The Seven Plays in English Verse Part 21

PR. Rise then, my children. Even for this we came Which our good lord hath promised of himself.

Only may Phoebus, who hath sent this word, With healing power descend, and stay the plague. [_Exeunt severally_

CHORUS (_entering_).

Kind voice of Heaven, soft-breathing from the height I 1 Of Pytho's opulent home to Thebe bright, What wilt thou bring to day?

Ah, Delian Healer, say!

My heart hangs on thy word with trembling awe: What new giv'n law, Or what returning in Time's circling round Wilt thou unfold? Tell us, immortal sound, Daughter of golden Hope, tell us, we pray, we pray!

First, child of Zeus, Pallas, to thee appealing, I 2 Then to sweet Artemis, thy sister, kneeling, Who with benignant hand Still guards our sacred land, Throned o'er the circling mart that hears her praise, And thou, whose rays Pierce evil from afar, ho! come and save, Ye mighty three! if e'er before ye drave The threatening fire of woe from Thebe, come to day!

For ah! the griefs that on me weigh II 1 Are numberless; weak are my helpers all, And thought finds not a sword to fray This hated pestilence from hearth or hall.

Earth's blossoms blasted fall: Nor can our women rise From childbed after pangs and cries; But flocking more and more Toward the western sh.o.r.e, Soul after soul is known to wing her flight, Swifter than quenchless flame, to the far realm of Night.

So deaths innumerable abound. II 2 My city's sons unpitied lie around Over the plague-enc.u.mbered ground And wives and matrons old on every hand Along the altar-strand Groaning in saddest grief Pour supplication for relief.

Loud hymns are sounding clear With wailing voices near.

Then, golden daughter of the heavenly sire, Send bright-eyed Succour forth to drive away this fire.

And swiftly speed afar, III 1 Windborne on backward car, The viewless fiend who scares me with wild cries, To oarless Thracian tide, Of ocean-chambers wide, About the bed where Amphitrite lies.

Day blights what night hath spared. O thou whose hand Wields lightning, blast him with thy thundrous brand.

Shower from the golden string III 2 Thine arrows Lycian King!

O Phoebus, let thy fiery lances fly Resistless, as they rove Through Xanthus' mountain-grove!

O Thoeban Bacchus of the l.u.s.trous eye, With torch and trooping Maenads and bright crown Blaze on thee G.o.d whom all in Heaven disown.

[OEDIPUS _has entered during the Choral song_

OED. Your prayers are answered. Succour and relief Are yours, if ye will heed my voice and yield What help the plague requires. Hear it from me, Who am hitherto a stranger to the tale, As to the crime. Being nought concerned therewith, I could not of myself divine the truth.

But now, as one adopted to your state, To all of you Cadmeans I speak this: Whoe'er among you knoweth the murderer Of Laius, son of royal Labdacus, Let him declare the deed in full to me.

First, if the man himself be touched with fear, Let him depart, carrying the guilt away; No harm shall follow him:--he shall go free.

Or if there be who knows another here, Come from some other country, to have wrought This murder, let him speak. Reward from me And store of kind remembrance shall be his.

But if ye are silent, and one present here Who might have uttered this, shall hold his peace, As fearing for himself, or for his friend, What then shall be performed, hear me proclaim.

I here prohibit all within this realm Whereof I wield the sceptre and sole sway, To admit the murderer, whosoe'er he be, Within their houses, or to speak with him, Or share with him in vow or sacrifice Or l.u.s.tral rite. All men shall thrust him forth, Our dark pollution, so to me revealed By this day's oracle from Pytho's cell.

So firm is mine allegiance to the G.o.d And your dead sovereign in this holy war.

Now on the man of blood, whether he lurk In lonely guilt, or with a numerous band, I here p.r.o.nounce this curse:--Let his crushed life Wither forlorn in hopeless misery.

Next, I pray Heaven, should he or they be housed With mine own knowledge in my home, that I May suffer all I imprecate on them.

