JOCASTA
855 Well, rest assured, his tale ran thus at first,
856 Nor can he now retract what then he said;
857 Not I alone but all our townsfolk heard it.
858 E'en should he vary somewhat in his story,
859 He cannot make the death of Laius
860 In any wise jump with the oracle.
861 For Loxias said expressly he was doomed
862 To die by my child's hand, but he, poor babe,
863 He shed no blood, but perished first himself.
864 So much for divination. Henceforth I
865 Will look for signs neither to right nor left.
OEDIPUS
866 Thou reasonest well. Still I would have thee send
867 And fetch the bondsman hither. See to it.
JOCASTA
868 That will I straightway. Come, let us within.
869 I would do nothing that my lord mislikes.
870 Exeunt OEDIPUS and JOCASTA
CHORUS
871 My lot be still to lead
872 The life of innocence and fly
873 Irreverence in word or deed,
874 To follow still those laws ordained on high
875 Whose birthplace is the bright ethereal sky
876 No mortal birth they own,
877 Olympus their progenitor alone:
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878 Ne'er shall they slumber in oblivion cold,
879 The god in them is strong and grows not old.
880 Of insolence is bred
881 The tyrant; insolence full blown,
882 With empty riches surfeited,
883 Scales the precipitous height and grasps the throne.
884 Then topples o'er and lies in ruin prone;
885 No foothold on that dizzy steep.
886 But O may Heaven the true patriot keep
887 Who burns with emulous zeal to serve the State.
888 God is my help and hope, on him I wait.
889 But the proud sinner, or in word or deed,
890 That will not Justice heed,
891 Nor reverence the shrine
892 Of images divine,
893 Perdition seize his vain imaginings,
894 If, urged by greed profane,
895 He grasps at ill-got gain,
896 And lays an impious hand on holiest things.
897 Who when such deeds are done
898 Can hope heaven's bolts to shun?
899 If sin like this to honor can aspire,
900 Why dance I still and lead the sacred choir?
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901 No more I'll seek earth's central oracle,
