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.
+
+As to Tiresias, I wish to ask forgiveness for an unintelligent criticism
+made twelve years ago in my _Ancient Greek Literature_, 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 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.
+
+As to the Chorus, it generally plays a smaller part in Sophocles than in
+Euripides and Aeschylus, and the _Oedipus_ 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 _Bacchae_ and the _Trojan Women_. His lyrics, great as
+they 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.
+
+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.
+
+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 _Oedipus_.
+
+G. M.
+
+
+
+
+ CHARACTERS IN THE PLAY
+
+
+ OEDIPUS, _supposed son of Polybus, King of Corinth; now elected King of
+   Thebes._
+
+ JOCASTA, _Queen of Thebes; widow of Laius, the late King, and now wife
+   to Oedipus._
+
+ CREON, _a Prince of Thebes, brother to Jocasta._
+
+ TIRESIAS, _an old blind seer._
+
+ PRIEST OF ZEUS.
+
+ A STRANGER _from Corinth._
+
+ A SHEPHERD _of King Laius._
+
+ A MESSENGER _from the Palace._
+
+ CHORUS of the Elders of Thebes.
+
+ A Crowd of Suppliants, men, women, and children.
+
+
+ The following do not appear in the play but are frequently mentioned:--
+
+ LAIUS (_pronounced as three syllables, La-i-us_), _the last King of Thebes
+   before Oedipus._
+
+ CADMUS, _the founder of Thebes; son of Agenor, King of Sidon._
+
+ POLYBUS AND MEROPE, _King and Queen of Corinth, supposed to be the
+   father and mother of Oedipus._
+
+ APOLLO, _the God specially presiding over the oracle of Delphi and the
+   island Delos: he is also called_ PHOEBUS, _the pure;_ LOXIAS,
+   _supposed to mean "He of the Crooked Words"; and_ LYKEIOS, _supposed
+   to mean "Wolf-God." He is also the great Averter of Evil, and has
+   names from the cries "I-e" (pronounced "Ee-ay") and "Paian," cries
+   for healing or for the frightening away of evil influences._
+
+ KITHAIRON, _a mass of wild mountain south-west of Thebes._
+
+
+
+
+ARGUMENT
+
+While Thebes was under the rule of LAIUS and JOCASTA 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. LAIUS 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, OEDIPUS, 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 OEDIPUS, and with it the hand of the Queen, JOCASTA.
+
+Some ten or twelve years afterwards a pestilence has fallen on Thebes.
+At this point the play begins.
+
+
+_The date of the first production of the play is not known, but was
+probably about the year 425 B.C._
+
+
+
+
+OEDIPUS, KING OF THEBES
+
+
+SCENE.--_Before the Palace of_ OEDIPUS _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_ PRIEST OF ZEUS. _As the Palace door opens and_
+OEDIPUS _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._
+
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  My children, fruit of Cadmus' ancient tree
+  New springing, wherefore thus with bended knee
+  Press ye upon us, laden all with wreaths
+  And suppliant branches? And the city breathes
+  Heavy with incense, heavy with dim prayer
+  And shrieks to affright the Slayer.--Children, care
+  For this so moves me, I have scorned withal
+  Message or writing: seeing 'tis I ye call,
+  'Tis I am come, world-honoured Oedipus.
+    Old Man, do thou declare--the rest have thus
+  Their champion--in what mood stand ye so still,
+  In dread or sure hope? Know ye not, my will
+  Is yours for aid 'gainst all? Stern were indeed
+  The heart that felt not for so dire a need.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 15-39]
+
+PRIEST.
+
+  O Oedipus, who holdest in thy hand
+  My city, thou canst see what ages stand
+  At these thine altars; some whose little wing
+  Scarce flieth yet, and some with long living
+  O'erburdened; priests, as I of Zeus am priest,
+  And chosen youths: and wailing hath not ceased
+  Of thousands in the market-place, and by
+  Athena's two-fold temples and the dry
+  Ash of Ismenus' portent-breathing shore.
+    For all our ship, thou see'st, is weak and sore
+  Shaken with storms, and no more lighteneth
+  Her head above the waves whose trough is death.
+  She wasteth in the fruitless buds of earth,
+  In parched herds and travail without birth
+  Of dying women: yea, and midst of it
+  A burning and a loathly god hath lit
+  Sudden, and sweeps our land, this Plague of power;
+  Till Cadmus' house grows empty, hour by hour,
+  And Hell's house rich with steam of tears and blood.
+    O King, not God indeed nor peer to God
+  We deem thee, that we kneel before thine hearth,
+  Children and old men, praying; but of earth
+  A thing consummate by thy star confessed
+  Thou walkest and by converse with the blest;
+  Who came to Thebes so swift, and swept away
+  The Sphinx's song, the tribute of dismay,
+  That all were bowed beneath, and made us free.
+  A stranger, thou, naught knowing more than we,
+  Nor taught of any man, but by God's breath
+  Filled, thou didst raise our life. So the world saith;
+  So we say.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 40-69]
+
+             Therefore now, O Lord and Chief,
+  We come to thee again; we lay our grief
+  On thy head, if thou find us not some aid.
+  Perchance thou hast heard Gods talking in the shade
+  Of night, or eke some man: to him that knows,
+  Men say, each chance that falls, each wind that blows
+  Hath life, when he seeks counsel. Up, O chief
+  Of men, and lift thy city from its grief;
+  Face thine own peril! All our land doth hold
+  Thee still our saviour, for that help of old:
+  Shall they that tell of thee hereafter tell
+  "By him was Thebes raised up, and after fell!"
+  Nay, lift us till we slip no more. Oh, let
+  That bird of old that made us fortunate
+  Wing back; be thou our Oedipus again.
+  And let thy kingdom be a land of men,
+  Not emptiness. Walls, towers, and ships, they all
+  Are nothing with no men to keep the wall.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  My poor, poor children! Surely long ago
+  I have read your trouble. Stricken, well I know,
+  Ye all are, stricken sore: yet verily
+  Not one so stricken to the heart as I.
+  Your grief, it cometh to each man apart
+  For his own loss, none other's; but this heart
+  For thee and me and all of us doth weep.
+  Wherefore it is not to one sunk in sleep
+  Ye come with waking. Many tears these days
+  For your sake I have wept, and many ways
+  Have wandered on the beating wings of thought.
+  And, finding but one hope, that I have sought
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 70-86]
+
+  And followed. I have sent Menoikeus' son,
+  Creon, my own wife's brother, forth alone
+  To Apollo's House in Delphi, there to ask
+  What word, what deed of mine, what bitter task,
+  May save my city.
+                    And the lapse of days
+  Reckoned, I can but marvel what delays
+  His journey. 'Tis beyond all thought that thus
+  He comes not, beyond need. But when he does,
+  Then call me false and traitor, if I flee
+  Back from whatever task God sheweth me.
+
+PRIEST.
+
+  At point of time thou speakest. Mark the cheer
+  Yonder. Is that not Creon drawing near?
+
+    [_They all crowd to gaze where_ CREON _is
+        approaching in the distance._
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  O Lord Apollo, help! And be the star
+  That guides him joyous as his seemings are!
+
+  PRIEST.
+
+  Oh! surely joyous! How else should he bear
+  That fruited laurel wreathed about his hair?
+
+  OEDIPUS.
+
+  We soon shall know.--'Tis not too far for one
+  Clear-voiced.
+
+    (_Shouting_) Ho, brother! Prince! Menoikeus' son,
+  What message from the God?
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 87-99]
+
+CREON (from a distance).
+
+                               Message of joy!
+
+_Enter_ CREON
+
+  I tell thee, what is now our worst annoy,
+  If the right deed be done, shall turn to good.
+
+    [_The crowd, which has been full of excited
+        hope, falls to doubt and disappointment._
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Nay, but what is the message? For my blood
+  Runs neither hot nor cold for words like those.
+
+CREON.
+
+  Shall I speak now, with all these pressing close,
+  Or pass within?--To me both ways are fair.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Speak forth to all! The grief that these men bear
+  Is more than any fear for mine own death.
+
+CREON.
+
+  I speak then what I heard from God.--Thus saith
+  Phoebus, our Lord and Seer, in clear command.
+  An unclean thing there is, hid in our land,
+  Eating the soil thereof: this ye shall cast
+  Out, and not foster till all help be past.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  How cast it out? What was the evil deed?
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 100-113]
+
+CREON.
+
+  Hunt the men out from Thebes, or make them bleed
+  Who slew. For blood it is that stirs to-day.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Who was the man they killed? Doth Phoebus say?
+
+CREON.
+
+  O King, there was of old King Laius
+  In Thebes, ere thou didst come to pilot us.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  I know: not that I ever saw his face.
+
+CREON.
+
+ 'Twas he. And Loxias now bids us trace
+  And smite the unknown workers of his fall.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Where in God's earth are they? Or how withal
+  Find the blurred trail of such an ancient stain?
+
+CREON.
+
+  In Thebes, he said.--That which men seek amain
+  They find. 'Tis things forgotten that go by.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  And where did Laius meet them? Did he die
+  In Thebes, or in the hills, or some far land?
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 114-127]
+
+CREON.
+
+  To ask God's will in Delphi he had planned
+  His journey. Started and returned no more.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  And came there nothing back? No message, nor
+  None of his company, that ye might hear?
+
+CREON.
+
+  They all were slain, save one man; blind with fear
+  He came, remembering naught--or almost naught.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  And what was that? One thing has often brought
+  Others, could we but catch one little clue.
+
+CREON.
+
+ 'Twas not one man, 'twas robbers--that he knew--
+  Who barred the road and slew him: a great band.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Robbers?... What robber, save the work was planned
+  By treason here, would dare a risk so plain?
+
+CREON.
+
+  So some men thought. But Laius lay slain,
+  And none to avenge him in his evil day.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 128-148]
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  And what strange mischief, when your master lay
+  Thus fallen, held you back from search and deed?
+
+CREON.
+
+  The dark-songed Sphinx was here. We had no heed
+  Of distant sorrows, having death so near.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  It falls on me then. I will search and clear
+  This darkness.--Well hath Phoebus done, and thou
+  Too, to recall that dead king, even now,
+  And with you for the right I also stand,
+  To obey the God and succour this dear land.
+  Nor is it as for one that touches me
+  Far off; 'tis for mine own sake I must see
+  This sin cast out. Whoe'er it was that slew
+  Laius, the same wild hand may seek me too:
+  And caring thus for Laius, is but care
+  For mine own blood.--Up! Leave this altar-stair,
+  Children. Take from it every suppliant bough.
+  Then call the folk of Thebes. Say, 'tis my vow
+  To uphold them to the end. So God shall crown
+  Our greatness, or for ever cast us down.
+
+    [_He goes in to the Palace._
+
+PRIEST.
+
+  My children, rise.--The King most lovingly
+  Hath promised all we came for. And may He
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 149-161]
+
+  Who sent this answer, Phoebus, come confessed
+  Helper to Thebes, and strong to stay the pest.
+
+    [_The suppliants gather up their boughs and
+        stand at the side. The chorus of Theban
+        elders enter._
+
+CHORUS.
+
+    [_They speak of the Oracle which they have not
+        yet heard, and cry to_ APOLLO _by his
+        special cry "I-e."_
+
+    A Voice, a Voice, that is borne on the Holy Way!
