OEDIPUS THE KING (Page 2)
CHORUS To one who walketh warily his words Commend themselves; swift counsels are not sure.
OEDIPUS When with swift strides the stealthy plotter stalks I must be quick too with my counterplot. To wait his onset passively, for him Is sure success, for me assured defeat.
CREON What then's thy will? To banish me the land?
OEDIPUS I would not have thee banished, no, but dead, That men may mark the wages envy reaps.
CREON I see thou wilt not yield, nor credit me.
OEDIPUS
[None but a fool would credit such as thou.] [3]
CREON Thou art not wise.
OEDIPUS Wise for myself at least.
CREON Why not for me too?
OEDIPUS Why for such a knave?
CREON Suppose thou lackest sense.
OEDIPUS Yet kings must rule.
CREON Not if they rule ill.
OEDIPUS Oh my Thebans, hear him!
CREON Thy Thebans? am not I a Theban too?
CHORUS Cease, princes; lo there comes, and none too soon, Jocasta from the palace. Who so fit As peacemaker to reconcile your feud?
[Enter JOCASTA.]
JOCASTA Misguided princes, why have ye upraised This wordy wrangle? Are ye not ashamed, While the whole land lies striken, thus to voice Your private injuries? Go in, my lord; Go home, my brother, and forebear to make A public scandal of a petty grief.
CREON My royal sister, Oedipus, thy lord, Hath bid me choose (O dread alternative!) An outlaw's exile or a felon's death.
OEDIPUS Yes, lady; I have caught him practicing Against my royal person his vile arts.
CREON May I ne'er speed but die accursed, if I In any way am guilty of this charge.
JOCASTA Believe him, I adjure thee, Oedipus, First for his solemn oath's sake, then for mine, And for thine elders' sake who wait on thee.
CHORUS
(Str. 1) Hearken, King, reflect, we pray thee, but not stubborn but relent.
OEDIPUS Say to what should I consent?
CHORUS Respect a man whose probity and troth Are known to all and now confirmed by oath.
OEDIPUS Dost know what grace thou cravest?
CHORUS Yea, I know.
OEDIPUS Declare it then and make thy meaning plain.
CHORUS Brand not a friend whom babbling tongues assail; Let not suspicion 'gainst his oath prevail.
OEDIPUS Bethink you that in seeking this ye seek In very sooth my death or banishment?
CHORUS No, by the leader of the host divine!(Str. 2) Witness, thou Sun, such thought was never mine, Unblest, unfriended may I perish, If ever I such wish did cherish! But O my heart is desolate Musing on our striken State, Doubly fall'n should discord grow Twixt you twain, to crown our woe.
OEDIPUS Well, let him go, no matter what it cost me, Or certain death or shameful banishment, For your sake I relent, not his; and him, Where'er he be, my heart shall still abhor.
CREON Thou art as sullen in thy yielding mood As in thine anger thou wast truculent. Such tempers justly plague themselves the most.
OEDIPUS Leave me in peace and get thee gone.
CREON I go,
By thee misjudged, but justified by these.
[Exeunt CREON]
CHORUS
(Ant. 1) Lady, lead indoors thy consort; wherefore longer here delay?
JOCASTA Tell me first how rose the fray.
CHORUS Rumors bred unjust suspicious and injustice rankles sore.
JOCASTA Were both at fault?
CHORUS Both.
JOCASTA What was the tale?
CHORUS Ask me no more. The land is sore distressed;
'Twere better sleeping ills to leave at rest.
OEDIPUS Strange counsel, friend! I know thou mean'st me well, And yet would'st mitigate and blunt my zeal.
CHORUS
(Ant. 2) King, I say it once again, Witless were I proved, insane, If I lightly put away Thee my country's prop and stay, Pilot who, in danger sought, To a quiet haven brought Our distracted State; and now Who can guide us right but thou?
JOCASTA Let me too, I adjure thee, know, O king, What cause has stirred this unrelenting wrath.
OEDIPUS I will, for thou art more to me than these. Lady, the cause is Creon and his plots.
JOCASTA But what provoked the quarrel? make this clear.
OEDIPUS He points me out as Laius' murderer.
JOCASTA Of his own knowledge or upon report?
OEDIPUS He is too cunning to commit himself, And makes a mouthpiece of a knavish seer.
