Page:Sophocles' King Oedipus.pdf/31

Rh. Yet I must rule.

. Not if you rule badly.

. Hear him, O Thebes!

. Thebes is for me also, not for you alone.

. Cease, princes: I see Jocasta coming out of the house; she comes just in time to quench the quarrel.

. Unhappy men! Why have you made this crazy uproar? Are you not ashamed to quarrel about your own affairs when the whole country is in trouble? Go back into the palace, Oedipus, and you, Creon, to your own house. Stop making all this noise about some petty thing.

. Your husband is about to kill me—or to drive me from the land of my fathers.

. Yes: for I have convicted him of treachery against me.

. Now may I perish accursed if I have done such a thing.

. For god’s love believe it, Oedipus. First, for the sake of his oath, and then for my sake, and for the sake of these people here.

(all). King, do what she asks.

. What would you have me do?

. Not to make a dishonourable charge, with no more evidence than rumour,