+  What art thou, O Heavenly One, O Word of the Houses of Gold?
+  Thebes is bright with thee, and my heart it leapeth; yet is it cold,
+        And my spirit faints as I pray.
+            I-e! I-e!
+  What task, O Affrighter of Evil, what task shall thy people essay?
+        One new as our new-come affliction,
+          Or an old toil returned with the years?
+        Unveil thee, thou dread benediction,
+          Hope's daughter and Fear's.
+
+    [_They pray to_ ATHENA, ARTEMIS, _and_
+        APOLLO.
+
+    Zeus-Child that knowest not death, to thee I pray,
+  O Pallas; next to thy Sister, who calleth Thebes her own,
+  Artemis, named of Fair Voices, who sitteth her orbed throne
+      In the throng of the market way:
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 162-189]
+
+            And I-e! I-e!
+  Apollo, the Pure, the Far-smiter; O Three that keep evil away,
+      If of old for our city's desire,
+        When the death-cloud hung close to her brow,
+      Ye have banished the wound and the fire,
+        Oh! come to us now!
+
+    [_They tell of the Pestilence._
+
+  Wounds beyond telling; my people sick unto death;
+    And where is the counsellor, where is the sword of thought?
+  And Holy Earth in her increase perisheth:
+    The child dies and the mother awaketh not.
+            I-e! I-e!
+  We have seen them, one on another, gone as a bird is gone,
+    Souls that are flame; yea, higher,
+    Swifter they pass than fire,
+      To the rocks of the dying Sun.
+
+    [_They end by a prayer to_ ATHENA,
+
+  Their city wasteth unnumbered; their children lie
+    Where death hath cast them, unpitied, unwept upon.
+  The altars stand, as in seas of storm a high
+    Rock standeth, and wives and mothers grey thereon
+            Weep, weep and pray.
+  Lo, joy-cries to fright the Destroyer; a flash in the dark they rise,
+      Then die by the sobs overladen.
+      Send help, O heaven-born Maiden,
+        Let us look on the light of her eyes!
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 190-217]
+
+    [_To_ ZEUS, _that he drive out the Slayer,_
+
+      And Ares, the abhorred
+      Slayer, who bears no sword,
+  But shrieking, wrapped in fire, stands over me,
+      Make that he turn, yea, fly
+      Broken, wind-wasted, high
+  Down the vexed hollow of the Vaster Sea;
+      Or back to his own Thrace,
+      To harbour shelterless.
+  Where Night hath spared, he bringeth end by day.
+      Him, Him, O thou whose hand
+      Beareth the lightning brand,
+  O Father Zeus, now with thy thunder, slay and slay!
+
+    [_To_ APOLLO, ARTEMIS, _and_ DIONYSUS.
+
+      Where is thy gold-strung bow,
+      O Wolf-god, where the flow
+  Of living shafts unconquered, from all ills
+      Our helpers? Where the white
+      Spears of thy Sister's light,
+  Far-flashing as she walks the wolf-wild hills?
+      And thou, O Golden-crown,
+      Theban and named our own,
+  O Wine-gleam, Voice of Joy, for ever more
+    Ringed with thy Maenads white,
+    Bacchus, draw near and smite,
+  Smite with thy glad-eyed flame the God whom Gods abhor.
+
+    [_During the last lines_ OEDIPUS _has
+        come out from the Palace._
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Thou prayest: but my words if thou wilt hear
+  And bow thee to their judgement, strength is near
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 218-245]
+
+  For help, and a great lightening of ill.
+  Thereof I come to speak, a stranger still
+  To all this tale, a stranger to the deed:
+  (Else, save that I were clueless, little need
+  Had I to cast my net so wide and far:)
+  Howbeit, I, being now as all ye are,
+  A Theban, to all Thebans high and low
+  Do make proclaim: if any here doth know
+  By what man's hand died Laius, your King,
+  Labdacus' son, I charge him that he bring
+  To me his knowledge. Let him feel no fear
+  If on a townsman's body he must clear
+  Our guilt: the man shall suffer no great ill,
+  But pass from Thebes, and live where else he will.
+
+    [_No answer._
+
+  Is it some alien from an alien shore
+  Ye know to have done the deed, screen him no more!
+  Good guerdon waits you now and a King's love
+  Hereafter.
+             Hah! If still ye will not move
+  But, fearing for yourselves or some near friend,
+  Reject my charge, then hearken to what end
+  Ye drive me.--If in this place men there be
+  Who know and speak not, lo, I make decree
+  That, while in Thebes I bear the diadem,
+  No man shall greet, no man shall shelter them,
+  Nor give them water in their thirst, nor share
+  In sacrifice nor shrift nor dying prayer,
+  But thrust them from our doors, the thing they hide
+  Being this land's curse. Thus hath the God replied
+  This day to me from Delphi, and my sword
+  I draw thus for the dead and for God's word.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 246-273]
+
+    And lastly for the murderer, be it one
+  Hiding alone or more in unison,
+  I speak on him this curse: even as his soul
+  Is foul within him let his days be foul,
+  And life unfriended grind him till he die.
+  More: if he ever tread my hearth and I
+  Know it, be every curse upon my head
+  That I have spoke this day.
+                              All I have said
+  I charge ye strictly to fulfil and make
+  Perfect, for my sake, for Apollo's sake,
+  And this land's sake, deserted of her fruit
+  And cast out from her gods. Nay, were all mute
+  At Delphi, still 'twere strange to leave the thing
+  Unfollowed, when a true man and a King
+  Lay murdered. All should search. But I, as now
+  Our fortunes fall--his crown is on my brow,
+  His wife lies in my arms, and common fate,
+  Had but his issue been more fortunate,
+  Might well have joined our children--since this red
+  Chance hath so stamped its heel on Laius' head,
+  I am his champion left, and, as I would
+  For mine own father, choose for ill or good
+  This quest, to find the man who slew of yore
+  Labdacus' son, the son of Polydore,
+  Son of great Cadmus whom Agenor old
+  Begat, of Thebes first master. And, behold,
+  For them that aid me not, I pray no root
+  Nor seed in earth may bear them corn nor fruit,
+  No wife bear children, but this present curse
+  Cleave to them close and other woes yet worse.
+    Enough: ye other people of the land,
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 274-289]
+
+  Whose will is one with mine, may Justice stand
+  Your helper, and all gods for evermore.
+
+    [_The crowd disperses._
+
+LEADER.
+
+  O King, even while thy curse yet hovers o'er
+  My head, I answer thee. I slew him not,
+  Nor can I shew the slayer. But, God wot,
+  If Phoebus sends this charge, let Phoebus read
+  Its meaning and reveal who did the deed.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Aye, that were just, if of his grace he would
+  Reveal it. How shall man compel his God?
+
+LEADER.
+
+  Second to that, methinks, 'twould help us most ...
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Though it be third, speak! Nothing should be lost.
+
+LEADER.
+
+  To our High Seer on earth vision is given
+  Most like to that High Phoebus hath in heaven.
+  Ask of Tiresias: he could tell thee true.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  That also have I thought for. Aye, and two
+  Heralds have sent ere now. 'Twas Creon set
+  Me on.--I marvel that he comes not yet.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 290-301]
+
+LEADER.
+
+  Our other clues are weak, old signs and far.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  What signs? I needs must question all that are.
+
+LEADER.
+
+  Some travellers slew him, the tale used to be.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  The tale, yes: but the witness, where is he?
+
+LEADER.
+
+  The man hath heard thy curses. If he knows
+  The taste of fear, he will not long stay close.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  He fear my words, who never feared the deed?
+
+LEADER.
+
+  Well, there is one shall find him.--See, they lead
+  Hither our Lord Tiresias, in whose mind
+  All truth is born, alone of human kind.
+
+   [_Enter_ TIRESIAS _led by a young disciple. He is an old
+      blind man in a prophet's robe, dark, unkempt and
+      sinister in appearance._
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Tiresias, thou whose mind divineth well
+  All Truth, the spoken and the unspeakable,
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 302-321]
+
+  The things of heaven and them that walk the earth;
+  Our city ... thou canst see, for all thy dearth
+  Of outward eyes, what clouds are over her.
+  In which, O gracious Lord, no minister
+  Of help, no champion, can we find at all
+  Save thee. For Phoebus--thou hast heard withal
+  His message--to our envoy hath decreed
+  One only way of help in this great need:
+  To find and smite with death or banishing,
+  Him who smote Laius, our ancient King.
+  Oh, grudge us nothing! Question every cry
+  Of birds, and all roads else of prophecy
+  Thou knowest. Save our city: save thine own
+  Greatness: save me; save all that yet doth groan
+  Under the dead man's wrong! Lo, in thy hand
+  We lay us. And, methinks, no work so grand
+  Hath man yet compassed, as, with all he can
+  Of chance or power, to help his fellow man.
+
+TIRESIAS (_to himself_).
+
+  Ah me!
+  A fearful thing is knowledge, when to know
+  Helpeth no end. I knew this long ago,
+  But crushed it dead. Else had I never come.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  What means this? Comest thou so deep in gloom?
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  Let me go back! Thy work shall weigh on thee
+  The less, if thou consent, and mine on me.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 322-336]
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Prophet, this is not lawful; nay, nor kind
+  To Thebes, who feeds thee, thus to veil thy mind.
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  'Tis that I like not thy mind, nor the way
+  It goeth. Therefore, lest I also stray....
+
+    [_He moves to go off._ OEDIPUS _bars his road._
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Thou shalt not, knowing, turn and leave us! See,
+  We all implore thee, all, on bended knee.
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  All without light!--And never light shall shine
+  On this dark evil that is mine ... and thine.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  What wilt thou? Know and speak not? In my need
+  Be false to me, and let thy city bleed?
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  I will not wound myself nor thee. Why seek
+  To trap and question me? I will not speak.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Thou devil!
+
+    [_Movement of_ LEADER _to check him._
+
+               Nay; the wrath of any stone
+  Would rise at him. It lies with thee to have done
+  And speak. Is there no melting in thine eyes!
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 337-351]
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  Naught lies with me! With thee, with thee there lies,
+  I warrant, what thou ne'er hast seen nor guessed.
+
+OEDIPUS (_to_ LEADER, _who tries to calm him._)
+
+  How can I hear such talk?--he maketh jest
+  Of the land's woe--and keep mine anger dumb?
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  Howe'er I hold it back, 'twill come, 'twill come.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  The more shouldst thou declare it to thy King.
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  I speak no more. For thee, if passioning
+  Doth comfort thee, on, passion to thy fill!
+
+    [_He moves to go._
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  'Fore God, I am in wrath; and speak I will,
+  Nor stint what I see clear. 'Twas thou, 'twas thou,
+  Didst plan this murder; aye, and, save the blow,
+  Wrought it.--I know thou art blind; else I could swear
+  Thou, and thou only, art the murderer.
+
+TIRESIAS (_returning_).
+
+  So?--I command thee by thine own word's power,
+  To stand accurst, and never from this hour
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 352-363]
+
+  Speak word to me, nor yet to these who ring
+  Thy throne. Thou art thyself the unclean thing.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Thou front of brass, to fling out injury
+  So wild! Dost think to bate me and go free?
