Page:Oedipus, King of Thebes (Murray 1911).djvu/53

vv. 634–648

Vain men, what would ye with this angry swell

Of words heart-blinded? Is there in your eyes

No pity, thus, when all our city lies

Bleeding, to ply your privy hates? Alack,

My lord, come in!—Thou, Creon, get thee back

To thine own house. And stir not to such stress

Of peril griefs that are but nothingness.

Sister, it is the pleasure of thy lord,

Our King, to do me deadly wrong. His word

Is passed on me: ’tis banishment or death.

I found him I deny not what he saith,

My Queen with craft and malice practising

Against my life.

Ye Gods, if such a thing

Hath once been in my thoughts, may I no more

See any health on earth, but, festered o’er

With curses, die!—Have done. There is mine oath.

In God’s name, Oedipus, believe him, both

For my sake, and for these whose hearts are all

Thine own, and for my brother’s oath withal.