The Seven Plays in English Verse Part 5

ANT. Who did the deed, the powers beneath can tell.

I care not for lip-kindness from my kin.

ISM. Ah! scorn me not so far as to forbid me To die with thee, and honour our lost brother.

ANT. Die not with me, nor make your own a deed you never touched! My dying is enough.

ISM. What joy have I in life when thou art gone?

ANT. Ask Creon there. He hath your care and duty.

ISM. What can it profit thee to vex me so?

ANT. My heart is pained, though my lip laughs at thee.

ISM. What can I do for thee now, even now?

ANT. Save your own life. I grudge not your escape.

ISM. Alas! and must I be debarred thy fate?

ANT. Life was the choice you made. Mine was to die.

ISM. I warned thee----

ANT. Yes, your prudence is admired On earth. My wisdom is approved below.

ISM. Yet truly we are both alike in fault.

ANT. Fear not; you live. My life hath long been given To death, to be of service to the dead.

CR. Of these two girls, the one hath lost her wits: The other hath had none since she was born.

ISM. My lord, in misery, the mind one hath Is wont to be dislodged, and will not stay.

CR. You have ta'en leave of yours at any rate, When you cast in your portion with the vile.

ISM. What can life profit me without my sister?

CR. Say not 'my sister'; she is nothing now.

ISM. What? wilt thou kill thy son's espousal too?

CR. He may find other fields to plough upon.

ISM. Not so as love was plighted 'twixt them twain.

CR. I hate a wicked consort for my son.

ANT. O dearest Haemon! how thy father wrongs thee!

CR. Thou and thy marriage are a torment to me.

CH. And wilt thou sever her from thine own son?

CR. 'Tis death must come between him and his joy,

CH. All doubt is then resolved: the maid must die,

CR. I am resolved; and so, 'twould seem, are you.

In with her, slaves! No more delay! Henceforth These maids must have but woman's liberty And be mewed up; for even the bold will fly When they see Death nearing the house of life.

[ANTIGONE _and_ ISMENE _are led into the palace._

CHORUS.

Blest is the life that never tasted woe. I 1 When once the blow Hath fallen upon a house with Heaven-sent doom, Trouble descends in ever-widening gloom Through all the number of the tribe to flow; As when the briny surge That Thrace-born tempests urge (The big wave ever gathering more and more) Runs o'er the darkness of the deep, And with far-searching sweep Uprolls the storm-heap'd tangle on the sh.o.r.e, While cliff to beaten cliff resounds with sullen roar.

The stock of Cadmus from old time, I know, I 2 Hath woe on woe, Age following age, the living on the dead, Fresh sorrow falling on each new-ris'n head, None freed by G.o.d from ruthless overthrow.

E'en now a smiling light Was spreading to our sight O'er one last fibre of a blasted tree,-- When, lo! the dust of cruel death, Tribute of G.o.ds beneath, And wildering thoughts, and fate-born ecstasy, Quench the brief gleam in dark Nonent.i.ty.

What froward will of man, O Zeus! can check thy might? II 1 Not all-enfeebling sleep, nor tireless months divine, Can touch thee, who through ageless time Rulest mightily Olympus' dazzling height.

This was in the beginning, and shall be Now and eternally, Not here or there, but everywhere, A law of misery that shall not spare.

For Hope, that wandereth wide, comforting many a head, II 2 Entangleth many more with glamour of desire: Unknowing they have trode the fire.

Wise was the famous word of one who said, 'Evil oft seemeth goodness to the mind An angry G.o.d doth blind.'

Few are the days that such as he May live untroubled of calamity.

LEADER OF CHORUS.

Lo, Haemon, thy last offspring, now is come, Lamenting haply for the maiden's doom, Say, is he mourning o'er her young life lost, Fiercely indignant for his bridal crossed?

_Enter_ HAEMON.

CR. We shall know soon, better than seers could teach us.

Can it be so, my son, that thou art brought By mad distemperature against thy sire, On hearing of the irrevocable doom Pa.s.sed on thy promised bride? Or is thy love Thy father's, be his actions what they may?

HAEMON. I am thine, father, and will follow still Thy good directions; nor would I prefer The fairest bride to thy wise government.

CR. That, O my son! should be thy constant mind, In all to bend thee to thy father's will.

Therefore men pray to have around their hearths Obedient offspring, to requite their foes With harm, and honour whom their father loves; But he whose issue proves unprofitable, Begets what else but sorrow to himself And store of laughter to his enemies?

Make not, my son, a s.h.i.+pwreck of thy wit For a woman. Thine own heart may teach thee this;-- There's but cold comfort in a wicked wife Yoked to the home inseparably. What wound Can be more deadly than a harmful friend?

Then spurn her like an enemy, and send her To wed some shadow in the world below!

For since of all the city I have found Her only recusant, caught in the act, I will not break my word before the State.

I will take her life. At this let her invoke The G.o.d of kindred blood! For if at home I foster rebels, how much more abroad?

Whoso is just in ruling his own house, Lives rightly in the commonwealth no less: But he that wantonly defies the law, Or thinks to dictate to authority, Shall have no praise from me. What power soe'er The city hath ordained, must be obeyed In little things and great things, right or wrong.

The man who so obeys, I have good hope Will govern and be governed as he ought, And in the storm of battle at my side Will stand a faithful and a trusty comrade.

But what more fatal than the lapse of rule?

This ruins cities, this lays houses waste, This joins with the a.s.sault of war to break Full numbered armies into hopeless rout; And in the unbroken host 'tis nought but rule That keeps those many bodies from defeat, I must be zealous to defend the law, And not go down before a woman's will.

Else, if I fall, 'twere best a man should strike me; Lest one should say, 'a woman worsted him.'

CH. Unless our sense is weakened by long time, Thou speakest not unwisely.