The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Oedipus Trilogy, by Sophocles ...
The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Oedipus Trilogy, by Sophocles ... The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Oedipus Trilogy, by Sophocles ...
Unnatural silence signifies no good. CHORUS CREON (Str. 1) Lo! the King himself appears. Evidence he with him bears 'Gainst himself (ah me! I quake 'Gainst a king such charge to make) But all must own, The guilt is his and his alone. Woe for sin of minds perverse, Deadly fraught with mortal curse. Behold us slain and slayers, all akin. Woe for my counsel dire, conceived in sin. Alas, my son, Life scarce begun, Thou wast undone. The fault was mine, mine only, O my son! CHORUS Too late thou seemest to perceive the truth. CREON (Str. 2) By sorrow schooled. Heavy the hand of God, Thorny and rough the paths my feet have trod, Humbled my pride, my pleasure turned to pain; Poor mortals, how we labor all in vain! [Enter SECOND MESSENGER] SECOND MESSENGER Sorrows are thine, my lord, and more to come, One lying at thy feet, another yet More grievous waits thee, when thou comest home. CREON What woe is lacking to my tale of woes? SECOND MESSENGER Thy wife, the mother of thy dead son here, Lies stricken by a fresh inflicted blow. CREON (Ant. 1) How bottomless the pit! Does claim me too, O Death? What is this word he saith, This woeful messenger? Say, is it fit To slay anew a man already slain? Is Death at work again, Stroke upon stroke, first son, then mother slain? CHORUS Look for thyself. She lies for all to view.
CREON (Ant. 2) Alas! another added woe I see. What more remains to crown my agony? A minute past I clasped a lifeless son, And now another victim Death hath won. Unhappy mother, most unhappy son! SECOND MESSENGER Beside the altar on a keen-edged sword She fell and closed her eyes in night, but erst She mourned for Megareus who nobly died Long since, then for her son; with her last breath She cursed thee, the slayer of her child. CREON (Str. 3) I shudder with affright O for a two-edged sword to slay outright A wretch like me, Made one with misery. SECOND MESSENGER 'Tis true that thou wert charged by the dead Queen As author of both deaths, hers and her son's. CREON In what wise was her self-destruction wrought? SECOND MESSENGER Hearing the loud lament above her son With her own hand she stabbed herself to the heart. CREON (Str. 4) I am the guilty cause. I did the deed, Thy murderer. Yea, I guilty plead. My henchmen, lead me hence, away, away, A cipher, less than nothing; no delay! CHORUS Well said, if in disaster aught is well His past endure demand the speediest cure. CREON (Ant. 3) Come, Fate, a friend at need, Come with all speed! Come, my best friend, And speed my end! Away, away! Let me not look upon another day! CHORUS This for the morrow; to us are present needs That they whom it concerns must take in hand.
- Page 81 and 82: (Ant. 1) Haply on swiftest steed, O
- Page 83 and 84: What say I? Can I wish that thou sh
- Page 85 and 86: Grievous to me, my child, the boon
- Page 87 and 88: But by his popular acts; and the pr
- Page 89 and 90: To Thebes, O then disown me not, I
- Page 91 and 92: Bristles for fear. Again that flare
- Page 93 and 94: For this way Hermes leads, the spir
- Page 95 and 96: That no man might endure to look up
- Page 97 and 98: ANTIGONE ISMENE Is fain? ANTIGONE I
- Page 99 and 100: Charged me straitly that no moral S
- Page 101 and 102: ANTIGONE Ismene, sister of my blood
- Page 103 and 104: ISMENE My poor, fond sister, how I
- Page 105 and 106: Again, when Oedipus restored our St
- Page 107 and 108: What say'st thou? Who hath dared to
- Page 109 and 110: (Str. 1) Many wonders there be, but
- Page 111 and 112: CREON Speak, girl, with head bent l
- Page 113 and 114: Surely, if good and evil fare alive
- Page 115 and 116: Thy choice with evil-doers to do il
- Page 117 and 118: But who begets unprofitable sons, H
- Page 119 and 120: Am I to rule for others, or myself?
- Page 121 and 122: Straight to folly will fall, at a t
- Page 123 and 124: Are guiltless as concerns this maid
- Page 125 and 126: By Destiny That knows not death nor
- Page 127 and 128: Dost know at whom thou glancest, me
- Page 129 and 130: (Ant. 1) Thee on the two-crested ro
- Page 131: And ran back to our lord to tell th
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Unnatural silence signifies no good.<br />
CHORUS<br />
CREON<br />
(Str. 1)<br />
Lo! the King himself appears.<br />
Evidence he with him bears<br />
'Gainst himself (ah me! I quake<br />
'Gainst a king such charge to make)<br />
But all must own,<br />
<strong>The</strong> guilt is his and his alone.<br />
Woe for sin <strong>of</strong> minds perverse,<br />
Deadly fraught with mortal curse.<br />
Behold us slain and slayers, all akin.<br />
Woe for my counsel dire, conceived in sin.<br />
Alas, my son,<br />
Life scarce begun,<br />
Thou wast undone.<br />
<strong>The</strong> fault was mine, mine only, O my son!<br />
CHORUS<br />
Too late thou seemest to perceive the truth.<br />
CREON<br />
(Str. 2)<br />
By sorrow schooled. Heavy the hand <strong>of</strong> God,<br />
Thorny and rough the paths my feet have trod,<br />
Humbled my pride, my pleasure turned to pain;<br />
Poor mortals, how we labor all in vain!<br />
[Enter SECOND MESSENGER]<br />
SECOND MESSENGER<br />
Sorrows are thine, my lord, and more to come,<br />
One lying at thy feet, another yet<br />
More grievous waits thee, when thou comest home.<br />
CREON<br />
What woe is lacking to my tale <strong>of</strong> woes?<br />
SECOND MESSENGER<br />
Thy wife, the mother <strong>of</strong> thy dead son here,<br />
Lies stricken <strong>by</strong> a fresh inflicted blow.<br />
CREON<br />
(Ant. 1)<br />
How bottomless the pit!<br />
Does claim me too, O Death?<br />
What is this word he saith,<br />
This woeful messenger? Say, is it fit<br />
To slay anew a man already slain?<br />
Is Death at work again,<br />
Stroke upon stroke, first son, then mother slain?<br />
CHORUS<br />
Look for thyself. She lies for all to view.
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