Chapter 7

TEU. O sorest spectacle mine eyes e'er saw! Woe for my journey hither, of all ways Most grievous to my heart, since I was ware, Dear Aias, of thy doom, and sadly tracked Thy footsteps. For there darted through the host, As from some God, a swift report of thee That thou wert lost in death. I, hapless, heard, And mourned even then for that whose presence kills me. Ay me! But come, Unveil. Let me behold my misery. [_The corpse of_ AIAS _is uncovered_ O sight unbearable! Cruelly brave! Dying, what store of griefs thou sow'st for me! Where, amongst whom of mortals, can I go, That stood not near thee in thy troublous hour? Will Telamon, my sire and thine, receive me With radiant countenance and favouring brow Returning without thee? Most like! being one Who smiles no more[4], yield Fortune what she may. Will he hide aught or soften any word, Rating the bastard of his spear-won thrall, Whose cowardice and dastardy betrayed Thy life, dear Aias,--or my murderous guile, To rob thee of thy lordship and thy home? Such greeting waits me from the man of wrath, Whose testy age even without cause would storm. Last, I shall leave my land a castaway, Thrust forth an exile, and proclaimed a slave; So should I fare at home. And here in Troy My foes are many and my comforts few. All these things are my portion through thy death. Woe's me, my heart! how shall I bear to draw thee, O thou ill-starr'd! from this discoloured blade, Thy self-shown slayer? Didst thou then perceive Dead Hector was at length to be thine end?-- I pray you all, consider these two men. Hector, whose gift from Aias was a girdle, Tight-braced therewith to the car's rim, was dragged And scarified till he breathed forth his life. And Aias with this present from his foe Finds through such means his death-fall and his doom. Say then what cruel workman forged the gifts, But Fury this sharp sword, Hell that bright band? In this, and all things human, I maintain, Gods are the artificers. My thought is said. And if there be who cares not for my thought, Let him hold fast his faith and leave me mine.

CH. Spare longer speech, and think how to secure Thy brother's burial, and what plea will serve; Since one comes here hath no good will to us And like a villain haply comes in scorn.

TEU. What man of all the host hath caught thine eye?

CH. The cause for whom we sailed, the Spartan King.

TEU. Yes; I discern him, now he moves more near.

_Enter_ MENELAUS.

MENELAUS. Fellow, give o'er. Cease tending yon dead man! Obey my voice, and leave him where he lies.

TEU. Thy potent cause for spending so much breath?

MEN. My will, and his whose word is sovereign here.

TEU. May we not know the reasons of your will?

MEN. Because he, whom we trusted to have brought To lend us loyal help with heart and hand, Proved in the trial a worse than Phrygian foe; Who lay in wait for all the host by night, And sallied forth in arms to shed our blood; That, had not one in Heaven foiled this attempt, Our lot had been to lie as he doth here Dead and undone for ever, while he lived And flourished. Heaven hath turned this turbulence To fall instead upon the harmless flock. Wherefore no strength of man shall once avail To encase his body with a seemly tomb, But outcast on the wide and watery sand, He'll feed the birds that batten on the shore. Nor let thy towering spirit therefore rise In threatening wrath. Wilt thou or not, our hand Shall rule him dead, howe'er he braved us living, And that by force; for never would he yield, Even while he lived, to words from me. And yet It shows base metal when the subject-wight Deigns not to hearken to the chief in power. Since without settled awe, neither in states Can laws have rightful sway, nor can a host Be governed with due wisdom, if no fear Or wholesome shame be there to shield its safety. And though a man wax great in thews and bulk, Let him be warned: a trifling harm may ruin him. Whoever knows respect and honour both Stands free from risk of dark vicissitude. But whereso pride and licence have their fling, Be sure that state will one day lose her course And founder in the abysm. Let fear have place Still where it ought, say I, nor let men think To do their pleasure and not bide the pain. That wheel comes surely round. Once Aias flamed With insolent fierceness. Now I mount in pride, And loudly bid thee bury him not, lest burying Thy brother thou be burrowing thine own grave.

CH. Menelaues, make not thy philosophy A platform whence to insult the valiant dead.