JOCASTA Then thou mayest ease thy conscience on that score. Listen and I'll convince thee that no man Hath scot or lot in the prophetic art. Here is the proof in brief. An oracle Once came to Laius (I will not say
'Twas from the Delphic god himself, but from His ministers) declaring he was doomed To perish by the hand of his own son, A child that should be born to him by me. Now Laius--so at least report affirmed-- Was murdered on a day by highwaymen, No natives, at a spot where three roads meet. As for the child, it was but three days old, When Laius, its ankles pierced and pinned Together, gave it to be cast away By others on the trackless mountain side. So then Apollo brought it not to pass The child should be his father's murderer, Or the dread terror find accomplishment, And Laius be slain by his own son. Such was the prophet's horoscope. O king, Regard it not. Whate'er the god deems fit To search, himself unaided will reveal.
OEDIPUS What memories, what wild tumult of the soul Came o'er me, lady, as I heard thee speak!
JOCASTA What mean'st thou? What has shocked and startled thee?
OEDIPUS Methought I heard thee say that Laius Was murdered at the meeting of three roads.
JOCASTA So ran the story that is current still.
OEDIPUS Where did this happen? Dost thou know the place?
JOCASTA Phocis the land is called; the spot is where Branch roads from Delphi and from Daulis meet.
OEDIPUS And how long is it since these things befell?
JOCASTA
'Twas but a brief while were thou wast proclaimed Our country's ruler that the news was brought.
OEDIPUS O Zeus, what hast thou willed to do with me!
JOCASTA What is it, Oedipus, that moves thee so?
OEDIPUS Ask me not yet; tell me the build and height Of Laius? Was he still in manhood's prime?
JOCASTA Tall was he, and his hair was lightly strewn With silver; and not unlike thee in form.
OEDIPUS O woe is me! Mehtinks unwittingly I laid but now a dread curse on myself.
JOCASTA What say'st thou? When I look upon thee, my king, I tremble.
OEDIPUS
'Tis a dread presentiment That in the end the seer will prove not blind. One further question to resolve my doubt.
JOCASTA I quail; but ask, and I will answer all.
OEDIPUS Had he but few attendants or a train Of armed retainers with him, like a prince?
JOCASTA They were but five in all, and one of them A herald; Laius in a mule-car rode.
OEDIPUS Alas! 'tis clear as noonday now. But say, Lady, who carried this report to Thebes?
JOCASTA A serf, the sole survivor who returned.
OEDIPUS Haply he is at hand or in the house?
JOCASTA No, for as soon as he returned and found Thee reigning in the stead of Laius slain, He clasped my hand and supplicated me To send him to the alps and pastures, where He might be farthest from the sight of Thebes. And so I sent him. 'Twas an honest slave And well deserved some better recompense.
OEDIPUS Fetch him at once. I fain would see the man.
JOCASTA He shall be brought; but wherefore summon him?
OEDIPUS Lady, I fear my tongue has overrun Discretion; therefore I would question him.
JOCASTA Well, he shall come, but may not I too claim To share the burden of thy heart, my king?
OEDIPUS And thou shalt not be frustrate of thy wish. Now my imaginings have gone so far. Who has a higher claim that thou to hear My tale of dire adventures? Listen then. My sire was Polybus of Corinth, and My mother Merope, a Dorian; And I was held the foremost citizen, Till a strange thing befell me, strange indeed, Yet scarce deserving all the heat it stirred. A roisterer at some banquet, flown with wine, Shouted "Thou art not true son of thy sire." It irked me, but I stomached for the nonce The insult; on the morrow I sought out My mother and my sire and questioned them. They were indignant at the random slur Cast on my parentage and did their best To comfort me, but still the venomed barb Rankled, for still the scandal spread and grew. So privily without their leave I went To Delphi, and Apollo sent me back Baulked of the knowledge that I came to seek. But other grievous things he prophesied, Woes, lamentations, mourning, portents dire; To wit I should defile my mother's bed And raise up seed too loathsome to behold, And slay the father from whose loins I sprang. Then, lady,--thou shalt hear the very truth-- As I drew near the triple-branching roads, A herald met me and a man who sat In a car drawn by colts--as in thy tale-- The man in front and the old man himself Threatened to thrust me rudely from the path, Then jostled by the charioteer in wrath I struck him, and the old man, seeing this, Watched till I passed and from his car brought down Full on my head the double-pointed goad. Yet was I quits with him and more; one stroke Of my good staff sufficed to fling him clean Out of the chariot seat and laid him prone. And so I slew them every one. But if Betwixt this stranger there was aught in common With Laius, who more miserable than I, What mortal could you find more god-abhorred? Wretch whom no sojourner, no citizen May harbor or address, whom all are bound To harry from their homes. And this same curse Was laid on me, and laid by none but me. Yea with these hands all gory I pollute The bed of him I slew. Say, am I vile? Am I not utterly unclean, a wretch Doomed to be banished, and in banishment Forgo the sight of all my dearest ones, And never tread again my native earth; Or else to wed my mother and slay my sire, Polybus, who begat me and upreared? If one should say, this is the handiwork Of some inhuman power, who could blame His judgment? But, ye pure and awful gods, Forbid, forbid that I should see that day! May I be blotted out from living men Ere such a plague spot set on me its brand!
