Page:Oedipus, King of Thebes (Murray 1911).djvu/89

vv. 1213–1235

’Tis Time, Time, desireless, hath shown thee what thou art;

The long monstrous mating, it is judged and all its race.

O child of him that sleepeth,

Thy land weepeth, weepeth,

Unfathered. Would God, I had never seen thy face!

From thee in great peril fell peace upon my heart,

In thee mine eye clouded and the dark is come apace.

A rushes out from the Palace.

O ye above this land in honour old

Exalted, what a tale shall ye be told,

What sights shall see, and tears of horror shed,

If still your hearts be true to them that led

Your sires! There runs no river, well I ween,

Not Phasis nor great Ister, shall wash clean

This house of all within that hideth—nay,

Nor all that creepeth forth to front the day,

Of purposed horror. And in misery

That woundeth most which men have willed to be.

No lack there was in what we knew before

Of food for heaviness. What bring’st thou more?

One thing I bring thee first. ’Tis quickly said.

Jocasta, our anointed queen, is dead.