TEU. I nevermore will marvel, sirs, when one Of humblest parentage is prone to sin, Since those reputed men of noble strain Stoop to such phrase of prating frowardness. Come, tell it o'er again,--said you ye brought My brother bound to aid you with his power? Sailed he not forth of his own sovereign will? Where is thy voucher of command o'er him? Where of thy right o'er those that followed him? Sparta, not we, shall buckle to thy sway. 'Twas written nowhere in the bond of rule That thou shouldst check him rather than he thee. Thou sailedst under orders, not in charge Of all, much less of Aias. Then pursue Thy limited direction, and chastise, In haughty phrase, the men who fear thy nod. But I will bury Aias, whether thou Or the other general give consent or no. 'Tis not for me to tremble at your word. Not to reclaim thy wife, like those poor souls Thou flll'st with labour, issued this man forth, But caring for his oath, and not for thee, Or any other nobody. Then come With heralds all arow, and bring the man Called king of men with thee! For thy sole noise I budge not, wert thou twenty times thy name.

CH. The sufferer should not bear a bitter tongue. Hard words, how just soe'er, will leave their sting.

MEN. Our bowman carries no small pride, I see.

TEU. No mere mechanic's menial craft is mine.

MEN. How wouldst thou vaunt it hadst thou but a shield!

TEU. Unarmed I fear not thee in panoply.

MEN. Redoubted is the wrath lives on thy tongue.

TEU. Whose cause is just hath licence to be proud.

MEN. Just, that my murderer have a peaceful end?

TEU. Thy murderer? Strange, to have been slain and live!

MEN. Yea, through Heaven's mercy. By his will, I am dead.

TEU. If Heaven have saved thee, give the Gods their due.

MEN. Am I the man to spurn at Heaven's command?

TEU. Thou dost, to come and frustrate burial.

MEN. Honour forbids to yield my foe a tomb.

TEU. And Aias was thy foeman? Where and when?

MEN. Hate lived between us; that thou know'st full well.

TEU. For thy proved knavery, coining votes i' the court

MEN. The judges voted. He ne'er lost through me.

TEU. Guilt hiding guile wears often fairest front.

MEN. I know whom pain shall harass for that word.

TEU. Not without giving equal pain, 'tis clear.

MEN. No more, but this. No burial for this man!

TEU. Yea, this much more. He shall have instant burial.

MEN. I have seen ere now a man of doughty tongue Urge sailors in foul weather to unmoor, Who, caught in the sea-misery by and by, Lay voiceless, muffled in his cloak, and suffered Who would of the sailors over trample him Even so methinks thy truculent mouth ere long Shall quench its outcry, when this little cloud Breaks forth on thee with the full tempest's might.

TEU. I too have seen a man whose windy pride Poured forth loud insults o'er a neighbour's fall, Till one whose cause and temper showed like mine Spake to him in my hearing this plain word: 'Man, do the dead no wrong; but, if thou dost, Be sure thou shalt have sorrow.' Thus he warned The infatuate one: ay, one whom I behold, For all may read my riddle--thou art he.

MEN. I will be gone. 'Twere shame to me, if known, To chide when I have power to crush by force.

TEU. Off with you, then! 'Twere triple shame in me To list the vain talk of a blustering fool. [_Exit_ MENELAUS

LEADER OF CHORUS. High the quarrel rears his head! Haste thee, Teucer, trebly haste, Grave-room for the valiant dead Furnish with what speed thou mayst, Hollowed deep within the ground, Where beneath his mouldering mound Aias aye shall be renowned.

_Re-enter_ TECMESSA _with_ EURYSAKES.

TEU. Lo! where the hero's housemate and his child, Hitting the moment's need, appear at hand, To tend the burial of the ill fated dead. Come, child, take thou thy station close beside: Kneel and embrace the author of thy life, In solemn suppliant fashion holding forth This lock of thine own hair, and hers, and mine With threefold consecration, that if one Of the army force thee from thy father's corse, My curse may banish him from holy ground, Far from his home, unburied, and cut off From all his race, even as I cut this curl. There, hold him, child, and guard him; let no hand Stir thee, but lean to the calm breast and cling. (_To_ CHORUS) And ye, be not like women in this scene, Nor let your manhoods falter; stand true men To this defence, till I return prepared, Though all cry No, to give him burial. [_Exit_

CHORUS. When shall the tale of wandering years be done? I 1 When shall arise our exile's latest sun? Oh, where shall end the incessant woe Of troublous spear-encounter with the foe, Through this vast Trojan plain, Of Grecian arms the lamentable stain?