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  I am free. The strong truth is in this heart.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  What prompted thee? I swear 'twas not thine art.
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  'Twas thou. I spoke not, save for thy command.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Spoke what? What was it? Let me understand.
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  Dost tempt me? Were my words before not plain!
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Scarce thy full meaning. Speak the words again.
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  Thou seek'st this man of blood: Thyself art he.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  'Twill cost thee dear, twice to have stabbed at me!
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 364-377]
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  Shall I say more, to see thee rage again?
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Oh, take thy fill of speech: 'twill all be vain.
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  Thou livest with those near to thee in shame
+  Most deadly, seeing not thyself nor them.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Thou think'st 'twill help thee, thus to speak and speak?
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  Surely, until the strength of Truth be weak.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+ 'Tis weak to none save thee. Thou hast no part
+  In truth, thou blind man, blind eyes, ears and heart.
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  More blind, more sad thy words of scorn, which none
+  Who hears but shall cast back on thee: soon, soon.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Thou spawn of Night, not I nor any free
+  And seeing man would hurt a thing like thee.
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  God is enough.--'Tis not my doom to fall
+  By thee. He knows and shall accomplish all.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 378-402]
+
+OEDIPUS (_with a flash of discovery_).
+
+  Ha! Creon!--Is it his or thine, this plot?
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+ 'Tis thyself hates thee. Creon hates thee not.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  O wealth and majesty, O conquering skill
+  That carved life's rebel pathways to my will,
+  What is your heart but bitterness, if now
+  For this poor crown Thebes bound upon my brow,
+  A gift, a thing I sought not--for this crown
+  Creon the stern and true, Creon mine own
+  Comrade, comes creeping in the dark to ban
+  And slay me; sending first this magic-man
+  And schemer, this false beggar-priest, whose eye
+  Is bright for gold and blind for prophecy?
+  Speak, thou. When hast thou ever shown thee strong
+  For aid? The She-Wolf of the woven song
+  Came, and thy art could find no word, no breath,
+  To save thy people from her riddling death.
+  'Twas scarce a secret, that, for common men
+  To unravel. There was need of Seer-craft then.
+  And thou hadst none to show. No fowl, no flame,
+  No God revealed it thee. 'Twas I that came,
+  Rude Oedipus, unlearned in wizard's lore,
+  And read her secret, and she spoke no more.
+  Whom now thou thinkest to hunt out, and stand
+  Foremost in honour at King Creon's hand.
+  I think ye will be sorry, thou and he
+  That shares thy sin-hunt. Thou dost look to me
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 403-424]
+
+  An old man; else, I swear this day should bring
+  On thee the death thou plottest for thy King.
+
+LEADER.
+
+  Lord Oedipus, these be but words of wrath,
+  All thou hast spoke and all the Prophet hath.
+  Which skills not. We must join, for ill or well,
+  In search how best to obey God's oracle.
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  King though thou art, thou needs must bear the right
+  Of equal answer. Even in me is might
+  For thus much, seeing I live no thrall of thine,
+  But Lord Apollo's; neither do I sign
+  Where Creon bids me.
+                          I am blind, and thou
+  Hast mocked my blindness. Yea, I will speak now.
+  Eyes hast thou, but thy deeds thou canst not see
+  Nor where thou art, nor what things dwell with thee.
+  Whence art thou born? Thou know'st not; and unknown,
+  On quick and dead, on all that were thine own,
+  Thou hast wrought hate. For that across thy path
+  Rising, a mother's and a father's wrath,
+  Two-handed, shod with fire, from the haunts of men
+  Shall scourge thee, in thine eyes now light, but then
+  Darkness. Aye, shriek! What harbour of the sea,
+  What wild Kithairon shall not cry to thee
+  In answer, when thou hear'st what bridal song,
+  What wind among the torches, bore thy strong
+  Sail to its haven, not of peace but blood.
+  Yea, ill things multitude on multitude
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 425-438]
+
+  Thou seest not, which so soon shall lay thee low,
+  Low as thyself, low as thy children.--Go,
+  Heap scorn on Creon and my lips withal:
+  For this I tell thee, never was there fall
+  Of pride, nor shall be, like to thine this day.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  To brook such words from this thing? Out, I say!
+  Out to perdition! Aye, and quick, before ...
+
+  [_The_ LEADER _restrains him_.
+
+  Enough then!--Turn and get thee from my door.
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  I had not come hadst thou not called me here.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  I knew thee not so dark a fool. I swear
+ 'Twere long before I called thee, had I known.
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  Fool, say'st thou? Am I truly such an one?
+  The two who gave thee birth, they held me wise.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Birth?... Stop! Who were they? Speak thy prophecies.
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  This day shall give thee birth and blot thee out.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 439-455]
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Oh, riddles everywhere and words of doubt!
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  Aye. Thou wast their best reader long ago.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Laugh on. I swear thou still shalt find me so.
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  That makes thy pride and thy calamity.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  I have saved this land, and care not if I die.
+
+TIRESIAS.
+
+  Then I will go.--Give me thine arm, my child.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Aye, help him quick.--To see him there makes wild
+  My heart. Once gone, he will not vex me more.
+
+TIRESIAS (_turning again as he goes_).
+
+ I fear thee not; nor will I go before
+ That word be spoken which I came to speak.
+ How canst thou ever touch me?--Thou dost seek
+ With threats and loud proclaim the man whose hand
+ Slew Laius. Lo, I tell thee, he doth stand
+ Here. He is called a stranger, but these days
+ Shall prove him Theban true, nor shall he praise
+ His birthright. Blind, who once had seeing eyes,
+ Beggared, who once had riches, in strange guise,
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 456-478]
+
+  His staff groping before him, he shall crawl
+  O'er unknown earth, and voices round him call:
+  "Behold the brother-father of his own
+  Children, the seed, the sower and the sown,
+  Shame to his mother's blood, and to his sire
+  Son, murderer, incest-worker."
+                                  Cool thine ire
+  With thought of these, and if thou find that aught
+  Faileth, then hold my craft a thing of naught.
+
+    [_He goes out._ OEDIPUS _returns to the Palace._
+
+CHORUS.
+
+    [_They sing of the unknown murderer,_
+
+  What man, what man is he whom the voice of Delphi's cell
+  Hath named of the bloody hand, of the deed no tongue may tell?
+          Let him fly, fly, for his need
+          Hath found him; oh, where is the speed
+  That flew with the winds of old, the team of North-Wind's spell?
+    For feet there be that follow. Yea, thunder-shod
+    And girt with fire he cometh, the Child of God;
+  And with him are they that fail not, the Sin-Hounds risen from Hell.
+
+  For the mountain hath spoken, a voice hath flashed from amid the snows,
+  That the wrath of the world go seek for the man whom no man knows.
+          Is he fled to the wild forest,
+          To caves where the eagles nest?
+  O angry bull of the rocks, cast out from thy herd-fellows!
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 479-512]
+
+    Rage in his heart, and rage across his way,
+    He toileth ever to beat from his ears away
+  The word that floateth about him, living, where'er he goes.
+
+    [_And of the Prophet's strange accusation._
+
+  Yet strange, passing strange, the wise augur and his lore;
+    And my heart it cannot speak; I deny not nor assent,
+  But float, float in wonder at things after and before;
+    Did there lie between their houses some old wrath unspent,
+  That Corinth against Cadmus should do murder by the way?
+    No tale thereof they tell, nor no sign thereof they show;
+  Who dares to rise for vengeance and cast Oedipus away
+      For a dark, dark death long ago!
+
+  Ah, Zeus knows, and Apollo, what is dark to mortal eyes;
+    They are Gods. But a prophet, hath he vision more than mine?
+  Who hath seen? Who can answer? There be wise men and unwise.
+    I will wait, I will wait, for the proving of the sign.
+  But I list not nor hearken when they speak Oedipus ill.
+    We saw his face of yore, when the riddling singer passed;
+  And we knew him that he loved us, and we saw him great in skill.
+      Oh, my heart shall uphold him to the last!
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 513-531]
+
+_Enter_ CREON.
+
+CREON.
+
+  Good brother citizens, a frantic word
+  I hear is spoken by our chosen Lord
+  Oedipus against me, and here am come
+  Indignant. If he dreams, 'mid all this doom
+  That weighs upon us, he hath had from me
+  Or deed or lightest thought of injury, ...
+  'Fore God, I have no care to see the sun
+  Longer with such a groaning name. Not one
+  Wound is it, but a multitude, if now
+  All Thebes must hold me guilty--aye, and thou
+  And all who loved me--of a deed so foul.
+
+LEADER.
+
+  If words were spoken, it was scarce the soul
+  That spoke them: 'twas some sudden burst of wrath.
+
+CREON.
+
+  The charge was made, then, that Tiresias hath
+  Made answer false, and that I bribed him, I?
+
+LEADER.
+
+  It was--perchance for jest. I know not why.
+
+CREON.
+
+  His heart beat true, his eyes looked steadily
+  And fell not, laying such a charge on me?
+
+LEADER.
+
+  I know not. I have no eyes for the thing
+  My masters do.--But see, here comes the King.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 532-550]
+
+_Enter_ OEDIPUS _from the Palace._
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  How now, assassin? Walking at my gate
+  With eye undimmed, thou plotter demonstrate
+  Against this life, and robber of my crown?
+  God help thee! Me! What was it set me down
+  Thy butt? So dull a brain hast found in me
+  Aforetime, such a faint heart, not to see
+  Thy work betimes, or seeing not to smite?
+  Art thou not rash, this once! It needeth might
+  Of friends, it needeth gold, to make a throne
+  Thy quarry; and I fear me thou hast none.
+
+CREON.
+
+  One thing alone I ask thee. Let me speak
+  As thou hast spoken; then, with knowledge, wreak
+  Thy judgement. I accept it without fear.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  More skill hast thou to speak than I to hear
+  Thee. There is peril found in thee and hate.
+
+CREON.
+
+  That one thing let me answer ere too late.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  One thing be sure of, that thy plots are known.
+
+CREON.
+
+  The man who thinks that bitter pride alone
+  Can guide him, without thought--his mind is sick.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 551-562]
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Who thinks to slay his brother with a trick
+  And suffer not himself, his eyes are blind.
+
+CREON.
+
+  Thy words are more than just. But say what kind
+  Of wrong thou fanciest I have done thee. Speak.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Didst urge me, or didst urge me not, to seek
+  A counsel from that man of prophecies?
+
+CREON.
+
+  So judged I then, nor now judge otherwise.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+   [_Suddenly seeing a mode of attack._
+
+  How many years have passed since Laius ...
+
+    [_The words seem to choke him._
+
+CREON.
+
+  Speak on. I cannot understand thee thus.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+    [_With an effort._
+
+  Passed in that bloody tempest from men's sight?
+
+CREON.
+
+  Long years and old. I scarce can tell them right.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  At that time was this seer in Thebes, or how?
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 563-573]
+
+CREON.
+
+  He was; most wise and honoured, even as now.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  At that time did he ever speak my name?
+
+CREON.
+
+  No. To mine ear at least it never came.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Held you no search for those who slew your King?
+
+CREON.
+
+  For sure we did, but found not anything.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  How came the all-knowing seer to leave it so?
+
+CREON.
