OEDIPUS

Oh what a beastly cowardice is in this breast of mine? Was I so stout and venturous in pulling out mine Eyes? And shall all courage be employed against one only partly Of Body, and from other parts shall valour wholly start? Let none of all these puling tricks nor any faint excuse Thus daunt thy sprites, let no delay to baseness thee induce: Dispatch at once, why lingre I, as one thats loath to die? Why live I? is't because I can no longer mischiefs try? Yes that I can, wretch though I be: and therefore tell I thee, Dear Daughter, that the sooner thou mightest hence depart from me. Depart a maid and Virgin hence, for fear of after claps: Since villainy to Mother showed, its good to doubt mishaps. What? canst thou make me to believe, that any spark of Greece Or love to Sire, or honesty in them hath any place, Which thirst for one on others blood, which after kingdoms gape, Whose whole delight is villainy, war, wurther, guile and rape? Such hateful imps on mischief set, such wicked Termagosites, As to be sons of such a Sire with shame may wake their vaunts. At one bore word to tell thee all: thy brothers two are bent Upon all mischief, weighing not what looseness they frequent. When flingbrayne rage ensots their heads, they care not they a rush Upon what Devilish vile attempts they give the desprat push. And as they are conceived and born in most abhorred sort, So still devoid of Grace they think all villainy but sport. Their Father's shame and wretched state moves them no whit at all, To Country they no reckoning make what massacre befall. Their minds are ravished with desire ambitiously to reign. I know their drifts, and what they hope at length by shifts to gain. And therefore sith the case so stands I leyser had to die With posting speed while in my house there is none worse then I. Ahlas, deer Daughter what ado dost thou about me make? Why liest thou prostrate at my knees? why dost thou travail take, To conquer my resolved mind with this thy spiced phrase Of fair entreaty? these thy words my flynty heart amaze. Dame Fortune hath none other bait to bring me to her lure Then this alone: till now I still vnbanquisht did endure. No Creatures words but thine alone could pierce this heart of mine, Ne from a purpose resolute my settled mind butwyne. Thou conquer canst affections found that in my breast do boil, Thou teachest grace to father's house, and zeal to native soil. Each thing to me delightful is which jumpeth with thy will: Command me (Daughter) I thy hests am ready to fulfil. Old Oedipus if thou enjoin, will pass the Aegaean Sea: And flashing flakes of Aetna Mount, with mouth he dare assay. He boldly dare object himself to raumping Dragons claw Which raged, & swelled and venom spit apace, when as he saw Dan Hercules away to steal his golden Apples all In Gardens of Hesperides. At thy command, he shall His Entrails offer unto Job of greedy Praetors Bill: At thy command, content he is in life to linger still. This gear surmounteth far the reach of my capacity: I am astoned, I feel my self rapt with and ecstasy, Is this not wonder of so lewd, and of so cursed a tree Such fruit to grow? of graceless Sire so good a child to see? Is it not strange that in a house distained in villainy Such noble show of towardness and virtuous gifts should lie? Let me some speech to thee direct, dame Fortune: how haps this That here my daughter so unlike to wretched father is? Degenerating from his steps, and with such virtue fraught, As in her Father's cursed house she never yet was taught? Is it (I pray thee) credible, that out of j should S ring Such issue, as should given be to any honest thing? No truly, no: it cannot be (my fates full well I know) None such, (unless to do me scart and mischief) would be so. T'encrease the heap of mine annoy no strange effect shall want. Dame Nature in her Creatures will new affects emplant. The River shall return his course to Fountain back again, Dan Phœbus Lamp shall bring the Night, and Night shall day remain, So that my grievous miseries with surplusage may grow. But be as 'tis: I for a while will play my partly also, And show some spark of piety, my fault to countervail: With murtdroue knife, my woeful days to end I will not fail. The only help for Oedipus, the only safe y is To rid himself, and so redeem that Hellish fact of his. Let me take vengeance on my self for wrongs to father done, Whose Death is yet vnexp