Last, I enjoin each here to lend his aid For my sake, and the G.o.d's, and for your land Reft of her increase and renounced by Heaven.

It was not right, when your good king had fallen, Although the oracle were silent still, To leave this inquisition unperformed.

Long since ye should have purged the crime. But now I, to whom fortune hath transferred his crown, And given his queen in marriage,--yea, moreover, His seed and mine had been one family Had not misfortune trampled on his head Cutting him off from fair posterity,-- All this being so, I will maintain his cause As if my father's, racking means and might To apprehend the author of the death Of Laius, son to Labdacus, and heir To Polydorus and to Cadmus old, And proud Agenor of the eldest time.

Once more, to all who disobey in this May Heaven deny the produce of the ground And offspring from their wives, and may they pine With plagues more horrible than this to-day.

But for the rest of you Cadmean men, Who now embrace my word, may Righteousness, Strong to defend, and all the G.o.ds for aye Watch over you for blessing in your land.

LEADER OF CH. Under the shadow of thy curse, my lord, I will speak. I slew him not, nor can I show The man who slew. Phoebus, who gave the word, Should name the guilty one.

OED. Thy thought is just, But man may not compel the G.o.ds.

CH. Again, That failing, I perceive a second way.

OED. Were there a third, spare not to speak it forth.

CH. I know of one alone whose kingly mind Sees all King Phoebus sees--Tiresias,--he Infallibly could guide us in this quest.

OED. That doth not count among my deeds undone.

By Creon's counsel I have sent twice o'er To fetch him, and I muse at his delay.

CH. The rumour that remains is old and dim.

OED. What rumour? Let no tale be left untried.

CH. 'Twas said he perished by some wandering band.

OED. But the one witness is removed from ken.

CH. Well, if the man be capable of fear, He'll not remain when he hath heard thy curse.

OED. Words have no terror for the soul that dares Such doings.

CH. Yet lives one who shall convict him.

For look where now they lead the holy seer, Whom sacred Truth inspires alone of men.

_Enter_ TIRESIAS.

OED. O thou whose universal thought commands All knowledge and all mysteries, in Heaven And on the earth beneath, thy mind perceives, Tiresias, though thine outward eye be dark, What plague is wasting Thebe, who in thee, Great Sir, finds her one saviour, her sole guide.

Phoebus (albeit the messengers perchance Have told thee this) upon our sending sent This answer back, that no release might come From this disaster, till we sought and found And slew the murderers of king Laius, Or drave them exiles from our land. Thou, then, Withhold not any word of augury Or other divination which thou knowest, But rescue Thebe, and thyself, and me, And purge the stain that issues from the dead.

On thee we lean: and 'tis a n.o.ble thing To use what power one hath in doing good.

TIRESIAS. Ah! terrible is knowledge to the man Whom knowledge profits not. This well I knew, But had forgotten. Else I ne'er had come.

OED. Why dost thou bring a mind so full of gloom?

TI. Let me go home. Thy part and mine to-day Will best be borne, if thou obey me in that.

OED. Disloyal and ungrateful! to deprive The state that reared thee of thine utterance now.

TI. Thy speech, I see, is foiling thine intent; And I would s.h.i.+eld me from the like mishap. (_Going._)

OED. Nay, if thou knowest, turn thee not away: All here with suppliant hands importune thee.

TI. Yea, for ye all are blind. Never will I Reveal my woe;--mine, that I say not, thine.

OED. So, then, thou hast the knowledge of the crime And wilt not tell, but rather wouldst betray This people, and destroy thy fatherland!

TI. You press me to no purpose. I'll not pain Thee, nor myself. Thou wilt hear nought from me.

OED. How? Miscreant! Thy stubbornness would rouse Wrath in a breast of stone. Wilt thou yet hold That silent, hard, impenetrable mien?

TI. You censure me for my harsh mood. Your own Dwells unsuspected with you. Me you blame!

OED. Who can be mild and gentle, when thou speakest Such words to mock this people?

TI. It will come: Although I bury it in silence here.