+
+  Ask him! I speak not where I cannot know.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  One thing thou canst, with knowledge full, I wot.
+
+CREON.
+
+  Speak it. If true, I will conceal it not.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  This: that until he talked with thee, the seer
+  Ne'er spoke of me as Laius' murderer.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 574-589]
+
+CREON.
+
+  I know not if he hath so spoken now.
+  I heard him not.--But let me ask and thou
+  Answer me true, as I have answered thee.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Ask, ask! Thou shalt no murder find in me.
+
+CREON.
+
+  My sister is thy wife this many a day?
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  That charge it is not in me to gainsay.
+
+CREON.
+
+  Thou reignest, giving equal reign to her?
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Always to her desire I minister.
+
+CREON.
+
+  Were we not all as one, she thou and I?
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Yes, thou false friend! There lies thy treachery.
+
+CREON.
+
+  Not so! Nay, do but follow me and scan
+  Thine own charge close. Think'st thou that any man
+  Would rather rule and be afraid than rule
+  And sleep untroubled? Nay, where lives the fool--
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 590-613]
+
+  I know them not nor am I one of them--
+  Who careth more to bear a monarch's name
+  Than do a monarch's deeds? As now I stand
+  All my desire I compass at thy hand.
+  Were I the King, full half my deeds were done
+  To obey the will of others, not mine own.
+  Were that as sweet, when all the tale were told,
+  As this calm griefless princedom that I hold
+  And silent power? Am I so blind of brain
+  That ease with glory tires me, and I fain
+  Must change them? All men now give me God-speed,
+  All smile to greet me. If a man hath need
+  Of thee, 'tis me he calleth to the gate,
+  As knowing that on my word hangs the fate
+  Of half he craves. Is life like mine a thing
+  To cast aside and plot to be a King?
+  Doth a sane man turn villain in an hour?
+    For me, I never lusted thus for power
+  Nor bore with any man who turned such lust
+  To doing.--But enough. I claim but just
+  Question. Go first to Pytho; find if well
+  And true I did report God's oracle.
+  Next, seek in Thebes for any plots entwined
+  Between this seer and me; which if ye find,
+  Then seize and strike me dead. Myself that day
+  Will sit with thee as judge and bid thee Slay!
+  But damn me not on one man's guess.--'Tis all
+  Unjust: to call a traitor true, to call
+  A true man traitor with no cause nor end!
+  And this I tell thee. He who plucks a friend
+  Out from his heart hath lost a treasured thing
+  Dear as his own dear life.
+                               But Time shall bring
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 614-626]
+
+  Truth back. 'Tis Time alone can make men know
+  What hearts are true; the false one day can show.
+
+LEADER.
+
+  To one that fears to fall his words are wise,
+  O King; in thought the swift win not the prize.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  When he is swift who steals against my reign
+  With plots, then swift am I to plot again.
+  Wait patient, and his work shall have prevailed
+  Before I move, and mine for ever failed.
+
+CREON.
+
+  How then? To banish me is thy intent?
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Death is the doom I choose, not banishment.
+
+CREON.
+
+  Wilt never soften, never trust thy friend?
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  First I would see how traitors meet their end.
+
+CREON.
+
+  I see thou wilt not think.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+                            I think to save
+  My life.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 627-633]
+
+CREON.
+
+            Think, too, of mine.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+                            Thine, thou born knave!
+
+CREON.
+
+  Yes.... What, if thou art blind in everything?
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  The King must be obeyed.
+
+CREON.
+
+                             Not if the King
+  Does evil.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+              To your King! Ho, Thebes, mine own!
+
+CREON.
+
+  Thebes is my country, not the King's alone.
+
+    [OEDIPUS _has drawn his sword; the Chorus
+       show signs of breaking into two parties to
+       fight for_ OEDIPUS _or for_ CREON, _when
+       the door opens and_ JOCASTA _appears on the
+       steps._
+
+LEADER.
+
+   Stay, Princes, stay! See, on the Castle stair
+   The Queen Jocasta standeth. Show to her
+   Your strife. She will assuage it as is well.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 634-648]
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  Vain men, what would ye with this angry swell
+  Of words heart-blinded? Is there in your eyes
+  No pity, thus, when all our city lies
+  Bleeding, to ply your privy hates?... Alack,
+  My lord, come in!--Thou, Creon, get thee back
+  To thine own house. And stir not to such stress
+  Of peril griefs that are but nothingness.
+
+CREON.
+
+  Sister, it is the pleasure of thy lord,
+  Our King, to do me deadly wrong. His word
+  Is passed on me: 'tis banishment or death.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  I found him ... I deny not what he saith,
+  My Queen ... with craft and malice practising
+  Against my life.
+
+CREON.
+
+                   Ye Gods, if such a thing
+  Hath once been in my thoughts, may I no more
+  See any health on earth, but, festered o'er
+  With curses, die!--Have done. There is mine oath.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  In God's name, Oedipus, believe him, both
+  For my sake, and for these whose hearts are all
+  Thine own, and for my brother's oath withal.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 649-664]
+
+LEADER. [_Strophe._
+
+  Yield; consent; think! My Lord, I conjure thee!
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+           What would ye have me do?
+
+LEADER.
+
+  Reject not one who never failed his troth
+  Of old and now is strong in his great oath.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Dost know what this prayer means?
+
+LEADER.
+
+                                   Yea, verily!
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+           Say then the meaning true.
+
+LEADER.
+
+      I would not have thee cast to infamy
+           Of guilt, where none is proved,
+  One who hath sworn and whom thou once hast loved.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+ 'Tis that ye seek? For me, then ... understand
+  Well ... ye seek death or exile from the land.
+
+LEADER.
+
+  No, by the God of Gods, the all-seeing Sun!
+    May he desert me here, and every friend
+  With him, to death and utterest malison,
+    If e'er my heart could dream of such an end!
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 665-680]
+
+          But it bleedeth, it bleedeth sore,
+            In a land half slain,
+          If we join to the griefs of yore
+            Griefs of you twain.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Oh, let him go, though it be utterly
+  My death, or flight from Thebes in beggary.
+  'Tis thy sad lips, not his, that make me know
+  Pity. Him I shall hate, where'er he go.
+
+CREON.
+
+  I see thy mercy moving full of hate
+  And slow; thy wrath came swift and desperate.
+  Methinks, of all the pain that such a heart
+  Spreadeth, itself doth bear the bitterest part.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Oh, leave me and begone!
+
+CREON.
+
+                          I go, wronged sore
+  By thee. These friends will trust me as before.
+
+    [CREON _goes._ OEDIPUS _stands apart lost in
+       trouble of mind._
+
+LEADER.   [_Antistrophe._
+
+  Queen, wilt thou lead him to his house again?
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+              I will, when I have heard.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 681-696]
+
+LEADER.
+
+  There fell some word, some blind imagining
+  Between them. Things known foolish yet can sting.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  From both the twain it rose?
+
+LEADER.
+
+                                 From both the twain.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+           Aye, and what was the word?
+
+LEADER.
+
+    Surely there is enough of evil stirred,
+          And Thebes heaves on the swell
+  Of storm.--Oh, leave this lying where it fell.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  So be it, thou wise counsellor! Make slight
+  My wrong, and blunt my purpose ere it smite.
+
+LEADER.
+
+  O King, not once I have answered. Visibly
+    Mad were I, lost to all wise usages,
+  To seek to cast thee from us. 'Twas from thee
+    We saw of old blue sky and summer seas,
+      When Thebes in the storm and rain
+        Reeled, like to die.
+      Oh, if thou canst, again
+        Blue sky, blue sky...!
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 697-713]
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  Husband, in God's name, say what hath ensued
+  Of ill, that thou shouldst seek so dire a feud.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  I will, wife. I have more regard for thee
+  Than these.--Thy brother plots to murder me.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  Speak on. Make all thy charge. Only be clear.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  He says that I am Laius' murderer.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  Says it himself? Says he hath witnesses?
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Nay, of himself he ventures nothing. 'Tis
+  This priest, this hellish seer, makes all the tale.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  The seer?--Then tear thy terrors like a veil
+  And take free breath. A seer? No human thing
+  Born on the earth hath power for conjuring
+  Truth from the dark of God.
+                               Come, I will tell
+  An old tale. There came once an oracle
+  To Laius: I say not from the God
+  Himself, but from the priests and seers who trod
+  His sanctuary: if ever son were bred
+  From him and me, by that son's hand, it said,
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 714-732]
+
+  Laius must die. And he, the tale yet stays
+  Among us, at the crossing of three ways
+  Was slain by robbers, strangers. And my son--
+  God's mercy!--scarcely the third day was gone
+  When Laius took, and by another's hand
+  Out on the desert mountain, where the land
+  Is rock, cast him to die. Through both his feet
+  A blade of iron they drove. Thus did we cheat
+  Apollo of his will. My child could slay
+  No father, and the King could cast away
+  The fear that dogged him, by his child to die
+  Murdered.--Behold the fruits of prophecy!
+  Which heed not thou! God needs not that a seer
+  Help him, when he would make his dark things clear.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Woman, what turmoil hath thy story wrought
+  Within me! What up-stirring of old thought!
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  What thought? It turns thee like a frightened thing.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+ 'Twas at the crossing of three ways this King
+  Was murdered? So I heard or so I thought.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  That was the tale. It is not yet forgot.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  The crossing of three ways! And in what land?
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 733-746]
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  Phokis 'tis called. A road on either hand
+  From Delphi comes and Daulia, in a glen.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+How many years and months have passed since then?
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+ 'Twas but a little time before proclaim
+  Was made of thee for king, the tidings came.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  My God, what hast thou willed to do with me?
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  Oedipus, speak! What is it troubles thee?
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Ask me not yet. But say, what build, what height
+  Had Laius? Rode he full of youth and might?
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  Tall, with the white new gleaming on his brow
+  He walked. In shape just such a man as thou.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  God help me! I much fear that I have wrought
+  A curse on mine own head, and knew it not.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  How sayst thou? O my King, I look on thee
+  And tremble.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 747-760]
+
+OEDIPUS (_to himself_).
+
+            Horror, if the blind can see!
+  Answer but one thing and 'twill all be clear.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  Speak. I will answer though I shake with fear.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Went he with scant array, or a great band
+  Of armed followers, like a lord of land?
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  Four men were with him, one a herald; one
+  Chariot there was, where Laius rode alone.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Aye me! Tis clear now.
+                         Woman, who could bring
+  To Thebes the story of that manslaying?
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  A house-thrall, the one man they failed to slay.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  The one man...? Is he in the house to-day?
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  Indeed no. When he came that day, and found
+  Thee on the throne where once sat Laius crowned,
+  He took my hand and prayed me earnestly
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 761-779]
+
+  To send him to the mountain heights, to be
+  A herdsman, far from any sight or call
+  Of Thebes. And there I sent him. 'Twas a thrall
+  Good-hearted, worthy a far greater boon.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Canst find him? I would see this herd, and soon.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+ 'Tis easy. But what wouldst thou with the herd?
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  I fear mine own voice, lest it spoke a word
+  Too much; whereof this man must tell me true.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  The man shall come.--My lord, methinks I too
+  Should know what fear doth work thee this despite.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Thou shalt. When I am tossed to such an height
+  Of dark foreboding, woman, when my mind
+  Faceth such straits as these, where should I find
+  A mightier love than thine?
