Page:The Antigone of Sophocles (1911).djvu/43

SOPHOCLES. You—you, I say, that stand with drooping head,

Do you avow the deed, or do you disavow?

I did the deed, the charge do not deny.

You may retire and go where’er you list,

From heavy imputation quite exempt.

[The Watchman exit R.

But you,—speak not at length, yet briefly say,

You knew my edict had forbidden this?

I knew. How could I not? ’T was known to all.

And you cared not, but dared to break the law?

I did; for well I knew that he who made that

Proclamation was not Zeus—I knew

That Justice, dwelling with the gods below,

Such laws for men to keep had ne’er laid down;

Nor did I think your proclamation had

Such force that laws unwritten of the gods,

Unchanging, mortal man could overpass.

For not to-day, nor yesterday, they live,

But evermore, so long that no man knows

The time they ’ve been in force. ’T was not for me,

In fear of man, or king, to violate

These institutions and the penalty

Then due the gods to pay. That I must die

I knew full well (and, pray, why should I not?)

Your edict published or still unproclaimed.

The penalty you have in mind

Impose. I count it gain to die forthwith,

For whoso lives in misery worse than death,

As I, what else can death but profit be?

Tell me what blessings have I here alive

That I should fear to die. To me ’t is naught;

But if my mother’s son I had endured

To see a corpse unburied lie, that would

Indeed have caused me grave concern, whereas