ate, by me his cursed son. Why dost thou shake and tremble thus thou hand, not good for ought? Why flaggrest thou to stab him in, who Sire to spoil hath brought? That punishment which hither oh by pulling out mine eyes Thou hast inflicted on me, is but as a sacrifice, Or guerdon endue for villainy which I committed have With mother mine. Now Daughter sloute, leave of pretences brave, Allege no g oses: but with speed let go thy Father's hand: Thou makest me die a lingering death within this loathed land. Thou thinkest I am alive, but I am dead long while ago: To this my hateful Corpse at length the rites of Burial show. Thou meanest well, (I know) but yet therein thou dost offend: Though colour for thy piety I see thou dost pretend. But piety it canot be, to drag thus up and down Thy Fathrs Corpses unburied through City, Field, and Town. For be that does enforce a man against his will to die: And he that stays him that would fain die, most willingly, Are both alike in equal fault, and stand in equal plighted. To hinder one that would be dead is m h bring h n ou right. Yet not so great as tother is. I would be more content To have my death commanded me, then from me to be ent. Desist from this thy purpose (Maid) my life and death both are To dispose at my liberty, with choice to spill or spare, I willingly res gnd the Crown of Theban soil: yet I Do still retain upon my self the entire Soueraygntye If I may make account of thee as of a trusty fear, And true companion at assays: deliver even here Into thy Father's hand a Sword: but tell me, dost thou reach The Sword imbrued in father's blood, wherewith my sons impeach The course of Law, possessing it and kingdom all by force? Where so it is doubt is there none, but clean without remorse There be the F dgates opened wide, to all licentious lust. And thriftless trades: I all my claim therein do rake in dust, And clean forsake. Let both my Sons by Legacy enjoy The same, wherewith they surely shall contrive non small annoy. For me pile rather up a stack of wood set all on fire, That I therein may thrust my self: that is my chief desire: And make and end at once of all this carrion Tarkasse vile. Where is the surging wau S Sea? why stay I all this while? Bring me to some stiepe breakneck fallen: bring me where Ismene flood With swift and horned course does run , bring me whereas my blood. With goring push of savage beasts may out be let at once. To some Gulf bring me, where the fallen and tide may crush my Bones. If needs thou wilt my guide remain, as oft thou dost me tell) Bring me that am disposed to die, where Sphiox that Monster fell With double shape apposed them that passed by the way, Propounding Riddles intricate, and after did them slay. There would I be, that place I seek: thy Father thither bring Into that Monsters Cabin dire thy Monstrous Father fling. That though that Monster be dispatched, the place may be supplied With one as bad or worse then be: there will I far and wide In terms obscure report and tell my heavy luckless lot. The mysteries whereof the bearer, v derstandeth not. Give ear to that which I shall speak, mark thou Assyrian born, Consider this thou Theban, where Duke Cadmus men were torn And slain in wood by Serpents rage: where Dirce Silly trull In humble sort at Alter lies: advert my tale at full Thou, that in Lacedaemon dwells, and honorst Castors grace, And Pollux eake, two brothers twins. Find out this doubtful case. Or thou that dwellest in Elis town or by Parnassus hill, Or thou that till'st Boeotia ground, there reaping gain at will. Hark, listen well, and flatly say, if ever heretofore That murderous monster Sphinx of Thebes that men in pieces tore, In all his riddles asked the Like, or of so strange a sort? Or whither so insolubly his terms he cold report? The Son in Law to Grandfather, the Rival of his Sire: The Brother of his little Babes: to Brothers, father dire: The Grandmother at every birth to Husband (graceless Elf) Brought forth a Son or Daughter, which was Nephew to her self. How say you Sirs, in Ryddle dark, who hath so good insight, That able is the sense hereof unfold and tell aright? As for my self, although the Sphinx I whilom put to foil: Yet mine own heavy destiny I scarcely can assoil. Why dost thou (Daughter) labour lose in using further speech? To altar this my stony heart why dost thou me beseech? I tell thee plain. I fully mean this blood of mint to