Desires, if he has wisdom, is to take

  The substance, not the show, of royalty.

  For now, through you, I have both power and ease

  590

  But were I king, I’d be oppressed with cares.

  Not so: while I have ample sovereignty

  And rule in peace, why should I want the crown?

  I am not yet so made as to give up

  All that which brings me honour and advantage.

  Now, every man greets me, and I greet him;

  Those who have need of you make much of me,

  Since I can make or mar them. Why should I

  Surrender this to load myself with that?

  A man of sense was never yet a traitor;

  600

  I have no taste for that, nor could I force

  Myself to aid another’s treachery.

  But you can test me: go to Delphi; ask

  If I reported rightly what was said.

  And further: if you find that I had dealings

  With that diviner, you may take and kill me

  Not with your single vote, but yours and mine,

  But not on bare suspicion, unsupported.

  How wrong it is, to use a random judgement

  And think the false man true, the true man false!

  610

  To spurn a loyal friend, that is no better

  Than to destroy the life to which we cling.

  This you will learn in time, for Time alone

  Reveals the upright man; a single day

  Suffices to unmask the treacherous.

  CHORUS. My lord, he speaks with caution, to avoid

  Grave error. Hasty judgement is not sure.

  OEDIPUS. But when an enemy is quick to plot

  And strike, I must be quick in answer too.

  If I am slow, and wait, then I shall find

  620

  That he has gained his end, and I am lost.

  CREON. What do you wish? To drive me into exile?

  OEDIPUS. No, more than exile: I will have your life.

  CREON. 〈When will it cease, this monstrous rage of yours?〉*

  OEDIPUS. When your example shows what comes of envy.

  CREON. Must you be stubborn? Cannot you believe me?

  OEDIPUS. 〈You speak to me as if I were a fool!〉

  CREON. Because I know you’re wrong.

  OEDIPUS. Right, for myself!

  CREON. It is not right for me!

  OEDIPUS. But you’re a traitor.

  CREON. What if your charge is false?

  OEDIPUS. I have to govern.

  CREON. Not govern badly!

  OEDIPUS. Listen to him, Thebes!

  CREON. You’re not the city! I am Theban too.

  630

  CHORUS. My lords, no more! Here comes the Queen, and not

  Too soon, to join you. With her help, you must

  Compose the bitter strife that now divides you.

  Enter IOCASTA

  IOCASTA. You frantic men! What has aroused this wild

  Dispute? Have you no shame, when such a plague

  Afflicts us, to indulge in private quarrels?

  Creon, go home, I pray. You, Oedipus,

  Come in; do not make much of what is nothing.

  CREON. My sister: Oedipus, your husband here,

  Has thought it right to punish me with one

  640

  Of two most awful dooms: exile, or death.

  OEDIPUS. I have: I have convicted him, Iocasta,

  Of plotting secretly against my life.

  CREON. If I am guilty in a single point

  Of such a crime, then may I die accursed.

  IOCASTA. O, by the gods, believe him, Oedipus!

  Respect the oath that he has sworn, and have

  Regard for me, and for these citizens.

  [Until line 697 the parts given to the chorus are sung, the rest,

  presumably, spoken.]

  Strophe

  CHORUS. My lord, I pray, give consent.

  Yield to us; ponder well.

  650

  OEDIPUS. What is it you would have me yield?

  CHORUS. Respect a man ripe in years,

  Bound by this mighty oath he has sworn.

  OEDIPUS. Your wish is clear?

  CHORUS. It is.

  OEDIPUS. Then tell it me.

  CHORUS. Not to repel, and drive out of our midst a friend,

  Scorning a solemn curse, for uncertain cause.

  OEDIPUS. I tell you this: your prayer will mean for me

  My banishment from Thebes, or else my death.

  CHORUS. No, no! by the Sun, the chief of gods,*

  660

  Ruin and desolation and all evil come upon me

  If I harbour thoughts such as these!

  No; our land racked with plague breaks my heart.

  Do not now deal a new wound on Thebes to crown the old!

  OEDIPUS. Then let him be, though I must die twice over,

  Or be dishonoured, spurned and driven out.

  670

  It’s your entreaty, and not his, that moves

  My pity; he shall have my lasting hatred.

  CREON. You yield ungenerously; but when your wrath

  Has cooled, how it will prick you!

  Natures such As yours give most vexation to themselves.

  OEDIPUS. O, let me be! Get from my sight.

  CREON. I go,

  Misjudged by you—but these will judge me better

  [indicating CHORUS].

  [Exit CREON

  Antistrophe

  CHORUS. My lady, why now delay?

  Let the King go in with you.

  IOCASTA. When you have told me what has passed.

  680

  CHORUS. Suspicion came.—Random words, undeserved,

  Will provoke men to wrath.

  IOCASTA. It was from both?

  CHORUS. It was.

  IOCASTA. And what was said?

  CHORUS. It is enough for me, more than enough, when I

  Think of our ills, that this should rest where it lies.

