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