No More Learning

_2 Cit. _ Half of us, that are here present, were living men but
yesterday; and we, that are absent, do but drop and drop, and no man
knows whether he be dead or living. And therefore, while we are sound
and well, let us satisfy our consciences, and make a new king.

_3 Cit. _ Ha, if we were but worthy to see another coronation! and
then, if we must die, we'll go merrily together.

_All. _ To the question, to the question.

_Dioc. _ Are you content, Creon should be your king?

_All_ A Creon, A Creon, A Creon!

_Tir. _ Hear me, ye Thebans, and thou Creon, hear me.

_1 Cit. _ Who's that would be heard? we'll hear no man; we can scarce
hear one another.

_Tir. _ I charge you, by the gods, to hear me.

_2 Cit. _ Oh, it is Apollo's priest, we must hear him; it is the old
blind prophet, that sees all things.

_3 Cit. _ He comes from the gods too, and they are our betters; and, in
good manners, we must hear him:--Speak, prophet.

_2 Cit. _ For coming from the gods, that's no great matter, they can
all say that: but he is a great scholar; he can make almanacks, an' he
were put to it; and therefore I say, hear him.

_Tir. _ When angry heaven scatters its plagues among you,
Is it for nought, ye Thebans? are the gods
Unjust in punishing? are there no crimes,
Which pull this vengeance down?

_1 Cit. _ Yes, yes; no doubt there are some sins stirring, that are the
cause of all.

_3 Cit. _ Yes, there are sins, or we should have no taxes.

_2 Cit. _ For my part, I can speak it with a safe conscience, I never
sinned in all my life.

_1 Cit. _ Nor I.

_3 Cit. _ Nor I.

_2 Cit. _ Then we are all justified; the sin lies not at our doors.

_Tir. _ All justified alike, and yet all guilty!
Were every man's false dealing brought to light,
His envy, malice, lying, perjuries,
His weights and measures, the other man's extortions,
With what face could you tell offended heaven,
You had not sinned?

_2 Cit. _ Nay, if these be sins, the case is altered; for my part, I
never thought any thing but murder had been a sin.

_Tir. _ And yet, as if all these were less than nothing,
You add rebellion to them, impious Thebans!
Have you not sworn before the gods to serve
And to obey this OEdipus, your king
By public voice elected? answer me,
If this be true!

_2 Cit. _ This is true; but its a hard world, neighbours,
If a man's oath must be his master.

_Cre. _ Speak, Diocles; all goes wrong.

_Dioc. _ How are you traitors, countrymen of Thebes?
This holy sire, who presses you with oaths,
Forgets your first; were you not sworn before
To Laius and his blood?

_All. _ We were; we were.

_Dioc. _ While Laius has a lawful successor,
Your first oath still must bind: Eurydice
Is heir to Laius; let her marry Creon.
Offended heaven will never be appeased,
While OEdipus pollutes the throne of Laius,
A stranger to his blood.

_All. _ We'll no OEdipus, no OEdipus.

_1 Cit. _ He puts the prophet in a mouse-hole.

_2 Cit. _ I knew it would be so; the last man ever speaks the best
reason.

_Tir. _ Can benefits thus die, ungrateful Thebans!
Remember yet, when, after Laius' death,
The monster Sphinx laid your rich country waste,
Your vineyards spoiled, your labouring oxen slew,
Yourselves for fear mewed up within your walls;
She, taller than your gates, o'er-looked your town;
But when she raised her bulk to sail above you,
She drove the air around her like a whirlwind,
And shaded all beneath; till, stooping down,
She clap'd her leathern wing against your towers,
And thrust out her long neck, even to your doors[2].

_Dioc. Alc. Pyr. _ We'll hear no more.

_Tir. _ You durst not meet in temples,
To invoke the gods for aid; the proudest he,
Who leads you now, then cowered, like a dared[3] lark:
This Creon shook for fear,
The blood of Laius curdled in his veins,
'Till OEdipus arrived.
Called by his own high courage and the gods,
Himself to you a god, ye offered him
Your queen and crown; (but what was then your crown! )
And heaven authorized it by his success.
Speak then, who is your lawful king?

_All. _ 'Tis OEdipus.

_Tir. _ 'Tis OEdipus indeed: Your king more lawful
Than yet you dream; for something still there lies
In heaven's dark volume, which I read through mists:
'Tis great, prodigious; 'tis a dreadful birth,
Of wondrous fate; and now, just now disclosing.
I see, I see! how terrible it dawns,
And my soul sickens with it!

_1 Cit. _ How the god shakes him!

