Speaker 1: Part one antigony, and is many before the palace gates.
Speaker 2: Is manie, sister of my blood and heart? Seest thou
Speaker 2: how zeus would in our lives fulfill the weird of Oedipus,
Speaker 2: a world of woes. For what of pain, affliction, outrage,
Speaker 2: shame is lacking in our fortunes thine and mine? And
Speaker 2: now this proclamation of to day made by our Captain
Speaker 2: General to the state, what can its purport be? Didst
Speaker 2: hear and heed? Or art thou deaf?
Speaker 3: When friends are banned as foes to me antigony? No
Speaker 3: word of friends has come or glad or grievous. Since
Speaker 3: we twain were reft of our two brethren in one
Speaker 3: day by double fratricide, and since in the night our
Speaker 3: argive leaguers fled, no later news has reached me to
Speaker 3: in spirit or deject I.
Speaker 2: Know twas so, and therefore summoned thee beyond the gates
Speaker 2: to breathe it in thine ear? What is it?
Speaker 3: Some dark secret, stir thy breast?
Speaker 2: What but the thought of our two brothers dead, the
Speaker 2: one by Creon graced with funeral rites, the other disappointed
Speaker 2: Hetaiocles he hath consigned to earth as fame reports with
Speaker 2: obsequies that use and won't ordain, so gracing him among
Speaker 2: the dead below. But polyneses a dishonored course. So by report,
Speaker 2: the royal edict runs, no man may bury him, or
Speaker 2: may lament must leave him tombless and unwept, a feast
Speaker 2: for kites to scent afar and swoop upon. Such is
Speaker 2: the edict. If reports speak true of Creon, our most
Speaker 2: noble Creon aimed at thee and me aye, me too,
Speaker 2: and Anon, he will be here to promulgate for such
Speaker 2: as have not heard his mandate. Tis in sooth no
Speaker 2: passing humor. For the edict says, whoe'er transgresses shall be
Speaker 2: stoned to death. So stands it with us. Now tis
Speaker 2: thine to show if thou art worthy of thy blood
Speaker 2: or base.
Speaker 3: But how my rash fond sister, in such case can
Speaker 3: I do anything to make or mar say?
Speaker 2: Wilt thou aid me and a bet?
Speaker 3: Decide in what bold venture? What is in thy thought?
Speaker 2: Lend me a hand to bear the corpse away?
Speaker 3: What bury him?
Speaker 2: Despite the interdict, my brother, And though thou deny him thine,
Speaker 2: no man shall say that I betrayed a brother.
Speaker 3: Wilt thou persist? Though Creon has forbid?
Speaker 2: What right has he to keep me from mine own?
Speaker 3: Bethink THEE Sister, of our father's fate, abhorred, dishonored, self,
Speaker 3: convinced of sin, blinded himself his executioner. Think of his
Speaker 3: mother wife, ill sorted names, done by a noose, herself
Speaker 3: had twined to death, and last our hapless brethren in
Speaker 3: one day, both in a mutual destiny, involved self slaughtered,
Speaker 3: both the slayer and the slain. Bethink, THEE Sister, We
Speaker 3: are left alone, shall we not perish? Wretchedest of all,
Speaker 3: if in defiance of the law we cross a monarch's will,
Speaker 3: weak women, think of that not framed by nature to
Speaker 3: contend with men. Remember this too, that the stronger rules,
Speaker 3: we must obey his orders, these or worse. Therefore, I
Speaker 3: plead compulsion and entreat the dead to pardon. I perforce
Speaker 3: obey the powers that be. Tis foolishness. I ween to
Speaker 3: overstep in aught the golden mien.
Speaker 2: I urge no more, nay wert thou willing? Still I
Speaker 2: would not welcome such a fellowship. Go thine own way.
Speaker 2: Myself will bury him? How sweet to die? In such
Speaker 2: employ to rest sister and brother linked in love's embrace,
Speaker 2: a sinless sinner band a while on earth, but by
Speaker 2: the dead commend it, and with them I shall abide forever.
Speaker 2: As for THEE scorn if thou wilt the eternal laws.
Speaker 3: Of I scorn them not but to defy the state
Speaker 3: or break her ordinance, I have no skill.
Speaker 2: A specious pretext. I will go alone to lap my
Speaker 2: dearest brother in the grave.
Speaker 3: My poor fond sister, how I fear.
Speaker 2: For THEE, O waste no fears on me.
Speaker 3: Look to thyself at least let no man know of
Speaker 3: thine intent. But keep it close and secret as will I.
Speaker 2: Oh tell it, Sister, I shall hate THEE more if
Speaker 2: thou proclaim it not to all the town.
Speaker 3: Thou hast a fiery soul for numbing work.
Speaker 2: I pleasure those whom I would leapest.
Speaker 3: Please if thou succeed, but thou art doomed to fail.
Speaker 2: When strength shall fail me, yes, but not before.
Speaker 3: But if the venture's hopeless, why say.
Speaker 2: Sister, forbear? Or I shall hate THEE soon, and the
Speaker 2: dead man will hate THEE too with cause, Say I
Speaker 2: am mad, and give my madness rein to wreck itself.
Speaker 2: The worst that can befall is but to die and
Speaker 2: honorable death.
Speaker 3: Have thine own way, then tis a mad endeavor. Yet
Speaker 3: to thy lovers, Thou art dear as ever excellent sunbeam.
Speaker 4: Of all that ever dawn upon our seven gated TheBus
Speaker 4: the brightest ray O ay a golden day, How fair
Speaker 4: thy light o'er dirks fountain shone, speeding upon their headlong
Speaker 4: homeward course far quicker than they came, the Argy force
Speaker 4: putting to flight, the Argon cheves the host wi Scutcheon's
Speaker 4: white against our land. The proud invader came to vindicate
Speaker 4: fell Polynychus, claim like to an eagle, swooping low on pinions,
Speaker 4: white as new fallen snow, with clanging scream a horse,
Speaker 4: they plume his crest, the aspiring lord of Argus onward crest,
Speaker 4: hovering around our city walls. He waits his spearmen raven
Speaker 4: at our seven gates. But ere torch our crown of
Speaker 4: towers could burn ere they had tasted of our blood.
Speaker 4: They turn, forced by the dragon in their rear, the
Speaker 4: din of Ar's panic struck. They hear for sef so
Speaker 4: hatest the Braggart's poast beheld that gold bespangl'd host as
Speaker 4: at the gold the pen they uprais'd. He struck them
Speaker 4: with his fault, lightning blaze to earthy from earth. Rebounding down,
Speaker 4: he crash'd the fire brand from his impious hand was
Speaker 4: dash'd as like a backic reveler. On he came out,
Speaker 4: breathing hate and flame, and totter'd elsewhere in the field.
Speaker 4: Here there great area, like a war horse wheel beneath
Speaker 4: his car down thrust our foemen beg the dust. Seven
Speaker 4: captains at our seven gates thunder'd for each a champion waits,
Speaker 4: each left behind his armor, bright trophy for sevs who
Speaker 4: turns the fight, save two alone that ill star pair
Speaker 4: one mother to one father bear who lance in rest,
Speaker 4: one gainst the other drave and both perish'd. Brother slain
Speaker 4: by brother. Now victory to TheBus, returns again and smiles
Speaker 4: upon her chariot circled plane. Now let feast and festal
Speaker 4: should memories of war blot out. Let us to the
Speaker 4: temples throng dance as sing the live night long God
Speaker 4: of TheBus. Lead thou the round bacchus shaker of the ground.
Speaker 4: Let us end our revels here lo creon, our new
Speaker 4: lord rosneer crown by this strange chance, our King, what
Speaker 4: I'm marvel pondering why this summons? Wherefore call us his
Speaker 4: elders one and all, beating us with him, debate on
Speaker 4: some grave concern of state.
Speaker 5: And your creon elders. The gods have righted once again
Speaker 5: our storm tossed ship of state now safe in port.
Speaker 5: But you, by special summons I convened as my most
Speaker 5: trusted counselors, first because I knew you loyal to lay
Speaker 5: us of old again when Oedipus restored our state, both
Speaker 5: while he ruled and when his rule was ore, ye
Speaker 5: still were constant to the royal line. Now that his
Speaker 5: two sons perished in one day, brother by brother, murderously
Speaker 5: slain by right of kinship to the prince's dead, I
Speaker 5: claim and hold the throne and sovereignty. Yet tis no
Speaker 5: easy matter to discern the temper of a man his
Speaker 5: mind and will till he be proved by exercise of power.