902 Or Abae's hallowed cell,
903 Nor to Olympia bring
904 My votive offering.
905 If before all God's truth be not bade plain.
906 O Zeus, reveal thy might,
907 King, if thou'rt named aright
908 Omnipotent, all-seeing, as of old;
909 For Laius is forgot;
910 His weird, men heed it not;
911 Apollo is forsook and faith grows cold.
912 Enter JOCASTA.
JOCASTA
913 My lords, ye look amazed to see your queen
914 With wreaths and gifts of incense in her hands.
915 I had a mind to visit the high shrines,
916 For Oedipus is overwrought, alarmed
917 With terrors manifold. He will not use
918 His past experience, like a man of sense,
919 To judge the present need, but lends an ear
920 To any croaker if he augurs ill.
921 Since then my counsels naught avail, I turn
922 To thee, our present help in time of trouble,
923 Apollo, Lord Lycean, and to thee
924 My prayers and supplications here I bring.
925 Lighten us, lord, and cleanse us from this curse!
926 For now we all are cowed like mariners
927 Who see their helmsman dumbstruck in the storm.
928 Enter Corinthian MESSENGER.
MESSENGER
929 My masters, tell me where the palace is
930 Of Oedipus; or better, where's the king.
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CHORUS
931 Here is the palace and he bides within;
932 This is his queen the mother of his children.
MESSENGER
933 All happiness attend her and the house,
934 Blessed is her husband and her marriage-bed.
JOCASTA
935 My greetings to thee, stranger; thy fair words
936 Deserve a like response. But tell me why
937 Thou comest--what thy need or what thy news.
MESSENGER
938 Good for thy consort and the royal house.
JOCASTA
939 What may it be? Whose messenger art thou?
MESSENGER
940 The Isthmian commons have resolved to make
941 Thy husband king--so 'twas reported there.
JOCASTA
942 What! is not aged Polybus still king?
MESSENGER
943 No, verily; he's dead and in his grave.
JOCASTA
944 What! is he dead, the sire of Oedipus?
MESSENGER
945 If I speak falsely, may I die myself.
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JOCASTA
946 Quick, maiden, bear these tidings to my lord.
947 Ye god-sent oracles, where stand ye now!
948 This is the man whom Oedipus long shunned,
949 In dread to prove his murderer; and now
950 He dies in nature's course, not by his hand.
951 Enter OEDIPUS.
OEDIPUS
952 My wife, my queen, Jocasta, why hast thou
953 Summoned me from my palace?
JOCASTA
Hear this man,
954 And as thou hearest judge what has become
955 Of all those awe-inspiring oracles.
OEDIPUS
956 Who is this man, and what his news for me?
JOCASTA
957 He comes from Corinth and his message this:
958 Thy father Polybus hath passed away.
OEDIPUS
959 What? let me have it, stranger, from thy mouth.
MESSENGER
960 If I must first make plain beyond a doubt
961 My message, know that Polybus is dead.
OEDIPUS
962 By treachery, or by sickness visited?
MESSENGER
963 One touch will send an old man to his rest.
OEDIPUS
964 So of some malady he died, poor man.
MESSENGER
965 Yes, having measured the full span of years.
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OEDIPUS
966 Out on it, lady! why should one regard
967 The Pythian hearth or birds that scream i' the air?
968 Did they not point at me as doomed to slay
969 My father? but he's dead and in his grave
970 And here am I who ne'er unsheathed a sword;
971 Unless the longing for his absent son
972 Killed him and so I slew him in a sense.
973 But, as they stand, the oracles are dead--
974 Dust, ashes, nothing, dead as Polybus.
JOCASTA
975 Say, did not I foretell this long ago?
OEDIPUS
976 Thou didst: but I was misled by my fear.
JOCASTA
977 Then let I no more weigh upon thy soul.
OEDIPUS
978 Must I not fear my mother's marriage bed.
JOCASTA
979 Why should a mortal man, the sport of chance,
980 With no assured foreknowledge, be afraid?
981 Best live a careless life from hand to mouth.
982 This wedlock with thy mother fear not thou.
983 How oft it chances that in dreams a man
984 Has wed his mother! He who least regards
985 Such brainsick phantasies lives most at ease.
OEDIPUS
986 I should have shared in full thy confidence,
987 Were not my mother living; since she lives
988 Though half convinced I still must live in dread.
JOCASTA
989 And yet thy sire's death lights out darkness much.
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OEDIPUS
990 Much, but my fear is touching her who lives.
MESSENGER
991 Who may this woman be whom thus you fear?
OEDIPUS