_Tir. _ He comes, he comes! Victory! conquest! triumph!
But oh! guiltless and guilty: murder! parricide!
Incest! discovery! punishment--'tis ended,
And all your sufferings o'er.

_A Trumpet within: enter_ HÆMON.

_Hæm. _ Rouse up, you Thebans; tune your _Io Pæans_!
Your king returns; the Argians are o'ercome;
Their warlike prince in single combat taken,
And led in bands by god-like OEdipus!

_All. _ OEdipus, OEdipus, OEdipus!

_Creon. _ Furies confound his fortune! -- [_Aside. _
Haste, all haste, [_To them. _
And meet with blessings our victorious king;
Decree processions; bid new holidays;
Crown all the statues of our gods with garlands;
And raise a brazen column, thus inscribed,--
_To OEdipus, now twice a conqueror; deliverer of his Thebes. _
Trust me, I weep for joy to see this day.

_Tir. _ Yes, heaven knows why thou weep'st. --Go, countrymen,
And, as you use to supplicate your gods,
So meet your king with bays, and olive branches;
Bow down, and touch his knees, and beg from him
An end of all your woes; for only he
Can give it you. [_Exit_ TIRESIAS, _the People following. _

_Enter_ OEDIPUS _in triumph;_ ADRASTUS _prisoner;_ DYMAS, _Train. _

_Cre. _ All hail, great OEdipus!
Thou mighty conqueror, hail; welcome to Thebes;
To thy own Thebes; to all that's left of Thebes;
For half thy citizens are swept away,
And wanting for thy triumphs;
And we, the happy remnant, only live
To welcome thee, and die.

_OEdip. _ Thus pleasure never comes sincere to man,
But lent by heaven upon hard usury;
And while Jove holds us out the bowl of joy,
Ere it can reach our lips, 'tis dashed with gall
By some left-handed god. O mournful triumph!
O conquest gained abroad, and lost at home!
O Argos, now rejoice, for Thebes lies low!
Thy slaughtered sons now smile, and think they won,
When they can count more Theban ghosts than theirs.

_Adr. _ No; Argos mourns with Thebes; you tempered so
Your courage while you fought, that mercy seemed
The manlier virtue, and much more prevailed;
While Argos is a people, think your Thebes
Can never want for subjects. Every nation
Will crowd to serve where OEdipus commands.

_Cre. _ [_To_ HÆM. ]
How mean it shews, to fawn upon the victor!

_Hæm. _ Had you beheld him fight, you had said otherwise.
Come, 'tis brave bearing in him, not to envy
Superior virtue.

_OEdip. _ This indeed is conquest,
To gain a friend like you: Why were we foes?

_Adr. _ 'Cause we were kings, and each disdained an equal.
I fought to have it in my power to do
What thou hast done, and so to use my conquest.
To shew thee, honour was my only motive,
Know this, that were my army at thy gates,
And Thebes thus waste, I would not take the gift,
Which, like a toy dropt from the hands of fortune,
Lay for the next chance-comer.

_OEdip. _ [_Embracing. _] No more captive,
But brother of the war. 'Tis much more pleasant,
And safer, trust me, thus to meet thy love,
Than when hard gauntlets clenched our warlike hands,
And kept them from soft use.

_Adr. _ My conqueror!

_OEdip. _ My friend! that other name keeps enmity alive.
But longer to detain thee were a crime;
To love, and to Eurydice, go free.
Such welcome, as a ruined town can give,
Expect from me; the rest let her supply.

_Adr. _ I go without a blush, though conquered twice,
By you, and by my princess. [_Exit_ ADRASTUS.

_Cre. _ [_Aside. _] Then I am conquered thrice; by OEdipus,
And her, and even by him, the slave of both.
Gods, I'm beholden to you, for making me your image;
Would I could make you mine! [_Exit_ CREON.

_Enter the People with branches in their hands, holding them up, and
kneeling: Two Priests before them. _

_OEdip. _ Alas, my people!
What means this speechless sorrow, downcast eyes,
And lifted hands? If there be one among you,
Whom grief has left a tongue, speak for the rest.

_1 Pr. _ O father of thy country!
To thee these knees are bent, these eyes are lifted,
As to a visible divinity;
A prince, on whom heaven safely might repose
The business of mankind; for Providence
Might on thy careful bosom sleep secure,
And leave her task to thee.
But where's the glory of thy former acts?
Even that's destroyed, when none shall live to speak it.
Millions of subjects shalt thou have; but mute.
A people of the dead; a crowded desert;
A midnight silence at the noon of day.