spill. That long with Death hath struggling kept: and thereupon I will Descend to dark infernal Lake: for this same darkness blind Of both mine eyes is nothing such, as fact of mine should find. It were my Bliss to be in Hell in deepest dungeon fast: Now that which should long since have be, I will perform at last. I cannot be debarred from Death: wilt thou deny me glaive Or Sword, or knife? wilt thou no tool for mischief let me have? Wilt thou both watch and ward each way, where dau ̄ her lies in wait? Shall such a sinful Caitiff wretch as I, be keep so strait? Wilt thou not suffer me with Coard to break my hateful Neck? Canst thou keep me from poisonous herbs? hast thou them all at beck? What shall it thee prevail to take for me such earnest care? Death each where is: and ways to death in thousand corners are. Herein hath God good order taken, that every felie Foe, May take away and others life, but Death he cannot so. I seek not any tool to have: this desperate mind of mine Can use the service of my hand, my thread of life untwine. Now hand, thy master at a pinch assist to work his feat, Help him with all thy power and strength, exploit his purpose great. I point thee not in this my Corpse unto one place alone: Alas, each partly of me with gilded is plaunch and overgrown. In which soever partly thou wilt, thy Massacre begin, And seek to bring me to my death which way thou mayest it win. In pieces crush this body all, this heart that harbors sin Pluck out, out all my entrails pull, proceed, and never linne To gash and cut my weazand pipe. My vains asender scratch, And make the Blood come spouting out, or use that other match, Which heretofore thou used haste: dig where mine eyes erst stood: And let these wounds gush out apace much mattry filth and blood. Hale oh to of me this loathed soul that is so hard and stout: And thou deer father Laius stand up and look about: Behold where ever that thou standest: I Vmpyre do the make, And eyed Judge of all my plagues that justly here I take. My Fact so lewd, so horrible, so loathsome to be told I never thought with any price or torments manifold Could have full expiation: ne thought I it enough To die this death: or in one partly to be beslasshed through. By piecemeal I am well content to suffer torments all And even by piecemeal for to die: for plagues to plague me call. Exact the punishment that's endue: I here most ready stand To satis e with any death that law and right hath scanned. My former smarts, when as mine eyes I raked out with paws, Were but as tastes of sacrifice, somewhat to help my cause. Come therefore (Father) near to me, and thrust this hand of mine More nearer into every wound. It suum ru'de and did decline For fear, when first it took assay mine eyes to ransack out. I bear it still in memory, my eyes then star'de about And seemed to dissuade the hand from doing of the charge Whereto it was enjoined though, and had Commission large. Thou shalt well think that Oedipus dissembleth not a whit But what his word hath warranted, his deed hath firmly quit. Thy stoutness then, was not so great when eyes thou pulledst out As was thy man a oden, when thou threwest them from thee round about. Now, by those Gyeholes thrust thy hand into the very brain: That partly where death attempted was, let death be sought again. From ̄ none but from ̄ my self Who have a breast full fraught with guilt: who, wretched caitiff Elte Have all embrued my hands with blood. From these apace I flee And from the heavens and Gods therein: and from that villainy Which I most wicked wretch have wrought. Shall I tread on this ground? Or am I worthy so to do, in whom such tricks abound? Am I to have the benefit of any Element? Of Air for breath, of water moist, or Earth for nourishment? Oh Slave forlorn, Oh beastly wretch, Oh Incestmonger vile, Oh Varlet most detestable, Oh Peysaunte full of guile. Why do I with polluted Fist, and bloody paws presume To touch thy chased and comely hand? I foam, I fret, I fume In hearing any speak to me. Ought I hear any tell Or once of Son or Father speak, sith I did Father quell? Would God it were within my power my Senses all to stop, Would God I could these Ears of mine, even by the stumps to crop. If that might be, then (daughter) I should not have herd thy voice. I, I thy Sire, that thee be God by most incestuous choice. Beegetting of thee, makes my crimes more then they were before: Remorse