Page:Sophocles (Storr 1912) v1.djvu/293

 This with thy goodwill I will undertake,

Without it I can scarce return alive.

For the king’s sake who sent him, Oedipus,

Dismiss him not without a meet reply.

Nay, worthy seniors, but for Theseus’ sake

Who sent him hither to have word of me,

Never again would he have heard my voice;

But now he shall obtain this parting grace,

An answer that will bring him little joy.

O villain, when thou hadst the sovereignty

That now thy brother holdeth in thy stead,

Didst thou not drive me, thine own father, out,

An exile, cityless, and make me wear

This beggar’s garb thou weepest to behold,

Now thou art come thyself to my sad plight?

Nothing is here for tears; it must be borne

By me till death, and I shall think of thee

As of my murderer; thou didst thrust me out;

’Tis thou hast made me conversant with woe,

Through thee I beg my bread in a strange land;

And had not these my daughters tended me

I had been dead for aught of aid from thee.

They tend me, they preserve me, they are men

Not women in true service to their sire;

But ye are bastards, and no sons of mine.

Therefore just Heaven hath an eye on thee;

Howbeit not yet with aspect so austere

As thou shalt soon experience, if indeed

These banded hosts are moving against Thebes. 271