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[OEDIPUS remains, and gazes towards the country, while the CHORUS sing]

CHORUS.
If I wield a prophet’s might,
Or have sense to search aright,
Cithaeron, when all night the moon rides high,
Loud thy praise shall be confessed,
How upon thy rugged breast,
Thou, mighty mother, nursed’st tenderly
Great Oedipus, and gav’st his being room
Within thy spacious home.
Yea, we will dance and sing
Thy glory for thy kindness to our king.
Phoebus, unto thee we cry,
Be this pleasing in thine eye!

Who, dear sovereign, gave thee birth,
Of the long lived nymphs of earth?
Say, was she clasped by mountain roving Pan?
Or beguiled she one sweet hour
With Apollo in her bower,
Who loves to trace the field untrod by man?
Or was the ruler of Cyllene’s height
The author of thy light?
Or did the Bacchic god,
Who makes the top of Helicon to nod,
Take thee for a foundling care
From his playmates that are there?

[The THEBAN SHEPHERD is seen approaching, guarded.]

OED.
If haply I, who never saw his face,
Thebans, may guess, methinks I see the hind
Whose coming we have longed for. Both his age,
Agreeing with this other’s wintry locks,
Accords with my conjecture, and the garb
Of his conductors is well known to me
As that of mine own people. But methinks

[to LEADER of CHORUS]

Thou hast more perfect knowledge in this case,
Having beheld the herdman in the past.

CH.
I know him well, believe me. Laius
Had no more faithful shepherd than this man.

OED.
Corinthian friend, I first appeal to you:
Was’t he you spake of?

COR. SH.
‘Twas the man you see.

OED
. Turn thine eyes hither, aged friend, and tell
What I shall ask thee. Wast thou Laius’ slave?

THEB. SH.
I was, not bought, but bred within the house.

OED.
What charge or occupation was thy care?

THEB. SH.
Most of my time was spent in shepherding.

OED.
And where didst thou inhabit with thy flock?

THEB. SH.
‘Twas now Cithaeron, now the neighbouring tract.

OED.
And hadst thou there acquaintance of this man?

THEB. SH.
Following what service? What is he you mean?

OED.
The man you see. Hast thou had dealings with him?

THEB. SH.
I cannot bring him all at once to mind.

COR. SH.
No marvel, good my lord. But I will soon
Wake to clear knowledge his oblivious sense.
For sure I am he can recall the time,
When he with his two flocks, and I with one
Beside him, grazed Cithaeron’s pasture wide
Good six months’ space of three successive years,
From spring to rising of Arcturus; then
For the bleak winter season, I drove mine
To their own folds, he his to Laius’ stalls.
Do I talk idly, or is this the truth?

THEB. SH.
The time is far remote. But all is true.

COR. SH.
Well, dost remember having given me then
A child, that I might nurture him for mine?

THEB. SH.
What means thy question? Let me know thy drift.

COR. SH.
Friend, yonder stands the infant whom we knew.

THEB. SH.
Confusion seize thee, and thy evil tongue!

OED.
Check not his speech, I pray thee, for thy words
Call more than his for chastisement, old sir.