FullReads

OED.
Thy thought is just,
But man may not compel the Gods.

CH.
Again,
That failing, I perceive a second way.

OED.
Were there a third, spare not to speak it forth.

CH.
I know of one alone whose kingly mind
Sees all King Phoebus sees–Tiresias,–he
Infallibly could guide us in this quest.

OED.
That doth not count among my deeds undone.
By Creon’s counsel I have sent twice o’er
To fetch him, and I muse at his delay.

CH.
The rumour that remains is old and dim.

OED.
What rumour? Let no tale be left untried.

CH.
‘Twas said he perished by some wandering band.

OED.
But the one witness is removed from ken.

CH.
Well, if the man be capable of fear,
He’ll not remain when he hath heard thy curse.

OED.
Words have no terror for the soul that dares
Such doings.

CH.
Yet lives one who shall convict him.
For look where now they lead the holy seer,
Whom sacred Truth inspires alone of men.

[Enter TIRESIAS.]

OED.
O thou whose universal thought commands
All knowledge and all mysteries, in Heaven
And on the earth beneath, thy mind perceives,
Tiresias, though thine outward eye be dark,
What plague is wasting Thebe, who in thee,
Great Sir, finds her one saviour, her sole guide.
Phoebus (albeit the messengers perchance
Have told thee this) upon our sending sent
This answer back, that no release might come
From this disaster, till we sought and found
And slew the murderers of king Laius,
Or drave them exiles from our land. Thou, then,
Withhold not any word of augury
Or other divination which thou knowest,
But rescue Thebe, and thyself, and me,
And purge the stain that issues from the dead.
On thee we lean: and ’tis a noble thing
To use what power one hath in doing good.

TIRESIAS.
Ah! terrible is knowledge to the man
Whom knowledge profits not. This well I knew,
But had forgotten. Else I ne’er had come.

OED.
Why dost thou bring a mind so full of gloom?

TI.
Let me go home. Thy part and mine to-day
Will best be borne, if thou obey me in that.

OED.
Disloyal and ungrateful! to deprive
The state that reared thee of thine utterance now.

TI.
Thy speech, I see, is foiling thine intent;
And I would shield me from the like mishap.

(Going.)

OED.
Nay, if thou knowest, turn thee not away:
All here with suppliant hands importune thee.

TI.
Yea, for ye all are blind. Never will I
Reveal my woe;–mine, that I say not, thine.

OED.
So, then, thou hast the knowledge of the crime
And wilt not tell, but rather wouldst betray
This people, and destroy thy fatherland!

TI.
You press me to no purpose. I’ll not pain
Thee, nor myself. Thou wilt hear nought from me.

OED.
How? Miscreant! Thy stubbornness would rouse
Wrath in a breast of stone. Wilt thou yet hold
That silent, hard, impenetrable mien?

TI.
You censure me for my harsh mood. Your own
Dwells unsuspected with you. Me you blame!

OED.
Who can be mild and gentle, when thou speakest
Such words to mock this people?