_Enter_ HAEMON _and guards, run betwixt them, and beat down their swords._ _Haem._ Hold, hold your impious hands! I think the furies, To whom this grove is hallowed, have inspired you: Now, by my soul, the holiest earth of Thebes You have profaned with war. Nor tree, nor plant Grows here, but what is fed with magick juice; All full of human souls, that cleave their barks To dance at midnight by the moon's pale beams: At least two hundred years these reverend shades Have known no blood, but of black sheep and oxen, Shed by the priest's own hand to Proserpine. _Adr._ Forgive a stranger's ignorance: I knew not The honours of the place. _Haem._ Thou, Creon, didst. Not OEdipus, were all his foes here lodged, Durst violate the religion of these groves, To touch one single hair; but must, unarmed, Parle as in truce, or surlily avoid What most he longed to kill[8]. _Cre._ I drew not first, But in my own defence. _Adr._ I was provoked Beyond man's patience; all reproach could urge Was used to kindle one, not apt to bear. _Haem._ 'Tis OEdipus, not I, must judge this act.-- Lord Creon, you and Diocles retire: Tiresias, and the brother-hood of priests, Approach the place: None at these rites assist, But you the accused, who by the mouth of Laius Must be absolved or doomed. _Adr._ I bear my fortune. _Eur._ And I provoke my trial. _Haem._ 'Tis at hand. For see, the prophet comes, with vervain crowned; The priests with yew, a venerable band; We leave you to the gods. [_Exit_ HAEMON _with_ CREON _and_ DIOCLES. _Enter_ TIRESIAS, _led by_ MANTO: _The Priests follow; all cloathed in long black habits._ _Tir._ Approach, ye lovers; Ill-fated pair! whom, seeing not, I know, This day your kindly stars in heaven were joined; When lo, an envious planet interposed, And threatened both with death: I fear, I fear!-- _Eur._ Is there no God so much a friend to love, Who can controul the malice of our fate? Are they all deaf; or have the giants heaven? _Tir._ The gods are just; But how can finite measure infinite? Reason! alas, it does not know itself! Yet man, vain man, would with this short-lined plummet, Fathom the vast abyss of heavenly justice. Whatever is, is in its causes just; Since all things are by fate. But purblind man Sees but a part o'the chain; the nearest links; His eyes not carrying to that equal beam, That poises all above. _Eur._ Then we must die! _Tir._ The danger's imminent this day. _Adr._ Why then there's one day less for human ills; And who would moan himself, for suffering that, Which in a day must pass? something, or nothing;-- I shall be what I was again, before I was Adrastus.-- Penurious heaven, can'st thou not add a night To our one day? give me a night with her, And I'll give all the rest. _Tir._ She broke her vow, First made to Creon: But the time calls on; And Laius' death must now be made more plain. How loth I am to have recourse to rites So full of horror, that I once rejoice I want the use of sight!--