Oedipus King of Thebes
To cast aside and plot to be a King?
Doth a sane man turn villain in an hour?
For me, I never lusted thus for power
Nor bore with any man who turned such lust
To doing.--But enough. I claim but just
Question. Go first to Pytho; find if well
And true I did report God's oracle.
Next, seek in Thebes for any plots entwined
Between this seer and me; which if ye find,
Then seize and strike me dead. Myself that day
Will sit with thee as judge and bid thee Slay!
But damn me not on one man's guess.--'Tis all
Unjust: to call a traitor true, to call
A true man traitor with no cause nor end!
And this I tell thee. He who plucks a friend
Out from his heart hath lost a treasured thing
Dear as his own dear life.
But Time shall bring
[Sidenote: vv. 614-626]
Truth back. 'Tis Time alone can make men know
What hearts are true; the false one day can show.
LEADER.
To one that fears to fall his words are wise,
O King; in thought the swift win not the prize.
OEDIPUS.
When he is swift who steals against my reign
With plots, then swift am I to plot again.
Wait patient, and his work shall have prevailed
Before I move, and mine for ever failed.
CREON.
How then? To banish me is thy intent?
OEDIPUS.
Death is the doom I choose, not banishment.
CREON.
Wilt never soften, never trust thy friend?
OEDIPUS.
First I would see how traitors meet their end.
CREON.
I see thou wilt not think.
OEDIPUS.
I think to save
My life.
[Sidenote: vv. 627-633]
CREON.
Think, too, of mine.
OEDIPUS.
Thine, thou born knave!
CREON.
Yes.... What, if thou art blind in everything?
OEDIPUS.
The King must be obeyed.
CREON.
Not if the King
Does evil.
OEDIPUS.
To your King! Ho, Thebes, mine own!
CREON.
Thebes is my country, not the King's alone.
[OEDIPUS _has drawn his sword; the Chorus
show signs of breaking into two parties to
fight for_ OEDIPUS _or for_ CREON, _when
the door opens and_ JOCASTA _appears on the
steps._
LEADER.
Stay, Princes, stay! See, on the Castle stair
The Queen Jocasta standeth. Show to her
Your strife. She will assuage it as is well.
[Sidenote: vv. 634-648]
JOCASTA.
Vain men, what would ye with this angry swell
Of words heart-blinded? Is there in your eyes
No pity, thus, when all our city lies
Bleeding, to ply your privy hates?... Alack,
My lord, come in!--Thou, Creon, get thee back
To thine own house. And stir not to such stress
Of peril griefs that are but nothingness.
CREON.
Sister, it is the pleasure of thy lord,
Our King, to do me deadly wrong. His word
Is passed on me: 'tis banishment or death.
OEDIPUS.
I found him ... I deny not what he saith,
My Queen ... with craft and malice practising
Against my life.
CREON.
Ye Gods, if such a thing
Hath once been in my thoughts, may I no more
See any health on earth, but, festered o'er
With curses, die!--Have done. There is mine oath.
JOCASTA.
In God's name, Oedipus, believe him, both
For my sake, and for these whose hearts are all
Thine own, and for my brother's oath withal.
[Sidenote: vv. 649-664]
LEADER. [_Strophe._
Yield; consent; think! My Lord, I conjure thee!
OEDIPUS.
What would ye have me do?
LEADER.
Reject not one who never failed his troth
Of old and now is strong in his great oath.
OEDIPUS.
Dost know what this prayer means?
LEADER.
Yea, verily!
OEDIPUS.
Say then the meaning true.
LEADER.
I would not have thee cast to infamy
Of guilt, where none is proved,
One who hath sworn and whom thou once hast loved.
OEDIPUS.
'Tis that ye seek? For me, then ... understand
Well ... ye seek death or exile from the land.
LEADER.
No, by the God of Gods, the all-seeing Sun!
May he desert me here, and every friend
With him, to death and utterest malison,
If e'er my heart could dream of such an end!
[Sidenote: vv. 665-680]
But it bleedeth, it bleedeth sore,
In a land half slain,
If we join to the griefs of yore
Griefs of you twain.
OEDIPUS.
Oh, let him go, though it be utterly
My death, or flight from Thebes in beggary.
'Tis thy sad lips, not his, that make me know
Pity. Him I shall hate, where'er he go.
CREON.
I see thy mercy moving full of hate
And slow; thy wrath came swift and desperate.
Methinks, of all the pain that such a heart
Spreadeth, itself doth bear the bitterest part.
OEDIPUS.
Oh, leave me and begone!
CREON.
I go, wronged sore
By thee. These friends will trust me as before.
[CREON _goes._ OEDIPUS _stands apart lost in
trouble of mind._
LEADER. [_Antistrophe._
Queen, wilt thou lead him to his house again?
JOCASTA.
I will, when I have heard.
[Sidenote: vv. 681-696]
LEADER.
There fell some word, some blind imagining
Between them. Things known foolish yet can sting.
JOCASTA.
From both the twain it rose?
LEADER.
From both the twain.
JOCASTA.
Aye, and what was the word?
LEADER.
Surely there is enough of evil stirred,
And Thebes heaves on the swell
Of storm.--Oh, leave this lying where it fell.
OEDIPUS.
So be it, thou wise counsellor! Make slight
My wrong, and blunt my purpose ere it smite.
LEADER.
O King, not once I have answered. Visibly
Mad were I, lost to all wise usages,
To seek to cast thee from us. 'Twas from thee
We saw of old blue sky and summer seas,
When Thebes in the storm and rain
Reeled, like to die.