Would he had gone to inhabit the wide sky, I 2 Or that dark home of death where millions lie, Who taught our Grecian world the way To use vile swords and knit the dense array! His toil gave birth to toil In endless line. He made mankind his spoil.

His tyrant will hath forced me to forgo II 1 The garland, and the goblet's bounteous flow: Yea, and the flute's dear noise, And night's more tranquil joys; Ay me! nor only these, The fruits of golden ease, But Love, but Love--O crowning sorrow!-- Hath ceased for me. I may not borrow Sweet thoughts from him to smooth my dreary bed, Where dank night-dews fall ever on my head, Lest once I might forget the sadness of the morrow.

Even here in Troy, Aias was erst my rock, II 2 From darkling fears and 'mid the battle-shock To screen me with huge might: Now he is lost in night And horror. Where again Shall gladness heal my pain? O were I where the waters hoary, Round Sunium's pine-clad promontory, Plash underneath the flowery upland height. Then holiest Athens soon would come in sight, And to Athena's self I might declare my story.

_Enter_ TEUCER.

TEU. My steps were hastened, brethren, when I saw Great Agamemnon hitherward afoot. He means to talk perversely, I can tell.

_Enter_ AGAMEMNON.

AG. And so I hear thou'lt stretch thy mouth agape With big bold words against us undismayed-- Thou, the she-captive's offspring! High would scale Thy voice, and pert would be thy strutting gait, Were but thy mother noble; since, being naught, So stiff thou stand'st for him who is nothing now, And swear'st we came not as commanders here Of all the Achaean navy, nor of thee; But Aias sailed, thou say'st, with absolute right. Must we endure detraction from a slave? What was the man thou noisest here so proudly? Have I not set my foot as firm and far? Or stood his valour unaccompanied In all this host? High cause have we to rue That prize-encounter for Pelides' arms, Seeing Teucer's sentence stamps our knavery For all to know it; and nought will serve but ye, Being vanquished, kick at the award that passed By voice of the majority in the court, And either pelt us with rude calumnies, Or stab at us, ye laggards! with base guile. Howbeit, these ways will never help to build The wholesome order of established law, If men shall hustle victors from their right, And mix the hindmost rabble with the van. That craves repression. Not by bulky size, Or shoulders' breadth, the perfect man is known; But wisdom gives chief power in all the world. The ox hath a huge broadside, yet is held Right in the furrow by a slender goad; Which remedy, I perceive, will pass ere long To visit thee, unless thy wisdom grow; Who hast uttered forth such daring insolence For the pale shadow of a vanished man. Learn modestly to know thy place and birth, And bring with thee some freeborn advocate To plead thy cause before us in thy room. I understand not in the barbarous tongue, And all thy talk sounds nonsense to mine ear.

CH. Would ye might both have sense to curb your ire! No better hope for either can I frame.

TEU. Fie! How doth gratitude when men are dead Prove renegade and swiftly pass away! This Agamemnon hath no slightest word Of kind remembrance any more for thee, Aias, who oftentimes for his behoof Hast jeoparded thy life in labour of war. Now all is clean forgotten and out of mind. Thou who hast multiplied words void of sense, Hast thou no faintest memory of the time When who but Aias came and rescued you Already locked within the toils,--all lost, The rout began: when close abaft the ships The torches flared, and o'er the bootless trench Hector was bounding high to board our fleet? Who stayed that onset? Was not Aias he? Whom thou deny'st to have once set foot by thine. Find ye no merit there? And once again When he met Hector singly, man to man, Not by your bidding, but the lottery's choice, His lot, that skulked not low adown i' the heap, A moist earth-clod, but sure to spring in air, And first to clear the plumy helmet's brim. Yes, Aias was the man, and I too there Kept rank, the 'barbarous mother's servile son.' I pity thee the blindness of that word. Who was thy father's father? A barbarian, Pelops, the Phrygian, if you trace him far! And what was Atreus, thine own father? One Who served his brother with the abominable Dire feast of his own flesh. And thou thyself Cam'st from a Cretan mother, whom her sire Caught with a man who had no right in her And gave dumb fishes the polluted prey. Such was thy race. What is the race thou spurnest? My father, Telamon, of all the host Being foremost proved in valour, took as prize My mother for his mate: a princess she, Born of Laomedon; Alcmena's son Gave her to grace him--a triumphant meed. Thus royally descended and thus brave, Shall I renounce the brother of my blood, Or suffer thee to thrust him in his woes Far from all burial, shameless that thou art? Be sure that, if ye cast him forth, ye'll cast Three bodies more beside him in one spot; For nobler should I find it here to die In open quarrel for my kinsman's weal, Than for thy wife--or Menelaues', was 't? Consider then, not my case, but your own. For if you harm me you will wish some day To have been a coward rather than dare me.

