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MESSENGER True, but thy savior in that hour, my son. OEDIPUS My savior? from what harm? what ailed me then? MESSENGER Those ankle joints are evidence enow. OEDIPUS Ah, why remind me of that ancient sore? MESSENGER I loosed the pin that riveted thy feet. OEDIPUS Yes, from my cradle that dread brand I bore. MESSENGER Whence thou deriv'st the name that still is thine. OEDIPUS Who did it? I adjure thee, tell me who Say, was it father, mother? MESSENGER I know not. The man from whom I had thee may know more. OEDIPUS What, did another find me, not thyself? MESSENGER Not I; another shepherd gave thee me. OEDIPUS Who was he? Would'st thou know again the man? MESSENGER He passed indeed for one of Laius' house. OEDIPUS The king who ruled the country long ago? MESSENGER The same: he was a herdsman of the king. OEDIPUS And is he living still for me to see him? MESSENGER His fellow-countrymen should best know that. OEDIPUS Doth any bystander among you know The herd he speaks of, or by seeing him
Afield or in the city? answer straight! The hour hath come to clear this business up. CHORUS Methinks he means none other than the hind Whom thou anon wert fain to see; but that Our queen Jocasta best of all could tell. OEDIPUS Madam, dost know the man we sent to fetch? Is the same of whom the stranger speaks? JOCASTA Who is the man? What matter? Let it be. 'Twere waste of thought to weigh such idle words. OEDIPUS No, with such guiding clues I cannot fail To bring to light the secret of my birth. JOCASTA Oh, as thou carest for thy life, give o'er This quest. Enough the anguish _I_ endure. OEDIPUS Be of good cheer; though I be proved the son Of a bondwoman, aye, through three descents Triply a slave, thy honor is unsmirched. JOCASTA Yet humor me, I pray thee; do not this. OEDIPUS I cannot; I must probe this matter home. JOCASTA 'Tis for thy sake I advise thee for the best. OEDIPUS I grow impatient of this best advice. JOCASTA Ah mayst thou ne'er discover who thou art! OEDIPUS Go, fetch me here the herd, and leave yon woman To glory in her pride of ancestry. JOCASTA O woe is thee, poor wretch! With that last word I leave thee, henceforth silent evermore. [Exit JOCASTA] CHORUS Why, Oedipus, why stung with passionate grief Hath the queen thus departed? Much I fear From this dead calm will burst a storm of woes.
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 and 16: That I have missed the mark, hencef
Page 17 and 18: Therein thou judgest rightly, but t
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: OEDIPUS Yea, lest the god's word be
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
Page 67 and 68: OEDIPUS Yea, the last boon is warra
Page 69 and 70: What wouldst thou here? I shall not
Page 71 and 72: Oh land extolled above all lands, '
Page 73 and 74: Not for a man indeed with wits like
Page 75 and 76: OEDIPUS Where art thou, daughter? A
Page 77 and 78: CHORUS Haste ye princes, sound the
Page 79 and 80: Me then unborn, begotten by no sire
Page 81 and 82: (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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