Oedipus Trilogy Part 29

ANTIGONE Guilty. I did it, I deny it not.

CREON (to GUARD) Sirrah, begone whither thou wilt, and thank Thy luck that thou hast 'scaped a heavy charge.

(To ANTIGONE) Now answer this plain question, yes or no, Wast thou acquainted with the interdict?

ANTIGONE I knew, all knew; how should I fail to know?

CREON And yet wert bold enough to break the law?

ANTIGONE Yea, for these laws were not ordained of Zeus, And she who sits enthroned with G.o.ds below, Justice, enacted not these human laws.

Nor did I deem that thou, a mortal man, Could'st by a breath annul and override The immutable unwritten laws of Heaven.

They were not born today nor yesterday; They die not; and none knoweth whence they sprang.

I was not like, who feared no mortal's frown, To disobey these laws and so provoke The wrath of Heaven. I knew that I must die, E'en hadst thou not proclaimed it; and if death Is thereby hastened, I shall count it gain.

For death is gain to him whose life, like mine, Is full of misery. Thus my lot appears Not sad, but blissful; for had I endured To leave my mother's son unburied there, I should have grieved with reason, but not now.

And if in this thou judgest me a fool, Methinks the judge of folly's not acquit.

CHORUS A stubborn daughter of a stubborn sire, This ill-starred maiden kicks against the p.r.i.c.ks.

CREON Well, let her know the stubbornest of wills Are soonest bended, as the hardest iron, O'er-heated in the fire to brittleness, Flies soonest into fragments, s.h.i.+vered through.

A snaffle curbs the fieriest steed, and he Who in subjection lives must needs be meek.

But this proud girl, in insolence well-schooled, First overstepped the established law, and then-- A second and worse act of insolence-- She boasts and glories in her wickedness.

Now if she thus can flout authority Unpunished, I am woman, she the man.

But though she be my sister's child or nearer Of kin than all who wors.h.i.+p at my hearth, Nor she nor yet her sister shall escape The utmost penalty, for both I hold, As arch-conspirators, of equal guilt.

Bring forth the older; even now I saw her Within the palace, frenzied and distraught.

The workings of the mind discover oft Dark deeds in darkness schemed, before the act.

More hateful still the miscreant who seeks When caught, to make a virtue of a crime.

ANTIGONE Would'st thou do more than slay thy prisoner?

CREON Not I, thy life is mine, and that's enough.

ANTIGONE Why dally then? To me no word of thine Is pleasant: G.o.d forbid it e'er should please; Nor am I more acceptable to thee.

And yet how otherwise had I achieved A name so glorious as by burying A brother? so my townsmen all would say, Where they not gagged by terror, Manifold A king's prerogatives, and not the least That all his acts and all his words are law.

CREON Of all these Thebans none so deems but thou.

ANTIGONE These think as I, but bate their breath to thee.

CREON Hast thou no shame to differ from all these?

ANTIGONE To reverence kith and kin can bring no shame.

CREON Was his dead foeman not thy kinsman too?

ANTIGONE One mother bare them and the self-same sire.

CREON Why cast a slur on one by honoring one?

ANTIGONE The dead man will not bear thee out in this.

CREON Surely, if good and evil fare alive.

ANTIGONE The slain man was no villain but a brother.

CREON The patriot perished by the outlaw's brand.

ANTIGONE Nathless the realms below these rites require.

CREON Not that the base should fare as do the brave.

ANTIGONE Who knows if this world's crimes are virtues there?

CREON Not even death can make a foe a friend.

ANTIGONE My nature is for mutual love, not hate.

CREON Die then, and love the dead if thou must; No woman shall be the master while I live.

[Enter ISMENE]

CHORUS Lo from out the palace gate, Weeping o'er her sister's fate, Comes Ismene; see her brow, Once serene, beclouded now, See her beauteous face o'erspread With a flush of angry red.

CREON Woman, who like a viper unperceived Didst harbor in my house and drain my blood, Two plagues I nurtured blindly, so it proved, To sap my throne. Say, didst thou too abet This crime, or dost abjure all privity?

ISMENE I did the deed, if she will have it so, And with my sister claim to share the guilt.

ANTIGONE That were unjust. Thou would'st not act with me At first, and I refused thy partners.h.i.+p.

ISMENE But now thy bark is stranded, I am bold To claim my share as partner in the loss.

ANTIGONE Who did the deed the under-world knows well: A friend in word is never friend of mine.

ISMENE O sister, scorn me not, let me but share Thy work of piety, and with thee die.

ANTIGONE Claim not a work in which thou hadst no hand; One death sufficeth. Wherefore should'st thou die?

ISMENE What would life profit me bereft of thee?

ANTIGONE Ask Creon, he's thy kinsman and best friend.

ISMENE Why taunt me? Find'st thou pleasure in these gibes?

ANTIGONE 'Tis a sad mockery, if indeed I mock.

ISMENE O say if I can help thee even now.

ANTIGONE No, save thyself; I grudge not thy escape.

ISMENE Is e'en this boon denied, to share thy lot?

ANTIGONE Yea, for thou chosed'st life, and I to die.