Oedipus A Tragedy |
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 | Oedipus |  |
SCENE II.
HIGH PRIEST, CHORUS.The Gate of the Temple opens, and discovers the High Priest with the People round him.
FIRST PERSON OF THE CHORUS.
Contagious spirits! Tyrants of this empire!
Who breathe within these walls the blast of death;
Redouble your slow violence against us!
Spare us the horror of two long a fate!
SECOND PERSON.
Strike, ye all-powerful gods! Your victims stand
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Upon our heads, ye heavens! O, Death, thy aid,
Thy dreadful aid, with fervour we implore!
O, Death, preserve us! haste, and end our days!
HIGH PRIEST.
No more—Your lamentable clamours cease:
Weak comfort to the miseries of the wretched.
Let us beneath the god who means to prove us
Submissive bend. He by a word destroys,
And by a word can save. He knows that death
Incircles these our walls. The cries of Thebes
Have mounted to his throne. But lo! the king!
Heaven will, thro' me, accost him. From his eyes
The fates will now the mystic veil withdraw.
The time is perfect. This important day
Will change the fate of him and of his people.
| Oedipus | |