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CHORUS This taunt, it well may be, was blurted out In petulance, not spoken advisedly. CREON Did any dare pretend that it was I Prompted the seer to utter a forged charge? CHORUS Such things were said; with what intent I know not. CREON Were not his wits and vision all astray When upon me he fixed this monstrous charge? CHORUS I know not; to my sovereign's acts I am blind. But lo, he comes to answer for himself. [Enter OEDIPUS.] OEDIPUS Sirrah, what mak'st thou here? Dost thou presume To approach my doors, thou brazen-faced rogue, My murderer and the filcher of my crown? Come, answer this, didst thou detect in me Some touch of cowardice or witlessness, That made thee undertake this enterprise? I seemed forsooth too simple to perceive The serpent stealing on me in the dark, Or else too weak to scotch it when I saw. This _thou_ art witless seeking to possess Without a following or friends the crown, A prize that followers and wealth must win. CREON Attend me. Thou hast spoken, 'tis my turn To make reply. Then having heard me, judge. OEDIPUS Thou art glib of tongue, but I am slow to learn Of thee; I know too well thy venomous hate. CREON First I would argue out this very point. OEDIPUS O argue not that thou art not a rogue. CREON If thou dost count a virtue stubbornness, Unschooled by reason, thou art much astray. OEDIPUS If thou dost hold a kinsman may be wronged, And no pains follow, thou art much to seek. CREON
Therein thou judgest rightly, but this wrong That thou allegest--tell me what it is. OEDIPUS Didst thou or didst thou not advise that I Should call the priest? CREON Yes, and I stand to it. OEDIPUS Tell me how long is it since Laius... CREON Since Laius...? I follow not thy drift. OEDIPUS By violent hands was spirited away. CREON In the dim past, a many years agone. OEDIPUS Did the same prophet then pursue his craft? CREON Yes, skilled as now and in no less repute. OEDIPUS Did he at that time ever glance at me? CREON Not to my knowledge, not when I was by. OEDIPUS But was no search and inquisition made? CREON Surely full quest was made, but nothing learnt. OEDIPUS Why failed the seer to tell his story _then_? CREON I know not, and not knowing hold my tongue. OEDIPUS This much thou knowest and canst surely tell. CREON What's mean'st thou? All I know I will declare. OEDIPUS But for thy prompting never had the seer Ascribed to me the death of Laius. CREON
Page 1 and 2: The Project Gutenberg EBook of The
Page 3 and 4: Explain your mood and purport. Is i
Page 5 and 6: King Phoebus bids us straitly extir
Page 7 and 8: If in the days of old when we nigh
Page 9 and 10: But may they waste and pine, as now
Page 11 and 12: TEIRESIAS I will not vex myself nor
Page 13 and 14: The trusty Creon, my familiar frien
Page 15: That I have missed the mark, hencef
Page 19 and 20: The thing he counts most precious,
Page 21 and 22: CHORUS No, by the leader of the hos
Page 23 and 24: OEDIPUS What memories, what wild tu
Page 25 and 26: My mother and my sire and questione
Page 27 and 28: Then topples o'er and lies in ruin
Page 29 and 30: OEDIPUS What? let me have it, stran
Page 31 and 32: OEDIPUS Yea, lest the god's word be
Page 33 and 34: Afield or in the city? answer strai
Page 35 and 36: HERDSMAN I was, a thrall, not purch
Page 37 and 38: HERDSMAN Well then--it was a child
Page 39 and 40: SECOND MESSENGER My tale is quickly
Page 41 and 42: The double weight of past and prese
Page 43 and 44: Thy prayer by action or advice, for
Page 45 and 46: Such are the gibes that men will ca
Page 47 and 48: Creon enters with an armed guard wh
Page 49 and 50: Tell me the awful name I should inv
Page 51 and 52: Of cities, pity this dishonored sha
Page 53 and 54: Follow with blind steps, father, as
Page 55 and 56: CHORUS O wretched me! Begone! OEDIP
Page 57 and 58: OEDIPUS Well, may he come with bles
Page 59 and 60: To suffer, first in act and then in
Page 61 and 62: They knew it, yet the ignoble greed
Page 63 and 64: And I shall then be bold to stand t
Page 65 and 66: OEDIPUS Horrors from the boundless
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OEDIPUS Yea, the last boon is warra
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What wouldst thou here? I shall not
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Oh land extolled above all lands, '
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Not for a man indeed with wits like
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OEDIPUS Where art thou, daughter? A
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CHORUS Haste ye princes, sound the
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Me then unborn, begotten by no sire
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(Ant. 1) Haply on swiftest steed, O
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What say I? Can I wish that thou sh
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Grievous to me, my child, the boon
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But by his popular acts; and the pr
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To Thebes, O then disown me not, I
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Bristles for fear. Again that flare
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For this way Hermes leads, the spir
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That no man might endure to look up
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ANTIGONE ISMENE Is fain? ANTIGONE I
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Charged me straitly that no moral S
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ANTIGONE Ismene, sister of my blood
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ISMENE My poor, fond sister, how I
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Again, when Oedipus restored our St
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What say'st thou? Who hath dared to
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(Str. 1) Many wonders there be, but
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CREON Speak, girl, with head bent l
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Surely, if good and evil fare alive
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Thy choice with evil-doers to do il
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But who begets unprofitable sons, H
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Am I to rule for others, or myself?
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Straight to folly will fall, at a t
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Are guiltless as concerns this maid
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By Destiny That knows not death nor
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Dost know at whom thou glancest, me
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(Ant. 1) Thee on the two-crested ro
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And ran back to our lord to tell th
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CREON (Ant. 2) Alas! another added
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subject to the trademark license, e
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"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other form
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