The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Oedipus Trilogy, by Sophocles ...

A friend in word is never friend of mine.
ISMENE
O sister, scorn me not, let me but share
Thy work of piety, and with thee die.
ANTIGONE
Claim not a work in which thou hadst no hand;
One death sufficeth. Wherefore should'st thou die?
ISMENE
What would life profit me bereft of thee?
ANTIGONE
Ask Creon, he's thy kinsman and best friend.
ISMENE
Why taunt me? Find'st thou pleasure in these gibes?
ANTIGONE
'Tis a sad mockery, if indeed I mock.
ISMENE
O say if I can help thee even now.
ANTIGONE
No, save thyself; I grudge not thy escape.
ISMENE
Is e'en this boon denied, to share thy lot?
ANTIGONE
Yea, for thou chosed'st life, and I to die.
ISMENE
Thou canst not say that I did not protest.
ANTIGONE
Well, some approved thy wisdom, others mine.
ISMENE
But now we stand convicted, both alike.
ANTIGONE
Fear not; thou livest, I died long ago
Then when I gave my life to save the dead.
CREON
Both maids, methinks, are crazed. One suddenly
Has lost her wits, the other was born mad.
ISMENE
Yea, so it falls, sire, when misfortune comes,
The wisest even lose their mother wit.
CREON
I' faith thy wit forsook thee when thou mad'st