Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Plumptre 1878).djvu/176

78 Œdip. By all thy ties of kindness, gentle friend,

Bid me not open deeds of foulest shame.

Chor. The wide-spread rumour growing evermore,

I fain would hear, my friend, the truth in all.

Œdip. Woe! woe!

Chor. Be patient, I beseech thee.

Œdip. Woe, woe is me!

Chor. Comply, as I have done with thy desire!

Œdip. Full evil fortune have I borne, my friends,

But all against my will; for these, God knows,

Were none of them self-chosen.

Chor. How was this?

Œdip. In shameful wedlock did my country join me

Who nothing knew, yea, in accursèd marriage.

Chor. And did'st thou, as I hear, thy mother's bed

Take as thine own, in shame ineffable?

Œdip. Ah me! 'tis death to me to hear it said,

Ο stranger! And these children—they were born

Chor. What sayest thou?

Œdip. Two sorrows they were born

Chor. Ο Zeus!

Œdip. From the same womb to which I owed my birth.

Chor. Are they thy daughters?

Œdip. Yea, their father's sisters.

Chor. Ah woe!

Œdip. Ah woe ! ten thousand tangled ills

Chor. Thou suffer'dst

Œdip. Yes, I suffered fearful things.

Chor. And thou hast done

Œdip. I have not done.

Chor. What then?

Œdip. I did but take as gift what I, poor wretch,

Had, at my country's hands, not merited.