THE. Tell not me,
I know my part.
OED. Terror will have me speak.
THE. Terror and I are strangers.
OED. But their threats!
Thou canst not know--
THE. I know that none shall force
Thee from this ground against thy will. Full oft
Have threatening words in wrath been voluble,
Yet, when the mind regained her place again,
The threatened evil vanished. So to-day
Bold words of boastful meaning have proclaimed
Thy forcible abduction by thy kin.
Yet shall they find (I know it) the voyage from Thebes,
On such a quest, long and scarce navigable.
Whate'er my thought, if Phoebus sent thee forth,
I would bid thee have no fear. And howsoe'er,
My name will shield thee from all injury.
CHORUS.
Friend! in our land of conquering steeds thou art come I 1
To this Heaven-fostered haunt, Earth's fairest home,
Gleaming Colonos, where the nightingale
In cool green covert warbleth ever clear,
True to the clustering ivy and the dear
Divine, impenetrable shade,
From wildered boughs and myriad fruitage made,
Sunless at noon, stormless in every gale.
Wood-roving Bacchus there, with mazy round,
And his nymph nurses range the unoffended ground.
And nourished day by day with heavenly dew I 2
Bright flowers their never-failing bloom renew,
From eldest time Dêo and Cora's crown
Full-flowered narcissus, and the golden beam
Of crocus, while Cephisus' gentle stream
In runnels fed by sleepless springs
Over the land's broad bosom daily brings
His pregnant waters, never dwindling down.
The quiring Muses love to seek the spot
And Aphroditè's golden car forsakes it not.
Here too a plant, nobler than e'er was known II 1
On Asian soil, grander than yet hath grown
In Pelops' mighty Dorian isle, unsown,
Free, self-create, the conquering foeman's fear,
The kind oil-olive, silvery-green,
Chief nourisher of childish life, is seen
To burgeon best in this our mother-land.
No warrior, young, nor aged in command,
Shall ravage this, or scathe it with the spear;
For guardian Zeus' unslumbering eye
Beholds it everlastingly,
And Athens' grey-eyed Queen, dwelling for ever near.
Yet one more praise mightier than all I tell II 2
O'er this my home, that Ocean loves her well,
And coursers love her, children of the wave
To grace these roadways Prince Poseidon first
Framed for the horse, that else had burst
From man's control, the spirit taming bit
And the trim bark, rowed by strong arms, doth flit
O'er briny seas with glancing motion brave
Lord of the deep! by that thy glorious gift
Thou hast established our fair town
For ever in supreme renown--
The Sea nymphs' plashing throng glide not more smoothly swift.
ANT. O land exalted thus in blessing and praise,
Now is thy time to prove these brave words true.
OED. What hath befallen, my daughter?
ANT. Here at hand,
Not unaccompanied, is Creon, father.
OED. Dear aged friends, be it yours now to provide
My safety and the goal of my desire!
CH. It shall be so. Fear nought. I am old and weak,
But Athens in her might is ever young.
_Enter_ CREON.
CREON. Noble inhabiters of Attic ground
I see as 'twere conceived within your eyes
At mine approach some new engendered fear
Nay, shrink not, nor let fall one fretful word.
I bring no menace with me, for mine age
Is feeble, and the state whereto I come
Is mighty,--none in Hellas mightier,--
That know I well. But I am sent to bring
By fair persuasion to our Theban plain
The reverend form of him now present here.
Nor came this mission from one single will,
But the commands of all my citizens
Are on me, seeing that it becomes my birth
To mourn his sorrows most of all the state
Thou, then, poor sufferer, lend thine ear to me
And come. All Cadmus' people rightfully
Invite thee with one voice unto thy home,
I before all,--since I were worst of men,
Were I not pained at thy misfortunes, sir,
--To see thee wandering in the stranger's land
Aged and miserable, unhoused, unfed,
Singly attended by this girl, whose fall
To such a depth of undeservèd woe
I could not have imagined! Hapless maid!
Evermore caring for thy poor blind head,
Roving in beggary, so young, with no man
To marry her,--a mark for all mischance.
O misery, what deep reproach I have laid
On thee and me and our whole ill-starred race!
But who can hide evil that courts the day?
Thou, therefore, Oedipus, without constraint,
(By all the Gods of Cadmus' race I pray thee)
Remove this horror from the sight of men
By coming to the ancestral city and home
Of thy great sires,--bidding a kind farewell
To worthiest Athens, as is meet. But Thebes,
Thy native land, yet more deserves thy love.