CH. Hail, Lord Odysseus! thou art come in time Not to begin, but help to end, a fray.

_Enter_ ODYSSEUS.

OD. What quarrel, sirs? I well perceived from far The kings high-voicing o'er the valiant dead.

AG. Yea, Lord Odysseus, for our ears are full Of this man's violent heart-offending talk.

OD. What words have passed? I cannot blame the man Who meets foul speech with bitterness of tongue.

AG. My speech was bitter, for his deeds were foul.

OD. What deed of his could harm thy sovereign head?

AG. He boldly says this corse shall not be left Unburied, but he'll bury it in our spite.

OD. May I then speak true counsel to my friend, And pull with thee in policy as of yore?

AG. Speak. I were else a madman; for no friend Of all the Argeians do I count thy peer.

OD. Then hear me in Heaven's name! Be not so hard Thus without ruth tombless to cast him forth; Nor be so vanquished by a vehement will, That to thy hate even Justice' self must bow. I, too, had him for my worst enemy, Since I gained mastery o'er Pelides' arms. But though he used me so, I ne'er will grudge For his proud scorn to yield him thus much honour, That, save Achilles' self, I have not seen So noble an Argive on the fields of Troy. Then 'twere not just in thee to slight him now; Nor would thy treatment wound him, but confound The laws of Heaven. No hatred should have scope To offend the noble spirits of the dead.

AG. Wilt thou thus fight against me on his side?

OD. Yea, though I hated him, while hate was comely.

AG. Why, thou shouldst trample him the more, being dead.

OD. Rejoice not, King, in feats that soil thy fame!

AG. 'Tis hard for power to observe each pious rule.

OD. Not hard to grace the good words of a friend.

AG. The 'noble spirit' should hearken to command.

OD. No more! 'Tis conquest to be ruled by love.

AG. Remember what he was thou gracest so.

OD. A noisome enemy; but his life was great.

AG. And wilt thou honour such a pestilent corse?

OD. Hatred gives way to magnanimity.

AG. With addle-pated fools.

OD. Full many are found Friends for an hour, yet bitter in the end.

AG. And wouldst thou have us gentle to such friends?

OD. I would not praise ungentleness in aught.

AG. We shall be known for weaklings through thy counsel.

OD. Not so, but righteous in all Grecian eyes.

AG. Thou bidst me then let bury this dead man?

OD. I urge thee to the course myself shall follow.

AG. Ay, every man for his own line! That holds.

OD. Why not for my own line? What else were natural?

AG. 'Twill be thy doing then, ne'er owned by me.

OD. Own it or not, the kindness is the same.

AG. Well, for thy sake I'd grant a greater boon; Then why not this? However, rest assured That in the grave or out of it, Aias still Shall have my hatred. Do thou what thou wilt. [_Exit_

CH. Whoso would sneer at thy philosophy, While such thy ways, Odysseus, were a fool.

OD. And now let Teucer know that from this hour I am more his friend than I was once his foe, And fain would help him in this burial-rite And service to his brother, nor would fail In aught that mortals owe their noblest dead.