992 Merope, stranger, wife of Polybus.
MESSENGER
993 And what of her can cause you any fear?
OEDIPUS
994 A heaven-sent oracle of dread import.
MESSENGER
995 A mystery, or may a stranger hear it?
OEDIPUS
996 Aye, 'tis no secret. Loxias once foretold
997 That I should mate with mine own mother, and shed
998 With my own hands the blood of my own sire.
999 Hence Corinth was for many a year to me
1000 A home distant; and I trove abroad,
1001 But missed the sweetest sight, my parents' face.
MESSENGER
1002 Was this the fear that exiled thee from home?
OEDIPUS
1003 Yea, and the dread of slaying my own sire.
MESSENGER
1004 Why, since I came to give thee pleasure, King,
1005 Have I not rid thee of this second fear?
OEDIPUS
1006 Well, thou shalt have due guerdon for thy pains.
MESSENGER
1007 Well, I confess what chiefly made me come
1008 Was hope to profit by thy coming home.
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OEDIPUS
1009 Nay, I will ne'er go near my parents more.
MESSENGER
1010 My son, 'tis plain, thou know'st not what thou doest.
OEDIPUS
1011 How so, old man? For heaven's sake tell me all.
MESSENGER
1012 If this is why thou dreadest to return.
OEDIPUS
1013 Yea, lest the god's word be fulfilled in me.
MESSENGER
1014 Lest through thy parents thou shouldst be accursed?
OEDIPUS
1015 This and none other is my constant dread.
MESSENGER
1016 Dost thou not know thy fears are baseless all?
OEDIPUS
1017 How baseless, if I am their very son?
MESSENGER
1018 Since Polybus was naught to thee in blood.
OEDIPUS
1019 What say'st thou? was not Polybus my sire?
MESSENGER
1020 As much thy sire as I am, and no more.
OEDIPUS
1021 My sire no more to me than one who is naught?
MESSENGER
1022 Since I begat thee not, no more did he.
OEDIPUS
1023 What reason had he then to call me son?
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MESSENGER
1024 Know that he took thee from my hands, a gift.
OEDIPUS
1025 Yet, if no child of his, he loved me well.
MESSENGER
1026 A childless man till then, he warmed to thee.
OEDIPUS
1027 A foundling or a purchased slave, this child?
MESSENGER
1028 I found thee in Cithaeron's wooded glens.
OEDIPUS
1029 What led thee to explore those upland glades?
MESSENGER
1030 My business was to tend the mountain flocks.
OEDIPUS
1031 A vagrant shepherd journeying for hire?
MESSENGER
1032 True, but thy savior in that hour, my son.
OEDIPUS
1033 My savior? from what harm? what ailed me then?
MESSENGER
1034 Those ankle joints are evidence enow.
OEDIPUS
1035 Ah, why remind me of that ancient sore?
MESSENGER
1036 I loosed the pin that riveted thy feet.
OEDIPUS
1037 Yes, from my cradle that dread brand I bore.
MESSENGER
1038 Whence thou deriv'st the name that still is thine.
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OEDIPUS
1039 Who did it? I adjure thee, tell me who
1040 Say, was it father, mother?
MESSENGER
I know not.
1041 The man from whom I had thee may know more.
OEDIPUS
1042 What, did another find me, not thyself?
MESSENGER
1043 Not I; another shepherd gave thee me.
OEDIPUS
1044 Who was he? Would'st thou know again the man?
MESSENGER
1045 He passed indeed for one of Laius' house.
OEDIPUS
1046 The king who ruled the country long ago?
MESSENGER
1047 The same: he was a herdsman of the king.
OEDIPUS
1048 And is he living still for me to see him?
MESSENGER
1049 His fellow-countrymen should best know that.
OEDIPUS
1050 Doth any bystander among you know
1051 The herd he speaks of, or by seeing him
1052 Afield or in the city? answer straight!
1053 The hour hath come to clear this business up.
CHORUS
1054 Methinks he means none other than the hind
1055 Whom thou anon wert fain to see; but that
1056 Our queen Jocasta best of all could tell.
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OEDIPUS
1057 Madam, dost know the man we sent to fetch?
1058 Is the same of whom the stranger speaks?
JOCASTA
1059 Who is the man? What matter? Let it be.
1060 'Twere waste of thought to weigh such idle words.
OEDIPUS
1061 No, with such guiding clues I cannot fail
1062 To bring to light the secret of my birth.
JOCASTA
1063 Oh, as thou carest for thy life, give o'er
1064 This quest. Enough the anguish I endure.
OEDIPUS
1065 Be of good cheer; though I be proved the son
1066 Of a bondwoman, aye, through three descents
1067 Triply a slave, thy honor is unsmirched.
JOCASTA
1068 Yet humor me, I pray thee; do not this.
OEDIPUS
1069 I cannot; I must probe this matter home.
JOCASTA
1070 'Tis for thy sake I advise thee for the best.