_OEdip. _ O were our gods as ready with their pity,
As I with mine, this presence should be thronged
With all I left alive; and my sad eyes
Not search in vain for friends, whose promised sight
Flattered my toils of war.

_1 Pr. _ Twice our deliverer!

_OEdip. _ Nor are now your vows
Addrest to one who sleeps.
When this unwelcome news first reached my ears,
Dymas was sent to Delphos, to enquire
The cause and cure of this contagious ill,
And is this day returned; but, since his message
Concerns the public, I refused to hear it
But in this general presence: Let him speak.

_Dym. _ A dreadful answer from the hallowed urn,
And sacred tripos, did the priestess give,
In these mysterious words.

_The Oracle. _ _Shed in a cursed hour, by cursed hand,
Blood-royal unrevenged has cursed the land.
When Laius' death is expiated well,
Your plague shall cease. The rest let Laius tell. _

_OEdip. _ Dreadful indeed! Blood, and a king's blood too!
And such a king's, and by his subjects shed!
(Else why this curse on Thebes? ) No wonder then
If monsters, wars, and plagues, revenge such crimes!
If heaven be just, its whole artillery,
All must be emptied on us: Not one bolt
Shall err from Thebes; but more be called for, more;
New-moulded thunder of a larger size,
Driven by whole Jove. What, touch anointed power!
Then, Gods, beware; Jove would himself be next,
Could you but reach him too.

_2 Pr. _ We mourn the sad remembrance.

_OEdip. _ Well you may;
Worse than a plague infects you: You're devoted
To mother earth, and to the infernal powers;
Hell has a right in you. I thank you, gods,
That I'm no Theban born: How my blood curdles!
As if this curse touched me, and touched me nearer
Than all this presence! --Yes, 'tis a king's blood,
And I, a king, am tied in deeper bonds
To expiate this blood. But where, from whom,
Or how must I atone it?
Tell me, Thebans,
How Laius fell; for a confused report
Passed through my ears, when first I took the crown;
But full of hurry, like a morning dream,
It vanished in the business of the day. [4]

_1 Pr. _ He went in private forth, but thinly followed,
And ne'er returned to Thebes.

_OEdip. _ Nor any from him? came there no attendant?
None to bring news?

_2 Pr. _ But one; and he so wounded,
He scarce drew breath to speak some few faint words.

_OEdip. _ What were they? something may be learnt from thence.

_1 Pr. _ He said, a band of robbers watched their passage,
Who took advantage of a narrow way,
To murder Laius and the rest; himself
Left too for dead.

_OEdip. _ Made you no more enquiry,
But took this bare relation?

_2 Pr. _ 'Twas neglected;
For then the monster Sphinx began to rage,
And present cares soon buried the remote:
So was it hushed, and never since revived.

_OEdip. _ Mark, Thebans, mark!
Just then, the Sphinx began to rage among you;
The gods took hold even of the offending minute,
And dated thence your woes: Thence will I trace them.

_1 Pr. _ 'Tis just thou should'st.

_OEdip. _ Hear then this dreadful imprecation; hear it;
'Tis laid on all; not any one exempt:
Bear witness, heaven, avenge it on the perjured!
If any Theban born, if any stranger
Reveal this murder, or produce its author,
Ten attick talents be his just reward:
But if, for fear, for favour, or for hire,
The murderer he conceal, the curse of Thebes
Fall heavy on his head: Unite our plagues,
Ye gods, and place them there: From fire and water,
Converse, and all things common, be he banished.
But for the murderer's self, unfound by man,
Find him, ye powers celestial and infernal!
And the same fate, or worse than Laius met,
Let be his lot: His children be accurst;
His wife and kindred, all of his, be cursed!

_Both Pr. _ Confirm it, heaven!

_Enter_ JOCASTA, _attended by Women. _

_Joc. _ At your devotions? Heaven succeed your wishes;
And bring the effect of these your pious prayers
On you, and me, and all.

_Pr. _ Avert this omen, heaven!

_OEdip. _ O fatal sound! unfortunate Jocasta!
What hast thou said! an ill hour hast thou chosen
For these fore-boding words! why, we were cursing!

_Joc. _ Then may that curse fall only where you laid it.

_OEdip. _ Speak no more!
For all thou say'st is ominous: We were cursing;
And that dire imprecation has thou fastened
On Thebes, and thee, and me, and all of us.

_Joc. _ Are then my blessings turned into a curse?
O unkind OEdipus! My former lord
Thought me his blessing; be thou like my Laius.

