_Oedipus:_ O fate-revealer, thee do I upbraid, Thou god and guardian of the oracles. My father only was I doomed to slay; But now, twice parricide and past my fears, Have I been guilty, and my mother slain. For 'tis by sin of mine that she is dead. 1045 O lying Phoebus, now have I outdone The impious fates. With apprehensive feet Let me go out upon my darkened way, Planting my footsteps with a faltering tread, And through the darkness grope with trembling hands. Stay not thy flight, speed thy uncertain steps-- 1050 But hold! lest on thy mother's corse thou tread. O Thebans, weak and smitten sore with ills, Whose hearts are fainting in your breasts, behold, I flee, I go: lift up your drooping heads. A milder sky and sweeter air shall come When I am gone. Whoever still retains 1055 His feeble life may now inhale the air In deep, life-giving draughts. Go, lend your aid To those who were to certain death resigned; For with me in my exile do I bear All pestilential humors of the land. Then come, ye blasting Fates and mad Despair, Thou deadly Pestilence, come, come with me; 1060 With such a company 'tis sweet to flee! [_Exit._] FOOTNOTES: [6] Reading, _tantum_. PHOENISSAE, OR THEBAÏS A FRAGMENT PHOENISSAE, OR THEBAÏS A FRAGMENT DRAMATIS PERSONAE _Oedipus_ Late king of Thebes. _Antigone_ Daughter of Oedipus, constant to him in his misfortunes. _Jocasta_ Wife and mother of Oedipus. _Polynices_ } _Eteocles_ } Sons of Oedipus and rivals for the throne. _Messenger_ THE SCENE is laid, first in the wild country to which Oedipus, accompanied by Antigone, has betaken himself; then in Thebes, and lastly in the plain before Thebes. THE TIME is three years after the great tragedy of Oedipus. _The stroke of fate, that has been threatening Oedipus since long before his birth, has fallen at last, and he has done the thing he feared to do. And now, self-blinded and self-exiled from his land, he has for three years wandered in rough and trackless places, attended by Antigone, his daughter, who, alone of all his friends, has condoned his fated sins and remained attached to him._ _Meanwhile his sons, though they agreed to reign alternate years, are soon to meet in deadly strife; for Eteocles, although his year of royal power is at an end, refuses to give up the throne; and now Polynices, who has in exile wed the daughter of Adrastus, king of Argos, is marching against the gates of Thebes, with seven great armies, to enforce his rights._ [_By a different version from the "Oedipus," Jocasta did not slay herself at once as in that tale, but still is living on in grief and shame, and strives to reconcile her sons._] ACT I