Speaker 5: And in my case, if one who reigns supreme swerve
Speaker 5: from the highest policy tongue tied by fear of consequence,
Speaker 5: that man I hold and ever held the basest of
Speaker 5: the base. And I condemn the man who sets his
Speaker 5: friend before his country. For myself I call to witness Zeus,
Speaker 5: whose eyes are everywhere. If I perceive some mischievous design
Speaker 5: to sap the State, I will not hold my tongue,
Speaker 5: nor would I reckon as my private friend a public foe. Well,
Speaker 5: knowing that the state is the good ship that holds
Speaker 5: our fortunes, all farewell to friendship if she suffers wreck.
Speaker 5: Such is the policy b which I seek to serve
Speaker 5: the Commons, And conformably I have proclaimed an edict as
Speaker 5: concerns the sons of Oedipus Eteocles, who, in his country's
Speaker 5: battle fought and fell the foremost champion. Duly bury him
Speaker 5: with all observances and ceremonies that are the girden of
Speaker 5: the heroic dead. But for the miscreant exile, who returned,
Speaker 5: minded in flames and ashes, to blot out his father's
Speaker 5: city and his father's gods, and glut his vengeance with
Speaker 5: his kinsman's blood, or drag them captive at his chariot wheels.
Speaker 5: For Polyneses, tis ordained that none shall give him burial
Speaker 5: or make mourn for him, but leave his corpse unburied,
Speaker 5: to be meet for dogs and carrion crows a ghastly sight.
Speaker 5: So am I purposed. Never by my will shall miscreants
Speaker 5: take precedence of true men. But all good patriots, alive
Speaker 5: or dead, shall be by me preferred and honored.
Speaker 4: Son of minorceps. Thus thou wilst to deal with him
Speaker 4: who loath and him who loved our state, Thy word
Speaker 4: is low. Thou can'st dispose of us the living as
Speaker 4: thou waste as of the dead.
Speaker 5: See, then ye execute what I or deain.
Speaker 4: On younger shoulders lay dis grievous charge.
Speaker 5: Fear not I have posted guards to watch the corpse.
Speaker 4: But further duty wouldst thou lay on us.
Speaker 5: Not to connive at disobedience.
Speaker 4: No man is mad enough to court his death.
Speaker 5: The penalty is death. Yet hope of gain hath lured
Speaker 5: men to their ruin. Oftentimes enter guard.
Speaker 6: My Lord, I will not make pretense to pant and
Speaker 6: puff some lightfooted messenger. In sooth My soul, beneath its
Speaker 6: pack of thought, made many a halt, and turned and
Speaker 6: turned again. For conscience plied her spur and curb thy turns.
Speaker 6: Why hurry headlong to thy fate, poor fool, she whispered.
Speaker 6: Then again, if Creon learned this from another, thou wilt
Speaker 6: rue it worse. Thus leisurely I hastened on my road.
Speaker 6: Much thought extends affurlong to a league. But in the
Speaker 6: end the forward voice prevailed to face thee. I will speak,
Speaker 6: though I say nothing for plucking courage from despair me thought.
Speaker 6: Let the worst hap thou canst but meet thy fate.
Speaker 5: What is thy news? Why this despondency?
Speaker 6: Let me premise a word about myself. I neither did
Speaker 6: the deed, nor saw it done, Nor were it just
Speaker 6: that I should come to harm.
Speaker 5: Thou art good at parry and canst fence about some
Speaker 5: matter of grave import?
Speaker 6: Has this plane the bearer of dread tidings needs must quake?
Speaker 5: Then, sir, shoot thy bolt and get thee gone?
Speaker 6: Well it must out. The corpse is buried. Someone e'en
Speaker 6: now besprinkled it with thirsty dust, performed the proper ritual,
Speaker 6: and was gone.
Speaker 5: What sayest thou, who hath dared to do this thing?
Speaker 6: I cannot tell, For there was ne'er a trace of
Speaker 6: pick or mattic, hard unbroken ground, without a scratch or rut,
Speaker 6: of chariot wheels, no sign that human hands had been
Speaker 6: at work. When the first century of the Morning Watch
Speaker 6: gave the alarm, we all were terror stricken. The corpse
Speaker 6: had vanished, not interred in earth, but strewn with dust,
Speaker 6: as if by one who sought to avert the course
Speaker 6: that haunts the unburied dead of hound or ravening jackal.
Speaker 1: Not a sign.
Speaker 6: Thereat rose an angry wall of words. Guard railed, guard,
Speaker 6: and blows were like to end it. For none was
Speaker 6: there to part us, each in turn suspected, but the
Speaker 6: guilt brought home to none. From lack of evidence. We
Speaker 6: challenged each the ordeal or to handle red hot iron
Speaker 6: or passed through fire, affirming on our oath our innocence.
Speaker 6: We neither did the deed ourselves, nor know who did
Speaker 6: or compassed it. Our quest was at a standstill when
Speaker 6: one spake and bowed us all to earth by quivering reeds.
Speaker 6: For there was no gain seeing him, or way to
Speaker 6: escape perdition. Ye are bound to tell the king ye
Speaker 6: cannot hide it. So he spake, and he convinced us
Speaker 6: all So lots were cast, and I, unlucky scapegot drew
Speaker 6: the prize. So here I am unwilling and withal unwelcome.
Speaker 6: No man cares to I knews.
Speaker 4: I had misgivings from the first, my leech of something
Speaker 4: more than natural at work.
Speaker 5: Oh, cease you vex me with your battlement. I am
Speaker 5: like to think you dote in your old age. Is
Speaker 5: it not errant folly to pretend that gods would have
Speaker 5: a thought for this dead man? Did they forsooth award
Speaker 5: him special grace? And as some benefactor, bury him who
Speaker 5: came to fire? There hallowed sanctuaries to sack their shrines,
Speaker 5: to desolate their land and scout their ordinances. Or perchance
Speaker 5: the gods bestow their favors on the bad. No. No,
Speaker 5: I have long noted malcontents who wagged their heads and
Speaker 5: kicked against the yoke, misliking these my orders and my rule.
Speaker 5: Tis they I warrant who suborned my guards by bribes
Speaker 5: of evils current upon earth. The worst is money. Money
Speaker 5: tis that sax cities and drives men forth from hearth
Speaker 5: and home, warps and seduces native innocence, and breeds a
Speaker 5: habit of dishonesty. But they who sold themselves shall find
Speaker 5: their greed outshot the mark and rue it soon or late,
Speaker 5: yea as I still revere the dread of Zeus. By Zeus,
Speaker 5: I swear, except ye find and bring before my presence
Speaker 5: here the very man who carried out this lawless burial
Speaker 5: death for your punishment shall not suffice hanged on a
Speaker 5: cross alive. Ye first shall make confession of this outrage.
Speaker 5: This will teach you what practices are like to serve
Speaker 5: your turn. There are some villainies that bring no gain,
Speaker 5: For by dishonesty the few may thrive, the many come
Speaker 5: to ruin and disgrace.
Speaker 6: May I not speak? Or must I turn and go
Speaker 6: without a word?
Speaker 5: Begone? Canst thou not see that in this question?
Speaker 7: Or me?
Speaker 6: Where my lord is it? Thy ears that suffer? Or
Speaker 6: thy heart?
Speaker 5: Why seek to probe and find the seat of pain?
Speaker 6: I go? Thine ears this miscreant? Thy mind?
Speaker 5: What an inveterate babbler get thee gone.
Speaker 6: Babler perchance, but innocent of the.
Speaker 5: Crime twice guilty, having sold thy soul for gain.
Speaker 6: Alas how sad, when reason is reason.
Speaker 5: Wrong, go quibble with thy reason. If thou fail'st to
Speaker 5: find these malefactors, thou shalt own the wages of ill
Speaker 5: gotten gains is death.
Speaker 1: Exit creon.
Speaker 6: I pray he may be found, but court or not,
Speaker 6: and fortune must determine that thou never shalt see me
Speaker 6: here returning. That is sure. For pastoral hope or thought,
Speaker 6: I have escaped, and for my safety ere the God's
Speaker 6: much thanks Exit gurd.