OED. Thou unabashed in knavery, who canst frame
For every cause the semblance of a plea
Pranked up with righteous seeming, why again
Would'st thou contrive my ruin, and attempt
To catch me where I most were grieved being caught?
Beforetime, when my self-procurèd woes
Were plaguing me, and I would fain have rushed
To instant banishment, thou wouldst not then
Grant this indulgence to my keen desire.
But when I had fed my passion to the full,
And all my pleasure was to live at home,
Then 'twas thy cue to expel and banish me,
Nor was this name of kindred then so dear.
Now once again, when thou behold'st this city
And people joined in friendly bands with me,
Thou wouldst drag me from my promised resting-place,
Hiding hard policy with courtly show.
Strange kindness, to love men against their will!
Suppose, when thou wert eager in some suit,
No grace were granted thee, but all denied,
And when thy soul was sated, then the boon
Were offered, when such grace were graceless now;
--Poor satisfaction then were thine, I ween!
Even such a gift thou profferest me to-day,
Kind in pretence, but really full of evil.
These men shall hear me tell thy wickedness.
Thou comest to take me, not unto my home,
But to dwell outlawed at your gate, that so
Your Thebè may come off untouched of harm
From her encounter with Athenian men.
Ye shall not have me thus. But you shall have
My vengeful spirit ever in your land
Abiding for destruction,--and my sons
Shall have this portion in their father's ground,
To die thereon. Know I not things in Thebes
Better than thou? Yea, for 'tis mine to hear
Safer intelligencers,--Zeus himself,
And Phoebus, high interpreter of Heaven.
Thou bring'st a tongue suborned with false pretence,
Sharpened with insolence;--but in shrewd speech
Thou shalt find less of profit than of bane.
This thou wilt ne'er believe. Therefore begone!
Let me live here. For even such life as mine
Were not amiss, might I but have my will.
CR. Which of us twain, believ'st thou, in this talk
Hath more profoundly sinned against thy peace?
OED. If thou prevail'st with these men present here
Even as with me, I shall be well content.
CR. Unhappy man, will not even Time bring forth
One spark of wisdom to redeem thine age?
OED. Thou art a clever talker. But I know
No just man who in every cause abounds
With eloquent speech.
CR. 'Tis not to abound in speech,
When one speaks fitting words in season.
OED. Oh!
As if thy words were few and seasonable!
CR. Not in the dotard's judgement.
OED. Get thee gone!
I speak their mind as well--and dog not me
Beleaguering mine appointed dwelling-place!
CR. These men shall witness--for thy word is naught;
And for thy spiteful answer to thy friends,
If once I seize thee--
OED. Who shall seize on me
Without the will of my protectors here?
CR. Well, short of that, thou shalt have pain, I trow.
OED. What hast thou done, that thou canst threaten thus?
CR. One of thy daughters I have sent in charge.
This other, I myself will quickly take.
OED. Oh, cruel!
CR. Soon thou'lt have more cause to cry.
OED. Hast thou my child?
CR. I will have both ere long.
OED. Dear friends, what will ye do? Will ye forsake me?
Will you not drive the offender from your land?
CH. Stranger, depart at once! Thou hast done wrong,
And wrong art doing.
CR. (_to attendants_).
Now then, lead her away
By force, if she refuse to go with you.
ANT. Ah me! unhappy! Whither shall I flee?
What aid of God or mortal can I find?
CH. What dost thou, stranger?
CR. I will lay no hand
On him, but on my kinswoman.
OED. Alas!
Lords of Colonos, will ye suffer it?
CH. Thou art transgressing, stranger.
CR. Nay, I stand
Within my right.
CH. How so?
CR. I take mine own.
OED. Athens to aid!
CH. Stranger, forbear! What dost thou?
Let go, or thou shalt try thy strength with us.
CR. Unhand me!
CH. Not while this intent is thine.
CR. If you harm me, you will have war with Thebes.
OED. Did I not tell you this would come?
CH. Release
The maid with speed.
CR. Command where you have power.
CH. Leave hold, I say!
CR. Away with her, say I!
CH. Come hither, neighbours, come!
My city suffers violence. Wrongful men
Are hurting her with force. Come hither to me!
ANT. Unhappy, I am dragged away,--O strangers!
OED. Where art thou, O my child?
ANT. I go away
Against my will.
OED. Reach forth thy hands, my daughter!
ANT. I cannot.
CR. Off with her!