thereof both gnaw and gripe my conscience more and more. Ofttymes that which mine Eyes not see, with Ears that do I hear, And of my Facts afore time done the inward wound I bear. Why is there stay made of my doom? Why am I spared so long? Why is not this blind head of mine thrown damned ghosts among? Why rest I on the Earth, and not among infernal Sprights? Why pester I the company of any mortal Wights? What mischief is there more behind? to aggravate my care? My Kingdom, Parents, Children, Wit and Virtue quailed are By sturdy storms of froward Fate: nothing remaynde but tears, And they be dryde, and Eyes be gone: my hardened heart forbears Such signs of grace: leave of therefore, and make no more add: A mind so mated with despair no suits will slowpe unto. I practice some strange punishments agreeing to my deed: But what proportion can be found of plagues unto my meed? Whose Fortune ever was so bade? I was in sooner born, But Silly Infant Iudgde I was in pieces to be torn. My mother in whose womb I lay, forth had not me yet brought And yet even then I feared was: and straight my death was sought. Some Babes soon after they be born, by stroke of death depart: But I poor soul, before my birth adjudged was to dart Of death: some yet in Mother's womb, ere any light they see Do taste the dint of hasty Fate, while Innocents they be. Apollo by his Oracle pronounced sentence dire Upon me being yet unborn, that I unto my Sire Should breastly parricide commit: and thereupon was I Condemned straight by Father's doom. My Feet were by and by Lanced through, & through with yro ̄ Pins: hanged was I by y e Heals Upon a Tree: my swelling plants the print thereof yet feels: As pray to Beasts, cast out also, to cram their greedy Jaws In Mount Cythaeron, and to fill the gripping Praetors Maws. Such Sauce to taste full like was I, was others heretofore Descended of the royal Sangue, with smart (perforce) have boar. But see the chance: I thus condemn'de by Dan Apollos hest And cast to beasts by Father's doom, and every way distressed, Could find no death: no death on me durst seize his lordly Paw, But fled from me, as though I had not been within his Law. I verified the Oracle, with wicked hand I killed Mine own deer Father, and unwares his guiltless blood I spilde. Shall any satisfaction redeem so vile and Act? May any kind of Piety purge such a shameful fact? I rested not contented thus. For Father being slain, I fell in links of lawless Love with Mother: O what pain And grudge of mind sustaynde I there? in thinking on the same, To tell our wicked wedlock Yoke, I loath, I blush, I shame. I may not well this gear conceal, I'll tell it: out it shall: Though to my shame it much redound, it may augment my thrall. I will display strange villainies, and them in number many, Most beastlike parts, most lewd attempts, to be abhorr'de of any. So filthy, and so monstruous, that (sure I think) no Age Will them believe to have be done: so cruel was my rage, That even each cutthroat Partrcide thereat may be ashamed To hear it nam'de: and with disdain straight ways will be inflame. My hands in Father's blood emb rude to Father's Bed I brought. And have with Mother mine, his Wife, incestuous practise sought. To mischief adding mischief more: I wis my fault to Sire, Is slender in comparison: my graceless found desire Could not be stayed, till solemnly the marriage Knot was knit Betwixt me and Mother mine, alas for want of grace and wit. How plunged am I in mischief still? how is the measure full Of horrors vile, which do my mind and heart asunder pull? And least the heap of these my woes might seem to be too skant, My Mother (she my Wife that is) young issue does not want. Can any crime in all the World more heinous be surmised? If any may: by wicked Imps the same I have devised. My Realm and Crown I have resignde, which I received as hire For murdering most vunaturally the king, my Lord, and Sire, Which Crown now since, betwixt both my sons hath kindled mortal war. And all the country by the ears remains at deadly jar. I know full well what destinies to this same Crown belongs. None without Blood the same shall wear, and most accursed wrongs. This mind of mine (who Father am) presages many ills: And gloomy days of slaughter dire: the plot that murder wills. Already is continued u's and cast: all truth of word and deed Is quite exiled, all promise broke of pacts afore decreed. Etheocles, thone