_OEdip. _ What, yet again? the third time hast thou cursed me:
This imprecation was for Laius' death,
And thou hast wished me like him.

_Joc. _ Horror seizes me!

_OEdip. _ Why dost thou gaze upon me? pr'ythee, love,
Take off thy eye; it burdens me too much.

_Joc. _ The more I look, the more I find of Laius:
His speech, his garb, his action; nay, his frown,--
For I have seen it,--but ne'er bent on me.

_OEdip. _ Are we so like?

_Joc. _ In all things but his love.

_OEdip. _ I love thee more: So well I love, words cannot speak how well.
No pious son e'er loved his mother more,
Than I my dear Jocasta.

_Joc. _ I love you too
The self-same way; and when you chid, methought
A mother's love start[5] up in your defence,
And bade me not be angry. Be not you;
For I love Laius still, as wives should love;
But you more tenderly, as part of me:
And when I have you in my arms, methinks
I lull my child asleep.

_OEdip. _ Then we are blest;
And all these curses sweep along the skies
Like empty clouds, but drop not on our heads.

_Joc. _ I have not joyed an hour since you departed,
For public miseries, and for private fears;
But this blest meeting has o'er-paid them all.
Good fortune, that comes seldom, comes more welcome.
All I can wish for now, is your consent
To make my brother happy.

_OEdip. _ How, Jocasta?

_Joc. _ By marriage with his niece, Eurydice.

_OEdip. _ Uncle and niece! they are too near, my love;
'Tis too like incest; 'tis offence to kind:
Had I not promised, were there no Adrastus,
No choice but Creon left her of mankind,
They should not marry: Speak no more of it;
The thought disturbs me.

_Joc. _ Heaven can never bless
A vow so broken, which I made to Creon;
Remember, he is my brother.

_OEdip. _ That is the bar;
And she thy daughter: Nature would abhor
To be forced back again upon herself,
And, like a whirlpool, swallow her own streams.

_Joc. _ Be not displeased: I'll move the suit no more.

_OEdip. _ No, do not; for, I know not why, it shakes me,
When I but think on incest. Move we forward,
To thank the gods for my success, and pray
To wash the guilt of royal blood away. [_Exeunt. _


ACT II.

SCENE I. --_An open Gallery. A Royal Bed-chamber being supposed behind.

The Time, Night. Thunder, &c. _

_Enter_ HÆMON, ALCANDER, _and_ PYRACMON.

_Hæm. _ Sure 'tis the end of all things! fate has torn
The lock of time off, and his head is now
The ghastly ball of round eternity!
Call you these peals of thunder, but the yawn
Of bellowing clouds? By Jove, they seem to me
The world's last groans; and those vast sheets of flame
Are its last blaze. The tapers of the gods,
The sun and moon, run down like waxen-globes;
The shooting stars end all in purple jellies[6],
And chaos is at hand.

_Pyr. _ 'Tis midnight, yet there's not a Theban sleeps,
But such as ne'er must wake. All crowd about
The palace, and implore, as from a god,
Help of the king; who, from the battlement,
By the red lightning's glare descried afar,
Atones the angry powers. [_Thunder, &c. _

_Hæm. _ Ha! Pyracmon, look;
Behold, Alcander, from yon' west of heaven,
The perfect figures of a man and woman;
A sceptre, bright with gems, in each right hand,
Their flowing robes of dazzling purple made:
Distinctly yonder in that point they stand,
Just west; a bloody red stains all the place;
And see, their faces are quite hid in clouds.

_Pyr. _ Clusters of golden stars hang o'er their heads,
And seem so crowded, that they burst upon them:
All dart at once their baleful influence,
In leaking fire.

_Alc. _ Long-bearded comets stick,
Like flaming porcupines, to their left sides,
As they would shoot their quills into their hearts.

_Hæm. _ But see! the king, and queen, and all the court!
Did ever day or night shew aught like this?
[_Thunders again. The Scene draws,
and discovers the Prodigies. _

_Enter_ OEDIPUS, JOCASTA, EURYDICE, ADRASTUS; _and all coming
forward with amazement. _

_OEdip. _ Answer, you powers divine! spare all this noise,
This rack of heaven, and speak your fatal pleasure.
Why breaks yon dark and dusky orb away?
Why from the bleeding womb of monstrous night,
Burst forth such myriads of abortive stars?
Ha! my Jocasta, look! the silver moon!
A settling crimson stains her beauteous face!
She's all o'er blood! and look, behold again,
What mean the mystic heavens she journies on?
A vast eclipse darkens the labouring planet:--
Sound there, sound all our instruments of war;
Clarions and trumpets, silver, brass, and iron,
And beat a thousand drums, to help her labour.

