 | Polinices |  |
SCENE THE SIXTH.
Polinices, Creon.Cre.
Ah, wretched mother! how I pity her!
Little she knows her sons. Yet she might be
Happy, perchance, if it on thee depended.
Dost thou then yield? Trustest thou to thy brother?
Pol.
I have on nothing yet resolved: 'tis true,
It wounds my soul to hear myself proclaim'd
An enemy in Thebes; it wounds my soul
To be the author of fraternal strife;
What ought I now to do?
Cre.
To reign.
Pol.
The throne
Can I have here without the loss of blood?
Cre.
E'en from the cradle as a son I loved thee:
I always saw in thee the better nature;
When 'twixt you both your mother hesitated,
How often have I made her notice it!
Oh, Polinices! I have not the heart
Now to deceive thee. No, thou wilt not reign
Here without spilling blood.
85
Oh, Heaven!
Cre.
But thou
May'st chuse: it doth depend on thee alone,
Little to shed, or much.
Pol.
What do I hear?
This, from the first, was what I chiefly feared.
I only, then, have choice of error left.
No, it shall never be, no never: I
Will never violate, by shedding blood,
So many, and such sanctimonious ties,
Come, what come may: by means iniquitous
I will not prosecute a righteous cause.
Adrastes shall return again to Argos;
Alone, and powerless, I will stay in Thebes.
Cre.
Thou art most virtuous, as I always thought thee.
Much I commend thy words; but can I let thee
Chuse what will ruin both thyself and us?
Pol.
Is then that ruin certain?
Cre.
Dost thou know
Thy brother?
Pol.
Yes, I know him: he hates me
Much as he loves the throne, and more: but yet,
I think, or are they flatteries of my fancy,
That, in despite of him, with generous treatment,
I might constrain him to a generous conduct.
Shame can work wonders; we shall have to-day,
My mother, Thebes, the Argive king, the world,
As witnesses between us.
Cre.
Had he not
The gods before as witnesses? what say'st thou?
His mother, and the gods, the Argive king,
Thebes, and the world, he impiously scorns.
86
In Thebes, with iron hand, a perjured king
The sceptre grasps; by all his subjects hated:
If terror had not watched in his defence,
He long ago had lost his throne and life.
Thou art the last hope of the Theban people.
That day in which thy milder character
Ascends once more the hereditary throne,
The oppressed multitude will deem the day
Of its deliverance ... Where is now our hope?
That day will ne'er arrive.
Pol.
Will ne'er arrive?
This, this, shall be the day.
Cre.
Perhaps 'twill be this ...
Ah, day eventful! Prince unfortunate!
Another now usurps that throne from thee ...
Nor while his life remains wilt thou regain it.
Ah, trust me, that he even now ascribes
Thy wish for it to guilt!
Pol.
What a new flame
Of rage thou kindlest in me, when, at last,
After long struggles with myself, I seemed
Surmounting past revenge!
Cre.
Erewhile the king
Swore, and I heard him, that he would not live
Except upon the throne.
Pol.
To perjury
He is accustomed, and, on this occasion,
He shall be perjured; I dare promise thee.
Wretch, thou shalt live, but not upon the throne!
Cre.
Thy hope for this is vain. There is no way
The throne to reascend, if thou resolve not
To trample on the body of thy brother.
87
Cease; thou distractest me! Shall I embrue
My hands with blood fraternal? The dire thought
Appals me ... Impious and fatal crown,
Art thou of so much worth, that thou deservest
With turpitude like this to be procured?
Cre.
If he would take away thy crown alone,
That were excusable; but to such height
In him unnatural hate and rage have risen,
That, life for life, thou art constrain'd by force
To give it, or to take it ...
Pol.
I wish not
To spill his blood.
Cre.
Wilt thou then give him thine?
Pol.
Though here I stay alone, Heaven and my sword,
My courage, stay with me; nor will it be
To him an easy task to take my life.
Cre.
Valour—how can that cope with subtle fraud?
Here dost thou look for open opposition?
Pol.
Then treachery is prepared for me! Oh, speak;
Reveal it to me ...
Cre.
Heavens! what shall I do?
Yet, if I speak, and thou preventest not
The consequence, I fall the tyrant's victim,
And thou—thou art not safe.
Pol.
The apprehension
Of treachery suffices not to make me
An impious traitor. Speak; there may be means
By which I may be saved; or, if I fall,
That I may fall alone.
Cre.
Thou hast not yet
The art of perjury learned. Dar'st thou to me
88
To keep, that I prepare to tell thee now?
Pol.
Yes; by my mother's life I swear to keep it.
Thou know'st that life is sacred to me: speak.
Cre.
But we are in the palace ... an abode
Too perilous for us ... perhaps here already
Too much at length to thee I've spoken ... Hence
To some securer spot.
Pol.
Is there in Thebes
A place exempted from the tyrant's influence?
Cre.
'Tis meet that, with profoundest caution, we
Elude his subtle wariness. From hence
A secret path, and long disused, descends
Towards the temple ... Let us seek this path;
There I will tell thee all.
Pol.
I follow thee.
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