CHORUS We too, O king, are troubled; but till thou Hast questioned the survivor, still hope on.
OEDIPUS My hope is faint, but still enough survives To bid me bide the coming of this herd.
JOCASTA Suppose him here, what wouldst thou learn of him?
OEDIPUS I'll tell thee, lady; if his tale agrees With thine, I shall have 'scaped calamity.
JOCASTA And what of special import did I say?
OEDIPUS In thy report of what the herdsman said Laius was slain by robbers; now if he Still speaks of robbers, not a robber, I Slew him not; "one" with "many" cannot square. But if he says one lonely wayfarer, The last link wanting to my guilt is forged.
JOCASTA Well, rest assured, his tale ran thus at first, Nor can he now retract what then he said; Not I alone but all our townsfolk heard it. E'en should he vary somewhat in his story, He cannot make the death of Laius In any wise jump with the oracle. For Loxias said expressly he was doomed To die by my child's hand, but he, poor babe, He shed no blood, but perished first himself. So much for divination. Henceforth I Will look for signs neither to right nor left.
OEDIPUS Thou reasonest well. Still I would have thee send And fetch the bondsman hither. See to it.
JOCASTA That will I straightway. Come, let us within. I would do nothing that my lord mislikes.
[Exeunt OEDIPUS and JOCASTA]
CHORUS
(Str. 1) My lot be still to lead The life of innocence and fly Irreverence in word or deed, To follow still those laws ordained on high Whose birthplace is the bright ethereal sky No mortal birth they own, Olympus their progenitor alone: Ne'er shall they slumber in oblivion cold, The god in them is strong and grows not old.
(Ant. 1) Of insolence is bred The tyrant; insolence full blown, With empty riches surfeited, Scales the precipitous height and grasps the throne. Then topples o'er and lies in ruin prone; No foothold on that dizzy steep. But O may Heaven the true patriot keep Who burns with emulous zeal to serve the State. God is my help and hope, on him I wait.
(Str. 2) But the proud sinner, or in word or deed, That will not Justice heed, Nor reverence the shrine Of images divine, Perdition seize his vain imaginings, If, urged by greed profane, He grasps at ill-got gain, And lays an impious hand on holiest things. Who when such deeds are done Can hope heaven's bolts to shun? If sin like this to honor can aspire, Why dance I still and lead the sacred choir?
(Ant. 2) No more I'll seek earth's central oracle, Or Abae's hallowed cell, Nor to Olympia bring My votive offering. If before all God's truth be not bade plain. O Zeus, reveal thy might, King, if thou'rt named aright Omnipotent, all-seeing, as of old; For Laius is forgot; His weird, men heed it not; Apollo is forsook and faith grows cold.
[Enter JOCASTA.]
JOCASTA My lords, ye look amazed to see your queen With wreaths and gifts of incense in her hands. I had a mind to visit the high shrines, For Oedipus is overwrought, alarmed With terrors manifold. He will not use His past experience, like a man of sense, To judge the present need, but lends an ear To any croaker if he augurs ill. Since then my counsels naught avail, I turn To thee, our present help in time of trouble, Apollo, Lord Lycean, and to thee My prayers and supplications here I bring. Lighten us, lord, and cleanse us from this curse! For now we all are cowed like mariners Who see their helmsman dumbstruck in the storm.
[Enter Corinthian MESSENGER.]
MESSENGER My masters, tell me where the palace is Of Oedipus; or better, where's the king.
CHORUS Here is the palace and he bides within; This is his queen the mother of his children.
MESSENGER All happiness attend her and the house, Blessed is her husband and her marriage-bed.