  OEDIPUS. You and your wise advice, blunting my wrath,

  Frustrated me—and it has come to this!

  CHORUS. This, O my King, I said, and say again:

  I should be mad, distraught,

  690

  I should be a fool, and worse,

  If I sought to drive you away.

  Thebes was near sinking; you brought her safe

  Through the storm. Now again we pray that you may save us.

  IOCASTA. In Heaven’s name, my lord, I too must know

  What was the reason for this blazing anger.

  OEDIPUS. There’s none to whom I more defer; and so,

  700

  I’ll tell you: Creon and his vile plot against me.

  IOCASTA. What has he done, that you are so incensed?

  OEDIPUS. He says that I am Laius’ murderer.

  IOCASTA. From his own knowledge? Or has someone told him?

  OEDIPUS. No; that suspicion should not fall upon

  Himself, he used a tool—a crafty prophet.

  IOCASTA. Why, have no fear of that. Listen to me,

  And you will learn that the prophetic art

  Touches our human fortunes not at all.

  I soon can give you proof.—An oracle

  710

  Once came to Laius—from the god himself

  I do not say, but from his ministers:

  His fate it was, that should he have a son

  By me, that son would take his father’s life.

  But he was killed—or so they said—by strangers,

  By brigands, at a place where three ways meet.

  As for the child, it was not three days old

  When Laius fastened both its feet together

  And had it cast over a precipice. *

  Therefore Apollo failed; for neither did

  720

  His son kill Laius, nor did Laius meet

  The awful end he feared, killed by his son.

  So much for what prophetic voices uttered.

  Have no regard for them. The god will bring

  To light himself whatever thing he chooses.

  OEDIPUS. Iocasta, terror seizes me, and shakes

  My very soul, at one thing you have said.

  IOCASTA. Why so? What have I said to frighten you?

  OEDIPUS. I think I heard you say that Laius

  Was murdered at a place where three ways meet?

  730

  IOCASTA. So it was said—indeed, they say it still.

  OEDIPUS. Where is the place where this encounter happened?

  IOCASTA. They call the country Phokis, and a road

  From Delphi joins a road from Daulia.*

  OEDIPUS. Since that was done, how many years have passed?

  IOCASTA. It was proclaimed in Thebes a little time

  Before the city offered you the crown.

  OEDIPUS. O Zeus, what fate hast thou ordained for me?

  IOCASTA. What is the fear that so oppresses you?

  OEDIPUS. One moment yet: tell me of Laius.

  740

  What age was he? and what was his appearance?

  IOCASTA. A tall man, and his hair was touched with white;

  In figure he was not unlike yourself.

  OEDIPUS. O God! Did I, then, in my ignorance,

  Proclaim that awful curse against myself?

  IOCASTA. What are you saying? How you frighten me!

  OEDIPUS. I greatly fear that prophet was not blind.

  But yet one question; that will show me more.

  IOCASTA. For all my fear, I’ll tell you what I can.

  OEDIPUS. Was he alone, or did he have with him

  750

  A royal bodyguard of men-at-arms?

  IOCASTA. The company in all were five; the King

  Rode in a carriage, and there was a Herald. *

  OEDIPUS. Ah God! How clear the picture is! . . . But who,

  Iocasta, brought report of this to Thebes?

  IOCASTA. A slave, the only man that was not killed.

  OEDIPUS. And is he round about the palace now?

  IOCASTA. No, he is not. When he returned, and saw

  You ruling in the place of the dead

  King, He begged me, on his bended knees, to send him

  760

  Into the hills as shepherd, out of sight,

  As far as could be from the city here.

  I sent him, for he was a loyal slave;

  He well deserved this favour—and much more.

  OEDIPUS. Could he be brought back here—at once— to see me?

  IOCASTA. He could; but why do you desire his coming?

  OEDIPUS. I fear I have already said, Iocasta,

  More than enough; and therefore I will see him.

  IOCASTA. Then he shall come. But, as your wife, I ask you,

  What is the terror that possesses you?

  770

  OEDIPUS. And you shall know it, since my fears have grown

  So great; for who is more to me than you,

  That I should speak to him at such a moment?

  My father, then, was Poly bus of Corinth;

  My mother, Merope.* My station there

  Was high as any man’s—until a thing

  Befell me that was strange indeed, though not

  Deserving of the thought I gave to it.

  A man said at a banquet—he was full

  Of wine—that I was not my father’s son.

  780

  It angered me; but I restrained myself

  That day. The next I went and questioned both

  My parents. They were much incensed with him

  Who had let fall the insult. So, from them,

  I had assurance. Yet the slander spread

  And always chafed me. Therefore secretly,

  My mother and my father unaware,

  I went to Delphi. Phoebus would return

  No answer to my question, but declared

  A thing most horrible: he foretold that I

  790

  Should mate with my own mother, and beget

  A brood that men would shudder to behold,

  And that I was to be the murderer

  Of my own father.

  Therefore, back to Corinth

  I never went—the stars alone have told me*

  Where Corinth lies—that I might never see