TEU. Odysseus, best of men, thine every word Hath my heart's praise, and my worst thought of thee Is foiled by thy staunch kindness to the man Who was thy rancorous foe. Thou wast not keen To insult in present of his corse, like these, The insensate general and his brother-king, Who came with proud intent to cast him forth Foully debarred from lawful obsequy. Wherefore may he who rules in yon wide heaven, And the unforgetting Fury-spirit, and she, Justice, who crowns the right, so ruin them With cruellest destruction, even as they Thought ruthlessly to rob him of his tomb! For thee, revered Laertes' lineal seed, I fear to admit thy hand unto this rite, Lest we offend the spirit that is gone. But for the rest, I hail thy proffered aid; And bring whom else thou wilt, I'll ne'er resent it. This work shall be my single care; but thou, Be sure I love thee for thy generous heart.

OD. I had gladly done it; but, since thou declinest, I bow to thy decision, and depart. [_Exit_

TEU. Speed we, for the hour grows late: Some to scoop his earthy cell, Others by the cauldron wait, Plenished from the purest well. Hoist it, comrades, here at hand, High upon the three-foot stand! Let the cleansing waters flow; Brightly flame the fire below! Others in a stalwart throng From his chamber bear along All the arms he wont to wield Save alone the mantling shield. Thou with me thy strength employ, Lifting this thy father, boy; Hold his frame with tender heed-- Still the gashed veins darkly bleed. Who professes here to love him? Ply your busy cares above him, Come and labour for the man, Nobler none since time began, Aias, while his life-blood ran.

LEADER OF CH. Oft we know not till we see. Weak is human prophecy. Judge not, till the hour have taught thee What the destinies have brought thee.

* * * * *

KING OEDIPUS

THE PERSONS

OEDIPUS, _King of Thebes._ _Priest of Zeus._ CREON, _brother of Jocasta._ CHORUS _of Theban Elders._ TIRESIAS, _the Blind Prophet._ JOCASTA, _the Queen, sister to Creon._ _A Corinthian Shepherd._ _A Theban Shepherd._ _Messenger_

The following also appear, but do not speak:

_A Train of Suppliants._ _The children_ ANTIGONE _and_ ISMENE.

SCENE. Before the Royal Palace in the Cadmean citadel of Thebes.

Laius, the descendant of Cadmus, and king of Thebes (or Thebe), had been told by an oracle that if a son were born to him by his wife Jocasta the boy would be his father's death.

Under such auspices, Oedipus was born, and to elude the prophecy was exposed by his parents on Mount Cithaeron. But he was saved by a compassionate shepherd, and became the adopted son of Polybus, king of Corinth. When he grew up he was troubled by a rumour that he was not his father's son. He went to consult the oracle of Apollo at Delphi, and was told--not of his origin but of his destiny--that he should be guilty of parricide and incest.

He was too horror-stricken to return to Corinth, and as he travelled the other way, he met Laius going from Thebes to Delphi. The travellers quarrelled and the son killed his father, but knew not whom he had slain. He went onward till he came near Thebes, where the Sphinx was making havoc of the noblest citizens, devouring all who failed to solve her riddle. But Oedipus succeeded and overcame her, and, as Laius did not return, was rewarded with the regal sceptre,-- and with the hand of the queen.

He reigned nobly and prosperously, and lived happily with Jocasta, by whom he had four children.

But after some years a plague descended on the people, and Apollo, on being inquired of, answered that it was for Laius' death. The act of regicide must be avenged. Oedipus undertakes the task of discovering the murderer,--and in the same act discovers his own birth, and the fulfilment of both the former prophecies.

Jocasta hangs herself, and Oedipus in his despair puts out his eyes.

KING OEDIPUS

OEDIPUS--Priest of Zeus (_with the_ Train of Suppliants _grouped before an altar_).

OEDIPUS. Nurslings of Cadmus, children of my care, Why press ye now to kneel before my gate With sacred branches in those suppliant hands, While o'er your city clouds of incense rise And sounds of praise, mingling with sounds of woe? I would not learn of your estate, my sons, Through others, wherefore I myself am come, Your Oedipus,--a name well known to men. Speak, aged friend, whose look proclaims thee meet To be their spokesman--What desire, what fear Hath brought you? Doubt not of my earnest will To lend all succour. Hard would be the heart That looked unmoved on such a kneeling throng.