Speaker 4: Many wonders there be, but not more wonders than o'er
Speaker 4: the surging sea, with the widening south wind Wan through
Speaker 4: the foam of the firth, man makes his perilous way,
Speaker 4: And the eldest of deer is Earth that knows not
Speaker 4: toil nor decay. Ever, he furrows and scores as his
Speaker 4: steam year in year out. With breed of the yoked horse,
Speaker 4: the plowshare turneth about, the light witted birds of the air,
Speaker 4: the beasts of the world, and the wood he traps
Speaker 4: with his woven snare, and the broad of the briny flood.
Speaker 4: Master of cunning, he the savage bull, and the heart
Speaker 4: who roams the mountain free are tain'd by his infinite art,
Speaker 4: And the shaggy rough main steed is broken to bear
Speaker 4: the bit speech and the wind swift speed of counsel
Speaker 4: and sin he quit. He hath learn'd for himself all
Speaker 4: these and the arrowy reign to fly, and the knipping
Speaker 4: airs that freeze neath the open winter sky. He hath
Speaker 4: provision for all felt plague. He hath learned to endure
Speaker 4: safe whatever may befall. Yet for death he hath found
Speaker 4: no cure, passing the wilest flight. Thought are the coming
Speaker 4: and skill that guide man now to the light, but
Speaker 4: now to counsels of ill. If he honors the laws
Speaker 4: of the land and revers the gods of the state,
Speaker 4: proudly his city shall stand. But a sitiless, outcast I rape,
Speaker 4: who so bold in his pride from the path of
Speaker 4: right doth depart. Never may I sit by his side
Speaker 4: or share the thoughts of his heart. What strange vision
Speaker 4: meets my eye fills me with a wild surprise. Sure
Speaker 4: I know her? Sure tis she the maid Antigony, hapless
Speaker 4: child of hapless sire. Didst thou recklessly conspire madly brave
Speaker 4: the King's decree? Therefore are they hailing thee.
Speaker 1: Enter guard bringing antigony?
Speaker 6: Here it is the culpric taken in the act of
Speaker 6: giving burial. But where's the king?
Speaker 7: There?
Speaker 1: From the palace he returns in time, enter creon.
Speaker 5: Why is my presence timely what has chanced.
Speaker 6: No man, my lord should make a vow, For if
Speaker 6: he ever swears he will not do a thing, his
Speaker 6: after thoughts belie his first resolve. When from the hailstorm
Speaker 6: of thy threats I fled, I swear thou wouldst not
Speaker 6: see me here again. But the wild rapture of a
Speaker 6: glad surprise intoxicates. And so I'm herefore sworn. And here's
Speaker 6: my prisoner, caught in a very act decking the grave.
Speaker 6: No lottery this time, this prize is mine by right
Speaker 6: of treasure trove. So take her, judge, her, rack her
Speaker 6: if thou wilt, She's thine, my liege. But I may
Speaker 6: rightly claim hence to depart well, quit of all these ills.
Speaker 5: Say how dost thou arrest the maid?
Speaker 6: And where burying the man? There's nothing more to tell.
Speaker 5: Hast thou thy wits, or knowest thou what thou sayest I.
Speaker 6: Saw this woman burying the corpse against thy orders? Is
Speaker 6: that clear and plain?
Speaker 5: But how was she surprised and caught in the act.
Speaker 6: It happen'd Thus, no sooner had we come, driven from
Speaker 6: thy presence by those awful threats, than straight we swept
Speaker 6: away all trace of dust and bared the clammy body.
Speaker 6: Then we sat high on the ridge to windward of
Speaker 6: the stench, while each man kept his fellow alert and
Speaker 6: rated roundly the sluggard if he chanced to nap. So
Speaker 6: all night long we watch'd until the sun stood high
Speaker 6: in heaven, and his blazing beams smote us. A sudden
Speaker 6: Whirlvin then upraised a cloud of dust that blotted out
Speaker 6: the sky, and swept the plain, and stripped the woodland's bare,
Speaker 6: and shook the firmament. We clos'd our eyes and waited
Speaker 6: till a heaven set plague should pass. At last it ceased,
Speaker 6: and lo there stood this maid a piercing cry. She utter'd,
Speaker 6: sad and shrill, as when the mother bird beholds her
Speaker 6: nest robb'd of its nestings. Even so, the maid wailed
Speaker 6: as she saw the body stripp'd and bare, and curs'd
Speaker 6: the ruffians who had done this deed. Anon. She gathered
Speaker 6: handfuls of dry dust. Then, holding high a well wrought brazen,
Speaker 6: urned thrice on the dead. She poured a lush we
Speaker 6: at the sight swooped down on her, and seized our quarry. Undismayed.
Speaker 6: She stood and when we text her with the former crime,
Speaker 6: and this she discerned nothing. I was glad and grieved
Speaker 6: for tis most sweet escape oneself scot free, and yet
Speaker 6: to bring disaster to a friend is grievous. Take it
Speaker 6: all in all, I deem man's first duty is to
Speaker 6: serve himself.
Speaker 5: Speak girl, with head bent low and downcast eyes. Dost
Speaker 5: thou plead guilty or deny the deed?
Speaker 2: Guilty? I did it. I deny it.
Speaker 1: Not to guard Sarah.
Speaker 5: Begone with it, thou wilt, and thank thy luck that
Speaker 5: thou hast escaped a heavy charge to antigony. Now answer
Speaker 5: this plain question, yes or no? Wist thou acquainted with
Speaker 5: the interdict.
Speaker 2: I knew, all knew. How should I fail to know?
Speaker 5: And yet wert old enough to break the law?
Speaker 2: Yea, For these laws were not ordained of Zeus, and
Speaker 2: she who sits enthroned with gods below justice enacted not
Speaker 2: these human laws. Nor did I deem that thou, a
Speaker 2: mortal man, couldst by a breath annull and override the immutable,
Speaker 2: unwritten laws of heaven. They were not born to day
Speaker 2: nor yesterday. They die not, and none knoweth whence they sprang.
Speaker 2: I was not like who feared no mortals frown to
Speaker 2: disobey these laws and so provoke the wrath of heaven.
Speaker 2: I knew that I must die e'en, hadst thou not
Speaker 2: proclaimed it. And if death is thereby hastened, I shall
Speaker 2: count it gain, for death is gained to him whose life,
Speaker 2: like mine, is full of misery. Thus my lot appears
Speaker 2: not sad but blissful. For had I endured to leave
Speaker 2: my mother's son unburied there, I should have grieved with reason.
Speaker 2: But not now. And if in this thou judgest me
Speaker 2: a fool, bethinks the judge of follies, not a quit.
Speaker 4: A stubborn daughter of a stubborn sire, this ill, stout
Speaker 4: maiden peeks against the Greeks.
Speaker 5: Well let her know. The stubbornest of wills are soonest,
Speaker 5: bended as the hardest iron, or heated in the fire
Speaker 5: to brittleness, flies soonest into fragments, shivered through a snaffle,
Speaker 5: curbs the fieriest steed. And he who in subjection lives
Speaker 5: must needs be meek. But this proud girl, in insolence,
Speaker 5: well schooled, first overstepped the established law, and then a
Speaker 5: second and worse act of insolence, she boasts and glories
Speaker 5: in her wickedness. Now if she thus can float authority unpunished,
Speaker 5: I am woman, she the man. But though she be
Speaker 5: my sister's child, or nearer of kin than all who
Speaker 5: worship at my hearth, nor she, nor yet her sister,
Speaker 5: shall escape the utmost penalty. For both thy hold as
Speaker 5: arch conspirators of equal guilt. Bring forth the elder. Even
Speaker 5: now I saw her within the palace, frenzied, in distraught,
Speaker 5: the workings of the mind, discover oft dark deeds, in
Speaker 5: darkness schemed before the act. More hateful still the miscreant
Speaker 5: who seeks, when caught, to make a virtue of a crime, wouldst.
Speaker 2: Thou do more than slay thy prisoner?
Speaker 6: Not I?
Speaker 5: Thy life is mine, and that's enough.
Speaker 2: Why dally? Then?
Speaker 8: To me?
