Racine: Phaedra

CEDIPUS REX €7
Depart unseen from all the haunts of men,
Before such great pollution comes on me.
Chorus.—We, too, O king, are grieved, yet hope thou on.
Till thou hast asked the man who then was by.
(Edipus.—And this indeed is all the hope I have,
Waiting until that shepherd-slave appear.
JocASTA.—And when he comes, what ground for hope is there ?
CEdipus.—I'll tell thee. Should he now repeat the tale
Thou told'st me, I, at least, stand free from guilt.
JocASTA,—What special word was that thou heard'st from me?
CEdipus.—Thou said'st he told that robbers slew his lord,
And should he give their number as the same
Now as before, it was not I who slew him.
For one man could not be the same as many.
But if he speak of one man, all alone.
Then, all too plain, the deed cleaves fast to me.
JocASTA.—But know, the thing was said, and clearly said.
And now he cannot from his word draw back.
Not I alone, but the whole city, heard it
And should he now retract his former tale,
Not then, my husband, will he rightly show
The death of Laios, who, as Loxias told,
By my son's hands should die ; and yet, poor boy.
He killed him not, but perished long ago.
So I, at least, for all their oracles.
Will never more cast glance or here, or there.
CEdipus.—Thou reasonest well. Yet send a messenger
To fetch that peasant. Be not slack in this.
JocASTA.— I will make haste. But let us now go in
I would do nothing that displeaseth thee. [Exeunt.
Strophe I.
Chorus.—O that 'twere mine to keep
An awful purity,
In words and deeds whose laws on high are set
Through heaven's clear aether spread,
Whose birth Olympos boasts.
Their one, their only sire.
Whom man's frail flesh begat not,
Nor in forget fulness