_Adr. _ 'Tis vain; you see the prodigies continue;
Let's gaze no more, the gods are humorous.

_OEdip. _ Forbear, rash man. --Once more I ask your pleasure!
If that the glow-worm light of human reason
Might dare to offer at immortal knowledge,
And cope with gods, why all this storm of nature?
Why do the rocks split, and why rolls the sea?
Why those portents in heaven, and plagues on earth?
Why yon gigantic forms, ethereal monsters?
Alas! is all this but to fright the dwarfs,
Which your own hands have made? Then be it so.
Or if the fates resolve some expiation
For murdered Laius; hear me, hear me, gods!
Hear me thus prostrate: Spare this groaning land,
Save innocent Thebes, stop the tyrant death;
Do this, and lo, I stand up an oblation,
To meet your swiftest and severest anger;
Shoot all at once, and strike me to the centre.

_The Cloud draws, that veiled the Heads of the Figures in the Sky,
and shews them crowned, with the names of_ OEDIPUS _and_ JOCASTA,
_written above in great characters of gold. _

_Adr. _ Either I dream, and all my cooler senses
Are vanished with that cloud that fleets away,
Or just above those two majestic heads,
I see, I read distinctly, in large gold,
_OEdipus and Jocasta. _

_Alc. _ I read the same.

_Adr. _ 'Tis wonderful; yet ought not man to wade
Too far in the vast deep of destiny.
[_Thunder; and the Prodigies vanish. _

_Joc. _ My lord, my OEdipus, why gaze you now,
When the whole heaven is clear, as if the gods
Had some new monsters made? will you not turn,
And bless your people, who devour each word
You breathe?

_OEdip. _ It shall be so.
Yes, I will die, O Thebes, to save thee!
Draw from my heart my blood, with more content
Than e'er I wore thy crown. --Yet, O Jocasta!
By all the endearments of miraculous love,
By all our languishings, our fears in pleasure,
Which oft have made us wonder; here I swear,
On thy fair hand, upon thy breast I swear,
I cannot call to mind, from budding childhood
To blooming youth, a crime by me committed,
For which the awful gods should doom my death.

_Joc. _ 'Tis not you, my lord,
But he who murdered Laius, frees the land.
Were you, which is impossible, the man,
Perhaps my poniard first should drink your blood;
But you are innocent, as your Jocasta,
From crimes like those. This made me violent
To save your life, which you unjust would lose:
Nor can you comprehend, with deepest thought,
The horrid agony you cast me in,
When you resolved to die.

_OEdip. _ Is't possible?

_Joc. _ Alas! why start you so? Her stiffening grief,
Who saw her children slaughtered all at once,
Was dull to mine: Methinks, I should have made
My bosom bare against the armed god,
To save my OEdipus!

_OEdip. _ I pray, no more.

_Joc. _ You've silenced me, my lord.

_OEdip. _ Pardon me, dear Jocasta!
Pardon a heart that sinks with sufferings,
And can but vent itself in sobs and murmurs:
Yet, to restore my peace, I'll find him out.
Yes, yes, you gods! you shall have ample vengeance
On Laius' murderer. O, the traitor's name!
I'll know't, I will; art shall be conjured for it,
And nature all unravelled.

_Joc. _ Sacred sir--

_OEdip. _ Rage will have way, and 'tis but just; I'll fetch him,
Though lodged in air upon a dragon's wing,
Though rocks should hide him: Nay, he shall be dragged
From hell, if charms can hurry him along:
His ghost shall be, by sage Tiresias' power,--
Tiresias, that rules all beneath the moon,--
Confined to flesh, to suffer death once more;
And then be plunged in his first fires again.

_Enter_ CREON.

_Cre. _ My lord,
Tiresias attends your pleasure.

_OEdip. _ Haste, and bring him in. --
O, my Jocasta, Eurydice, Adrastus,
Creon, and all ye Thebans, now the end
Of plagues, of madness, murders, prodigies,
Draws on: This battle of the heavens and earth
Shall by his wisdom be reduced to peace.

_Enter_ TIRESIAS, _leaning on a staff, led by his Daughter_ MANTO,
_followed by other Thebans. _

O thou, whose most aspiring mind
Knows all the business of the courts above,
Opens the closets of the gods, and dares
To mix with Jove himself and Fate at council;
O prophet, answer me, declare aloud
The traitor, who conspired the death of Laius;
Or be they more, who from malignant stars
Have drawn this plague, that blasts unhappy Thebes?

_Tir.