JOCASTA My greetings to thee, stranger; thy fair words Deserve a like response. But tell me why Thou comest--what thy need or what thy news.
MESSENGER Good for thy consort and the royal house.
JOCASTA What may it be? Whose messenger art thou?
MESSENGER The Isthmian commons have resolved to make Thy husband king--so 'twas reported there.
JOCASTA What! is not aged Polybus still king?
MESSENGER No, verily; he's dead and in his grave.
JOCASTA What! is he dead, the sire of Oedipus?
MESSENGER If I speak falsely, may I die myself.
JOCASTA Quick, maiden, bear these tidings to my lord. Ye god-sent oracles, where stand ye now! This is the man whom Oedipus long shunned, In dread to prove his murderer; and now He dies in nature's course, not by his hand.
[Enter OEDIPUS.]
OEDIPUS My wife, my queen, Jocasta, why hast thou Summoned me from my palace?
JOCASTA Hear this man, And as thou hearest judge what has become Of all those awe-inspiring oracles.
OEDIPUS Who is this man, and what his news for me?
JOCASTA He comes from Corinth and his message this: Thy father Polybus hath passed away.
OEDIPUS What? let me have it, stranger, from thy mouth.
MESSENGER If I must first make plain beyond a doubt My message, know that Polybus is dead.
OEDIPUS By treachery, or by sickness visited?
MESSENGER One touch will send an old man to his rest.
OEDIPUS So of some malady he died, poor man.
MESSENGER Yes, having measured the full span of years.
OEDIPUS Out on it, lady! why should one regard The Pythian hearth or birds that scream i' the air? Did they not point at me as doomed to slay My father? but he's dead and in his grave And here am I who ne'er unsheathed a sword; Unless the longing for his absent son Killed him and so I slew him in a sense. But, as they stand, the oracles are dead-- Dust, ashes, nothing, dead as Polybus.
JOCASTA Say, did not I foretell this long ago?
OEDIPUS Thou didst: but I was misled by my fear.
JOCASTA Then let I no more weigh upon thy soul.
OEDIPUS Must I not fear my mother's marriage bed.
JOCASTA Why should a mortal man, the sport of chance, With no assured foreknowledge, be afraid? Best live a careless life from hand to mouth. This wedlock with thy mother fear not thou. How oft it chances that in dreams a man Has wed his mother! He who least regards Such brainsick phantasies lives most at ease.
OEDIPUS I should have shared in full thy confidence, Were not my mother living; since she lives Though half convinced I still must live in dread.
JOCASTA And yet thy sire's death lights out darkness much.
OEDIPUS Much, but my fear is touching her who lives.
MESSENGER Who may this woman be whom thus you fear?
OEDIPUS Merope, stranger, wife of Polybus.
MESSENGER And what of her can cause you any fear?
OEDIPUS A heaven-sent oracle of dread import.
MESSENGER A mystery, or may a stranger hear it?
OEDIPUS Aye, 'tis no secret. Loxias once foretold That I should mate with mine own mother, and shed With my own hands the blood of my own sire. Hence Corinth was for many a year to me A home distant; and I trove abroad, But missed the sweetest sight, my parents' face.
MESSENGER Was this the fear that exiled thee from home?
OEDIPUS Yea, and the dread of slaying my own sire.
MESSENGER Why, since I came to give thee pleasure, King, Have I not rid thee of this second fear?
OEDIPUS Well, thou shalt have due guerdon for thy pains.
MESSENGER Well, I confess what chiefly made me come Was hope to profit by thy coming home.
OEDIPUS Nay, I will ne'er go near my parents more.
MESSENGER My son, 'tis plain, thou know'st not what thou doest.
OEDIPUS How so, old man? For heaven's sake tell me all.
MESSENGER If this is why thou dreadest to return.
OEDIPUS Yea, lest the god's word be fulfilled in me.
MESSENGER Lest through thy parents thou shouldst be accursed?
OEDIPUS This and none other is my constant dread.
MESSENGER Dost thou not know thy fears are baseless all?
OEDIPUS How baseless, if I am their very son?
MESSENGER Since Polybus was naught to thee in blood.
OEDIPUS What say'st thou? was not Polybus my sire?
MESSENGER As much thy sire as I am, and no more.
OEDIPUS My sire no more to me than one who is naught?
MESSENGER Since I begat thee not, no more did he.
OEDIPUS What reason had he then to call me son?
MESSENGER Know that he took thee from my hands, a gift.
