 | Polinices |  |
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SCENE THE THIRD.
Polinices, Jocasta, Eteocles.Joc.
Oh thou, my long and vainly-wished-for son!
Do I again behold thy face in Thebes? ...
At last to my maternal breast I clasp thee.
How much I've wept for thee! Art thou become
More placable? Didst thou invoke thy mother?
Behold her in thy presence! Dost thou come
Submissively to lay down in her presence
The horrid burthen of fraternal discord?
Ah! tell me, com'st thou hither to console me,
Or to cut short my few declining years?
Pol.
Oh, were I, mother, as I wish to be,
The soother of thy griefs! But, I am such,
That, wheresoe'er I go, I bear with me
The anger of the gods. Already, mother,
I must have cost thee too, too many tears.
Joc.
Ah, no! we will shed tears, but not of grief.
Advance, and hasten to embrace thy brother!
He is my son, and dear to me as thou art:
Speak to him kindly if thou love thy mother;
Give him thy right-hand; press him to thy bosom.
Ete.
Whither advancest? Warrior, who art thou?
Those arms I do not recognise. Perchance,
Art thou my brother? No, it cannot be;
For helmet, buckler, sword, and javelin,
Are not th'accoutrements with which a brother
A brother comes to meet.
Pol.
And who but thou
Put in my hand these instruments of war?
The day that Tydeus, in a brother's name,
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Say, did he in his right-hand bring the sword,
Or peaceful olive branch? 'Tis true, by day
He was admitted to a conference;
But on the night of his departure hence
A plot was laid insidiously to kill him;
And he had fallen a victim to the snare
Had he not been invincible! Thus warned
By what befell my messenger, I learn,
That, here, grave questions are by arms decided.
Joc.
Ah, say not so: hast thou not here a mother?
And since thou hast one, art thou undefended?
Behold thy buckler, 'tis my breast; that form,
That in one day to both of you gave birth:
Ah, throw away thy other useless weapons;
They interfere with our embrace; and say,
Silently say, that thou'rt by foes encompass'd.
Ete.
Do not expect from me the pledge of peace,
If first thou do not manifest thy purpose;
If first thou do not make us understand,
Why thou, a subject and a citizen,
Dar'st, as invader, to return to Thebes.
Pol.
My right, to him who measures right by force,
I ill could tell, if force did not attend me.
Greece knows my story; dost thou know it not?
I'll tell it thee: thou'st reign'd, but reign'st no longer.
Ete.
Fool! thou shalt know whether I reign or not.
Pol.
Thou hitherto hast had the name and sceptre,
But not the fame and honour of a monarch.
I, who am free from perjury, surrendered,
After the year's illapse, to thee my throne:
Didst thou not swear to do the same? I kept
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My heritage; a brother, if thou yield it;
But thou shalt find in me, if thou refuse it,
A foe, fierce, cruel, and implacable.
Thus have I told to thee, without disguise,
My resolution. In my righteous cause,
Earth and the sky proclaim themselves. The sky,
Already witness of our mutual oaths,
Will, I believe it, favour this my sword,
And will the perjured punish.
Ete.
The just gods
Whom thou invokest thy misdeeds to second,
Abhor fraternal arms: of their revenge,
A signal instance he will be who first
Ventured to grasp them.
Pol.
Dar'st thou to recall,
Perfidious wretch, the tie of brotherhood?
Feel'st thou a horror at it, now that thou
First to fraternal war compellest me?
But art thou not the same that didst not feel
Horror at perjury? These impious arms,
The violator of his faith first grasp'd them.
The war is thine; its guilt is thine alone.
Joc.
Ferocious souls, is this your hoped-for peace?
Ah, hear me, I entreat you ...
Ete.
I am king,
And sit upon the throne; and here proclaim,
That while Adrastes, and his hated Argives,
Encompass Thebes, I listen to no terms
Of reconciliation, nor endure
Thee in my royal presence.
Pol.
And I,
To thee, who dost usurp the throne, reply,
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Reply, that till thou hast fulfill'd thy oath,
The Argives here shall stay, and I with them.
Ete.
Mother, thou hearest him; the recompense
That for his guilt he asks. Why parley further?
What dost thou here? Depart from Thebes this instant!
Pol.
Thou shalt again behold me in this place,
But in another guise: to impious foes
Th'inevitable messenger of death.
Joc.
Ye only are the impious! Quickly punish,
Of being mother to such impious sons,
The fault in me! Plunge, plunge in me that sword;
My blood too is connatural with yours.
Rivals in guilt, ye sons of Œdipus,
Of crime the offspring, and to crime impell'd
By the implacable, avenging furies,
Here, here, your weapons hurl; behold my womb,
The chamber of your infamous conception.
Be not the brother slain, but slain by you
The mother; 'twere a far more venial crime,
And far more worthy of your ravening swords.
Ete.
Hold'st thou unjust the terms that I demanded?
Pol.
Hold'st thou my want of confidence unfounded?
Joc.
And is it then my wrath that is unjust?
Thou'rt not enraged at the demanded sceptre,
But that it is by one in arms demanded?
And for no other cause thou wear'st these weapons,
But to obtain thy sceptre for the year?
Let one resign his sword, the other quit
The sceptre not his own; and if, betwixt you,
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In future, of the covenanted oath,
Who will refuse obedience? ...
Ete.
I will not.
Mother, thou will'st it? I will therefore pardon
The outrage 'gainst myself and Thebes committed.
Let him first yield; he was the first t'assault us.
Soon as our fields are clear'd from yonder troops,
He shall be king. I yield to him the throne.
He shall not take it from me. Can he take it,
While that my veins retain a drop of blood?
Do thou decide: thou see'st in me compliance:
But, if between us both the peace is broken,
Remember thou'rt alone the guilty cause;
And may the horrors of disastrous war
Fall, where alone they should fall, on thy head.
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