+                               My father--thus
+  I tell thee the whole tale--was Polybus,
+  In Corinth King; my mother Merope
+  Of Dorian line. And I was held to be
+  The proudest in Corinthia, till one day
+  A thing befell: strange was it, but no way
+  Meet for such wonder and such rage as mine.
+  A feast it was, and some one flushed with wine
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 780-807]
+
+  Cried out at me that I was no true son
+  Of Polybus. Oh, I was wroth! That one
+  Day I kept silence, but the morrow morn
+  I sought my parents, told that tale of scorn
+  And claimed the truth; and they rose in their pride
+  And smote the mocker.... Aye, they satisfied
+  All my desire; yet still the cavil gnawed
+  My heart, and still the story crept abroad.
+    At last I rose--my father knew not, nor
+  My mother--and went forth to Pytho's floor
+  To ask. And God in that for which I came
+  Rejected me, but round me, like a flame,
+  His voice flashed other answers, things of woe,
+  Terror, and desolation. I must know
+  My mother's body and beget thereon
+  A race no mortal eye durst look upon,
+  And spill in murder mine own father's blood.
+    I heard, and, hearing, straight from where I stood,
+  No landmark but the stars to light my way,
+  Fled, fled from the dark south where Corinth lay,
+  To lands far off, where never I might see
+  My doom of scorn fulfilled. On bitterly
+  I strode, and reached the region where, so saith
+  Thy tale, that King of Thebes was struck to death....
+  Wife, I will tell thee true. As one in daze
+  I walked, till, at the crossing of three ways,
+  A herald, like thy tale, and o'er his head
+  A man behind strong horses charioted
+  Met me. And both would turn me from the path,
+  He and a thrall in front. And I in wrath
+  Smote him that pushed me--'twas a groom who led
+  The horses. Not a word the master said,
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 808-828]
+
+  But watched, and as I passed him on the road
+  Down on my head his iron-branched goad
+  Stabbed. But, by heaven, he rued it! In a flash
+  I swung my staff and saw the old man crash
+  Back from his car in blood.... Then all of them
+  I slew.
+           Oh, if that man's unspoken name
+  Had aught of Laius in him, in God's eye
+  What man doth move more miserable than I,
+  More dogged by the hate of heaven! No man, kin
+  Nor stranger, any more may take me in;
+  No man may greet me with a word, but all
+  Cast me from out their houses. And withal
+  'Twas mine own self that laid upon my life
+  These curses.--And I hold the dead man's wife
+  In these polluting arms that spilt his soul....
+  Am I a thing born evil? Am I foul
+  In every vein? Thebes now doth banish me,
+  And never in this exile must I see
+  Mine ancient folk of Corinth, never tread
+  The land that bore me; else my mother's bed
+  Shall be defiled, and Polybus, my good
+  Father, who loved me well, be rolled in blood.
+  If one should dream that such a world began
+  In some slow devil's heart, that hated man,
+  Who should deny him?--God, as thou art clean,
+  Suffer not this, oh, suffer not this sin
+  To be, that e'er I look on such a day!
+  Out of all vision of mankind away
+  To darkness let me fall ere such a fate
+  Touch me, so unclean and so desolate!
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 829-850]
+
+LEADER.
+
+  I tremble too, O King; but till thou hear
+  From him who saw, oh, let hope conquer fear.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  One shred of hope I still have, and therefore
+  Will wait the herdsman's coming. 'Tis no more.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  He shall come. But what further dost thou seek?
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  This. If we mark him close and find him speak
+  As thou hast, then I am lifted from my dread.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  What mean'st thou? Was there something that I said...?
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Thou said'st he spoke of robbers, a great band,
+  That slaughtered Laius' men. If still he stand
+  To the same tale, the guilt comes not my way.
+  One cannot be a band. But if he say
+  One lonely loin-girt man, then visibly
+  This is God's finger pointing toward me.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  Be sure of this. He told the story so
+  When first he came. All they that heard him know,
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 850-870]
+
+  Not only I. He cannot change again
+  Now. And if change he should, O Lord of men,
+  No change of his can make the prophecy
+  Of Laius' death fall true. He was to die
+  Slain by my son. So Loxias spake.... My son!
+  He slew no man, that poor deserted one
+  That died.... And I will no more turn mine eyes
+  This way nor that for all their prophecies.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Woman, thou counsellest well. Yet let it not
+  Escape thee. Send and have the herdsman brought.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  That will I.--Come. Thou knowest I ne'er would do
+  Nor think of aught, save thou wouldst have it so.
+
+    [JOCASTA _and_ OEDIPUS _go together into the Palace._
+
+CHORUS.
+
+    [_They pray to be free from such great sins as
+     they have just heard spoken of._
+
+    [_Strophe._
+
+  Toward God's great mysteries, oh, let me move
+      Unstained till I die
+  In speech or doing; for the Laws thereof
+  Are holy, walkers upon ways above,
+      Born in the far blue sky;
+
+  Their father is Olympus uncreate;
+      No man hath made nor told
+  Their being; neither shall Oblivion set
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 870-893]
+
+  Sleep on their eyes, for in them lives a great
+    Spirit and grows not old. [_Antistrophe._
+
+   [_They wonder if these sins be all due to pride
+      and if_ CREON _has guilty ambitions;_
+
+  'Tis Pride that breeds the tyrant; drunken deep
+      With perilous things is she,
+  Which bring not peace: up, reeling, steep on steep
+  She climbs, till lo, the rock-edge, and the leap
+      To that which needs must be,
+
+  The land where the strong foot is no more strong!
+      Yet is there surely Pride
+  That saves a city; God preserve it long!
+  I judge not. Only through all maze of wrong
+      Be God, not man, my guide. [_Strophe._
+
+    [_Or if_ TIRESIAS _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._
+
+  Is there a priest who moves amid the altars
+      Ruthless in deed and word,
+  Fears not the presence of his god, nor falters
+      Lest Right at last be heard?
+  If such there be, oh, let some doom be given
+      Meet for his ill-starred pride,
+  Who will not gain his gain where Justice is,
+  Who will not hold his lips from blasphemies,
+  Who hurls rash hands amid the things of heaven
+      From man's touch sanctified.
+
+    In a world where such things be,
+      What spirit hath shield or lance
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 893-916]
+
+        To ward him secretly
+          From the arrow that slays askance?
+        If honour to such things be,
+          Why should I dance my dance?
+
+    [_Antistrophe._
+
+  I go no more with prayers and adorations
+      To Earth's deep Heart of Stone,
+  Nor yet the Abantes' floor, nor where the nations
+      Kneel at Olympia's throne,
+  Till all this dark be lightened, for the finger
+      Of man to touch and know.
+  O Thou that rulest--if men rightly call
+  Thy name on earth--O Zeus, thou Lord of all
+  And Strength undying, let not these things linger
+      Unknown, tossed to and fro.
+
+            For faint is the oracle,
+              And they thrust it aside, away;
+            And no more visible
+              Apollo to save or slay;
+            And the things of God, they fail
+              As mist on the wind away.
+
+    [JOCASTA _comes out from the Palace followed
+       by handmaids bearing incense and flowers._
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  Lords of the land, the ways my thought hath trod
+  Lead me in worship to these shrines of God
+  With flowers and incense flame. So dire a storm
+  Doth shake the King, sin, dread and every form
+  Of grief the world knows. 'Tis the wise man's way
+  To judge the morrow by the yester day;
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 917-933]
+
+  Which he doth never, but gives eye and ear
+  To all who speak, will they but speak of fear.
+    And seeing no word of mine hath power to heal
+  His torment, therefore forth to thee I steal,
+  O Slayer of the Wolf, O Lord of Light,
+  Apollo: thou art near us, and of right
+  Dost hold us thine: to thee in prayer I fall.
+
+    [_She kneels at the altar of Apollo Lukeios._
+
+  Oh, show us still some path that is not all
+  Unclean; for now our captain's eyes are dim
+  With dread, and the whole ship must follow him.
+
+    [_While she prays a_ STRANGER _has entered and
+        begins to accost the Chorus._
+
+STRANGER.
+
+  Good masters, is there one of you could bring
+  My steps to the house of Oedipus, your King?
+  Or, better, to himself if that may be?
+
+LEADER.
+
+  This is the house and he within; and she
+  Thou seest, the mother of his royal seed.
+
+    [JOCASTA _rises, anxious, from her prayer._
+
+STRANGER.
+
+  Being wife to such a man, happy indeed
+  And ringed with happy faces may she live!
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  To one so fair of speech may the Gods give
+  Like blessing, courteous stranger; 'tis thy due.
+  But say what leads thee hither. Can we do
+  Thy wish in aught, or hast thou news to bring?
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 934-947]
+
+STRANGER.
+
+  Good news, O Queen, for thee and for the King.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  What is it? And from what prince comest thou?
+
+STRANGER.
+
+  I come from Corinth.--And my tale, I trow,
+  Will give thee joy, yet haply also pain.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  What news can have that twofold power? Be plain.
+
+STRANGER.
+
+ 'Tis spoke in Corinth that the gathering
+  Of folk will make thy lord our chosen King.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  How? Is old Polybus in power no more?
+
+STRANGER.
+
+  Death has a greater power. His reign is o'er.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  What say'st thou? Dead?... Oedipus' father dead?
+
+STRANGER.
+
+  If I speak false, let me die in his stead.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  Ho, maiden! To our master! Hie thee fast
+  And tell this tale.
+
+    [_The maiden goes._
+
+                    Where stand ye at the last
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 948-961]
+
+  Ye oracles of God? For many a year
+  Oedipus fled before that man, in fear
+  To slay him. And behold we find him thus
+  Slain by a chance death, not by Oedipus.
+
+    [OEDIPUS _comes out from the Palace._
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  O wife, O face I love to look upon,
+  Why call'st thou me from where I sat alone?
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  Give ear, and ponder from what this man tells
+  How end these proud priests and their oracles.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Whence comes he? And what word hath he for us?
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  From Corinth; bearing news that Polybus
+  Thy father is no more. He has found his death.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  How?--Stranger, speak thyself. This that she saith ...
+
+STRANGER.
+
+  Is sure. If that is the first news ye crave,
+  I tell thee, Polybus lieth in his grave.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Not murdered?... How? Some passing of disease?
+
+STRANGER.
+
+  A slight thing turns an old life to its peace.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 962-978]
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Poor father!... 'Tis by sickness he is dead?
+
+STRANGER.
+
+  The growing years lay heavy on his head.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  O wife, why then should man fear any more
+  The voice of Pytho's dome, or cower before
+  These birds that shriek above us? They foretold
+  Me for my father's murderer; and behold,
+  He lies in Corinth dead, and here am I
+  And never touched the sword.... Or did he die
+  In grief for me who left him? In that way
+  I may have wrought his death.... But come what may,
+  He sleepeth in his grave and with him all
+  This deadly seercraft, of no worth at all.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  Dear Lord, long since did I not show thee clear...?
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Indeed, yes. I was warped by mine own fear.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  Now thou wilt cast it from thee, and forget.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Forget my mother?... It is not over yet.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  What should man do with fear, who hath but Chance
+  Above him, and no sight nor governance
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 979-993]
+
+  Of things to be? To live as life may run,
+  No fear, no fret, were wisest 'neath the sun.
