Page:Tragedies of Sophocles (Plumptre 1878).djvu/243

Rh And painful. Yet my nature bids me count

Above all these things safety for myself.

Creon. [To .] Thou, then—yes, thou, who

bend'st thy face to earth—

Confessest thou, or dost deny the deed?

Antig. I own I did it, and will not deny.

Creon. [To Guard.] Go thou thy way, where'er thy will

may choose,

Freed from a weighty charge.

[Exit Guard.

[To .] And now for thee.

Say in few words, not lengthening out thy speech,

Knew'st thou the edicts which forbade these things?

Antig. I knew them. Could I fail? Full clear were they.

Creon. And thou did'st dare to disobey these laws?

Antig. Yes, for it was not Zeus who gave them forth,

Nor Justice, dwelling with the Gods below,

Who traced these laws for all the sons of men;

Nor did I deem thy edicts strong enough,

That thou, a mortal man, should'st over-pass

The unwritten laws of God that know not change.

They are not of to-day nor yesterday,

But live for ever, nor can man assign

When first they sprang to being. Not through fear

Of any man's resolve was I prepared

Before the Gods to bear the penalty

Of sinning against these. That I should die

I knew, (how should I not?) though thy decree

Had never spoken. And, before my time

If I shall die, I reckon this a gain;

For whoso lives, as I, in many woes,

How can it be but he shall gain by death?

And so for me to bear this doom of thine

Has nothing painful. But, if I had left