Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Plumptre 1878).djvu/138

40 Œdip. Take heart; though I should prove thrice base-born slave,

Born of thrice base-born mother, thou art still

Free from all stain.

Joc. Yet, I implore thee, pause!

Yield to my counsels, do not do this deed.

Œdip. I may not yield, nor fail to search it out.

Joc. And yet best counsels give I, for thy good.

Œdip. What thou call'st best has long been grief to me.

Joc. May'st thou ne'er know, ill-starred one, who thou art!

Œdip. Will some one bring that shepherd to me here?

Leave her to glory in her high descent.

Joc. Woe! woe! ill-fated one! my last word this,

This only, and no more for evermore. [Rushes out.

Chorus. Why has thy queen, Ο Œdipus, gone forth

In her wild sorrow rushing? Much I fear

Lest from such silence evil deeds burst out.

Œdip. Burst out what will; I seek to know my birth,

Low though it be, and she perhaps is shamed

(For, like a woman, she is proud of heart)

At thoughts of my low birth; but I, who count

Myself the child of Fortune, fear no shame;

My mother she, and she has prospered me.

And so the months that span my life have made me

Both low and high; but whatsoe'er I be,

Such as I am I am, and needs must on

To fathom all the secret of my birth.

Chorus. If the seer's gift be mine,

Or skill in counsel wise,

Thou, Ο Kithæron, by Olympos high,

When next our full moon comes,

Shalt fail not to resound