OEDIPUS
1071 I grow impatient of this best advice.
JOCASTA
1072 Ah mayst thou ne'er discover who thou art!
OEDIPUS
1073 Go, fetch me here the herd, and leave yon woman
1074 To glory in her pride of ancestry.
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JOCASTA
1075 O woe is thee, poor wretch! With that last word
1076 I leave thee, henceforth silent evermore.
1077 Exit JOCASTA
CHORUS
1078 Why, Oedipus, why stung with passionate grief
1079 Hath the queen thus departed? Much I fear
1080 From this dead calm will burst a storm of woes.
OEDIPUS
1081 Let the storm burst, my fixed resolve still holds,
1082 To learn my lineage, be it ne'er so low.
1083 It may be she with all a woman's pride
1084 Thinks scorn of my base parentage. But I
1085 Who rank myself as Fortune's favorite child,
1086 The giver of good gifts, shall not be shamed.
1087 She is my mother and the changing moons
1088 My brethren, and with them I wax and wane.
1089 Thus sprung why should I fear to trace my birth?
1090 Nothing can make me other than I am.
CHORUS
1091 If my soul prophetic err not, if my wisdom aught avail,
1092 Thee, Cithaeron, I shall hail,
1093 As the nurse and foster-mother of our Oedipus shall greet
1094 Ere tomorrow's full moon rises, and exalt thee as is meet.
1095 Dance and song shall hymn thy praises, lover of our royal race.
1096 Phoebus, may my words find grace!
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1097 Child, who bare thee, nymph or goddess? sure thy sure was more than man,
1098 Haply the hill-roamer Pan.
1099 Of did Loxias beget thee, for he haunts the upland wold;
1100 Or Cyllene's lord, or Bacchus, dweller on the hilltops cold?
1101 Did some Heliconian Oread give him thee, a new-born joy?
1102 Nymphs with whom he love to toy?
OEDIPUS
1103 Elders, if I, who never yet before
1104 Have met the man, may make a guess, methinks
1105 I see the herdsman who we long have sought;
1106 His time-worn aspect matches with the years
1107 Of yonder aged messenger; besides
1108 I seem to recognize the men who bring him
1109 As servants of my own. But you, perchance,
1110 Having in past days known or seen the herd,
1111 May better by sure knowledge my surmise.
CHORUS
1112 I recognize him; one of Laius' house;
1113 A simple hind, but true as any man.
1114 Enter HERDSMAN.
OEDIPUS
1115 Corinthian, stranger, I address thee first,
1116 Is this the man thou meanest!
MESSENGER
This is he.
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OEDIPUS
1117 And now old man, look up and answer all
1118 I ask thee. Wast thou once of Laius' house?
HERDSMAN
1119 I was, a thrall, not purchased but home-bred.
OEDIPUS
1120 What was thy business? how wast thou employed?
HERDSMAN
1121 The best part of my life I tended sheep.
OEDIPUS
1122 What were the pastures thou didst most frequent?
HERDSMAN
1123 Cithaeron and the neighboring alps.
OEDIPUS
Then there
1124 Thou must have known yon man, at least by fame?
HERDSMAN
1125 Yon man? in what way? what man dost thou mean?
OEDIPUS
1126 The man here, having met him in past times...
HERDSMAN
1127 Off-hand I cannot call him well to mind.
MESSENGER
1128 No wonder, master. But I will revive
1129 His blunted memories. Sure he can recall
1130 What time together both we drove our flocks,
1131 He two, I one, on the Cithaeron range,
1132 For three long summers; I his mate from spring
1133 Till rose Arcturus; then in winter time
1134 I led mine home, he his to Laius' folds.
1135 Did these things happen as I say, or no?
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HERDSMAN
1136 'Tis long ago, but all thou say'st is true.
MESSENGER
1137 Well, thou mast then remember giving me
1138 A child to rear as my own foster-son?
HERDSMAN
1139 Why dost thou ask this question? What of that?
MESSENGER
1140 Friend, he that stands before thee was that child.
HERDSMAN
1141 A plague upon thee! Hold thy wanton tongue!
OEDIPUS
1142 Softly, old man, rebuke him not; thy words
1143 Are more deserving chastisement than his.
HERDSMAN
1144 O best of masters, what is my offense?
OEDIPUS
1145 Not answering what he asks about the child.
HERDSMAN
1146 He speaks at random, babbles like a fool.
OEDIPUS
1147 If thou lack'st grace to speak, I'll loose thy tongue.
HERDSMAN
1148 For mercy's sake abuse not an old man.
OEDIPUS
1149 Arrest the villain, seize and pinion him!
HERDSMAN
1150 Alack, alack!
1151 What have I done? what wouldst thou further learn?
OEDIPUS
1152 Didst give this man the child of whom he asks?
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HERDSMAN
1153 I did; and would that I had died that day!
OEDIPUS
1154 And die thou shalt unless thou tell the truth.
HERDSMAN
1155 But, if I tell it, I am doubly lost.
OEDIPUS
1156 The knave methinks will still prevaricate.
HERDSMAN
1157 Nay, I confessed I gave it long ago.
OEDIPUS
1158 Whence came it? was it thine, or given to thee?
HERDSMAN
1159 I had it from another, 'twas not mine.
OEDIPUS
1160 From whom of these our townsmen, and what house?
HERDSMAN
1161 Forbear for God's sake, master, ask no more.
OEDIPUS
1162 If I must question thee again, thou'rt lost.
HERDSMAN
1163 Well then--it was a child of Laius' house.
OEDIPUS
1164 Slave-born or one of Laius' own race?
HERDSMAN
1165 Ah me!
1166 I stand upon the perilous edge of speech.
OEDIPUS
1167 And I of hearing, but I still must hear.
HERDSMAN
1168 Know then the child was by repute his own,
1169 But she within, thy consort best could tell.