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Rh. What news? From whence have you come?

. From Corinth, and you will rejoice at the message I am about to give you; yet, maybe, it will grieve you.

. What is it? How can it have this double power?

. The people of Corinth, they say, will take him for king.

. How then? Is old Polybius no longer on the throne?

. No. He is in his tomb.

. What do you say? Is Polybius dead, old man?

. May I drop dead if it is not the truth.

. Away! Hurry to your master with this news. O oracle of the gods, where are you now? This is the man whom Oedipus feared and shunned lest he should murder him, and now this man has died a natural death, and not by the hand of Oedipus.

. Jocasta, dearest wife, why have you called me from the house?

. Listen to this man, and judge to what the oracles of the gods have come.

. And he—who may he be? And what news has he?