HKB
OEDIPUS. What say’st thou? was not Polybus my sire?
MESSENGER. As much thy sire as I am, and no more.
OEDIPUS. My sire no more to me than one who is naught?
MESSENGER. Since I begat thee not, no more did he.
OEDIPUS. What reason had he then to call me son?
MESSENGER. Know that he took thee from my hands, a gift.
OEDIPUS. Yet, if no child of his, he loved me well.
MESSENGER. A childless man till then, he warmed to thee.
OEDIPUS. A foundling or a purchased slave, this child?
MESSENGER. I found thee in Cithaeron’s wooded glens.
OEDIPUS. What led thee to explore those upland glades?
MESSENGER. My business was to tend the mountain flocks.
OEDIPUS. A vagrant shepherd journeying for hire?
MESSENGER. True, but thy savior in that hour, my son.
OEDIPUS. My savior? from what harm? what ailed me then?
MESSENGER. Those ankle joints are evidence enow.
OEDIPUS. Ah, why remind me of that ancient sore?
MESSENGER. I loosed the pin that riveted thy feet.
OEDIPUS. Yes, from my cradle that dread brand I bore.
MESSENGER. Whence thou deriv’st the name that still is thine.
OEDIPUS. Who did it? I adjure thee, tell me who Say, was it father, mother?
MESSENGER. I know not. The man from whom I had thee may know more.
OEDIPUS. What, did another find me, not thyself?
MESSENGER. Not I; another shepherd gave thee me.
OEDIPUS. Who was he? Would’st thou know again the man?
MESSENGER. He passed indeed for one of Laius’ house.
OEDIPUS. The king who ruled the country long ago?
MESSENGER. The same: he was a herdsman of the king.
OEDIPUS. And is he living still for me to see him?
MESSENGER. His fellow-countrymen should best know that.
OEDIPUS. Doth any bystander among you know The herd he speaks of, or by seeing him Afield or in the city? answer straight! The hour hath come to clear this business up.
CHORUS. Methinks he means none other than the hind Whom thou anon wert fain to see; but that Our queen Jocasta best of all could tell.
OEDIPUS. Madam, dost know the man we sent to fetch? Is the same of whom the stranger speaks?
JOCASTA. Who is the man? What matter? Let it be. ’Twere waste of thought to weigh such idle words.
OEDIPUS. No, with such guiding clues I cannot fail To bring to light the secret of my birth.
JOCASTA. Oh, as thou carest for thy life, give o’er This quest. Enough the anguish I endure.
OEDIPUS. Be of good cheer; though I be proved the son Of a bondwoman, aye, through three descents Triply a slave, thy honor is unsmirched.
JOCASTA. Yet humor me, I pray thee; do not this.
OEDIPUS. I cannot; I must probe this matter home.
JOCASTA. ’Tis for thy sake I advise thee for the best.
OEDIPUS. I grow impatient of this best advice.
JOCASTA. Ah mayst thou ne’er discover who thou art!
OEDIPUS. Go, fetch me here the herd, and leave yon woman To glory in her pride of ancestry.
JOCASTA. O woe is thee, poor wretch! With that last word I leave thee, henceforth silent evermore. [Exit JOCASTA]
CHORUS. Why, Oedipus, why stung with passionate grief Hath the queen thus departed? Much I fear From this dead calm will burst a storm of woes.
OEDIPUS. Let the storm burst, my fixed resolve still holds, To learn my lineage, be it ne’er so low. It may be she with all a woman’s pride Thinks scorn of my base parentage. But I Who rank myself as Fortune’s favorite child, The giver of good gifts, shall not be shamed. She is my mother and the changing moons My brethren, and with them I wax and wane. Thus sprung why should I fear to trace my birth? Nothing can make me other than I am.