Speaker 2: No word of thine is pleasant? God forbid it air
Speaker 2: should please? Nor am I more acceptable to thee And
Speaker 2: yet how otherwise had I achieved a name so glorious
Speaker 2: as by burying a brother? So my townsmen all would say,
Speaker 2: were they not gagged by terror? Manifold King's prerogative, and
Speaker 2: not the least that all his act and all his
Speaker 2: words are law.
Speaker 5: Of all these thebans none so deems, But thou.
Speaker 2: These think as I, but bate their breath to thee.
Speaker 5: Hast thou no shame to differ from all these?
Speaker 2: To reverence, kith and kin can bring no shame.
Speaker 5: Was his dead foeman, not thy kinsman? Too?
Speaker 2: One mother bear them and the self same sire.
Speaker 5: Why cast a slur on one by honoring one?
Speaker 2: The dead man will not bear thee out in this?
Speaker 5: Surely, if good and evil fair alive, the.
Speaker 2: Slain man was no villain, but a brother.
Speaker 5: The patriot perished by the outlaw's brand.
Speaker 2: Not lest the realms below these rights.
Speaker 5: Require not that the base should fare as do the brave,
Speaker 5: who knows.
Speaker 2: If this world's crimes are virtues.
Speaker 5: There not even death can make a foe a friend.
Speaker 2: My nature is for mutual love, not hate.
Speaker 5: Die then and love the dead. If thou must, no
Speaker 5: woman shall be the master while I live.
Speaker 1: Enter is many from all the palace gate weeping over
Speaker 1: her sister's faith comes this mean see her brow moon serene, beclouded.
Speaker 1: Now see her beauteous face overspread with a flash of.
Speaker 5: Angry red woman, who like a viper unperceived, didst harbor
Speaker 5: in my house and drain my blood. Two plagues thy
Speaker 5: nurtured blindly, so it proved to sap my throne. Say,
Speaker 5: didst thou too abet this crime? Or dost abjure all privity?
Speaker 3: I did the deed? If she will have it?
Speaker 8: So?
Speaker 3: And with my sister claim to share the guilt.
Speaker 2: That were unjust? Thou wouldst not act with me at first?
Speaker 2: And I refused thy partnership.
Speaker 3: But now thy bark is stranded. I am bold to
Speaker 3: claim my share as partner in the loss.
Speaker 2: Who did the deed? The underworld knows well a friend
Speaker 2: in word is never friend of mine.
Speaker 3: Oh, sister, scorn me not, but let me share thy
Speaker 3: work of piety, and with thee die.
Speaker 2: Claim not a work in which thou hadst no hand?
Speaker 2: One death sufficeth? Wherefore shouldst thou die?
Speaker 3: What would life profit me? Bereft of thee?
Speaker 2: Ask Creon, he's thy kinsman and best friend?
Speaker 3: Why taunt me? Find'st thou pleasure in these jibes?
Speaker 2: Tis a sad mockery, If indeed I mock?
Speaker 3: Oh, say if I can help thee even now.
Speaker 2: No save thyself? I grudge not thy escape.
Speaker 3: Is e'en this boon denied to share thy lot.
Speaker 2: Yea, for thou chosest life and I to die.
Speaker 3: Thou canst not say that I did not protest well.
Speaker 2: Some approved thy wisdom, others mine.
Speaker 3: But now we stand convicted.
Speaker 2: Both alike fear not thou livest. I died long ago.
Speaker 2: Then when I gave my life to save the dead.
Speaker 5: Both maids, methinks, are crazed. One suddenly has lost her wits.
Speaker 5: The other was born mad yea.
Speaker 3: So it falls when misfortune comes, the wisest even lose
Speaker 3: their mother wit.
Speaker 5: Ifaith thy wit forsook thee. When thou mad'st thy choice
Speaker 5: with evil doers to do ill?
Speaker 3: What life for me without my sister? Here?
Speaker 5: Say not thy sister, here, thy sister's dead.
Speaker 3: What wilt thou slay thy own son's plighted bride?
Speaker 9: Aye?
Speaker 5: Let him raise seed from other fields.
Speaker 3: No new espousal can be like the old.
Speaker 5: The plague on trolls who court and woo our sons.
Speaker 2: Oh hamen, how thy sire dishonors.
Speaker 5: Thee, the plague on thee, and thy accursed bride.
Speaker 4: What wilt thou rob thine own son of his bride?
Speaker 5: Tis death that bars this marriage? Not his sire so.
Speaker 4: Death warrant, it would seem is seed.
Speaker 5: By you, as first by me. Off with them guards
Speaker 5: and keep them close. Henceforward, let them learn to live
Speaker 5: as women, use, not roam at large urge for eeing.
Speaker 5: The bravest spirits run away when they perceive death pressing
Speaker 5: on life's keels.
Speaker 4: Thrice blessed are they who never taste it pain. If
Speaker 4: once the curse of heaven attained the race, the infection
Speaker 4: lingers on and speeds apace each after age, and each
Speaker 4: the cup must drain. So when it easy and blast
Speaker 4: from thrgy downtour sweep over the blackening main and world
Speaker 4: to land from ocean's cavenire's depth is oath and sand
Speaker 4: below on below thunders on the shore on the lavace
Speaker 4: day I see descending woe upon woe. From days of old,
Speaker 4: sun God laid on the race a malison and his
Speaker 4: rod scordes each age with sorrows, never ending. The light
Speaker 4: that dawned upon its last one sun is vanished, and
Speaker 4: the bloody axe of fate has felt the goodly tree
Speaker 4: that blossom'd late o Olippus by reckless pride, undone thy
Speaker 4: mitoseves what mortal power can quell not sleep that lays
Speaker 4: all else beneath its spell, nor moons that never tire,
Speaker 4: untouch'd by time, thron'd in the dazzling light that crowns
Speaker 4: Olympus height. Thou reignest king, omnipotent, sublime, past present, and to.
Speaker 1: Be all bow to thy decree. All that exceeds the
Speaker 1: mean by fate is punish'd love or hate.
Speaker 4: Hope flits about, never wearying wings, profit to some, to
Speaker 4: some light loves she brings, But no man knoweth our
Speaker 4: gifts may turn tillneath his feet. The treatures ashn sure
Speaker 4: twas a sage inspired that spake this word. If evil
Speaker 4: good appear to any, fate is near and brief. The
Speaker 4: respite from her flaming sword either comes in angry mood
Speaker 4: hamon latest of thy brood. Is it for his bride
Speaker 4: he screamed, or her marriage bed deceived? Noth he make
Speaker 4: is morn for thee made forlorn antigony.
Speaker 1: Enter him on soon?
Speaker 5: Shall we know better than seeer can tell, learning my
Speaker 5: fixed decree, anent thy bride, Thou meanest not son to
Speaker 5: wreathe against thy sire, knowest not whate'er we do is
Speaker 5: done in love.
Speaker 10: O Father, I am thine, and I will take thy
Speaker 10: wisdom as the helm to steer withal. Therefore, no wedlock
Speaker 10: shall by me be held more precious than thy loving God.
Speaker 5: Well spoken. So right minded sons should feel in all
Speaker 5: deferring to a father's will, for tis the hope of parents.
Speaker 5: They may rear a brood of sons, submissive, keen to
Speaker 5: avenge their father's wrongs and count his friends their own.
Speaker 5: But who begets unprofitable sons, he verily breeds trouble for
Speaker 5: himself and for his foes much laughter. Son, be warned,
Speaker 5: and let no woman fool away thy wits ill fares.
Speaker 5: The husband mated with a shrew, and her embraces very
Speaker 5: soon wax cold. For what can wound so surely to
Speaker 5: the quick as a false friend? So spew and cast
Speaker 5: her off. Bid her go find a husband with the dead.
Speaker 5: For since I caught her openly rebelling of all my subjects,
Speaker 5: the one malcontent, I will not prove a tree to
Speaker 5: the state she surely dies. Go let her if she
Speaker 5: will appeal to Zeus, the God of Kindred. For if
Speaker 5: thus I nurse rebellion in my house, shall not I
Speaker 5: foster mutiny? Without. For whoso rules his household worthily will
Speaker 5: prove in civic matters no less wise. But he who
Speaker 5: overbears the laws and thinks to overrule his rulers, such
Speaker 5: a one I never will allow. Whomever the state appoints
Speaker 5: must be obeyed in everything but small and great, just
Speaker 5: and unjust Alike, I warrant such a one in either
Speaker 5: case would shine as king or subject. Such a man would,
Speaker 5: in the storm of battle stand his ground. A comrade
Speaker 5: leal and true, but anarchy. What evils are not wrought
Speaker 5: by anarchy. She ruins states and overthrows the home. She
Speaker 5: dissipates and routes the embattled host, while discipline preserves the
Speaker 5: order ranks. Therefore, we must maintain authority and yield no
Speaker 5: title to a woman's will. Better, if needs be, men
Speaker 5: should cast us out than hear it said a woman
Speaker 5: proved his match to.
