Part 25

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?