CHORUS
(Str. 1)
Ill it is, stranger, to awake
Pain that long since has ceased to ache,
And yet I fain would hear–
OEDIPUS
What thing?
CHORUS
Thy tale of cruel suffering
For which no cure was found,
The fate that held thee bound.
OEDIPUS
O bid me not (as guest I claim
This grace) expose my shame.
CHORUS
The tale is bruited far and near,
And echoes still from ear to ear.
The truth, I fain would hear.
OEDIPUS
Ah me!
CHORUS
I prithee yield.
OEDIPUS
Ah me!
CHORUS
Grant my request, I granted all to thee.
OEDIPUS
(Ant. 1)
Know then I suffered ills most vile, but none
(So help me Heaven!) from acts in malice done.
CHORUS
Say how.
OEDIPUS
The State around
An all unwitting bridegroom bound
An impious marriage chain;
That was my bane.
CHORUS
Didst thou in sooth then share
A bed incestuous with her that bare–
OEDIPUS
It stabs me like a sword,
That two-edged word,
O stranger, but these maids–my own–
CHORUS
Say on.
OEDIPUS
Two daughters, curses twain.
CHORUS
Oh God!
OEDIPUS
Sprang from the wife and mother’s travail-pain.
CHORUS
(Str. 2)
What, then thy offspring are at once–
OEDIPUS
Too true.
Their father’s very sister’s too.
CHORUS
Oh horror!
OEDIPUS
Horrors from the boundless deep
Back on my soul in refluent surges sweep.
CHORUS
Thou hast endured–
OEDIPUS
Intolerable woe.
CHORUS
And sinned–
OEDIPUS
I sinned not.
CHORUS
How so?
OEDIPUS
I served the State; would I had never won
That graceless grace by which I was undone.
CHORUS
(Ant. 2)
And next, unhappy man, thou hast shed blood?
OEDIPUS
Must ye hear more?
CHORUS
A father’s?
OEDIPUS
Flood on flood
Whelms me; that word’s a second mortal blow.
CHORUS
Murderer!
OEDIPUS
Yes, a murderer, but know–
CHORUS
What canst thou plead?
OEDIPUS
A plea of justice.
CHORUS
How?
OEDIPUS
I slew who else would me have slain;
I slew without intent,
A wretch, but innocent
In the law’s eye, I stand, without a stain.
CHORUS
Behold our sovereign, Theseus, Aegeus’ son,
Comes at thy summons to perform his part.
[Enter THESEUS]
