Page:Oedipus, King of Thebes (Murray 1911).djvu/50

Rh I know them not nor am I one of them—

Who careth more to bear a monarch’s name

Than do a monarch’s deeds? As now I stand

All my desire I compass at thy hand.

Were I the King, full half my deeds were done

To obey the will of others, not mine own.

Were that as sweet, when all the tale were told,

As this calm griefless princedom that I hold

And silent power? Am I so blind of brain

That ease with glory tires me, and I fain

Must change them? All men now give me God-speed,

All smile to greet me. If a man hath need

Of thee, ’tis me he calleth to the gate,

As knowing that on my word hangs the fate

Of half he craves. Is life like mine a thing

To cast aside and plot to be a King?

Doth a sane man turn villain in an hour?

For me, I never lusted thus for power

Nor bore with any man who turned such lust

To doing.—But enough. I claim but just

Question. Go first to Pytho; find if well

And true I did report God’s oracle.

Next, seek in Thebes for any plots entwined

Between this seer and me; which if ye find,

Then seize and strike me dead. Myself that day

Will sit with thee as judge and bid thee Slay!

But damn me not on one man’s guess.—’Tis all

Unjust: to call a traitor true, to call

A true man traitor with no cause nor end!

And this I tell thee. He who plucks a friend

Out from his heart hath lost a treasured thing

Dear as his own dear life.

But Time shall bring