Speaker 4: Me on this old age have dulled wits. Thy words
Speaker 4: appear both reasonable and wise.
Speaker 10: Father, the gods implant in mortal man reason, the choicest
Speaker 10: gift bestowed by Heaven. Tis not for me to say
Speaker 10: thou heirest, Nor would I arraign thy wisdom if I could,
Speaker 10: And yet wise thoughts may come to other men, and
Speaker 10: as thy son, it falls to me to mark the act,
Speaker 10: the words, the comments of the crowd. The commons stand
Speaker 10: in terror of thy frown, and dare not utter aught
Speaker 10: that might defend. But I can overhear their muttered plaints,
Speaker 10: know how the people mourn this maiden, doomed for noblest deeds,
Speaker 10: to die the worst of deaths. When her own brother
Speaker 10: slain in battle way unsepulchered, she suffered not his corpse
Speaker 10: to lie for carrying birds and dogs to maul. Should
Speaker 10: not her name, they cry, be writ in gold. Such
Speaker 10: the low murmurings that reach my ear, Oh father, nothing
Speaker 10: is by me more prized than thy well being. For
Speaker 10: what higher good can children covet than their sire's fair fame?
Speaker 10: As fathers too take pride in glorious sons. Therefore my father,
Speaker 10: cling not to one mood, and deemed not thou art right,
Speaker 10: all others wrong. For whoso thinks that wisdom dwells with him,
Speaker 10: that he alone can speak or think aright, such oracles
Speaker 10: are empty breath. When tried, the wisest man will let
Speaker 10: himself be swayed by other's wisdom, and relax in time.
Speaker 10: See how the trees beside a stream in flood save
Speaker 10: if they yield to force, each spray unharmed. But by
Speaker 10: resisting perish root and branch. The mariner who keeps his
Speaker 10: main sheet taught, and will not slacken in the gale,
Speaker 10: is like to sail with thwarts reversed, keel uppermost, relent then,
Speaker 10: and repent thee of thy wrath. For if one young
Speaker 10: in years may claim some sense, I'll say, tis best
Speaker 10: of all to be endowed with absolute wisdom. But if
Speaker 10: that's denied, and nature takes not readily that ply next
Speaker 10: wise is he who lists to sage advice.
Speaker 4: If he says, all in season, heed him, king to haemon,
Speaker 4: heed thou thy sire too.
Speaker 5: Both have spoken, well, what would you have us, at
Speaker 5: our age be schooled lessened in prudence by a beardless boy?
Speaker 10: I plead for justice, father, nothing more. Weigh me upon
Speaker 10: my merit, not.
Speaker 5: My years strange merit. This to sanction lawlessness.
Speaker 10: For evildoers, I would urge, no, plea.
Speaker 5: Is not this maid an arrant lawbreaker?
Speaker 10: The theban commons with one voice, saying, no.
Speaker 5: What shall the mob dictate my policy?
Speaker 10: Tis thou methinks? Who speakest like a boy?
Speaker 5: Am I to rule for others or myself?
Speaker 10: A state for one man is no state at all.
Speaker 5: The state is his who rules it. So tis held.
Speaker 10: Has monarch of a desert. Thou wouldst shine.
Speaker 5: This boy, methinks, maintains the woman's cause.
Speaker 10: If thou beest woman, Yes, my thoughts for THEE.
Speaker 5: O reprobate wouldst wrangle with thy, sire.
Speaker 10: Because I see THEE wrongfully perverse.
Speaker 5: And am I wrong if I maintain my rights?
Speaker 10: Talk not of rights? Thou spurt'st the due of heaven.
Speaker 5: Oh heart, corrupt a woman's minion, Thou.
Speaker 10: Slave to dishonor thou wilt never find me.
Speaker 5: Thy speech at least was all a plea for her.
Speaker 11: And THEE and me, and for the gods below living.
Speaker 5: The maid shall never be thy bride, so she.
Speaker 10: Shall die, but one will die with her.
Speaker 5: Hast come to such a pass as threaten me?
Speaker 10: What threat is this? Vain counsels to reprove.
Speaker 5: Vain fool to instruct thy betters. Thou shalt ruin it.
Speaker 10: Wert not my father, I had said, Thou.
Speaker 5: Errest play not the spaniel. Thou a woman's slave?
Speaker 10: When thou'st speak. Must no man make reply?
Speaker 5: This passes bounds by heaven. Thou shalt not rate and
Speaker 5: jeer and float me with impunity, off with the hateful thing,
Speaker 5: that she may die at once beside her bridegroom in
Speaker 5: his sight.
Speaker 11: Think not that in my sight the maid shall die,
Speaker 11: or by my side. Never shalt thou again behold my
Speaker 11: face hereaf go consort with friends who like a madman
Speaker 11: for their mate.
Speaker 1: Exit Hamon end of Part one, Part two.
Speaker 4: Thy son has gone, my liege in angry haste fell
Speaker 4: is the wrath of youth beneath the.
Speaker 5: Smart Let him go vent his fury like a fiend.
Speaker 5: These sisters twain he shall not save from death.
Speaker 4: Surely thou meanst not to slay them both?
Speaker 5: I stand corrected. Only her who touched the body.
Speaker 4: And what death is she to die?
Speaker 5: She shall be taken to some desert place by man untrod,
Speaker 5: and in a rock hewn cave, with food, no more
Speaker 5: than to avoid the taint that homicide might bring on
Speaker 5: all the state buried alive there, Let her call in
Speaker 5: aid the king of death, the one god she revers
Speaker 5: or learn too late, a lesson learnt at last tis
Speaker 5: labor lost to reverence the dead.
Speaker 4: Love resists, as in fight all yield at the glance
Speaker 4: of thine eye. Love oo peal'd a knight on a
Speaker 4: maiden's sheep. Dost lie o'er the upland holes shall mortals
Speaker 4: not ye to thee mad are thy sobb'deitst all, And
Speaker 4: even the wisest heart straight to folly will fall at
Speaker 4: the touch of thy poison'd dart. Thou didst kindle the strife,
Speaker 4: the fraid o kinsman with kin by the eyes O
Speaker 4: her winsome wife and the yearning her heart to win
Speaker 4: for as her consort still enthroned with justice above, Thou
Speaker 4: bendest man to thy way o all invincible love. Lo,
Speaker 4: I myself am borne aside from justice as I view
Speaker 4: this bride o sight, and I in tears to drown
Speaker 4: antigones so jangs so fair. Thus hurried down Death's bower
Speaker 4: with the dead.
Speaker 2: To share friends, countrymen, my last farewell, I make my
Speaker 2: journey's done. One last fond, lingering, longing look I take
Speaker 2: at the bright sun. For death, who puts to sleep
Speaker 2: both young and old, hails my young life and beckons
Speaker 2: me to Acharon's dark fold. An unwed wife no youths
Speaker 2: have sung the marriage song for me my bridal bread.
Speaker 2: No maids have strewn with flowers from the lee tis
Speaker 2: death I wed, But.
Speaker 4: Bethink thee thou art sped great and glorious to the dead.
Speaker 4: Thou the sword's edge hast not tasted, no decease, thy
Speaker 4: frame hath wasted freely. Thou alone shalt go living to
Speaker 4: the dead below.
Speaker 2: Nay, but the piteous tale I've heard men tell of Tantalus,
Speaker 2: doomed child, chain'd upon so high rocky fell that clung
Speaker 2: like ivy wild, drench'd by the pelting rain and whirling snow,
Speaker 2: left there to pine, while on her frozen breast the
Speaker 2: tears I flow. Her fate is mine.
Speaker 4: She was sprung of God's divine mortals, we of mortal line,
Speaker 4: like renown with God's to gain recompenses all thy pain.
Speaker 4: Take this salast to thy tomb hers in life and death.
