Page:Works of Voltaire Volume 16.djvu/234

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208
Œdipus

SCENE VI.


JOCASTE, ÆGINA, HIGH PRIEST, CHORUS.

HIGH PRIEST.

That we had suffered still. Attend, ye people,
And know, a milder sun now beams upon you:
At length the baleful pestilence is fled,
The graves once more are closed, and death hath left us;
The God of heaven and earth declares his goodness
In peals of thunder: hark!
 [Thunder and lightning.

JOCASTE.

In peals of thunder: hark! What dreadful flashes!
Where am I? heaven! what do I hear! Barbarians—

HIGH PRIEST.

'Tis done: the gods are satisfied: no more
Doth Laius from the tomb cry out for vengeance:
Jocaste, thou mayest live and reign; the blood
Of Œdipus sufficeth.

CHORUS.

Of Œdipus sufficeth. Gracious heaven!

JOCASTE.

My son! and must I call him husband too!
Dear dreadful names! is he then dead?

HIGH PRIEST.

Dear dreadful names! is he then dead? He lives,
But from the living and the dead cut off,
Deprived of light: I saw him plunge this sword,