OEDIPUS Yet, if no child of his, he loved me well.
MESSENGER A childless man till then, he warmed to thee.
OEDIPUS A foundling or a purchased slave, this child?
MESSENGER I found thee in Cithaeron's wooded glens.
OEDIPUS What led thee to explore those upland glades?
MESSENGER My business was to tend the mountain flocks.
OEDIPUS A vagrant shepherd journeying for hire?
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.
OEDIPUS Let the storm burst, my fixed resolve still holds, To learn my lineage, be it ne'er so low. It may be she with all a woman's pride Thinks scorn of my base parentage. But I Who rank myself as Fortune's favorite child, The giver of good gifts, shall not be shamed. She is my mother and the changing moons My brethren, and with them I wax and wane. Thus sprung why should I fear to trace my birth? Nothing can make me other than I am.
CHORUS
(Str.) If my soul prophetic err not, if my wisdom aught avail, Thee, Cithaeron, I shall hail, As the nurse and foster-mother of our Oedipus shall greet Ere tomorrow's full moon rises, and exalt thee as is meet. Dance and song shall hymn thy praises, lover of our royal race. Phoebus, may my words find grace!
(Ant.) Child, who bare thee, nymph or goddess? sure thy sure was more than man,
Haply the hill-roamer Pan. Of did Loxias beget thee, for he haunts the upland wold; Or Cyllene's lord, or Bacchus, dweller on the hilltops cold? Did some Heliconian Oread give him thee, a new-born joy? Nymphs with whom he love to toy?
OEDIPUS Elders, if I, who never yet before Have met the man, may make a guess, methinks I see the herdsman who we long have sought; His time-worn aspect matches with the years Of yonder aged messenger; besides I seem to recognize the men who bring him As servants of my own. But you, perchance, Having in past days known or seen the herd, May better by sure knowledge my surmise.
CHORUS I recognize him; one of Laius' house; A simple hind, but true as any man.
[Enter HERDSMAN.]
OEDIPUS Corinthian, stranger, I address thee first, Is this the man thou meanest!
MESSENGER This is he.
OEDIPUS And now old man, look up and answer all I ask thee. Wast thou once of Laius' house?
HERDSMAN I was, a thrall, not purchased but home-bred.
OEDIPUS What was thy business? how wast thou employed?
HERDSMAN The best part of my life I tended sheep.
OEDIPUS What were the pastures thou didst most frequent?
HERDSMAN Cithaeron and the neighboring alps.
OEDIPUS Then there Thou must have known yon man, at least by fame?
HERDSMAN Yon man? in what way? what man dost thou mean?
OEDIPUS The man here, having met him in past times...
HERDSMAN Off-hand I cannot call him well to mind.
MESSENGER No wonder, master. But I will revive His blunted memories. Sure he can recall What time together both we drove our flocks, He two, I one, on the Cithaeron range, For three long summers; I his mate from spring Till rose Arcturus; then in winter time I led mine home, he his to Laius' folds. Did these things happen as I say, or no?
HERDSMAN
'Tis long ago, but all thou say'st is true.
MESSENGER Well, thou mast then remember giving me A child to rear as my own foster-son?
HERDSMAN Why dost thou ask this question? What of that?
MESSENGER Friend, he that stands before thee was that child.
HERDSMAN A plague upon thee! Hold thy wanton tongue!
OEDIPUS Softly, old man, rebuke him not; thy words Are more deserving chastisement than his.
HERDSMAN O best of masters, what is my offense?
OEDIPUS Not answering what he asks about the child.
HERDSMAN He speaks at random, babbles like a fool.
OEDIPUS If thou lack'st grace to speak, I'll loose thy tongue.
HERDSMAN For mercy's sake abuse not an old man.
OEDIPUS Arrest the villain, seize and pinion him!
HERDSMAN Alack, alack! What have I done? what wouldst thou further learn?
OEDIPUS Didst give this man the child of whom he asks?
HERDSMAN I did; and would that I had died that day!
OEDIPUS And die thou shalt unless thou tell the truth.
HERDSMAN But, if I tell it, I am doubly lost.
OEDIPUS The knave methinks will still prevaricate.
HERDSMAN Nay, I confessed I gave it long ago.
OEDIPUS Whence came it? was it thine, or given to thee?
HERDSMAN I had it from another, 'twas not mine.
OEDIPUS From whom of these our townsmen, and what house?
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