COR. SH. Found in Cithaeron's hollowy wilderness.
OED. What led your travelling footstep to that ground?
COR. SH. The flocks I tended grazed the mountain there.
OED. A shepherd wast thou, and a wandering hind?
COR. SH. Whatever else, my son, thy saviour then.
OED. From what didst thou release me or relieve?
COR. SH. Thine instep bears memorial of the pain.
OED. Ah! what old evil will thy words disclose?
COR. SH. Thy feet were pierced. 'Twas I unfastened them.
OED. So cruel to my tender infancy!
COR. SH. From this thou hast received thy name.
OED. By heaven
I pray thee, did my father do this thing,
Or was't my mother?
COR. SH. That I dare not say.
He should know best who gave thee to my hand.
OED. Another gave me, then? You did not find me?
COR. SH. Another herdsman passed thee on to me.
OED. Can you describe him? Tell us what you know.
COR. SH. Methinks they called him one of Laius' people.
OED. Of Laius once the sovereign of this land?
COR. SH. E'en so. He was a shepherd of his flock.
OED. And is he still alive for me to see?
COR. SH. You Thebans are most likely to know that.
OED. Speak, any one of you in presence here,
Can you make known the swain he tells us of,
In town or country having met with him?
The hour for this discovery is full come.
CH. Methinks it is no other than the peasant
Whom thou didst seek before to see: but this
Could best be told by queen Jocasta there.
OED. We lately sought that one should come, my queen.
Know'st thou, is this of whom he speaks the same?
JO. What matter who? Regard not, nor desire
Even vainly to remember aught he saith.
OED. When I have found such tokens of my birth,
I must disclose it.
JO. As you love your life,
By heaven I beg you, search no further here!
The sickness in my bosom is enough.
OED. Nay, never fear! Were I proved thrice a slave
And waif of bondwomen, you still are noble.
JO. Yet hearken, I implore you: do not so.
OED. I cannot hear you. I must know this through.
JO. With clear perception I advise the best.
OED. Thy 'best' is still my torment.
JO. Wretched one,
Never may'st thou discover who thou art!
OED. Will some one go and bring the herdman hither?
Leave her to revel in her lordly line!
JO. O horrible! O lost one! This alone
I speak to thee, and no word more for ever. [_Exit_
CH. Oedipus, wherefore is Jocasta gone,
Driven madly by wild grief? I needs must fear
Lest from this silence she make sorrow spring.
OED. Leave her to raise what storm she will. But I
Will persevere to know mine origin,
Though from an humble seed. Her woman's pride
Is shamed, it may be, by my lowliness.
But I, whilst I account myself the son
Of prospering Fortune, ne'er will be disgraced.
For she is my true mother: and the months,
Coheirs with me of the same father, Time,
Have marked my lowness and mine exaltation.
So born, so nurtured, I can fear no change,
That I need shrink to probe this to the root.
[OEDIPUS _remains, and gazes towards the country,
while the_ CHORUS _sing_
CHORUS.
If I wield a prophet's might, 1
Or have sense to search aright,
Cithaeron, when all night the moon rides high,
Loud thy praise shall be confessed,
How upon thy rugged breast,
Thou, mighty mother, nursed'st tenderly
Great Oedipus, and gav'st his being room
Within thy spacious home.
Yea, we will dance and sing
Thy glory for thy kindness to our king.
Phoebus, unto thee we cry,
Be this pleasing in thine eye!
Who, dear sovereign, gave thee birth, 2
Of the long lived nymphs of earth?
Say, was she clasped by mountain roving Pan?
Or beguiled she one sweet hour
With Apollo in her bower,
Who loves to trace the field untrod by man?
Or was the ruler of Cyllene's height
The author of thy light?
Or did the Bacchic god,
Who makes the top of Helicon to nod,
Take thee for a foundling care
From his playmates that are there?
_The_ THEBAN SHEPHERD _is seen approaching, guarded._
OED. If haply I, who never saw his face,
Thebans, may guess, methinks I see the hind
Whose coming we have longed for. Both his age,
Agreeing with this other's wintry locks,
Accords with my conjecture, and the garb
Of his conductors is well known to me
As that of mine own people. But methinks [_to_ LEADER of CHORUS]
Thou hast more perfect knowledge in this case,
Having beheld the herdman in the past.
CH. I know him well, believe me. Laius
Had no more faithful shepherd than this man.
OED. Corinthian friend, I first appeal to you:
Was't he you spake of?
COR. SH. 'Twas the man you see.
OED. Turn thine eyes hither, aged friend, and tell
What I shall ask thee. Wast thou Laius' slave?
THEB. SH. I was, not bought, but bred within the house.
OED. What charge or occupation was thy care?
THEB. SH. Most of my time was spent in shepherding.
OED. And where didst thou inhabit with thy flock?
THEB. SH. 'Twas now Cithaeron, now the neighbouring tract.
OED. And hadst thou there acquaintance of this man?
THEB. SH. Following what service? What is he you mean?
OED. The man you see. Hast thou had dealings with him?
THEB. SH. I cannot bring him all at once to mind.
COR. SH. No marvel, good my lord. But I will soon
Wake to clear knowledge his oblivious sense.
For sure I am he can recall the time,
When he with his two flocks, and I with one
Beside him, grazed Cithaeron's pasture wide
Good six months' space of three successive years,
From spring to rising of Arcturus; then
For the bleak winter season, I drove mine
To their own folds, he his to Laius' stalls.
Do I talk idly, or is this the truth?
THEB. SH. The time is far remote. But all is true.
COR. SH. Well, dost remember having given me then
A child, that I might nurture him for mine?
THEB. SH. What means thy question? Let me know thy drift.
COR. SH. Friend, yonder stands the infant whom we knew.
THEB. SH. Confusion seize thee, and thy evil tongue!
OED. Check not his speech, I pray thee, for thy words
Call more than his for chastisement, old sir.
THEB. SH. O my dread lord, therein do I offend?
OED. Thou wilt not answer him about the child?
THEB. SH. He knows not what he speaks. His end is vain.
OED. So! Thou'lt not tell to please us, but the lash
Will make thee tell.
THEB. SH. By all that's merciful,
Scourge not this aged frame!
OED. Pinion him straight!
THEB. SH. Unhappy! wherefore? what is't you would know?
OED. Gave you this man the child of whom he asks you?
THEB. SH. I gave it him. Would I had died that hour!
OED. Speak rightly, or your wish will soon come true.
THEB. SH. My ruin comes the sooner, if I speak.
OED. This man will balk us with his baffling prate.