Oh, if thou canst, again
Blue sky, blue sky...!
[Sidenote: vv. 697-713]
JOCASTA.
Husband, in God's name, say what hath ensued
Of ill, that thou shouldst seek so dire a feud.
OEDIPUS.
I will, wife. I have more regard for thee
Than these.--Thy brother plots to murder me.
JOCASTA.
Speak on. Make all thy charge. Only be clear.
OEDIPUS.
He says that I am Laius' murderer.
JOCASTA.
Says it himself? Says he hath witnesses?
OEDIPUS.
Nay, of himself he ventures nothing. 'Tis
This priest, this hellish seer, makes all the tale.
JOCASTA.
The seer?--Then tear thy terrors like a veil
And take free breath. A seer? No human thing
Born on the earth hath power for conjuring
Truth from the dark of God.
Come, I will tell
An old tale. There came once an oracle
To Laius: I say not from the God
Himself, but from the priests and seers who trod
His sanctuary: if ever son were bred
From him and me, by that son's hand, it said,
[Sidenote: vv. 714-732]
Laius must die. And he, the tale yet stays
Among us, at the crossing of three ways
Was slain by robbers, strangers. And my son--
God's mercy!--scarcely the third day was gone
When Laius took, and by another's hand
Out on the desert mountain, where the land
Is rock, cast him to die. Through both his feet
A blade of iron they drove. Thus did we cheat
Apollo of his will. My child could slay
No father, and the King could cast away
The fear that dogged him, by his child to die
Murdered.--Behold the fruits of prophecy!
Which heed not thou! God needs not that a seer
Help him, when he would make his dark things clear.
OEDIPUS.
Woman, what turmoil hath thy story wrought
Within me! What up-stirring of old thought!
JOCASTA.
What thought? It turns thee like a frightened thing.
OEDIPUS.
'Twas at the crossing of three ways this King
Was murdered? So I heard or so I thought.
JOCASTA.
That was the tale. It is not yet forgot.
OEDIPUS.
The crossing of three ways! And in what land?
[Sidenote: vv. 733-746]
JOCASTA.
Phokis 'tis called. A road on either hand
From Delphi comes and Daulia, in a glen.
OEDIPUS.
How many years and months have passed since then?
JOCASTA.
'Twas but a little time before proclaim
Was made of thee for king, the tidings came.
OEDIPUS.
My God, what hast thou willed to do with me?
JOCASTA.
Oedipus, speak! What is it troubles thee?
OEDIPUS.
Ask me not yet. But say, what build, what height
Had Laius? Rode he full of youth and might?
JOCASTA.
Tall, with the white new gleaming on his brow
He walked. In shape just such a man as thou.
OEDIPUS.
God help me! I much fear that I have wrought
A curse on mine own head, and knew it not.
JOCASTA.
How sayst thou? O my King, I look on thee
And tremble.
[Sidenote: vv. 747-760]
OEDIPUS (_to himself_).
Horror, if the blind can see!
Answer but one thing and 'twill all be clear.
JOCASTA.
Speak. I will answer though I shake with fear.
OEDIPUS.
Went he with scant array, or a great band
Of armed followers, like a lord of land?
JOCASTA.
Four men were with him, one a herald; one
Chariot there was, where Laius rode alone.
OEDIPUS.
Aye me! Tis clear now.
Woman, who could bring
To Thebes the story of that manslaying?
JOCASTA.
A house-thrall, the one man they failed to slay.
OEDIPUS.
The one man...? Is he in the house to-day?
JOCASTA.
Indeed no. When he came that day, and found
Thee on the throne where once sat Laius crowned,
He took my hand and prayed me earnestly
[Sidenote: vv. 761-779]
To send him to the mountain heights, to be
A herdsman, far from any sight or call
Of Thebes. And there I sent him. 'Twas a thrall
Good-hearted, worthy a far greater boon.
OEDIPUS.
Canst find him? I would see this herd, and soon.
JOCASTA.
'Tis easy. But what wouldst thou with the herd?
OEDIPUS.
I fear mine own voice, lest it spoke a word
Too much; whereof this man must tell me true.
JOCASTA.
The man shall come.--My lord, methinks I too
Should know what fear doth work thee this despite.
OEDIPUS.
Thou shalt. When I am tossed to such an height
Of dark foreboding, woman, when my mind
Faceth such straits as these, where should I find
A mightier love than thine?
My father--thus
I tell thee the whole tale--was Polybus,
In Corinth King; my mother Merope
Of Dorian line. And I was held to be
The proudest in Corinthia, till one day
A thing befell: strange was it, but no way
Meet for such wonder and such rage as mine.
A feast it was, and some one flushed with wine
[Sidenote: vv. 780-807]
Cried out at me that I was no true son
Of Polybus. Oh, I was wroth! That one
Day I kept silence, but the morrow morn
I sought my parents, told that tale of scorn
And claimed the truth; and they rose in their pride
And smote the mocker.... Aye, they satisfied
All my desire; yet still the cavil gnawed
My heart, and still the story crept abroad.
At last I rose--my father knew not, nor
My mother--and went forth to Pytho's floor
To ask. And God in that for which I came
Rejected me, but round me, like a flame,
His voice flashed other answers, things of woe,
Terror, and desolation. I must know
My mother's body and beget thereon
A race no mortal eye durst look upon,
And spill in murder mine own father's blood.
I heard, and, hearing, straight from where I stood,
No landmark but the stars to light my way,
Fled, fled from the dark south where Corinth lay,