Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Plumptre 1878).djvu/140

42 Mess. The very man thou seekst

Œdip. Ho there! old man. Come hither, look on me,

And tell me all. Did Laios own thee once?

Shep. His slave I was, not bought, but reared at home.

Œdip. What was thy work, or what thy mode of life?

Shep. Near all my life I followed with the flock.

Œdip. And in what regions did'st thou chiefly dwell?

Shep. Now 'twas Kithæron, now on neighbouring fields.

Œdip. Know'st thou this man? Did'st ever see him there?

Shep. What did he do? Of what man speakest thou?

Œdip. This man now present. Did ye ever meet?

Shep. I cannot say off-hand from memory.

Mess. No wonder that, my lord. But I'll remind him

Right well of things forgotten. Well I know

He needs must know when on Kithæron's fields,

He with a double flock, and I with one,

I was his neighbour during three half years,

From springtide till Arcturos rose; and I

In winter to mine own fold drove my flocks,

And he to those of Laios. [To Shepherd.] Answer me,

Speak I, or speak I not, the thing that was?

Shep. Thou speak'st the truth, although long years have passed.

Mess. Come, then, say on. Dost know thou gav'st me once

A boy, that I might rear him as my child?

Shep. What means this? Wherefore askest thou of that?

Mess. Here stands he, fellow! that same tiny boy.

Shep. A curse befall thee! Wilt not hold thy tongue?

Œdip. Rebuke him not, old man; thy words need more

The language of rebuker than do his.

Shep. Say, good my lord, what fault do I commit?