酷兔英语

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To grant the suppliant their saving grace.

So pray thyself or whoso pray for thee,
In whispered accents, not with lifted voice;

Then go and look back. Do as I bid,
And I shall then be bold to stand thy friend;

Else, stranger, I should have my fears for thee.
OEDIPUS

Hear ye, my daughters, what these strangers say?
ANTIGONE

We listened, and attend thy bidding, father.
OEDIPUS

I cannot go, disabled as I am
Doubly, by lack of strength and lack of sight;

But one of you may do it in my stead;
For one, I trow, may pay the sacrifice

Of thousands, if his heart be leal and true.
So to your work with speed, but leave me not

Untended; for this frame is all too week
To move without the help of guiding hand.

ISMENE
Then I will go perform these rites, but where

To find the spot, this have I yet to learn.
CHORUS

Beyond this grove; if thou hast need of aught,
The guardian of the close will lend his aid.

ISMENE
I go, and thou, Antigone, meanwhile

Must guard our father. In a parent's cause
Toil, if there be toil, is of no account.

[Exit ISMENE]
CHORUS

(Str. 1)
Ill it is, stranger, to awake

Pain that long since has ceased to ache,
And yet I fain would hear--

OEDIPUS
What thing?

CHORUS
Thy tale of cruel suffering

For which no cure was found,
The fate that held thee bound.

OEDIPUS
O bid me not (as guest I claim

This grace) expose my shame.
CHORUS

The tale is bruited far and near,
And echoes still from ear to ear.

The truth, I fain would hear.
OEDIPUS

Ah me!
CHORUS

I prithee yield.
OEDIPUS

Ah me!
CHORUS

Grant my request, I granted all to thee.
OEDIPUS

(Ant. 1)
Know then I suffered ills most vile, but none

(So help me Heaven!) from acts in malice done.
CHORUS

Say how.
OEDIPUS

The State around
An all unwitting bridegroom bound

An impious marriage chain;
That was my bane.

CHORUS
Didst thou in sooth then share

A bed incestuous with her that bare--
OEDIPUS

It stabs me like a sword,
That two-edged word,

O stranger, but these maids--my own--
CHORUS

Say on.
OEDIPUS

Two daughters, curses twain.
CHORUS

Oh God!
OEDIPUS

Sprang from the wife and mother's travail-pain.
CHORUS

(Str. 2)
What, then thy offspring are at once--

OEDIPUS
Too true.

Their father's very sister's too.
CHORUS

Oh horror!
OEDIPUS

Horrors from the boundless deep
Back on my soul in refluent surges sweep.

CHORUS
Thou hast endured--

OEDIPUS
Intolerable woe.

CHORUS
And sinned--

OEDIPUS
I sinned not.

CHORUS
How so?

OEDIPUS
I served the State; would I had never won

That graceless grace by which I was undone.
CHORUS

(Ant. 2)
And next, unhappy man, thou hast shed blood?

OEDIPUS
Must ye hear more?

CHORUS
A father's?

OEDIPUS
Flood on flood

Whelms me; that word's a second mortal blow.
CHORUS

Murderer!
OEDIPUS

Yes, a murderer, but know--
CHORUS

What canst thou plead?
OEDIPUS

A plea of justice.
CHORUS

How?
OEDIPUS

I slew who else would me have slain;
I slew without intent,

A wretch, but innocent
In the law's eye, I stand, without a stain.

CHORUS
Behold our sovereign, Theseus, Aegeus' son,

Comes at thy summons to perform his part.
[Enter THESEUS]

THESEUS
Oft had I heard of thee in times gone by--

The bloody mutilation of thine eyes--
And therefore know thee, son of Laius.

All that I lately gathered on the way
Made my conjecturedoubly sure; and now

Thy garb and that marred visage prove to me
That thou art he. So pitying thine estate,

Most ill-starred Oedipus, I fain would know
What is the suit ye urge on me and Athens,

Thou and the helplessmaiden at thy side.
Declare it; dire indeed must be the tale

Whereat _I_ should recoil. I too was reared,
Like thee, in exile, and in foreign lands

Wrestled with many perils, no man more.
Wherefore no alien in adversity

Shall seek in vain my succor, nor shalt thou;
I know myself a mortal, and my share

In what the morrow brings no more than thine.
OEDIPUS

Theseus, thy words so apt, so generous
So comfortable, need no long reply

Both who I am and of what lineage sprung,
And from what land I came, thou hast declared.

So without prologue I may utter now
My brief petition, and the tale is told.

THESEUS
Say on, and tell me what I fain would learn.

OEDIPUS
I come to offer thee this woe-worn frame,

A gift not fair to look on; yet its worth
More precious far than any outward show.

THESEUS
What profit dost thou proffer to have brought?

OEDIPUS
Hereafter thou shalt learn, not yet, methinks.

THESEUS
When may we hope to reap the benefit?

OEDIPUS
When I am dead and thou hast buried me.

THESEUS
Thou cravest life's last service; all before--

Is it forgotten or of no account?
OEDIPUS

Yea, the last boon is warrant for the rest.
THESEUS

The grace thou cravest then is small indeed.
OEDIPUS

Nay, weigh it well; the issue is not slight.
THESEUS

Thou meanest that betwixt thy sons and me?
OEDIPUS

Prince, they would fain convey me back to Thebes.
THESEUS

If there be no compulsion, then methinks
To rest in banishment befits not thee.

OEDIPUS
Nay, when _I_ wished it _they_ would not consent.

THESEUS
For shame! such temper misbecomes the faller.

OEDIPUS
Chide if thou wilt, but first attend my plea.

THESEUS
Say on, I wait full knowledge ere I judge.

OEDIPUS
O Theseus, I have suffered wrongs on wrongs.



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