Part 10

(Ant. 2) No more I’ll seek earth’s central oracle, Or Abae’s hallowed cell, Nor to Olympia bring My votive offering. If before all God’s truth be not bade plain. O Zeus, reveal thy might, King, if thou’rt named aright Omnipotent, all-seeing, as of old; For Laius is forgot; His weird, men heed it not; Apollo is forsook and faith grows cold. [Enter JOCASTA.]

JOCASTA. My lords, ye look amazed to see your queen With wreaths and gifts of incense in her hands. I had a mind to visit the high shrines, For Oedipus is overwrought, alarmed With terrors manifold. He will not use His past experience, like a man of sense, To judge the present need, but lends an ear To any croaker if he augurs ill. Since then my counsels naught avail, I turn To thee, our present help in time of trouble, Apollo, Lord Lycean, and to thee My prayers and supplications here I bring. Lighten us, lord, and cleanse us from this curse! For now we all are cowed like mariners Who see their helmsman dumbstruck in the storm. [Enter Corinthian MESSENGER.]

MESSENGER. My masters, tell me where the palace is Of Oedipus; or better, where’s the king.

CHORUS. Here is the palace and he bides within; This is his queen the mother of his children.

MESSENGER. All happiness attend her and the house, Blessed is her husband and her marriage-bed.

JOCASTA. My greetings to thee, stranger; thy fair words Deserve a like response. But tell me why Thou comest—what thy need or what thy news.

MESSENGER. Good for thy consort and the royal house.

JOCASTA. What may it be? Whose messenger art thou?

MESSENGER. The Isthmian commons have resolved to make Thy husband king—so ’twas reported there.

JOCASTA. What! is not aged Polybus still king?

MESSENGER. No, verily; he’s dead and in his grave.

JOCASTA. What! is he dead, the sire of Oedipus?

MESSENGER. If I speak falsely, may I die myself.

JOCASTA. Quick, maiden, bear these tidings to my lord. Ye god-sent oracles, where stand ye now! This is the man whom Oedipus long shunned, In dread to prove his murderer; and now He dies in nature’s course, not by his hand. [Enter OEDIPUS.]

OEDIPUS. My wife, my queen, Jocasta, why hast thou Summoned me from my palace?

JOCASTA. Hear this man, And as thou hearest judge what has become Of all those awe-inspiring oracles.

OEDIPUS. Who is this man, and what his news for me?

JOCASTA. He comes from Corinth and his message this: Thy father Polybus hath passed away.

OEDIPUS. What? let me have it, stranger, from thy mouth.

MESSENGER. If I must first make plain beyond a doubt My message, know that Polybus is dead.

OEDIPUS. By treachery, or by sickness visited?

MESSENGER. One touch will send an old man to his rest.

OEDIPUS. So of some malady he died, poor man.

MESSENGER. Yes, having measured the full span of years.

OEDIPUS. Out on it, lady! why should one regard The Pythian hearth or birds that scream i’ the air? Did they not point at me as doomed to slay My father? but he’s dead and in his grave And here am I who ne’er unsheathed a sword; Unless the longing for his absent son Killed him and so I slew him in a sense. But, as they stand, the oracles are dead— Dust, ashes, nothing, dead as Polybus.

JOCASTA. Say, did not I foretell this long ago?

OEDIPUS. Thou didst: but I was misled by my fear.

JOCASTA. Then let I no more weigh upon thy soul.