Ch. What dost thou mean?
Oed. My birth is dreadful.
Ch. Tell it forth.
Oed. What should I utter, O my child? Woe is me!
Ch. Thy seed, thy father’s name, stranger, pronounce!
Oed. Alas! What must I do? My child!
Ant. Since no resource avails thee, speak!
Oed. I will. I cannot hide it further.
Ch. Ye are long about it. Haste thee!
Oed. Know ye of one
Begotten of Laius?
Ch. Horror! Horror! Oh!
Oed. Derived from Labdacus?
Ch. O Heaven!
Oed. Fate-wearied Oedipus?
Ch. Art thou he?
Oed. Fear not my words.
Ch. Oh! Oh!
Oed. Unhappy me!
Ch. Oh!
Oed. Daughter, what is coming?
Ch. Away! Go forth. Leave ye the land. Begone!
Oed. And where, then, is the promise thou hast given?
Ch. No doom retributive attends the deed
That wreaks prevenient wrong.
Deceit, matched with deceit, makes recompense
Of evil, not of kindness. Get thee forth!
Desert that seat again, and from this land
Unmooring speed thee away, lest on our state
Thou bring some further bale!
Monody.
Ant. O strangers, full of reverent care!
Since ye cannot endure my father here,
Aged and blind,
Because ye have heard a rumour of the deeds
He did unknowingly,—yet, we entreat you,
Strangers, have pity on me, the hapless girl,
Who pray for mine own sire and for none else,
