XERXES. Pluck out thy whitening beard! CHORUS. By handfuls, ay, by handfuls, with dismal tear-drops smeared! XERXES. Sob out thine aching sorrow! CHORUS. I will thine best obey. XERXES. With thine hands rend thy mantle’s fold— CHORUS. Alas, woe worth the day! XERXES. With thine own fingers tear thy locks, bewail the army’s weird! CHORUS. By handfuls, yea, by handfuls, with tears of dole besmeared! XERXES. Now let thine eyes find overflow— CHORUS. I wend in wail and pain! XERXES. Cry out for me an answering moan— CHORUS. Alas, alas again! XERXES. Shriek with a cry of agony, and lead the doleful train! CHORUS. Alas, alas, the Persian land is woeful now to tread! XERXES. Cry out and mourn! the city now doth wail above the dead! CHORUS. I sob and moan! XERXES. I bid ye now be delicate in grief! CHORUS. Alas, the Persian land is sad and knoweth not relief! XERXES. Alas, the triple banks of oars and those who died thereby! CHORUS. Pass! I will lead you, bring you home, with many a broken sigh! [_Exeunt._] THE SEVEN AGAINST THEBES ARGUMENT Laius, king of the Cadmeans, was warned by the oracle of Delphi that he should not beget a child. But he disobeyed this command, and when a son was born to him, he cast the child away, that he might perish on Cithaeron. But a herdsman found the babe yet alive, and he was nourished in Corinth and grew to manhood, not knowing his true parentage, and was named Oedipus; and he slew, unknowingly, his father, Laius, and afterwards saved the town of the Cadmeans from a devouring monster, and married the widowed queen, Iocaste, and begat sons and daughters. But when he learned what he had wrought unwittingly, he fell into despair, and the queen slew herself. But before Oedipus died, he laid a curse upon his male children, Eteocles and Polynices, that they should make even division of the kingdom by the sword; and it fell out even so, for the two brothers strove together for the inheritance, and Polynices brought an army, from Argos, against Eteocles; and the brothers fought, and fell each by the other’s hand, and the curse was fulfilled. DRAMATIS PERSONAE ETEOCLES. A SPY. CHORUS OF CADMEAN MAIDENS. ANTIGONE. ISMENE. A HERALD.