Racine: Phaedra

76
SOPHOCLES
Messenger.—Come, then, say on. Dost know thou gav'st me
once
A boy, that I might rear him as my child ?
Shepherd.—What means this ? Wherefore askest thou of that ?
Messenger.—Here stands he, fellow ! that same tiny boy.
Shepherd.—A curse befall thee ! Wilt not hold thy tongue?
(Edipus.—Rebuke him not, old man ; thy words need more
The language of rebuker than do his.
Shepherd.—Say, good my lord, what fault do I commit?
CEdipus.—This, that thou tell'st not of the child he asks for.
Shepherd.—Yes, for he nothing knows, and wastes his pains.
CEdipus.—For favor thou speak'st not, but shalt for pain. . . .
[Strikes him.
Shepherd.—By all the Gods, hurt not an old man weak.
CEdipus.—Will no one bind his hands behind his back ?
Shepherd.—Oh wretched me ! And what then wilt thou learn?
CEdipus.—Gav'st thou this man the boy of whom he asks?
Shepherd.—I gave him. Would that I that day had died.
CEdipus.—Soon thou wilt come to that if thou speak'st wrong.
Shepherd.—Nay, much more shall I perish if I speak.
CEdipus.—This fellow, as it seems, would tire us out.
Shepherd.—Not so. I said long since I gave it him.
CEdipus.—Whence came it? Was the child thine own or not?
Shepherd.—Mine own 'twas not, from someone else I had it.
CEdipus.—Which of our people, or from out what home?
Shepherd.—Oh, by the Gods, my master, ask no more
CEdipus.—Thou diest if I question this again.
Shepherd.—Someone it was of Laios' household born.
CEdipus.—Was it a slave, or someone kin to him ?
Shepherd.—Ah me, I stand upon the very brink
Where most I dread to speak.
CEdipus.— And I to hear
And yet I needs must hear it, come what may.
Shepherd.—The boy was said to be his son ; but she.
Thy queen within, could tell the whole truth best.
CEdipus.—What ! was it she who gave it ?
Shepherd.— Yea, O king I
CEdipus.—And to what end ?
Shepherd.— To make away with it.
CEdipus.—And dared a mother . . . ?