Speaker 2: Thy doom alack alack, ye mock me. Is it meet
Speaker 2: thus to insult me, living to my face, cease by
Speaker 2: our country's altars. I entreat ye, lordly rulers of a
Speaker 2: lordly race, O fount of dercy wood, embower'd plain where
Speaker 2: theban chariots to victory speed mark ye, the cruel laws
Speaker 2: that now have wrought my bane, the friends who show
Speaker 2: no pity in my need. Was her fate like mine,
Speaker 2: O monstrous doom within a rock built prison, sepulchered to
Speaker 2: fade and wither in a living tomb, and alien midst
Speaker 2: the living and the dead.
Speaker 4: In thy boldness overrush madly, thou thy foot didstash, gainst
Speaker 4: thy justice, all thirstare thou a father's gig?
Speaker 2: Dost bear at this thou touchest my most poignant pain,
Speaker 2: my ill starred father's piteous disgrace, the taint of blood,
Speaker 2: the hereditary stain that clings to all of Labdacus famed race,
Speaker 2: woe worth, the monstrous marriage bed, where lay a mother,
Speaker 2: with the sun her womb had borne. Therein I was
Speaker 2: conceiv'd woe worth, the day fruit of incestuous sheets, a
Speaker 2: maid forlorn. And now I pass, accursed and unwed, to
Speaker 2: meet them as an alien there below. And thee O
Speaker 2: brother in marriage ill bestead. Twas thy dead hand that
Speaker 2: dealt me this death blow.
Speaker 4: Religion hazard change tis true. Let right be paid when
Speaker 4: rites are due. Yet is it ill to disobey the
Speaker 4: power so hold by might the sway, Thou hast withstood authority,
Speaker 4: a safe will, g rebel, thou must.
Speaker 2: Die unwept, unwed, unfriended. Hence I go no longer may
Speaker 2: I see the day's bright eye. Not one friend left
Speaker 2: to share my bitter woe, and o'er my ashes heave
Speaker 2: one passing sigh.
Speaker 5: If wail and lamentation ought avail'd to stave off death,
Speaker 5: I trow they'd never end away with her, and, having
Speaker 5: walled her up in a rock vaulted tomb, as I
Speaker 5: ordain'd leave her alone at liberty to die, or if
Speaker 5: she choose to live in solitude, the two m her
Speaker 5: dwelling we in either case are guiltless as concerns this
Speaker 5: maiden's blood. Only on earth, no lodging shall she find.
Speaker 2: O grave, O bridal bower, O prison house hewn from
Speaker 2: the rock, my everlasting home. Whither I go to join
Speaker 2: the mighty host of kinsfolk, Persephas's guests, long dead, the
Speaker 2: last of all of all more miserable, I pass, my
Speaker 2: destined span of years cut short, and yet good hope
Speaker 2: is mine that I shall find a welcome from my sire,
Speaker 2: Oh welcome, too, from thee my mother and my brother
Speaker 2: dear from with these hands I laved and debt your
Speaker 2: limbs in death, and poured libations on your grave, and
Speaker 2: last my polonieses unto thee I paid due rites, and
Speaker 2: this my recompense. It am I justified in Wisdom's eyes.
Speaker 2: For even had it been some child of mine or
Speaker 2: husband moldering in death's decay, I had not wrought this
Speaker 2: deed despite the state. What is the law I call
Speaker 2: an aid tis? Thus I argue, had it been a
Speaker 2: husband dead, I might have wed another and have borne
Speaker 2: another child to take the dead child's place. But now
Speaker 2: my sire and mother both are dead, no second brother
Speaker 2: can be born for me. Thus, by the law of conscience,
Speaker 2: I was led to honor thee dear brother, and was
Speaker 2: judged by Creon guilty of an heenous crime. And now
Speaker 2: he drags me like a criminal, a bride unwed, amersed
Speaker 2: of marriage song and marriage bed and joys of motherhood
Speaker 2: my friends, deserted to a living grave. What ordinance of
Speaker 2: heaven have I transgressed? Hereafter? Can I look to any
Speaker 2: God for succor call on any man for help? Alas
Speaker 2: my piety is impious deemed well, if such justice is
Speaker 2: approved of heaven, I shall be taught by suffering my sin.
Speaker 2: But if the sin is theirs, O, may they suffer
Speaker 2: no worse ills than the wrongs they do to me.
Speaker 4: The same ungovernable will drives like a gale the maiden. Still.
Speaker 5: Therefore, my guards who let her stay shall smart full
Speaker 5: soar for their delay.
Speaker 2: Ah, woe is me? This word I hear brings death
Speaker 2: most near.
Speaker 4: I have no comfort. What ye saith, what tends no
Speaker 4: other thing than death?
Speaker 2: My fatherland, city of Thebes, divine, ye, gods of Thebes.
Speaker 2: Whence sprang my line, Look, puissant lords of Thebes on me,
Speaker 2: the last of all your royal house, ye see, martyred
Speaker 2: by men of sin. Undone such meed my piety hath won.
Speaker 1: Exit antigony, like to thee that maiden bright dine I
Speaker 1: in her brass bon tower, once exchange the glad sunlight
Speaker 1: for a sell her bridal bower.
Speaker 4: And yet she sprang of royal line, my child like thine,
Speaker 4: and nurs'd the seed by her conceiv'd of Seb's descending
Speaker 4: in a golden shower. Strange shall the ways of fate
Speaker 4: her power, nor wealth, nor arms withstand, nor tower nor brass.
Speaker 4: Proudships that brest the sea from fate can flee. Thus
Speaker 4: Triyus child the rash Edonian king. For words of high
Speaker 4: disdain did Bacchus, to a rocky dungeon bring to cool
Speaker 4: the madness of a fever'd brain. His frenzy past, he
Speaker 4: learn'd at last twas madness gibes against a god to fling,
Speaker 4: For once he fain had quench'd the minot's fire, and
Speaker 4: of the tuneful nine provoked the ire by the iron
Speaker 4: rocks that guard the double main on the spora's lone strand,
Speaker 4: where Stretcheth salmides of Splain in the wild thract young land.
Speaker 4: There on his borders, Aurus witness'd the vengeance by a
Speaker 4: jealous step maintain, the gall that trickl'd from a spindle,
Speaker 4: red the sightless orbits of her step sons twain wasting away.
Speaker 4: They mourn'd their picture's doom, the blasted issue of their
Speaker 4: mother's womb. But she her lineage could trace to great Erech,
Speaker 4: Theev's rays, daughter of Boreas. In her sire's vast caves
Speaker 4: rear'd were the tempest draves swift as his horses o'er
Speaker 4: the hills. She sped a child of God's. Yet she
Speaker 4: my child, like thee by destiny that knows no death
Speaker 4: nor age. She too was vanquet.
Speaker 1: Wish enter Pisius and boy.
Speaker 12: Princes of Thebes, two wayfarers, as one having betwixt us
Speaker 12: eyes for one, we are here. The blind man cannot
Speaker 12: move without a guide.
Speaker 5: What tidings, old Tyresius, I will tell thee.
Speaker 12: And when thou hearest, thou must heed the seer.
Speaker 5: Thus far I ne'er have disobeyed thy read So.
Speaker 12: Hast thou steered the ship of state?
Speaker 5: Aright I know it? And I gladly own my debt.
Speaker 12: Bethink thee that thou treadest once again the razor edge
Speaker 12: of peril.
Speaker 5: What is this? Thy words inspire a dread presentiment.
Speaker 12: The divination of my art shall tell. Sitting upon my
Speaker 12: throne of augury, as is my wont where every fowl
Speaker 12: of heaven thine harborage upon mine ear was borne a
Speaker 12: jargon strange of twitterings, hoots and screams. So knew I
Speaker 12: that each bird at the other tear with bloody talons,
Speaker 12: for the whir of wings could signify nought else perturb'd
Speaker 12: in soul, I straight essayed the sacrifice by fire on
Speaker 12: blazing altars. But the god of fire came not in flame,
Speaker 12: and from the thigh bones dripp'd and sputter'd in the
Speaker 12: ashes a fowl oose gall bladders cracked and spat it up.
Speaker 12: The fat melted and fell, and left the thigh bones bare.
