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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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Support the Monkey! Tell All your Friends and Teachers |
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But now some god and an infatuate soul Have stirred betwixt them a mad rivalry To grasp at sovereignty and kingly power. Today the hot-branded youth, the younger born, Is keeping Polyneices from the throne, His elder, and has thrust him from the land. The banished brother (so all Thebes reports) Fled to the vale of Argos, and by help Of new alliance there and friends in arms, Swears he will stablish Argos straight as lord Of the Cadmeian land, or, if he fail, Exalt the victor to the stars of heaven. This is no empty tale, but deadly truth, My father; and how long thy agony, Ere the gods pity thee, I cannot tell. OEDIPUS Hast thou indeed then entertained a hope The gods at last will turn and rescue me? ISMENE Yea, so I read these latest oracles. OEDIPUS What oracles? What hath been uttered, child? ISMENE Thy country (so it runs) shall yearn in time To have thee for their weal alive or dead. OEDIPUS And who could gain by such a one as I? ISMENE On thee, 'tis said, their sovereignty depends. OEDIPUS So, when I cease to be, my worth begins. ISMENE The gods, who once abased, uplift thee now. OEDIPUS Poor help to raise an old man fallen in youth. |