+  And thou, fear not thy mother. Prophets deem
+  A deed wrought that is wrought but in a dream.
+  And he to whom these things are nothing, best
+  Will bear his burden.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+                        All thou counsellest
+  Were good, save that my mother liveth still.
+  And, though thy words be wise, for good or ill
+  Her I still fear.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+                    Think of thy father's tomb!
+  Like light across our darkness it hath come.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Great light; but while she lives I fly from her.
+
+STRANGER.
+
+  What woman, Prince, doth fill thee so with fear?
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Merope, friend, who dwelt with Polybus.
+
+STRANGER.
+
+  What in Queen Merope should fright thee thus?
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  A voice of God, stranger, of dire import.
+
+STRANGER.
+
+  Meet for mine ears? Or of some secret sort?
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 994-1009]
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Nay, thou must hear, and Corinth. Long ago
+  Apollo spake a doom, that I should know
+  My mother's flesh, and with mine own hand spill
+  My father's blood.--'Tis that, and not my will,
+  Hath kept me always far from Corinth. So;
+  Life hath dealt kindly with me, yet men know
+  On earth no comfort like a mother's face.
+
+STRANGER.
+
+ 'Tis that, hath kept thee exiled in this place?
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  That, and the fear too of my father's blood.
+
+STRANGER.
+
+  Then, surely, Lord ... I came but for thy good ...
+ 'Twere well if from that fear I set thee free.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Ah, couldst thou! There were rich reward for thee.
+
+STRANGER.
+
+  To say truth, I had hoped to lead thee home
+  Now, and myself to get some good therefrom.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Nay; where my parents are I will not go.
+
+STRANGER.
+
+  My son, 'tis very clear thou dost not know
+  What road thou goest.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+              How? In God's name, say!
+  How clear?
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1010-1019]
+
+STRANGER.
+
+              'Tis this, keeps thee so long away
+  From Corinth?
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+                  'Tis the fear lest that word break
+  One day upon me true.
+
+STRANGER.
+
+                          Fear lest thou take
+  Defilement from the two that gave thee birth?
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+ 'Tis that, old man, 'tis that doth fill the earth
+  With terror.
+
+STRANGER.
+
+                Then thy terror all hath been
+  For nothing.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+                How? Were not your King and Queen
+  My parents?
+
+STRANGER.
+
+              Polybus was naught to thee
+  In blood.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+            How? He, my father!
+
+STRANGER.
+
+                                That was he
+  As much as I, but no more.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+                              Thou art naught;
+ 'Twas he begot me.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1020-1028]
+
+STRANGER.
+
+                         'Twas not I begot
+  Oedipus, neither was it he.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+                              What wild
+  Fancy, then, made him name me for his child?
+
+STRANGER.
+
+  Thou wast his child--by gift. Long years ago
+  Mine own hand brought thee to him.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+                                     Coming so,
+  From a strange hand, he gave me that great love?
+
+STRANGER.
+
+  He had no child, and the desire thereof
+  Held him.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+            And thou didst find somewhere--or buy--
+  A child for him?
+
+STRANGER.
+
+                   I found it in a high
+  Glen of Kithairon.
+
+    [_Movement of_ JOCASTA, _who stands riveted
+        with dread, unnoticed by the others._
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+                     Yonder? To what end
+  Wast travelling in these parts?
+
+STRANGER.
+
+                                  I came to tend
+  The flocks here on the mountain.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1029-1037]
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+                                     Thou wast one
+  That wandered, tending sheep for hire?
+
+STRANGER.
+
+                                         My son,
+  That day I was the saviour of a King.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  How saviour? Was I in some suffering
+  Or peril?
+
+STRANGER.
+
+            Thine own feet a tale could speak.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Ah me! What ancient pain stirs half awake
+  Within me!
+
+STRANGER.
+
+              'Twas a spike through both thy feet.
+  I set thee free.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+                    A strange scorn that, to greet
+  A babe new on the earth!
+
+STRANGER.
+
+                            From that they fain
+  Must call thee Oedipus, "_Who-walks-in-pain_."
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Who called me so--father or mother? Oh,
+  In God's name, speak!
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1038-1046]
+
+STRANGER.
+
+                     I know not. He should know
+  Who brought thee.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+                    So: I was not found by thee.
+  Thou hadst me from another?
+
+STRANGER.
+
+                              Aye; to me
+  One of the shepherds gave the babe, to bear
+  Far off.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+      What shepherd? Know'st thou not? Declare
+  All that thou knowest.
+
+STRANGER.
+
+                         By my memory, then,
+  I think they called him one of Laius' men.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  That Laius who was king in Thebes of old?
+
+STRANGER.
+
+  The same. My man did herding in his fold.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Is he yet living? Can I see his face?
+
+STRANGER.
+
+    [_Turning to the Chorus._
+
+  Ye will know that, being natives to the place.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1047-1062]
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  How?--Is there one of you within my pale
+  Standing, that knows the shepherd of his tale?
+  Ye have seen him on the hills? Or in this town?
+  Speak! For the hour is come that all be known.
+
+LEADER.
+
+  I think 'twill be the Peasant Man, the same,
+  Thou hast sought long time to see.--His place and name
+  Our mistress, if she will, can tell most clear.
+
+    [JOCASTA _remains as if she heard nothing._
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Thou hear'st him, wife. The herd whose presence here
+  We craved for, is it he this man would say?
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  He saith ... What of it? Ask not; only pray
+  Not to remember.... Tales are vainly told.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+ 'Tis mine own birth. How can I, when I hold
+  Such clues as these, refrain from knowing all?
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  For God's love, no! Not if thou car'st at all
+  For thine own life.... My anguish is enough.
+
+OEDIPUS (_bitterly_).
+
+  Fear not!... Though I be thrice of slavish stuff
+  From my third grand-dam down, it shames not thee.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1063-1075]
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  Ask no more. I beseech thee.... Promise me!
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  To leave the Truth half-found? 'Tis not my mood.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+  I understand; and tell thee what is good.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Thy good doth weary me.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+                          O child of woe,
+  I pray God, I pray God, thou never know!
+
+OEDIPUS (_turning from her_).
+
+  Go, fetch the herdsman straight!--This Queen of mine
+  May walk alone to boast her royal line.
+
+JOCASTA.
+
+    [_She twice draws in her breath through her
+        teeth, as if in some sharp pain._
+
+  Unhappy one, goodbye! Goodbye before
+  I go: this once, and never never more!
+
+    [_She comes towards him as though to take a last
+        farewell, then stops suddenly, turns, and
+        rushes into the Palace._
+
+LEADER.
+
+  King, what was that? She passed like one who flies
+  In very anguish. Dread is o'er mine eyes
+  Lest from this silence break some storm of wrong.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1076-1097]
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Break what break will! My mind abideth strong
+  To know the roots, how low soe'er they be,
+  Which grew to Oedipus. This woman, she
+  Is proud, methinks, and fears my birth and name
+  Will mar her nobleness. But I, no shame
+  Can ever touch me. I am Fortune's child,
+  Not man's; her mother face hath ever smiled
+  Above me, and my brethren of the sky,
+  The changing Moons, have changed me low and high.
+  There is my lineage true, which none shall wrest
+  From me; who then am I to fear this quest?
+
+CHORUS.
+
+    [_They sing_ OEDIPUS _as the foundling of their
+        own Theban mountain, Kithairon, and
+        doubtless of divine birth._
+
+    [_Strophe._
+
+  If I, O Kithairon, some vision can borrow
+    From seercraft, if still there is wit in the old,
+  Long, long, through the deep-orbed Moon of the morrow--
+    So hear me, Olympus!--thy tale shall be told.
+  O mountain of Thebes, a new Theban shall praise thee,
+    One born of thy bosom, one nursed at thy springs;
+  And the old men shall dance to thy glory, and raise thee
+    To worship, O bearer of joy to my kings.
+            And thou, we pray,
+  Look down in peace, O Apollo; I-e, I-e!
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1098-1120]
+
+    [_Antistrophe._
+
+  What Oread mother, unaging, unweeping,
+    Did bear thee, O Babe, to the Crag-walker Pan;
+  Or perchance to Apollo? He loveth the leaping
+    Of herds on the rock-ways unhaunted of man.
+  Or was it the lord of Cyllene, who found thee,
+    Or glad Dionysus, whose home is the height,
+  Who knew thee his own on the mountain, as round thee
+    The White Brides of Helicon laughed for delight?
+                  'Tis there, 'tis there,
+  The joy most liveth of all his dance and prayer.
+
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  If I may judge, ye Elders, who have ne'er
+  Seen him, methinks I see the shepherd there
+  Whom we have sought so long. His weight of years
+  Fits well with our Corinthian messenger's;
+  And, more, I know the men who guide his way,
+  Bondsmen of mine own house.
+                              Thou, friend, wilt say
+  Most surely, who hast known the man of old.
+
+LEADER.
+
+  I know him well. A shepherd of the fold
+  Of Laius, one he trusted more than all.
+
+    [_The_ SHEPHERD _comes in, led by two thralls.
+        He is an old man and seems terrified._
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Thou first, our guest from Corinth: say withal
+  Is this the man?
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1120-1130]
+
+STRANGER.
+
+           This is the man, O King.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+    [_Addressing the_ SHEPHERD.
+
+  Old man! Look up, and answer everything
+  I ask thee.--Thou wast Laius' man of old?
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+  Born in his house I was, not bought with gold.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  What kind of work, what way of life, was thine?
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+  Most of my days I tended sheep or kine.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  What was thy camping ground at midsummer?
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+  Sometimes Kithairon, sometimes mountains near.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Saw'st ever there this man thou seest now?
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+  There, Lord? What doing?--What man meanest thou?
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+    [_Pointing to the_ STRANGER.
+
+  Look! Hath he ever crossed thy path before?
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1131-1146]
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+  I call him not to mind, I must think more.
+
+STRANGER.
+
+  Small wonder that, O King! But I will throw
+  Light on his memories.--Right well I know
+  He knows the time when, all Kithairon through,
+  I with one wandering herd and he with two,
+  Three times we neighboured one another, clear
+  From spring to autumn stars, a good half-year.
+  At winter's fall we parted; he drove down
+  To his master's fold, and I back to mine own....
+  Dost call it back, friend? Was it as I say?
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+  It was. It was.... 'Tis all so far away.
+
+STRANGER.
+
+  Say then: thou gavest me once, there in the wild,
+  A babe to rear far off as mine own child?
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+    [_His terror returning._
+
+  What does this mean? To what end askest thou?
+
+STRANGER.
+
+    [_Pointing to_ OEDIPUS.
+
+  That babe has grown, friend. 'Tis our master now.
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+    [_He slowly understands, then stands for a moment horror-struck._
+
+  No, in the name of death!... Fool, hold thy peace.
+
+    [_He lifts his staff at the_ STRANGER.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1147-1157]
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Ha, greybeard! Wouldst thou strike him?--'Tis not his
+  Offences, 'tis thine own we need to mend.
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+  Most gentle master, how do I offend?
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Whence came that babe whereof he questioneth?
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+  He doth not know ... 'tis folly ... what he saith.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Thou wilt not speak for love; but pain maybe ...