Speaker 12: Such are the signs taught by this lad. I read
Speaker 12: as I guide others. So the boy guides me the
Speaker 12: frustrate signs of oracles grown damn o king thy wilful
Speaker 12: temper ails the state, for all our shrines and altars
Speaker 12: are profan'd by what has fill'd the war of dogs
Speaker 12: and crows, the flesh of Oedipus unburied sun. Therefore the
Speaker 12: angry gods abominate our litanies and our burnt offerings. Therefore
Speaker 12: no birds trill out a happy note, gorg'd with the
Speaker 12: carnival of human gore. Oh, ponder this, my son. To
Speaker 12: err is common to all men. But the man who,
Speaker 12: having err'd, hugs not his errors, but repents and seeks
Speaker 12: the cure is not a wastrel, nor unwise no fool.
Speaker 12: The sore goes like the obstinate fool. Let death disarm
Speaker 12: thy vengeance, Oh, forbear to vex the dead. What glory
Speaker 12: wilt thou win by slaying twice the slain? I mean
Speaker 12: thee well counselves most welcome if I promise gain.
Speaker 5: Old man, Ye all, Let fly at me your shafts
Speaker 5: like archers at a target. Yea ye, Set your soothsayer
Speaker 5: on me. Peddlers are ye all, And I the merchandise
Speaker 5: ye buy and sell, Go to and make your profit
Speaker 5: where ye will. Silver of sardis change for gold of end.
Speaker 5: Ye will not purchase this man's burial, not though the
Speaker 5: winged ministers of Zeus should bear him in their talons
Speaker 5: to his throne. Not e'en in awe of prodigy. So
Speaker 5: dire would I permit his burial? For I know no
Speaker 5: human soilure can assail the God. This too, I know
Speaker 5: Tyresius dires the fall of craft and cunning when it
Speaker 5: tries to gloss foul treachery with fair words for filthy gain.
Speaker 12: Alas doth any know and lay to heart?
Speaker 5: Is this the prelude to some hackneyed saw.
Speaker 12: How far good counsel is the best of goods?
Speaker 5: True as unwisdom is the worst of ills.
Speaker 12: Thou art infected with that ill thyself.
Speaker 5: I will not bend the insults with thee seer.
Speaker 12: And yet thou sayest my prophecies are fraughts.
Speaker 5: Prophets are all a money getting tribe, and.
Speaker 12: Kings are all a luca loving race.
Speaker 5: Dost know at whom thou glancest me, thy Lord.
Speaker 12: Lord of the State and savior thanks to.
Speaker 5: Me, skilled prophet art Thou but too wrong inclined.
Speaker 12: Take he thou wilt provoke me to reveal the miss
Speaker 12: story deep hidden in my breast.
Speaker 5: Say on, but see it be not said for gain.
Speaker 12: Such thou methinkst till now hast judged my words.
Speaker 5: Be sure thou wilt not traffic on my wits.
Speaker 12: No, then, for sure the coursers of the sun, not
Speaker 12: many times shall run their race before thou shalt have
Speaker 12: given the fruit of thine own loins, acquittance of thy murder,
Speaker 12: life for life. For that, thou hast entombed a living
Speaker 12: soul and sent below a denison of earth, and wronged
Speaker 12: the nether gods by leaving here a corpse, unlaved, unwept,
Speaker 12: unsepulcurd herein thou hast no part nor in the gods
Speaker 12: in heaven, and thou usurp'st a power not thine for thee.
Speaker 12: The avenging spirits of heaven and Hell, who dark the
Speaker 12: steps of sin, are on thy trail. What these have suffer'd,
Speaker 12: thou shalt suffer too. And now consider whether bought by gold,
Speaker 12: I prophese I for yet a little while, and sound
Speaker 12: of lamentation shall be heard of men and women through
Speaker 12: thy desolate halls, and all thy neighbor states are leagues
Speaker 12: to avenge their mangled warriors who have found a grave
Speaker 12: e the more of wolf or hound or winged bird
Speaker 12: that flying homewards taints their city's heir. These are the
Speaker 12: shafts that, like a bowman I provoked to anger, loosen
Speaker 12: at thy breast, unerring and their smart Thou shalt not shun.
Speaker 7: Oh boy, lead me home, that he may vent his
Speaker 7: bleen on younger men, and learn to curb his tongue
Speaker 7: with gentler manners than his present mood.
Speaker 1: Exit Tyrysius, my leech, that man hath gone for telling woe.
Speaker 1: And O believe me, since these grizzled locks were like
Speaker 1: the raven, Never have I known the prophet's warning to
Speaker 1: the state to fail.
Speaker 5: I know it too, and it perplexes me. To yield
Speaker 5: is grievous, But the obstinate soul that fights with fate
Speaker 5: is smitten grievously.
Speaker 4: Some am in your theves least to good advice.
Speaker 5: What should I do? Advise me? I will heed, go
Speaker 5: free the.
Speaker 4: Maiden from a rocky cell, and for the unburied outlaw
Speaker 4: be the tomb.
Speaker 5: Is that your counsel, you would have me yield?
Speaker 4: Yea king? This instant devendance of the gods is swift
Speaker 4: overtake the impenitent.
Speaker 5: Ah, What a wrench it is to sacrifice my heart's resolve.
Speaker 5: But fate is ill to fight. Go trust not others.
Speaker 5: Do it quick thyself. I go hot foot bestir ye one,
Speaker 5: and all my henchmen get ye axes, speed away to
Speaker 5: yonder eminence. I too will go for all my resolution.
Speaker 5: This way sways twas I that bound, I too will
Speaker 5: set her free. Almost I am persuaded. It is best
Speaker 5: to keep through life the law ordained of.
Speaker 1: Old exit Creon Thou by many names, adored child of Sevs,
Speaker 1: the god of thunder, of a thieban bride, the wonder
Speaker 1: fair Italias guardian lord in the deep embosomed glades of
Speaker 1: the Elusinian queen want of revelers, men and maids.
Speaker 4: Eonysus, thou art seen, whereas Marus rolls his waters, where
Speaker 4: the dragon's teeth were sown, where the bacchanals thy daughters
Speaker 4: round thee rome there thy home TheBus o Bacchus is
Speaker 4: thine own thee on the two crested rock, lurid flaming
Speaker 4: torches sea, where Corisian maidens flock thee the springs of
Speaker 4: Castalli thy Nisus Bastion ivy, clad by shores with clustered
Speaker 4: vineyards glad There to thee the hymn rings out, and
Speaker 4: through our streets we thebans shout all haul to thee
Speaker 4: ivy iby O as thou lovest the city best of all,
Speaker 4: to thee and to thy mother Livin. Stricken in our
Speaker 4: thy need, we call thou s east with what the
Speaker 4: plague are townsfolk sicken? Thy ready help we crave, whether
Speaker 4: adown Parnassian heights descending or o'er the roaring straits, Thy
Speaker 4: swift was wending. Save us, O, save brightest of all
Speaker 4: the orbs that breathe forth light, authentic son of Sev's
Speaker 4: immortal king, leader of all the voices of the night. Come,
Speaker 4: and thy train of theods. We thee bring thy maddened
Speaker 4: rout who dares before thee all night long, and shalut
Speaker 4: thy hand makes we ivy, ivy.
Speaker 13: Enter messenger, attend all ye who dwell beside the halls
Speaker 13: of Cadmus and Amphion. No man's life as of one
Speaker 13: Tenor would I praise or blame for fortune with a
Speaker 13: constant ebb and rise, casts down and raises high and
Speaker 13: low alike, And none can read a mortal's horoscope. Creon,
Speaker 13: he methought, if any man was enviable, he had saved
Speaker 13: this land of Cadmus from our enemies, and attained monarch's powers,
Speaker 13: and ruled the state supreme, while a right noble issue
Speaker 13: crowned his bliss. Now all is gone and wasted. For
Speaker 13: a life without life's joys, I count a living death.
Speaker 13: He'll tell me he has ample store of wealth, the
Speaker 13: pomp and circumstance of kings. But if these give no pleasure,
Speaker 13: all the rest I count the shadow of a shade.
Speaker 13: Nor would I weigh his wealth and power against a
Speaker 13: dram of joy?
Speaker 4: What fresh woes bringest thou to the royal house.
Speaker 13: Both dead and they who live deserved to die.
Speaker 4: Who is the slayer? Who? The victims speak?
Speaker 13: Aymon his blood shed by no stranger hand?
