mysterious words relating to his birth, which Voltaire has well rendered
"Ce jour va vous donner la naissance et la mort" —
while the Chorus cannot restrain their terrible anxiety.
"Who," they ask, "can this unknown criminal be, that has dared deeds of such unutterable horror? It is high time for him to fly, swifter than the swiftest steed; for the god of prophecy is already on his track with the tardy but resistless power of doom. Though he lurks in some lonely cave or mountain glen, the living curse will haunt him."
It is hard (they conclude) to disbelieve the prophet of truth—harder still to believe that their king, the wise and good, is a guilty and polluted wretch; and so, until he be convicted by the clearest proofs, they will remember only the good deeds of Œdipus.
Creon now enters, and protests his innocence of the charge of conspiracy which Œdipus had brought against him; but hardly has he made his protest to the Chorus, when Œdipus appears, and angrily upbraids him with treasonable schemes. Creon rests his defence on grounds of common-sense—much in the style of Henry IV. 's famous speech to his son. Who could be so foolish (Creon asks) as to prefer
"To reign with fears than sleep untroubled sleep"?
As things are, he shares with Jocasta the counsels of