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+  I am very old. Ye would not torture me.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Back with his arms, ye bondmen! Hold him so.
+
+    [_The thralls drag back the_ SHEPHERD'S
+       _arms, ready for torture._
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+  Woe's me! What have I done?... What wouldst thou know?
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Didst give this man the child, as he doth say?
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+  I did.... Would God that I had died this day!
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1158-1167]
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+ 'Fore heaven, thou shalt yet, if thou speak not true.
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+ 'Tis more than death and darker, if I do.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  This dog, it seems, will keep us waiting.
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+                                       Nay,
+  I said at first I gave it.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+                               In what way
+  Came it to thee? Was it thine own child, or
+  Another's?
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+             Nay, it never crossed my door:
+  Another's.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+             Whose? What man, what house, of these
+  About thee?
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+              In the name of God who sees,
+  Ask me no more!
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+                  If once I ask again,
+  Thou diest.
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+              From the folk of Laius, then,
+  It came.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1168-1176]
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+          A slave, or born of Laius' blood?
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+  There comes the word I dread to speak, O God!
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  And I to hear: yet heard it needs must be.
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+  Know then, they said 'twas Laius' child. But she
+  Within, thy wife, best knows its fathering.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+ 'Twas she that gave it?
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+                          It was she, O King.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  And bade you ... what?
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+                         Destroy it.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+                            Her own child?...
+  Cruel!
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+          Dark words of God had made her wild.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  What words?
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1176-1192]
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+                 The babe must slay his father; so
+  'Twas written.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+                 Why didst thou, then, let him go
+  With this old man?
+
+SHEPHERD.
+
+                           O King, I pitied him.
+  I thought the man would save him to some dim
+  And distant land, beyond all fear.... And he,
+  To worse than death, did save him!... Verily,
+  If thou art he whom this man telleth of,
+  To sore affliction thou art born.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+                                     Enough!
+  All, all, shall be fulfilled.... Oh, on these eyes
+  Shed light no more, ye everlasting skies
+  That know my sin! I have sinned in birth and breath.
+  I have sinned with Woman. I have sinned with Death.
+
+    [_He rushes into the Palace. The_ SHEPHERD
+        _is led away by the thralls._
+
+CHORUS.
+
+    [_Strophe._
+
+         Nothingness, nothingness,
+         Ye Children of Man, and less
+           I count you, waking or dreaming!
+         And none among mortals, none,
+         Seeking to live, hath won
+         More than to seem, and to cease
+             Again from his seeming.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1193-1212]
+
+        While ever before mine eyes
+        One fate, one ensample, lies--
+        Thine, thine, O Oedipus, sore
+            Of God oppressed--
+        What thing that is human more
+            Dare I call blessed?
+
+    [_Antistrophe._
+
+        Straight his archery flew
+        To the heart of living; he knew
+            Joy and the fulness of power,
+        O Zeus, when the riddling breath
+        Was stayed and the Maid of Death
+        Slain, and we saw him through
+            The death-cloud, a tower!
+
+        For that he was called my king;
+        Yea, every precious thing
+        Wherewith men are honoured, down
+            We cast before him,
+        And great Thebes brought her crown
+            And kneeled to adore him.
+
+    [_Strophe._
+
+  But now, what man's story is such bitterness to speak?
+    What life hath Delusion so visited, and Pain,
+                And swiftness of Disaster?
+                O great King, our master,
+    How oped the one haven to the slayer and the slain?
+  And the furrows of thy father, did they turn not nor shriek,
+    Did they bear so long silent thy casting of the grain?
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1213-1235]
+
+    [_Antistrophe._
+
+ 'Tis Time, Time, desireless, hath shown thee what thou art;
+    The long monstrous mating, it is judged and all its race.
+            O child of him that sleepeth,
+            Thy land weepeth, weepeth,
+    Unfathered.... Would God, I had never seen thy face!
+  From thee in great peril fell peace upon my heart,
+    In thee mine eye clouded and the dark is come apace.
+
+    [_A_ MESSENGER _rushes out from the Palace._
+
+MESSENGER.
+
+  O ye above this land in honour old
+  Exalted, what a tale shall ye be told,
+  What sights shall see, and tears of horror shed,
+  If still your hearts be true to them that led
+  Your sires! There runs no river, well I ween,
+  Not Phasis nor great Ister, shall wash clean
+  This house of all within that hideth--nay,
+  Nor all that creepeth forth to front the day,
+  Of purposed horror. And in misery
+  That woundeth most which men have willed to be.
+
+LEADER.
+
+  No lack there was in what we knew before
+  Of food for heaviness. What bring'st thou more?
+
+MESSENGER.
+
+  One thing I bring thee first.... 'Tis quickly said.
+  Jocasta, our anointed queen, is dead.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1236-1260]
+
+LEADER.
+
+  Unhappy woman! How came death to her?
+
+MESSENGER.
+
+  By her own hand.... Oh, of what passed in there
+  Ye have been spared the worst. Ye cannot see.
+  Howbeit, with that which still is left in me
+  Of mind and memory, ye shall hear her fate.
+    Like one entranced with passion, through the gate
+  She passed, the white hands flashing o'er her head,
+  Like blades that tear, and fled, unswerving fled,
+  Toward her old bridal room, and disappeared
+  And the doors crashed behind her. But we heard
+  Her voice within, crying to him of old,
+  Her Laius, long dead; and things untold
+  Of the old kiss unforgotten, that should bring
+  The lover's death and leave the loved a thing
+  Of horror, yea, a field beneath the plough
+  For sire and son: then wailing bitter-low
+  Across that bed of births unreconciled,
+  Husband from husband born and child from child.
+  And, after that, I know not how her death
+  Found her. For sudden, with a roar of wrath,
+  Burst Oedipus upon us. Then, I ween,
+  We marked no more what passion held the Queen,
+  But him, as in the fury of his stride,
+  "A sword! A sword! And show me here," he cried,
+  "That wife, no wife, that field of bloodstained earth
+  Where husband, father, sin on sin, had birth,
+  Polluted generations!" While he thus
+  Raged on, some god--for sure 'twas none of us--
+  Showed where she was; and with a shout away,
+  As though some hand had pointed to the prey,
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1261-1286]
+
+  He dashed him on the chamber door. The straight
+  Door-bar of oak, it bent beneath his weight,
+  Shook from its sockets free, and in he burst
+  To the dark chamber.
+                       There we saw her first
+  Hanged, swinging from a noose, like a dead bird.
+  He fell back when he saw her. Then we heard
+  A miserable groan, and straight he found
+  And loosed the strangling knot, and on the ground
+  Laid her.--Ah, then the sight of horror came!
+  The pin of gold, broad-beaten like a flame,
+  He tore from off her breast, and, left and right,
+  Down on the shuddering orbits of his sight
+  Dashed it: "Out! Out! Ye never more shall see
+  Me nor the anguish nor the sins of me.
+  Ye looked on lives whose like earth never bore,
+  Ye knew not those my spirit thirsted for:
+  Therefore be dark for ever!"
+                               Like a song
+  His voice rose, and again, again, the strong
+  And stabbing hand fell, and the massacred
+  And bleeding eyeballs streamed upon his beard,
+  Wild rain, and gouts of hail amid the rain.
+    Behold affliction, yea, afflictions twain
+  From man and woman broken, now made one
+  In downfall. All the riches yester sun
+  Saw in this house were rich in verity.
+  What call ye now our riches? Agony,
+  Delusion, Death, Shame, all that eye or ear
+  Hath ever dreamed of misery, is here.
+
+LEADER.
+
+  And now how fares he? Doth the storm abate?
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1287-1308]
+
+MESSENGER.
+
+  He shouts for one to open wide the gate
+  And lead him forth, and to all Thebes display
+  His father's murderer, his mother's.... Nay,
+  Such words I will not speak. And his intent
+  Is set, to cast himself in banishment
+  Out to the wild, not walk 'mid human breed
+  Bearing the curse he bears. Yet sore his need
+  Of strength and of some guiding hand. For sure
+  He hath more burden now than man may endure.
+    But see, the gates fall back, and that appears
+  Which he who loathes shall pity--yea, with tears.
+
+    [OEDIPUS _is led in, blinded and bleeding. The
+       Old Men bow down and hide their faces;
+       some of them weep._
+
+CHORUS.
+
+  Oh, terrible! Oh, sight of all
+      This life hath crossed, most terrible!
+      Thou man more wronged than tongue can tell,
+  What madness took thee? Do there crawl
+      Live Things of Evil from the deep
+      To leap on man? Oh, what a leap
+  Was His that flung thee to thy fall!
+
+LEADER.
+
+  O fallen, fallen in ghastly case,
+      I dare not raise mine eyes to thee;
+      Fain would I look and ask and see,
+  But shudder sickened from thy face.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+          Oh, pain; pain and woe!
+              Whither? Whither?
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1308-1328]
+
+          They lead me and I go;
+            And my voice drifts on the air
+                  Far away.
+            Where, Thing of Evil, where
+              Endeth thy leaping hither?
+
+LEADER.
+
+  In fearful ends, which none may hear nor say.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+    [_Strophe._
+
+      Cloud of the dark, mine own
+          For ever, horrible,
+          Stealing, stealing, silent, unconquerable,
+          Cloud that no wind, no summer can dispel!
+      Again, again I groan,
+  As through my heart together crawl the strong
+  Stabs of this pain and memories of old wrong.
+
+LEADER.
+
+  Yea, twofold hosts of torment hast thou there,
+  The stain to think on and the pain to bear.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+    [_Antistrophe._
+
+      O Friend, thou mine own
+           Still faithful, minister
+           Steadfast abiding alone of them that were,
+           Dost bear with me and give the blind man care?
+      Ah me! Not all unknown
+  Nor hid thou art. Deep in this dark a call
+  Comes and I know thy voice in spite of all.
+
+LEADER.
+
+  O fearful sufferer, and could'st thou kill
+  Thy living orbs? What God made blind thy will?
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1329-1351]
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+    [_Strophe._
+
+ 'Tis Apollo; all is Apollo,
+    O ye that love me, 'tis he long time hath planned
+      These things upon me evilly, evilly,
+        Dark things and full of blood.
+  I knew not; I did but follow
+    His way; but mine the hand
+      And mine the anguish. What were mine eyes to me
+        When naught to be seen was good?
+
+LEADER.
+
+ 'Tis even so; and Truth doth speak in thee.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  To see, to endure, to hear words kindly spoken,
+    Should I have joy in such?
+      Out, if ye love your breath,
+  Cast me swift unto solitude, unbroken
+    By word or touch.
+      Am I not charged with death,
+        Most charged and filled to the brim
+      With curses? And what man saith
+        God hath so hated him?
+
+LEADER.
+
+  Thy bitter will, thy hard calamity,
+  Would I had never known nor looked on thee!
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+    [_Antistrophe._
+
+  My curse, my curse upon him,
+    That man whom pity held in the wilderness,
+      Who saved the feet alive from the blood-fetter
+        And loosed the barb thereof!
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1351-1377]
+
+  That babe--what grace was done him,
+    Had he died shelterless,
+      He had not laid on himself this grief to bear,
+        And all who gave him love.
+
+LEADER.