Speaker 4: What mean ye by his father's or his own?
Speaker 13: His own in anger for his father's crime, O.
Speaker 4: Prophet, what thou spakest comest to pass?
Speaker 13: So stands the case now? 'tis for you to act? No.
Speaker 4: From the palace gates I see approaching Crayon's unhappy wife.
Speaker 4: Every tea chair comes she by chance, our learning our.
Speaker 1: Son's fate, enter eurydicy.
Speaker 14: Ye, men of thebes. I overheard your talk as I
Speaker 14: passed out to offer up my prayer to palace, and
Speaker 14: was drawing back the bar to open wide the door.
Speaker 14: Upon my ears there broke a wail that told of
Speaker 14: household woe. Stricken with terror in my handmaid's arms, I
Speaker 14: fell and fainted. But repeat your tale to one not
Speaker 14: unacquainted with.
Speaker 13: Misery, dear mistress. I was there and will relate the
Speaker 13: perfect truth, omitting not one word. Why should we glose
Speaker 13: and flatter to be proved liars? Hereafter? Truth is ever
Speaker 13: best well in attendance on my liege, your Lord, I
Speaker 13: crossed the plain to its utmost margin, where the course
Speaker 13: of polines Sees, gnawn and mauled, was lying. Yet we
Speaker 13: offered first a prayer to Pluto and the Goddess of
Speaker 13: cross Ways, with contrite hearts to deprecate their ire. Then
Speaker 13: laved with lustral waves the mangled course, laid it on
Speaker 13: fresh lopped branches, lit a pyre, and to his memory,
Speaker 13: piled a mighty mound of mother Earth. Then to the
Speaker 13: caverned rock, the bridal chamber of the Maid and Death.
Speaker 13: We sped about to enter, but a guard heard from
Speaker 13: that godless shrine a far shrill wail, and ran back
Speaker 13: to our lord to tell the news. But as he
Speaker 13: nearer drew, a hollow sound of lamentation to the king
Speaker 13: was born. He groaned and uttered, Then this bitter plaint,
Speaker 13: am I a prophet? Miserable me? Is this the saddest
Speaker 13: path I ever trod? Tis my son's voice that calls
Speaker 13: me on. Press on, my henchmen, haste with double speed
Speaker 13: to the tomb, where rocks down torn have made a gap.
Speaker 13: Look in and tell me if in truth I recognize
Speaker 13: the voice of Hama, Or am heaven deceived? So at
Speaker 13: the bidding of our distraught lord. We looked, and in
Speaker 13: the cavern's vaulted gloom I saw the maiden lying strangled.
Speaker 13: There a noose of linen twined about her neck, and
Speaker 13: hard beside her, clasping her cold form. Her lover lay
Speaker 13: bewailing his dead bride, death, wedded, and his father's cruelty.
Speaker 13: When the king saw him, with a terrible groan, he
Speaker 13: moved towards him, crying, O, my son, what hast thou done?
Speaker 13: What ailed thee? What mischance has reft thee of thy reason?
Speaker 6: Oh?
Speaker 13: Come forth, come forth, my son, Thy father supplicates, But
Speaker 13: the son glared at him with tiger eyes, spat in
Speaker 13: his face, and then, without a word, drew his two
Speaker 13: hilted sword and smote, but missed his father, flying backwards.
Speaker 13: Then the boy, wroth with himself, poor wretch, incontinent, fell
Speaker 13: on his sword and drove it through his side home,
Speaker 13: but yet breathing, clasped in his lax arms, the maid
Speaker 13: her pallid jeekon carnadine with his expiring gasps. So there
Speaker 13: they lay two corpses, one in death. His marriage rights
Speaker 13: are consummated in the halls of death. A witness that
Speaker 13: of ills whate'er befall mortals. Unwisdom is the worst of all.
Speaker 1: Exit Eurydice, What mayst thou this?
Speaker 4: The queen has gone without a word, importing good.
Speaker 13: Or e I marvel too, but entertain good. Hope tis
Speaker 13: that she shrinks in public to lament her son's sad ending,
Speaker 13: and in privacy would with her maidens mourn a private loss.
Speaker 13: Trust me, she is discreet and will not err.
Speaker 4: I know not but strange silence, so I deem he
Speaker 4: is no less omnious than excessive grief.
Speaker 13: Well, let us to the house and solve our doubts.
Speaker 13: Whether the tumult of her heart conceals some fell design,
Speaker 13: it may be thou art right. Unnatural silence signifies no good.
Speaker 4: No, the king himself appears evidence, he with him bears
Speaker 4: gainst himself. Ah me, I quake gainst a king such
Speaker 4: charge to make, but all must own. The guilt is
Speaker 4: his and his alone.
Speaker 5: Woe for sin of minds perverse, deadly fraught with mortal curse.
Speaker 5: Behold us slain and slayers, all akin Woe for my
Speaker 5: counsel dire conceiv'd in sin alas my son life scarce begun,
Speaker 5: thou wast undone. The fault was mine, mine only, O
Speaker 5: my son.
Speaker 4: Too late, Thou seemest to perceive the truth.
Speaker 5: By sorrow, schooled heavy the hand of God, thorny and
Speaker 5: rough the paths my feet have trod, humbled my pride,
Speaker 5: my pleasure turned to pain, poor mortals, how we labor
Speaker 5: all in vain?
Speaker 9: Enter second messenger, sorrow saw thine, my lord, and more
Speaker 9: to come, one lying at thy feet. Another, yet more grievous,
Speaker 9: waits thee when thou comest home.
Speaker 5: What woe is lacking to my tale of woes?
Speaker 8: Thy wife, the mother of thy dead son, here lies
Speaker 8: stricken by a fresh inflicted blow.
Speaker 5: How bottomless the pit does claim me too? O death?
Speaker 5: What is this word? He saith, this woeful messenger say?
Speaker 5: Is it fit to slay anew a man already slain?
Speaker 5: Is death at work again? Stroke upon stroke? First son,
Speaker 5: then mother slain? Look for thyself, she lies for all
Speaker 5: to you alas another added woe. I see what more
Speaker 5: remains to crown my agony? A minute pass I clasped
Speaker 5: a lifeless son, and now another victim. Death has won
Speaker 5: unhappy mother, most unhappy son.
Speaker 8: Beside the altar on a keen aged sword. She fell
Speaker 8: and closed her eyes in night, but eartht She mourned
Speaker 8: for Megareves, who nobly died long since, then for her son.
Speaker 8: With her last breath she cursed thee, the slayerer of
Speaker 8: her child.
Speaker 5: I shudder with a fright, or for a two edged
Speaker 5: sword to slay outright a wretch like me made one
Speaker 5: with misery.
Speaker 8: Tis true that thou wert charged by the dead queen
Speaker 8: as author of both deaths hers and her sons.
Speaker 5: In what wise was her self destruction?
Speaker 8: Wroted, hearing the loud lament above her son. With her
Speaker 8: own hand, she stabbed herself to the heart.
Speaker 5: I am the guilty cause I did the deed, thy murderer. Yea,
Speaker 5: I guilty. Plead my henchmen, lead me hence away away
Speaker 5: a cipher less than nothing. No delay, well said.
Speaker 4: If in disaster all this well is past endure, demand
Speaker 4: the speediesture.
Speaker 5: Come fate, a friend at need. Come with all speed,
Speaker 5: Come my best friend, and speed my end away away.
Speaker 5: Let me not look upon another day this, for the
Speaker 5: morrow to us.
Speaker 4: Are present needs that they whom it concerns must take
Speaker 4: in hand.
Speaker 5: I join your prayer that echoes my desire.
Speaker 4: Oh, pray not prayers are idle from the doom, a
Speaker 4: faith for mortus refuge is there.
Speaker 5: None Away with me, A worthless wretch who slew unwitting
Speaker 5: thee my son, thy mother too whither to turn. I
Speaker 5: know not every way leads but astray, And on my
Speaker 5: head I feel the heavy weight of crushing fate of happiness.
Speaker 4: The chiefest part is a wise heart, and to defraud
Speaker 4: the gods in aught with parrots, fraud swelling words of
Speaker 4: high flown might mightily the gods. To smite chastis meant
Speaker 4: for errors. Past wisdom brings to age.
Speaker 1: At last, end a Part two End of Antigony by
Speaker 1: Sophocles