University of Virginia Library

(Oedipus, Act I)

[Scene 1.]

Enter Oedipus attended, to the High Priest and a Train of Children & Young Men who are kneiling before an Altar placed at the Gates of the Palace.
Oed.
What mean these solemn Rites, these plaintive Sounds?
This Altar rear'd before my Palace Gates?
This train of Suppliants clad in mournful Weeds
And prostrate on the Ground? My Children speak,
Unhappy Youths from royal Cadmus sprung,
Why doth the Incense fume in every Street,
And round us Groans and Lamentations rise?
I could not stay to learn from other hands
My People's Grief, a Partner in your woe
I come my self, the far-fam'd Oedipus
Your great Deliverer. But thou, good old man,
Before whose reverend Age in decent awe
These youths are silent, speak thou Holy Priest
A Monarch is your Friend, whose heart bleeds for you
And for his Thebans feels a Father's care.

H. P.
O Oedipus whose hand the Sceptre sways
Of ancient Thebes, the Youths who lie before thee
Are helpless Heirs of many a noble House,
These aged Men devoted to the Gods,
And I the Priest of mighty Jupiter.
Our Citizens around Minerva's Shrines
Implore her aid, or near the awful Tomb
Where the dead bones of great Irmenus lie
Burn fragrant Odours, and consult their Fate
In his prophetick Flames. Thou see'st all Thebes
Lies tossing like the tempest-beaten Bark
Abandon'd to despair. The Fields are waste
From barren Autumns, and a blighted Spring,
A Murrain sweeps our Flocks and Herds away,
And our sad Matrons o'er their dead-born Babes
Lament their fruitless pain. A curse hangs o'er us
A Fire devours us, a fierce Pestilence
That secret walks unpeoples half our Tribes.
And ev'ry hour with peals of Theban Groans
Glads the grim King of Hell. We sue to Thee
Not as a God, but as the first of Men,
Belov'd of Heav'n and of the Gods inspir'd
Whose Wisdome, not untry'd in evil days,
From Sphinx the Monster sav'd th' afflicted Realm
Once our Deliverer to the Gods again
In pious supplication lift thy hands,
And draw down thence the Knowledge and the cure
Of all our Woes. Remember oh remember
A Monarch's Grandeur in his People lies,
They form his Pride in Peace, his Strength in War,
And stand the firmest Rampart round a Throne.

Oed.
Too well, my Sons, I know and mourn your woes,
If singly hard to be endur'd by You
How then by Me, who in one breast sustain
Your Griefs and mine, and feel for all the land!
Think not oh think not that your piercing Cries
Have broke my sleep, or chaced my pleasing Dreams.
All night my Eyes have swom in tears, all night
My Breast has heav'd with sorrows not my own.
What could I do? Before the morning-dawn
To great Apollo's Fane by my command
My Brother Creon went to seek the God.
Before the morning-dawn he went, and now
Methinks he laggs; my mind impatient burns
To know what Fate would have. Despise me, Thebes,
Call me the worst, the vilest of mankind,
If I not act or suffer for thy sake,
For thy lov'd sake, whate'er the God decrees.

H. P.
With a blest voice and in a lucky hour
The King names Creon. See he comes.

Oed.
He comes.
Thou God of Wisdom, Regent of the Day,
Glad be his Tidings as his Looks are glad.

H. P.
The Lawrels twin'd around his Brows declare
His Tidings happy.

Scene 2d

Enter Creon
Oed.
Speak: what Answer, Creon.

Cre.
The Gods be prais'd, our woes are at an end
Remove the Cause that brings the Curses down
The guilty cause; so Heaven again shall smile
And the glad Earth her wonted face renew.

Oed.
Name then, oh name that cause that guilty Cause
Name it, and ease my lab'ring heart that pants
With hopes and fears perplext.

Cre.
Within the Palace
Shall I attend thee, Oedipus, or here
Declare and Publish it?

Oed.
To the World declare it:
Unmindful of my self, for these I mourn
These helpless men; alas why should not they
Who have the Evil, know the Comfort too!

Cre.
Thus warns the God, who bends the silver Bowe.
Within the Realms of Thebes a Monster breathes.
Detested by the Gods he taints the Air,
And poisons all the Land.

Oed.
What means to heal it?

Cre.
Forth from your Frontiers drive th' accursed thing,
Or spill in expiation Blood for Blood,
His Blood who murder'd cries to Heav'n for vengeance
And draws the rage of all the Gods upon us.

Oed.
Whose Blood? What Murder?

Cre.
Laius was our King,
E'er Thebes bestow'd the Crown on you.

Oed.
Proceed.

Cre.
The Oracle this Punishment decrees
To those who murder'd Laius.

Oed.
Where then are they?
What place conceals them? and what human skill
Can backward trace through years so dark a Deed?

Cre.
Here, even amongst us within these Walls they live,
Who murder'd Laius: here they live unpunished:
And Thebes is wretched by her own neglect.

Oed.
Far be that fault from Me. In Corinth born
A Stranger to this luckless land I came
Long after Laius perish'd. How he fell
To me still seem'd a dark and puzzled Tale.
Ill could I ask it of his widow'd Queen,
My Wife; I spar'd Jocasta's Tears the question.
But now, ye Thebans, 'tis the Publick care,
Back let us search through ev'ry circumstance
And trace it to the sourse. Speak who can tell
When, where, and how fell Laius?