of my sons who now in princely throne Beats all the sway, means still to keep the Diadem alone. Poor Polynices th'o other son, thus being dispessest, And kept by force from Kingly rule his humble suit addressed Unto the Gods this wrong to wreak, this breach of league and ot h Avenge and plague: he Argos soil end Greekish Cttyes both Persuades assist him in this wary, this quarrel to maintain: That he in Thebes (as promise was) might have his turn to reign. The ruin that to wearied Thebes shall grievously befall And bring the pompous state thereof adown, shall not be small. Fire, sword, glaive, wou ̄ ds, & thwacki ̄ g thu ̄ psalm, shall light unto their share, And that ere long: and mischiefs worse (it any worse there are) And this shall hap, that all the world may know it is the rac And issue of a curied Sire that darraygnes such a case. Though other causes none there were to move you (sic) to live, Yet is this one sufficient, that you by awe may drive Your sons my Brothers tarring thus to unity and peace: For you their Father only may their furies cause to tease. You and none else may turn away thoccassons of this war: These bransicke youths from further rage you only may dibarre. By this your means the country shall their quiet peace enjoy And Brothers jointly reconciled shall work no more ennoy. If you therefore this mortal life thus to your self any: You many thousands shall vndge, whose states on you rely. Am I one Like to stop the rage of any wicked act? Am I one Like to cause these Youths to leave their bloody fact? Am I a master Like to teach what laws of love do mean? Should I not then from former quise digress in nature elean? They tread their Father's steps aright, they play my lawless pranks: Like Sire, Like Sons, Like Tree, Like fruit: I con the ̄ hearty thanks: By this I know them for my Sons, and praise their towardness: I would they should by peevish parts, whose Sons they be, express. Show forth you noble Gallant imps, what mettled minds you bear, Show forth by deeds your valour great, let lofty sprights appear. Surmount and dim my praises all, Eclipse my glory quite: Attempt some enterprise in which your Sire may have delight To have till now remained in life: hereof I have no doubt: For well I know your practice is strange feats to bring about. Your birth and ligne from whence you sprung, assures me of no less Such noble Bloods must needs achieve some doughty worthiness. Your Weapons and Artillery for war bring out with speed, Consume with flame your native Soil, and desolation breed In every house wirhin the Land: a hurly burly make Confusedly of every thing. Make all the Realm to quake, And in exile their days let end make level with the ground Eke fenced Fort and walled Town: The Gods and all confound, And throw their Temples on their heads: Their Images deface, And melt them all: turn ups down eke house in every place. Burn, spoil, make havoc, leave no jot of City free from fire, And let the flame begin his rage within my Chamber dire. O daughter, see and well behold how I to peace am bent? And how to end these garboils all I seem full well content? My mind (I tell thee) swells with ire: within my entrails boils Abundant stoare of Choler fell: such restless rage turmoils My inward Soul, that I must yet some greater matter brew: Which may the Realm enwrap in bale, and cause them all to rue. That which my rash and heady sons have hitherto begun Is nothing in respect of that which must by me be done. This civil war is nothing Like to that which I devise: These trifling broils for such a Sea of harms cannot suffice. Let brother cut the brother's throat with murthrous knife in hand: Yet is not this enough to purge the mischiefs of this lend. Some heinous Fact, unheard of yet, some detestable deed Must practised he: as is to me. and mine by Fates decreed. Such custom haunts our cursed raze: such guise our house hath caught: My vise incestuous Bed requires, such pageants to be wraught. To me your Father Weapons reach, my self here et me shroud In covert of these queachy woods: and let me be allowde To lurk behind this Craggy Rock, or else my self to hide On backside of some thickset hedge: where lying unespied, I Harken may what marketfolkes in passing to and fro Do talk: and what the country Clowns speak, as by way they go. There (sith with eyes, I cannot see) with ear yet may I bear How cruelly my Sons by war do one the other tear.