+
+  I, too, O Friend, I had been happier.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Found not the way to his father's blood, nor shaken
+        The world's scorn on his mother,
+          The child and the groom withal;
+  But now, of murderers born, of God forsaken,
+        Mine own sons' brother;
+          All this, and if aught can fall
+            Upon man more perilous
+          And elder in sin, lo, all
+            Is the portion of Oedipus.
+
+LEADER.
+
+  How shall I hold this counsel of thy mind
+  True? Thou wert better dead than living blind.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  That this deed is not well and wisely wrought
+  Thou shalt not show me; therefore school me not.
+  Think, with what eyes hereafter in the place
+  Of shadows could I see my father's face,
+  Or my poor mother's? Both of whom this hand
+  Hath wronged too deep for man to understand.
+  Or children--born as mine were born, to see
+  Their shapes should bring me joy? Great God!
+      To me
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1378-1403]
+
+  There is no joy in city nor in tower
+  Nor temple, from all whom, in this mine hour,
+  I that was chief in Thebes alone, and ate
+  The King's bread, I have made me separate
+  For ever. Mine own lips have bid the land
+  Cast from it one so evil, one whose hand
+  To sin was dedicate, whom God hath shown
+  Birth-branded ... and my blood the dead King's own!
+  All this myself have proved. And can I then
+  Look with straight eyes into the eyes of men?
+  I trow not. Nay, if any stop there were
+  To dam this fount that welleth in mine ear
+  For hearing, I had never blenched nor stayed
+  Till this vile shell were all one dungeon made,
+  Dark, without sound. 'Tis thus the mind would fain
+  Find peace, self-prisoned from a world of pain.
+    O wild Kithairon, why was it thy will
+  To save me? Why not take me quick and kill,
+  Kill, before ever I could make men know
+  The thing I am, the thing from which I grow?
+  Thou dead King, Polybus, thou city wall
+  Of Corinth, thou old castle I did call
+  My father's, what a life did ye begin,
+  What splendour rotted by the worm within,
+  When ye bred me! O Crossing of the Roads,
+  O secret glen and dusk of crowding woods,
+  O narrow footpath creeping to the brink
+  Where meet the Three! I gave you blood to drink.
+  Do ye remember? 'Twas my life-blood, hot
+  From mine own father's heart. Have ye forgot
+  What deed I did among you, and what new
+  And direr deed I fled from you to do?
+  O flesh, horror of flesh!...
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1409-1431]
+
+                              But what is shame
+  To do should not be spoken. In God's name,
+  Take me somewhere far off and cover me
+  From sight, or slay, or cast me to the sea
+  Where never eye may see me any more.
+    What? Do ye fear to touch a man so sore
+  Stricken? Nay, tremble not. My misery
+  Is mine, and shall be borne by none but me.
+
+LEADER.
+
+  Lo, yonder comes for answer to thy prayer
+  Creon, to do and to decree. The care
+  Of all our land is his, now thou art weak.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Alas, what word to Creon can I speak,
+  How make him trust me more? He hath seen of late
+  So vile a heart in me, so full of hate.
+
+_Enter_ CREON.
+
+CREON.
+
+  Not to make laughter, Oedipus, nor cast
+  Against thee any evil of the past
+  I seek thee, but ... Ah God! ye ministers,
+  Have ye no hearts? Or if for man there stirs
+  No pity in you, fear at least to call
+  Stain on our Lord the Sun, who feedeth all;
+  Nor show in nakedness a horror such
+  As this, which never mother Earth may touch,
+  Nor God's clean rain nor sunlight. Quick within!
+  Guide him.--The ills that in a house have been
+  They of the house alone should know or hear.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1432-1447]
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  In God's name, since thou hast undone the fear
+  Within me, coming thus, all nobleness,
+  To one so vile, grant me one only grace.
+  For thy sake more I crave it than mine own.
+
+CREON.
+
+  Let me first hear what grace thou wouldst be shown.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Cast me from Thebes ... now, quick ... where none may see
+  My visage more, nor mingle words with me.
+
+CREON.
+
+  That had I done, for sure, save that I still
+  Tremble, and fain would ask Apollo's will.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  His will was clear enough, to stamp the unclean
+  Thing out, the bloody hand, the heart of sin.
+
+CREON.
+
+ 'Twas thus he seemed to speak; but in this sore
+  Strait we must needs learn surer than before.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Thou needs must trouble God for one so low?
+
+CREON.
+
+  Surely; thyself will trust his answer now.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  I charge thee more ... and, if thou fail, my sin
+  Shall cleave to thee.... For her who lies within,
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1448-1472]
+
+  Make as thou wilt her burial. 'Tis thy task
+  To tend thine own. But me: let no man ask
+  This ancient city of my sires to give
+  Harbour in life to me. Set me to live
+  On the wild hills and leave my name to those
+  Deeps of Kithairon which my father chose,
+  And mother, for my vast and living tomb.
+  As they, my murderers, willed it, let my doom
+  Find me. For this my very heart doth know,
+  No sickness now, nor any mortal blow,
+  Shall slay this body. Never had my breath
+  Been thus kept burning in the midst of death,
+  Save for some frightful end. So, let my way
+  Go where it listeth.
+                       But my children--Nay,
+  Creon, my sons will ask thee for no care.
+  Men are they, and can find them everywhere
+  What life needs. But my two poor desolate
+  Maidens.... There was no table ever set
+  Apart for them, but whatso royal fare
+  I tasted, they were with me and had share
+  In all.... Creon, I pray, forget them not.
+  And if it may be, go, bid them be brought,
+
+    [CREON _goes and presently returns with the
+       two princesses._ OEDIPUS _thinks he is
+       there all the time._
+
+  That I may touch their faces, and so weep....
+  Go, Prince. Go, noble heart!...
+  If I might touch them, I should seem to keep
+  And not to have lost them, now mine eyes are gone....
+  What say I?
+  In God's name, can it be I hear mine own
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1473-1505]
+
+  Beloved ones sobbing? Creon of his grace
+  Hath brought my two, my dearest, to this place.
+  Is it true?
+
+CREON.
+
+ 'Tis true. I brought them, for in them I know
+  Thy joy is, the same now as long ago.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  God bless thee, and in this hard journey give
+  Some better guide than mine to help thee live.
+    Children! Where are ye? Hither; come to these
+  Arms of your ... brother, whose wild offices
+  Have brought much darkness on the once bright eyes
+  Of him who grew your garden; who, nowise
+  Seeing nor understanding, digged a ground
+  The world shall shudder at. Children, my wound
+  Is yours too, and I cannot meet your gaze
+  Now, as I think me what remaining days
+  Of bitter living the world hath for you.
+  What dance of damsels shall ye gather to,
+  What feast of Thebes, but quick ye shall turn home,
+  All tears, or ere the feast or dancers come?
+  And, children, when ye reach the years of love,
+  Who shall dare wed you, whose heart rise above
+  The peril, to take on him all the shame
+  That cleaves to my name and my children's name?
+  God knows, it is enough!...
+  My flowers, ye needs must die, waste things, bereft
+  And fruitless.
+                 Creon, thou alone art left
+  Their father now, since both of us are gone
+  Who cared for them. Oh, leave them not alone
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1505-1518]
+
+  To wander masterless, these thine own kin,
+  And beggared. Neither think of them such sin
+  As ye all know in me, but let their fate
+  Touch thee. So young they are, so desolate--
+  Of all save thee. True man, give me thine hand,
+  And promise.
+
+    [OEDIPUS _and_ CREON _clasp hands._
+
+                If your age could understand,
+  Children, full many counsels I could give.
+  But now I leave this one word: Pray to live
+  As life may suffer you, and find a road
+  To travel easier than your father trod.
+
+CREON.
+
+  Enough thy heart hath poured its tears; now back into
+  thine house repair.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+I dread the house, yet go I must.
+
+CREON.
+
+              Fair season maketh all things fair.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  One oath then give me, and I go.
+
+CREON.
+
+              Name it, and I will answer thee.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  To cast me from this land.
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1519-1523]
+
+CREON.
+
+             A gift not mine but God's thou askest me.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  I am a thing of God abhorred.
+
+CREON.
+
+            The more, then, will he grant thy prayer.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Thou givest thine oath?
+
+CREON.
+
+    I see no light; and, seeing not, I may not swear.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Then take me hence. I care not.
+
+CREON.
+
+          Go in peace, and give these children o'er.
+
+OEDIPUS.
+
+  Ah no! Take not away my daughters!
+
+    [_They are taken from him._
+
+CREON.
+
+                     Seek not to be master more. Did not thy
+    masteries of old forsake thee when the end was near?
+
+[Sidenote: vv. 1524-1530]
+
+CHORUS.
+
+  Ye citizens of Thebes, behold; 'tis Oedipus that passeth here,
+  Who read the riddle-word of Death, and mightiest stood of mortal
+    men,
+  And Fortune loved him, and the folk that saw him turned and looked
+    again.
+  Lo, he is fallen, and around great storms and the outreaching sea!
+  Therefore, O Man, beware, and look toward the end of things that be,
+  The last of sights, the last of days; and no man's life account as gain
+  Ere the full tale be finished and the darkness find him without pain.
+
+    [OEDIPUS _is led into the house and the doors
+       close on him._
+
+
+
+
+                              NOTES TO
+
+                       OEDIPUS, KING OF THEBES
+
+
+P. 4, l. 21: Dry Ash of Ismenus.]--Divination by burnt offerings was
+practised at an altar of Apollo by the river Ismenus in Thebes.
+
+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. _Anthropology and the Classics_, pp. 74-79.]
+
+P. 7, l. 87, 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.]
+
+Pp. 13-16, ll. 216-275. 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 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. 25, l. 437, 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).
+
+Pp. 29 ff. 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.
+
+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. 36, l. 630, Thebes is my country.]--It must be remembered that to the
+Chorus Creon is a real Theban, Oedipus a stranger from Corinth.
+
+P. 41, 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. 42, l. 718.]--Observe that Jocasta does not tell the whole truth. It
+was she herself who gave the child to be killed (p. 70, l. 1173).
+
+P. 42, l. 730, 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. 44, l. 754, Who could bring, &c.]--Oedipus of course thought he had
+killed them all. See his next speech.
+
+P. 51.]--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' _Electra_, 636-659, Clytaemnestra's prayer; compare
+also the prayers to Cypris in Euripides' _Hippolytus_.
+
+P. 51, l. 899.]--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. 52, l. 918, 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. 56, l. 987, Thy father's tomb Like light across 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. 57, l. 994.]--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.
+
+Pp. 57, 58, ll. 1000-1020.]--It is natural that the Corinthian hesitates
+before telling a king that he is really not of royal birth.
+
+Pp. 64, 65, ll. 1086-1109.]--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. 66, l. 1122.]--Is there any part in any tragedy so short and yet so
+effective as that of this Shepherd?
+
+P. 75, l. 1264, Like a dead bird.]--The curious word, [Greek:
+empeplegmenen], 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 earth;
+when he saw her already dead, a revulsion came.
+
+P. 76, ll. 1305 ff.]--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 _Hipp._, p. 39; _Trojan
+Women_, p. 51.
+
+P. 83, ll. 1450 ff., 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. 86, l. 1520, 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.,
+_Suppliants_.
+
+
+
+
+
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