Cre.
Hence he went
For Delphi bound, and perish'd on the way.

Oed.
Return'd not any of his Train?

Cre.
They too
Fell with their Master. Only one escap'd
By flight escap'd, and he could only tell
One circumstance.

Oed.
What is that Circumstance?
Oh one small ray, one feeble glimpse of light
Oft proves sufficient to reveal a murder.

Cre.
He said the King was slain by multitudes
By Robbers slain.

Oed.
A King! and slain by Robbers!
Sure they were hir'd by Gold, and placed in ambush.

Cre.
Such was the general thought. But Ills on Ills
Plague after Plague succeeding Laius' Death
Prevented further search.

Oed.
What plagues alas,
What Ills so great to make you slight a Murder
And a King's murder too?

Cre.
The Monster Sphinx,
That like a Torrent laid our Country waste,
Allow'd not time to think of slighter woes.
For certain Ills th' uncertain were o'erlook'd
So hard to be found out.

Oed.
But, by the Gods
They shall be found, and shall be found by me.
Yes Phoebus, thy decrees shall be obey'd;
Thy Second in this pious work I come,
Whose piercing mind in Riddles not unskill'd
The Ruffian shall pursue through every maze
And expiate this sin-polluted Land.
Not only for my Queen's and Kingdome's sake,
But for my own, this Labour shall be mine
Who knows but he, who dipt his hands profane
In Laius' blood, by curst ambition fir'd,
May take my Life! Revenge we then the Dead
To guard the Living. Rise, my Children, rise.
Swift let the Heralds march through every street,
And summon Thebes in all her Tribes to meet me.
No means shall pass untry'd, no hour delay'd,
And if my Soul presage aright, this Day
Shall heal our Sorrows, or shall end our Lives.

[Exit Oedipus.
H. P.
Rise then my Children, and depart in peace.
While we to great Apollo lift our Vows,
To Him and ev'ry God in Thebes ador'd,
And in the Confidence of prayer implore
His Eye to guide us, and his Arm to save.

[The Chorus, consisting of Priests advance upon the Stage.
1. Chor.
Thou Oracle divine, the voice of Jove
Pronounc'd by Phoebus from his golden Shrine
In ancient Delphi, wherefore art thou come
To poor afflicted Thebes? Speak Goddess-born
Thou Son of smiling Hope, speak un-obscured
Our future Fate. Alas! alas! my soul
With Fears distracted, in Amazement lost,
From Adoration only seeks relief.

2d. Pr.
Thee, bold Minerva, whose accomplisht Form
From Jove alone without a Mother sprung
I first invoke, with Thee the other Maid
Thy Sister Dian, whose fair Deity
Presides o'er Thebes, and fills a stately Throne
That high amid this ample City stands.
Thee too the Bender of the Silver Bow
Thee Phoebus I invoke; Appear ye Three
Appear ye kind, ye Plague-dispelling Powers.
Your help your wonted help to Thebes afford
That bends and sinks beneath a thousand Woes.

3d. Pr.
The sinking Nation faintly lifts her eye
And looks around for aid, but looks in vain.
The Earth grown weak a meagre Fruitage yields
Pin'd e'er it ripens: with false hopes beguil'd
Our pregnant Mothers die amid their Throes
Unable to bring forth: on every side
Corpse after Corpse drops down, Shade after Shade
Swift as the nimble Lightning's glance, descends
To Hell's tremendous Gloome. Unhappy Babes,
Born e'er their time, all helpless on the ground
Un-pity'd by their tender Parents lie:
Their tender Parents hurry'd by despair
For refuge to the sacred Altars run,
Where the loud Hymns to great Apollo sung
Confus'd with Groans ascend.

4. Pr.
Thou blue-eyed Maid,
Minerva come: lace on thy burnisht Helme,
Before us spread thy adamantine Shield,
And couch thy pointed Spear. Drive hence the God
The cruel God, whose wide-destroying hand
Lays heaps on heaps, and thins afflicted Thebes:
Drive him reluctant to the Thracian shore,
Where rowle the Euxine's hoarse-resounding waves
Or in th' unfathom'd Ocean plunge him down
Bound in eternal Chains.

5. Pr.
Life-giving Jove!
Who frown'st amid the Lightning's dreadful blaze
Transfix him thy Thunder-bolts.

6. Pr.
Thou too
Fair God of Day! the keenest Arrow chase
Off all that in thy golden Quiver lie,
And bend thy Bowe for Thebes.

7. Pr.
Diana too,
In thy soft silver beams serene and mild,
Smile on us: all ye Gods, propitious smile.

8. Pr.
Thee Bacchus last thy Thebans sue forlorn,
Thee Bacchus of a Theban Mother born.
Hear and appear in all thy pomp confest,
Thy gold Tiara and thy Indian Vest;
Known by the Torches blazing from afar
And frantic Matrons howling round thy Carr.
That God who plagues this desolated Earth
Expell, and save the Land that gave thee birth.