Page:Oedipus, King of Thebes (Murray 1911).djvu/45

vv. 513–531

Good brother citizens, a frantic word

I hear is spoken by our chosen Lord

Oedipus against me, and here am come

Indignant. If he dreams, ’mid all this doom

That weighs upon us, he hath had from me

Or deed or lightest thought of injury,

’Fore God, I have no care to see the sun

Longer with such a groaning name. Not one

Wound is it, but a multitude, if now

All Thebes must hold me guilty,—aye, and thou

And all who loved me—of a deed so foul.

If words were spoken, it was scarce the soul

That spoke them: ’twas some sudden burst of wrath.

The charge was made, then, that Tiresias hath

Made answer false, and that I bribed him, I?

It was—perchance for jest. I know not why.

His heart beat true, his eyes looked steadily

And fell not, laying such a charge on me?

I know not. I have no eyes for the thing

My masters do.—But see, here comes the King.